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]

“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.

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3)
By: Sarah J. Maas

“There was nothing left in her, not really. Only ash and an abyss and the unbreakable vow she’d carved into her flesh, to the friend who had seen her for what she truly was.”

I think this installment of the Throne of Glass series was another transitional book. At least for the first two thirds. Then the pace picked up in the last third and was really good. If it wasn’t for that part, it might have been too slow and aimless.

I finished the second book back in September so it’s been awhile. But after reading this one, I don’t think I want to go that long before getting the next one!

I am reading it according to the author’s recommendation so the next book for me will be Assassin’s Blade, the prequel. And I’m not sure how I feel about going backwards when I finally feel like we’re gaining forward momentum, but I will trust the process!

What I loved most about this book was the character development in Celaena. I’ll address that more later, but I was glad that she finally had a breakthrough and is ready to take on her mission.

I am intrigued by the introduction of Rowan’s character but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. It will probably depend how it all shakes out when Celaena returns.

The part I liked the least was Manon’s character and chapters. Many reviewers have said similar things. I’m not a big fan of witches and it adds some brutality and gruesomeness that I don’t like.

BUT, at the end, Manon does something compassionate and merciful and hints that she does not want a particular sacrifice to be in vain. That is the sliver of hope for her character. The shocking bit of knowledge she receives is also a hint that she might diverge from her current trajectory. It’s possible her character stays evil, but I just have a feeling that maybe Manon has a greater role to play in all of this and she may have a redemptive arc. If it’s true, then these chapters are worth it. If it turns out that she stays evil, then I’m not sure I really would have cared to read any of her individual storyline.

Plot Points

So. where does this book begin, where does it go, and what is next?

The end of Crown of Midnight sees Celaena shipped off to Wendlyn by the king in order to assassinate the Ashryver prince, Galan. Knowing she had magic, Chaol arranged this to protect her from the king — not realizing at the time that Celaena was actually Aelin, the rightful Queen of Terrasen and enemy to King Adarlan.

Heir of Fire opens with Celaena in Wendlyn (“Wendlyn. A land of myths and monsters— of legends and nightmaries made flesh.”):

“Celaena had decided on one plan to follow when she reached these shores. One plan, however insane and unlikely, to free the enslaved kingdom: find and obliterate the Wyrdkeys the King of Adarlan had used to build his terrible empire. She’d gladly destroy herself to carry it out… it would take a monster to destroy a monster.”

We found out that the dark magic the king is using comes from the Valg, evil from another realm that gained access through a portal. The only way to stop the king’s power and close the portal is to find the three Wyrdkeys. Celaena thinks Maeve has the information she needs to find the Wyrdkeys, return them to the door to close the portal, and other knowledge about stopping the Valg.

But in order to see Maeve, Celaena must show Rowan (Maeve’s Fae servant) her magic.

Rowan’s assessment of Celaena and her magic is accurate: “no discipline, no control, no courage.”

A good chunk of the book is spent on Celaena training with Rowan, struggling to tap into her magic and control it. (Unlike Erilea, magic has not ‘disappeared’ in Wendlyn)

Their relationship was a little predictable: enemies to deep friends possibly more. I didn’t hate it, but I think I still would like to see Chaol and Celaena repair their relationship. (Chaol didn’t take well to Celaena’s use of her magic)

The second POV chapters revolve around Rifthold where Dorian and Chaol are.

Dorian develops a relationship with one of the healers— Sorscha, who is hiding something.

We are introduced to a new character: Aedion. Aedion is the cousin to Aelin, but he is known in Rifthold as one of the king’s ruthless generals who runs rampant in Terrasen, killing his own people. He also wears one of the king’s infamous black rings.

Chaol takes it upon himself to investigate Aedion. He’s up to something and Chaol suspects he is a danger to Dorian and Celaena.

The third POV chapters introduce us to Manon- the Blackbeak, Ironteeth witch and heir of the Blackbeaks. All three branches of the Ironteeth witches (Blackbeaks, Bluebloods, and Yellowlegs) have been summoned by the King to the Faerian gap. They have struck up a deal to help the king in his continuing plan for conquest in exchange for their Deserted Land back.

The king has been breeding wyverns (dragon-like flying creatures but only have two legs) and they need riders.

We follow along as Manon and her Thirteen maneuver witch politics and work to make her Wing Leader. Manon’s relationship with her wyvern is also a thing because he is seen as the weakest wyvern and Manon has to get him ready to fly or her position in her coven is at risk.

Chaol is coming to terms with Celaena’s real identity and what that means for him and Dorian. His character development for this book is about him picking a side. He is told:

“‘You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love… You do not have the right to wish she were not what she is. The only thing you have a right to do is decide whether you are her enemy or her friend.’”

“‘Until then, the fact remains, Captain, that you have not yet picked a side because you are still a boy, and you are still afraid. Not of losing innocent lives, but of losing whatever dream it is you’re clinging to. Your prince has moved on, my queen has moved on. But you have not. And it will cost you in the end.’”

This book marks a turning point for Chaol and solidifies his resolve in the direction he chooses. I am looking forward to seeing what actions he finally takes.

A note on the title: Heir of Fire. As you can deduce, we find out some of Celaena’s heritage and that her magic is…. fire! But there is more to her heritage and magic than we even find out here. We don’t truly know the depths of who she is and what she can do.

The Light Overcomes the Darkness

The power of this book rests in the character development of Celaena.

Nehemia’s death wrecked her. And as more of her childhood is revealed in this book, we realize why that loss was a trigger for her.

Celaena is fueled by hate that was forged out of all the fear, guilt, and despair that made up the last ten years of her life. All the blood that’s on her hands. Her failure to save the people she loved.

“She was a waste of space and breath, a stain on the world. Unworthy of her birthright. This was hell… This was what she deserved.”

So much of her time in Wendlyn is spent in self-pity and self-loathing.

Rowan points it out to her:

“‘You collect scars because you want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you’ve committed… You’re hoping for hell— because how could you face them in the Afterworld? Better to suffer, to be damned for eternity…’”

Wendlyn’s reputation for ‘monsters made flesh’ holds true as Celaena battles against formidable enemies. One in particular, which is the climax of the book, is a creature that feeds on her fear, guilt, and despair. It forces her to relive all the worst memories of her life.

It whispers lies to her about her worthlessness, her failure, her guilt.

I couldn’t help but think of the devil, the father of lies, pulling people into darkness. Celaena’s monster was fiction, but the devil is very much real. And he wreaks havoc on image-bearers of God. Trapping them in shame and guilt. Telling them the world is better off without them. His darkness is evil.

Maas is not a Christian, but because of her minor in religious studies, her work is influenced by a variety of myths and faith traditions. It is quite evident that this part of Celaena’s story mirrors biblical truth.

In the abyss of lies and destruction, Rowan comes to her aid, empowering her in her weakness and enabling her to see the light in the darkness.

“This was not the end— this was not her end. She has survived loss and pain and torture; she has survived slavery and hatred and despair; she would survive this, too. Because hers was not a story of darkness. So she was not afraid of that crushing black, not with the warrior holding her, or with the courage that having one true friend offered— a friend who made living not so awful after all, not if she were with him.”

“She would light up the darkness, so brightly that all who were lost or wounded or broken would find their way to it, a beacon for those who still dwelled in that abyss. It would not take a monster to destroy a monster— but light, light to drive out the darkness.”

Even if Maas didn’t write this evangelize, I can’t help but see this beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us on the cross. He sacrificed himself to rescue us from our darkness. We don’t have to fear the crushing black because he stands with us against it, enabling us to resist the lies of the devil. He gives our lives purpose and meaning. Because we are his, we have worth and no one can take it away from us. There is no debt left for us to pay, no punishment we must endure, because He, in his love, took it for us.

“Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5)

“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16)

“Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

I would bet there are a lot of people who read this book and identify with Celaena’s struggle, who think they have done the unforgivable, that they offer the world nothing, that they deserve and welcome whatever pain comes because they can’t live with their own choices; who feel tortured by despair and can’t find their way out.

I was so glad that Celaena found the light and that she didn’t succumb to the lies but saw that she was not alone and there was something more and better for her life.

I hope other readers can read between these fictional lines and be pointed to the real Light of the world who is ready to rescue you from your own darkness. He will never turn away anyone who comes to Him; there is forgiveness for all who repent. There is freedom from the weight of your sin and the curse of your despair. There is hope to fill your emptiness. Don’t give in to the darkness. There is more for you today.

What’s Next?

This section contains spoilers but I need to have this at least for myself so I can reorient myself by the time I get to the next book.

Scroll at your own risk, or skip down to the recommendation section.

-

Celaena is on her way back to Rifthold. She knows Arobynn has a wyrdkey and plans to retrieve it. As far as she knows the king doesn’t know that she is Aelin so she’s coming back as Celaena.

What she doesn’t know is that Aedion, her loyal cousin, was outted as a traitor and is now in the dungeons as bait for Aelin. And Sorscha was outted as a rebel spy and beheaded which caused Dorian to release his magic. Chaol managed to escape but Dorian was forced by his father to put on the wyrd collar. We can no longer trust Dorian.

So hopefully in the next book Celaena finds a way to rescue Aedion, but something tells me as soon as he is freed he is going to have to give his life to save Celaena and their reunion will be short-lived. I hope I’m wrong about that though!

I am also hoping that Celaena finds a way to break through the wyrd collar before Dorian is forced to do anything too terrible.

The battle looms large and Celaena will be gathering her army just as the king is. Will Manon switch sides and become an unexpected ally?

With the king murdering all the slaves in Endovier and Callaculla, it should not be hard to find rebel forces ready to rise up.

As for the romance aspect— Celaena told Rowan to stay behind until she called for him. They are bond by blood now but I don’t know if that is an ally/friendship thing or a mate thing. It seems like Chaol is in a place to let her go, but it’s possible she has chosen Rowan to be by her side now. Dorian’s love interest is gone now so I guess Maas could always resurrect sparks there as well. Celaena’s got options. We’ll see which direction she takes.

Recommendation

If you’re reading this book then you’ve already started the series and I can confirm that you should keep reading it. If for some reason you haven’t started it yet, I would say it’s worth starting.

It’s a very compelling story and I’m excited to keep seeing how this all plays out. I have a feeling this one isn’t going to be my favorite book, but I do think Celaena’s breakthrough is my favorite part of the series thus far.

“It was a message to the world. Aelin was a warrior, able to fight with blade or magic. And she was done with hiding.”

[Content Advisory: 17 s-words, a few handfuls of other swearing; some gruesome scenes (especially chapter 4); the witch chapters tended to be the gruesome ones but there’s fighting and decapitations in other chapters; there is a little romance but no sexual content; some of the demi-Fae have same-gender mates]

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

The Briars
By: Sarah Crouch

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“‘Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.’— André Malraux”

Two killers haunt Lake Lumin— one on four legs, one on two.

This one had me feeling like I was up in the mountains, isolated and hunted by both man and beast.

Sarah Crouch wastes no time getting into it with The Briars. Right out of the gate we encounter a body in the forest of Washington State, marked by the deep claws of a cougar. But this girl was not killed by the cougar, she was strangled before she even fell to the forest floor.

And that is the mystery throughout this atmospheric book: who should they be more afraid of— the cougar or the killer hunting around Lake Lumin?

There was a lot to love about this book. The characters were really good and played off each other really well.

The setting was fantastic. I would believe Lake Lumin actually existed with the lake full of bioluminescent plankton, surrounded by a tangle of briars, in the small mountain town where everyone knows everyone.

I also was very convinced I had figured out who the killer was and had I been right, I would have been satisfied, not disappointed, and yet even still Crouch managed to surprise me!

The middle got a little slow because we had to take a break from the hunt to let two of the characters fall in love, but the pace picked up again with a second murder and a suspect no one wanted to find.

The suspense of this story was not so much in the chase of the cougar or the unleashed killer but in the mystery of the characters. Who is lying and who is telling the truth?

Our main character is Annie Heston, a game warden fleeing her broken marriage to accept a new position in Lake Lumin.

“She needed the woods the way she needed food, and the longer she went without them, the deeper and more desperate her hunger grew. They were her home. Her calling. Her savior. The plain fact of it was, they had brought her back to life.”

Such a small town only employs one police officer, Jake Proudy, whom Annie works closely with as they investigate both the cougar attack and the potential murderer in the community.

“Jake was a golden retriever… lovable and chatty.”

Daniel Barela is the reclusive young man living on the edge of the lake, heavily invested in ‘No Trespassing’ signs.

Annie, requiring access to the lake and the surrounding property, is forced to make friends with Daniel and assure he will cooperate with her investigation.

These make up our primary trio of characters.

Daniel and Jake are buddies.

“If it came down to it, Daniel was willing to bet that Jake would be just as likely to help him bury a body as to drag him down to the station for questioning. But he couldn’t risk it. If the law ever came between then, or if Jake ever found out the truth about Daniel’s past, there was no telling what he’d do.”

Jake and Annie are coworkers.

And that leaves Annie and Daniel to fall in love.

“He was falling for her goodness, her light, her laughter, and most of all for the way she made him believe that there could be more to his life than lonely isolation.”

Annie knows Daniel has something to hide. And she thinks he finally shares it with her. But when the second victim is found near his property with all evidence pointing to him, Annie starts to wonder if he was being completely honest about his past.

“Daniel clearly knew how to lie. And he knew how to hide. Did he also know how to kill?”

Sarah Crouch did a good job of intertwining the story with the nature that encompassed it.

Here are two quotes to that end:

“logs that were now home to countless creatures and species, their very death and decomposition essential to new life. Destruction and rejuvenation walked hand in hand in the woods. The wilderness was like that, as was, Annie suspected, the human heart.”

“‘Relationships are a bit like the briars, Annie. You know, those sharp little brambles that this neck of the woods is known for. They’ll cut you up good before they give up their sweetest berries, but once you’ve got a pot of jam simmering on the stove and see those jars on your pantry shelves, you don’t think much about the pain, do you? There’s sweetness in life to be had, but sometimes you gotta get through the briars first.’”

Annie is trying to start a new life but is still nursing the wounds from her cheating husband. We often want to shield our hearts when we hurt and vow never to open ourselves up to be hurt again.

She is learning that to close up and never feel again is not the way we were meant to live. She takes note of the advice her beloved forest shows her.

I think God knew what he was doing when he created nature, showing us how death is the catalyst for life. Just like we are to die to ourselves and live to Christ to find life eternal, we see that same concept play out in the world around us. God works in the darkness and the hurt to bring forth new and abundant life.

There is sweetness even in the midst of the thorns.

I liked how Crouch shows both sides of nature. She didn’t paint it as evil and she didn’t paint it as untainted. She poignantly shows the relationship of both.

I don’t really have any big critiques of this book.

One plot-hole type thing that stuck out to me was the whole ‘stealing someone else’s driver’s license for a new identity.’ I don’t think that would work out like it did. The license would have been reported stolen or missing and it would have most certainly triggered something when it was used somewhere else eventually. That part of the story could have used some tightening up, but it’s a very small part so not a big deal at all.

I do think the whole cougar situation was a bit anti-climactic and faded away. It almost seemed like once Annie set the traps she washed her hands of it and didn’t follow up much. Seemed like it should have been a more important thing to keep track of for her. But the priority in the story was to spend weeks on the romance thread. Honestly, I was more intrigued by the murder than the cougar, so I didn’t mind that we lost track of the tracking.

I agree with some reviewers that the romance aspect of this seemed a bit too insta-love considering the context. Crouch didn’t really try to make it make sense though, she just made it this ‘unexplainable connection’ between Annie and Daniel. At least she wasn’t trying to pretend like it was logical! I didn’t love the romance part because it was romance and I loved them together but because it created the necessary connection that caused Annie to waver on whether or not she thought Daniel was guilty. If they weren’t in love then she would have not flinched at all to reveal his secret and help Jake bring him in.

The ‘miscommunication’ trope made an appearance which was annoying. I wish that would have been handled in a more complex way, but you can’t have it all.

None of these critiques really affected my overall experience with the book. I was engaged the whole time and really liked the ending.

Recommendation

This was a great atmospheric thriller with a side of romance.

I loved the characters, the setting, and the ending. I also loved that it was a clean book with no swearing or sexual content to sift through.

I can’t think of a reason for you not to check this one out, especially if you love a forest-saturated crime scene and a lake that glows in the dark.

Some other ‘in the woods’ thrillers you should also check out: The Family Bones and The Alone Time by Elle Marr or A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall.

If you like a strong female lead that takes place in Washington, check out the Tracy Crosswhite series.

If you want another mysterious (more psychological thriller) read in the Pacific Northwest try The Clinic.

If you are interested in a thriller in the woods (this time Montana) but with a male main character, try Out for Blood— it’s very action-packed!

[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content—there was some eluded to but nothing described; some gruesomeness in the crime scene descriptions]

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

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

The Bookshop of 99 Doors
By: Jaime Jo Wright

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

“‘There can be good amid evil, but the good will always be tainted— haunted, if you will— until the truth sets us free.’”

My first Jaime Jo Wright book was Night Falls on Predicament Avenue and I really enjoyed that one. I was looking forward to reading another one of her books. Unlike Night Falls, The Bookshop of 99 Doors definitely drew me in more with the cover and the title- I love a good book about books and the idea of a secret door was very compelling!

Though this one is definitely still worth reading, I think I liked Night Falls a little better than this one.

They both were very atmospheric— Wright knows how to write spooky— and both were dual timeline stories.

They also both explore what seems to be a supernatural/ haunting type of situation.

If I had to say what gave Night Falls an edge on this one, I would probably point to the themes. Night Falls just felt deeper to me in its themes of grief and death and fear.

While fear and death were obviously part of this story, it seemed like the main characters were more so grappling with the existence and activity of spirits. It just didn’t feel as poignant to me.

The book is told in alternating chapters between the timelines until the climax of the story when the chapters have shorter segments within the same chapter as everything comes to a head.

I loved that the historical timeline was set in 1888, 25 years after the Battle of Gettysburg. It’s not as common of a setting like WWII, but it definitely adds to the eeriness when thinking about the nature of the Civil War and the wooded areas of the South.

Minnie Tipton is the main character of this part. She is afraid of four things: death, being without her father, losing her mind (like her father), and the unknown.

“Fear was an all-encompassing emotion. But it was an emotion, after all, and if Minnie had learned anything, it was that emotions could be wicked and unreliable. They doomed a person to shame, to assumptions larger than life, and to grief that overtook you. Emotions were not something to be followed or even believed. Emotions led one astray from the truth, from what was right and what was real. They betrayed you. They betrayed others. Just like Mama had betrayed Papa.”

Minnie’s father fought at Gettysburg and has never been the same since. When Minnie’s mother passes away she is left to care for her father in his unstable condition. He abruptly moves them to Ambrose Fields— an estate with a dark history.

The story goes that the woman of the house, Hetty Ambrose, and her housekeeper Mrs. Pickston, took care of sick soldiers after Gettysburg until one day a new arrival, a captain, went crazy and killed all the men there and then killed himself.

The captain’s spirit is said to haunt the mansion. Minnie’s own sanity hangs in the balance as she is forced to confront all four of her fears while living there..

The present day timeline is set in the same location. Triss Bellamy has just begun her work at Ambrose Fields— now a museum that boasts of its 99 doors— in the bookshop slash library where her job is to catalogue the collection of historic books left in the house.

Triss (short for Viatrix) has left home to escape her previous life of spirit-chasing with her brother, Casper (purposely named), and love interest, Beck and reinvent herself. Triss grew up with her grandmother telling her she was ‘a sensitive’ because of her ability to sense or communicate with spirits. Triss has regularly seen ‘shadow people’ in her life but didn’t understand it.

“If a person couldn’t explain, say, the existence of a spirit in the house, then how did one find any security in believing it existed?… She wanted the explained. She needed evidence to base her faith on— and more than just experiences. She wanted facts.”

Her budding faith has made her realize that it’s unwise to mess with the spirits. But her attempt to distance herself from the chase fails when Ambrose Fields, in an attempt to gain some publicity and more foot traffic to the museum, hires none other than Casper and Beck to come investigate the ‘spirit activity’ at the mansion.

Ambrose Fields has 99 doors…. that they can find. There are rumors of a 100th door, said to be, when opened, a portal for spirits to come and go as they please. A secret door hiding secrets.

Like Minnie, Triss is also forced to confront her fears and find the 100th door, if nothing else, to give her a tangible answer to an abstract problem.

In both timelines the question remains: are there spirits haunting Ambrose Fields? Casper and Minnie’s father exhibited similar symptoms and mental hallucinations in their ailments while staying at the house. Does the portal need to be found and closed or is something else going on here?

I liked the redemption arc of Triss with Casper and Beck. Triss left because her faith journey and new convictions compelled her not to mess with the spirits, and so she removes herself from the situation.

Casper and Beck express their hurt that she just abandoned them without much warning or communication and definitely not a forwarding address.

I like that while Triss was right to follow her convictions, she realizes that she still followed them in an unloving way. I was glad that she found some humility at the end without having to compromise her convictions.

I think the title is a little bit misleading because the bookshop itself doesn’t have 99 doors, the whole mansion does. The bookshop is just part of it. Granted a big part since it’s the room the soldiers were staying in while healing and where the gruesome murders happened, and has it’s own secrets, but I was expecting something a little different.

Wright seemed to attempt to create a little love triangle with Triss and Max and Triss and Beck, but I hope that wasn’t a major plot point for Wright because I’m not sure I really believed the Max side of that. There’s a pretty big chunk of the book where he seems to be absent— out of sight, out of mind— until he pops back in at the end.

I don’t really mind because I was looking for Triss and Beck to reconcile and wasn’t really sure what the deal was with Max anyway, but if that’s a major selling point for you, you’ll probably be disappointed in its minority.

I think Wright does a great job of exploring the supernatural and the spirit realm without getting sidetracked with it. She takes it seriously, because it really exists, but is realistic about it, not indulgent. It doesn’t really exist the way most people, and for sure most horror stories, depict it to.

“Contemporary culture often embellished history with what they defined as ‘entertainment.’ For in spite of what was real and truly meaningful, the paranormal was entertaining.”

This is true. Having recently read Scrolling Ourselves to Death I’ve been reminded with how intentionally and addictingly distracted our culture is with being entertained. It’s not really that interested in truth if it means giving up their entertainment.

Most who are preoccupied with the supernatural today don’t realize its dangers because they think it’s merely entertaining. While Wright doesn’t necessarily end the book with any sort of ‘doctrine’ on the spiritual realm, she definitely portrays it as something not to mess with.

I thought it was good that she also showed Beck’s dilemma in seeking truth. It wasn’t necessarily that he didn’t want the truth, but he was afraid of what finding the truth could mean:

“‘What if this is all there is… And the afterlife really is just wandering around aimlessly. Poking fun at the living who are on a fast track to join them in death.’”

I can see how this would be a real fear for people to have. It’s better to distract yourself than know for sure that life is meaningless.

But for any who are where Beck is, I would encourage you to take the faith journey that Triss is on and investigate. I think you’ll find that this isn’t all there is. You were created on purpose with a purpose and the afterlife is a real place where— for those who live for Christ— everything is made right, and you get to spend eternity not haunting other worthless souls, but with your Creator who loves you.

God says in the book of Jeremiah that if you are seeking God with all your heart, you will find him. (Jeremiah 29:13)

I’ll leave you with one more quote from the book:

“It was the insatiable human quest to seek what one could not hold onto, be it wealth or fame or legacy. These were the true ghosts. And the paranormal were the distractions that summoned the spiritually hungry away from what was already there and waiting.”

Recommendation

If you are looking for a good atmospheric book with spooky vibes that deals with the supernatural in a realistic and responsible way, then definitely check this one out— or any of her other books. I’ve only read one other one of hers but I gather that they all deliver similar experiences.

I’ve seen a couple reviews that liken her to Scooby Doo where it all seems like a terrible ghost story until a mask is removed and everything is revealed. I can see that correlation but I think a Scooby Doo reference sends silliness vibes and this book is not a silly book. It is definitely more serious and mature than Scooby Doo.

This is a Christian fiction novel and I think the faith values are a little more overt in this book than Night Falls but they are portrayed in an honest and exploratory way and I think people who don’t typically pick up a Christian fiction novel will still enjoy this read.

Jaime Jo Wright has been a nice author to find when I want some gothic tension and eerie history without going too far into darkness.

[Content Advisory: no swearing or sexual content; there is some investigation of the paranormal but no real interactions are described]

**Received a copy via Baker Publishing Group**

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

The Redeemed Reader: Cultivating a Child’s Discernment and Imagination Through Truth and Story
By: Janie Cheaney, Betsy Farquhar, Hayley Morell, & Megan Saben

“When we acknowledge and praise what is good and true and beautiful in a literary work, we are shining a gospel light on both Christian and secular authors. We can rejoice in the common grace present in the work of any author or illustrator. This is a wonderful witness and encouragement to authors, both saved and unsaved.” 

All the stars for this one!

This book is an amazing resource for the busy parent who doesn’t have time to read everything their kids are reading and wants to make sure that their children’s imaginations are tapped and encountering truth!

The Redeemed Reader is first and foremost a website doing for kids books what I’m seeking to do with my own book reviews: help readers make good choices about what they’re reading. Their team of reviewers provides insights on a broad spectrum of books from classics to picture books to easy readers, YA novels, nonfiction, and more.

They approach their reviews from a biblical perspective: “Not, This art is actually kinda Christian, but rather, Here’s what I realized as a Christian encountering this art.”

Their website is great, but I’m glad they chose to publish this book as well. Not only do they tackle every genre of books and offer booklists at the end of every chapter, but they talk about how to develop discernment in your kids and provide good questions to ask them while they’re reading.

“Anywhere we read of goodness, hope, light, loving one’s neighbor, good triumphing over evil, forgiveness and redemption, healthy family relationships, friendships, and beauty and order in creation, we see Truth, and our hearts rejoice. 

Books that hold the most Truth not only show that we need a savior, but that there is a Savior, and therefore we have hope. They point to our deep desire for peace with God and with one another.”

They acknowledge that these themes don’t just show up in Christian labeled books but that we can find threads of the capital T Truth (God’s Word) and capital S Story (grand biblical story of creation, fall, redemption, restoration) in lots of secular works. I’ve found that to be true as well.

At The Redeemed Reader, their goal is to help train children to pick up a book and enjoy what they’re reading while still discerning truth.

“Good stories keep the soul awake, forewarning it of danger and populating it with heroes and heroines whose examples of courage and character give us strength to see ourselves standing against similar foes and refusing to yield to evil. Story has always been and remains our greatest tool in crafting wise and great people.” 

I love the heart behind their work as well as the outcome. I am wary of all the book options available to my third grade speed-reader— I can’t read everything she’s reading and still have time to read myself. I love that I can look things up on their website or offer her books from their curated book lists (with all kinds of categories) and know that what she is putting in her mind tells the story of reality, even if it’s the fallenness of the human condition, and that there is hope and redemption in the end.

“We can disagree with the characters’ conclusions and evaluate their personal choices. We can debate whether they understand the reality they’re living in. We can try to discern what the author believes about free will and personal responsibility and human nature. Good literature allows readers to get inside another person’s mind and understand the world from another point of view. 

By entering the story, readers gain sympathy for a well-written fictional character, even as they learn to recognize the flaws in their reasoning and choices.” 

One of the big takeaways for me was how they recommended readers handle ‘messy books.’ In short, these are books that deal with sin and might make readers uncomfortable.

“books that honestly reflect the human condition are often messy because sin is messy.”

They don’t want us to categorically avoid these books because we are not called to be comfortable, but to be discerning— which is a concept I really agree with.

I loved their evaluation system for messy books. They give a list of ‘P’s’ to ponder when determining if a book is right for your child (or yourself):

• Plot Point vs Political Point: “Is the objectionable (or problematic, or messy) content in the book necessary to drive the story, or is there a clear agenda driving the inclusion of this content?”

• Pleasure or Pain?: “Does the story also show repentance, disgust at sin, or the negative consequences of sin? Or is the sinful act/thought seen to be only pleasurable or desirable?”

• Preparation: “Is the audience prepared for the content, both developmentally and experientially?”

• Proportion: “What is the proportion of messy content to the rest of the book? One throwaway line about a character’s two moms requires a different response than a book in which the protagonist comes out as a lesbian.”

• Pandering: “Is the author simply pandering to a childish audience… to today’s publishing trends rather than to add depth?”

• Protagonist: “Is the protagonist promoting or celebrating unbiblical behavior and beliefs with no evidence of repentance or maturation, or is the villain the renegade?”

• Promise: “Explicitly or implicitly, is the story promising redemption and rescue from sin? Or is it promising rewards for sin?”

• Problematic or Productive: “Productive messy books illustrate biblical traits like compassion, truth-telling, and repentance. Problematic books do not… [and] present unbiblical lifestyles as normal and acceptable.”

They do a great job of being careful in their recommendations and how they offer them. It is not a formulaic science based on a child’s age. Discernment takes thought, consideration, prayer, and most importantly time in God’s Word to develop. Not all the books they recommend will be right for your family; this is (appropriately) not a copy and paste system.

After they discuss messy books they looked at several contemporary issues that come up in literature that we need to know how to handle, including racism, environmentalism, diversity and sexuality, identity, and dystopian themes.

I wasn’t surprised that these are popular topics, but I think reading their discussion about them made me realize how subtly and easily the corresponding underlying beliefs about God, his world, and his people these worldviews require can be inserted into a story.

They were very thoughtful in their communication about how these show up in books, what questions to ask, and why it matters that we think about it.

The next section of chapters goes through specific genres and what to look for or avoid in each one. The genres they cover are picture books, easy readers, humor, poetry, sci-fi and dystopia, fantasy, and romance.

A couple thoughts that stuck out to me were:

• help your children pick their ‘book friends’ like they would pick their real-life friends— it might be time to break off with a book or series if the main character isn’t showing characteristics you would want in a real friend

• “Think of poetry like cinnamon: no one wants to eat cinnamon plain, but no one wants to eat pumpkin bread, apple pie, or a cinnamon roll without it!”

• a good question that science fiction often explores in some way is- ‘Am I becoming more like my machine? Or more like Christ?’

• “It’s important to nudge our kids toward healthier romantic reading and never leave the impression that romantic love conquers all, justifies all, and lasts forever. Only one kind of love does that.”

The last few chapters are for practical application.

They offer guidance in finding the right Bibles for your kids. Their recommendations were ones we’ve already been using with our kids and recommending to others as well! (The Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible, The Biggest Story Bible, The Ology, The Kingdom and the King Storybook Bible)

They talk about how we can encourage authors, secular and Christian; how we can love on our libraries by requesting good books and checking them out; how we can use books to help us understand things happening in the news; and how we can curate our own libraries at home.

I love public libraries and it was a good reminder that we alert our libraries to what we are interested in and want to read more of by checking books out. They take note of what is in circulation so help make your library better by checking out the good books!

That last one about home libraries was particularly helpful for me because I’m about to have a new bookshelf built in my house and I’m preparing to inventory all my books and make a system to let people in my life check them out! They had some great ideas for how to decide what books to donate or keep and offered some suggestions for books to make sure you have for members in your family.

“The goal of managing a home library is to bless your family and friends and to encourage them to explore and use it. The purpose is not to have every title you could possibly ever want, nor to have every book always readily available, but simply to be able to find it.” 

If you want to browse their book reviews on their website, look for the *starred books because these are the ones they recommend without caveats or considerations (other than age considerations). Other books are still recommended but they offer some insight on what to be aware of before picking it out for your specific child.

You can browse their site by age group, genre, subject, special topic, and over 175 curated booklists like ‘recommended graphic novels’, ‘books for young horse lovers’, ‘for 16-year-old girls’, ‘family read alouds’ etc.

They also have a way to contact them if you would like a book reviewed that isn’t on their website.

[Many of the books they’ve recommended I’d already included on my Kids’ Shelf page.]

Lastly, though perhaps I should have put this at the beginning of the review:

“Remember, the only required book is the Bible. May you never be too busy to read it. Our booklists are recommendations, not requirements.” 

Recommendation

I think this would be a great book to add to your personal library if you can. If you can’t, at least bookmark their website as an easy reference when you’re looking for and monitoring books for your kids.

Kids’ imaginations are wonderful, but also very impressionable— we have a responsibility to engage them and allow them to think about hard things, but also protect them from things they aren’t ready to read yet.

The Redeemed Reader is a fantastic resource to guide us as parents, guardians, or librarians with the children in our care, directing them to what is good, true, and beautiful— to what points to Truth and echoes the greatest Story of all.

Definitely read this book and check out all that The Redeemed Reader has to offer! I know I'm going to be telling people about this all the time!

**Received a digital copy of this book from Moody Publishers**

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

Just Friends
By: Haley Pham

[Fulfills the prompt: ‘Book you had to wait for its release’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

I didn’t just like this book because it released on my birthday, but that was fun.

I liked it because it was a charming, heartwarming love story that also had threads of friendship and grief, showing how real relationships are meant to support us when things are hard.

I know Haley Pham has millions of follows on Instagram and YouTube, but I actually heard about this book through her husband’s YouTube channel when he and Haley filmed the 50 States in 50 Days summer series last year.

Because of that, I think I’m writing this review from a somewhat unique perspective.

First: the only information I knew about Haley was what I saw on Ryan’s summer series. I didn’t follow her or watch any of her videos. I went into reading this with absolutely no preconceived notions about what kind of writer I expected her to be or her writing to be like.

I can see how it could be disappointing for some readers who already felt like they ‘knew’ her and then felt like the writing didn’t live up to it. The bigger the hype, the more famous the author, the more pressure and expectation put on the finished product.

Second: I don’t read a lot of romance books. I actually tend to avoid them. These days anything with romance ends up being smut which is annoying. You’ll find some romances reviewed on my website but they are typically rom-coms because if we’re going to do the romance thing let’s at least laugh too.

Thus… I don’t have a lot to compare this book to. I think the more you read of one particular genre the more critical you tend to be of it because you develop a specific taste and list of preferences.

I think these two things makes my review different than a lot of others.

I was surprised by the Goodreads ratings on this book. A lot of the negative reviews seem a bit over-the-top, but everyone’s way of reviewing is different. My scale isn’t as extreme as others.

It seems to me that a lot of the negativity stems from her being famous (rich?) and popular or the reader preferring a different type of romance. Some felt like the book read more middle-grade but I disagree.

I think maybe compared to the sex-saturated romance novels full of f-words, sure, it might feel like middle grade but that’s like saying that roller coasters are for babies because you just got done sky-diving and that was way more thrilling. Relax… not everyone wants to freefall from the sky. It doesn’t make them babies.

It’s probably closer to YA than adult but I still wouldn’t call it middle-grade.

A few others critiqued that Haley wrote herself into the main character. Like it was a bad thing. I don’t know the rules of writing but isn’t there something like ‘write what you know’? It’s her first book. It seems fitting to add some of herself into it. I admit, I did mostly just picture her as Blair, especially when she wrote that Blair liked hydrangeas because I remembered from the summer series one of the videos where Haley was excited to see them. I didn’t mind noticing those details. It actually made sense to me that she did that.

I’m sure if she writes another book she will diversify her characters. And at least she didn’t make Declan the same as Ryan (he was a runner not a football player). That kind of writing could probably go to the extreme and detract from the story, but I don’t think it did that here.

BUT ALL THAT TO SAY…

I thought this was a sweet story of second-chance, friends-to-lovers romance.

With the setting being in a cozy, picturesque seaside village in California, I think it makes a good beach-read. Even though it deals with grief, it’s mostly just a light, fun read.

Blair is our main character. Having just graduated from Pepperdine she is headed to New York to begin a career she hopes will help financially support her single mother. Plans change when her great-aunt Lottie’s health takes a turn for the worse.

Blair delays New York and goes back to her hometown where she was basically raised by her mother and Lottie and spends Lottie’s last few days with her. Reeling from the grief once Lottie has passed, she is unprepared for the run-in she has with her ex, Declan, who runs the coffee shop she gets a temporary job at.

They grew up best friends until they finally acknowledged they had the hots for each other in high school. Declan was a football star headed to the pros and Blair was an aspiring writer. An accident was the catalyst to the end of that relationship. We don’t fully know why, we just know something bad happened.

“Declan, to me, became like a blade buried deep in my side. Over the years, he fused so completely that removing him from my life seemed life-threatening. And then he was ripped away from me overnight, and I’d been trying to clot the bleeding ever since. How would I survive being near him again when the original wound never healed?”

The details unfurl as the book goes along and Blair and Declan realize they never should have stayed apart.

But the grief Blair feels with losing Lottie and her fears of Declan being like her father and eventually leaving are clouding her judgment and ability to know if she can enter back into the relationship.

I thought Haley did a good job expressing the confusing ups and downs of grief. I thought there was a lot of maturity in Blair as she realizes other people don’t always know how to help grieving people.

She holds it against her two college friends that they aren’t being there for her the way she wants them to be and adds ‘victim’ to her grief. But then she realizes that she hasn’t shared much with them about what’s going on and they’re miles and miles away. They don’t know.

When she is finally vulnerable with them and asks them to come, they drop everything and come. I think that’s a really realistic take on friendship.

“People in your life could only be as close to you as you let them.”

We tend to privately put expectations on people and then take it personally when they don’t measure up. We can’t and shouldn’t be the center of everyone’s universe. If we get that posture right, then we can be honest with people about what we need and we can show up for each other, having some grace when people don’t respond the way we were hoping they would.

So I enjoyed that added thread of friendship within the romance story. I think a lot of romances are so focused on sexual tension that there are no other relationships involved as if a person only needs one person in their life. People need friends too! I thought that was well-balanced in this book.

As for the romance. I thought it was cute. Perhaps cheesy at times but I think that just comes with the territory. People are cheesy when they’re in love. These are college-aged kids. This is how it goes. It made me think a lot of my husband and my relationship in college and I thought Haley did a good job of capturing what that looks and feels like.

When Blair is struggling with whether or not to get back with Declan, a different character has caused her to question her motives and second-guess whether she can trust herself to make that decision when she is distraught and emotionally spent.

I don’t think it’s trying to promote a ‘follow your heart, your feelings can never steer you wrong’ kind of mentality, but more so that you don’t have to have it all together to be with someone. You can be grieving and not be a burden to someone you love. They want to be there for you through that. Just like they would expect you to show up when they go through something hard.

No relationship is without some messiness. But relationships are a mess worth making. We’re not meant to go through life alone. We are not meant to be self-reliant people. Love is love because it is shared. And true love is unconditional.

I look back at my husband’s and my carefree college love and see where we are now and I choose the emotionally weathered and a little stressed version of ourselves every time because the hard times we went through together authenticated and grew our love in ways our naive college selves never could have predicted.

Sure, the whole missing letter thing is a miscommunication trope that I don’t especially love, but overall I liked the dilemma she put in front of her characters and I liked the way they came through it.

I also liked the little details of the book like the letter graphic and the chapter illustrations that helped the reader differentiate between timelines. I wish more books did that! It would make shifting character POVs or timelines so much easier while reading.

The cover was fitting and cute as well.

The only critiques I had were that a lot of her sentences felt too long. I think it must just be her writing style to have long sentences with a lot of commas and descriptions. I just think some well-placed short sentences can do a lot to engage the reader.

I can also see some reviewers’ dissatisfaction with the way things wrapped up financially for Blair and her mom. I think it made perfect sense with their background with Lottie— I’m not saying it was incongruent with the story— but I can understand people’s desire to see her have to figure out a way to pinch pennies to follow her dream instead of dropping it in her lap where she can do it without a worry about the future.

Usually people who decide to follow a dream or a calling have to make some sort of sacrifice and take a leap of faith. I’m happy Blair got to pursue writing like she felt called to do, but it didn’t feel like a leap of faith.

That is a small critique. I’m usually a fan of happy endings though so I’m not mad about it. I don’t need book characters to reflect my personal life. I might care about relatability more when it comes to memoirs than fiction. Enjoy the house, Blair; I’m cool with it, but I would love to visit sometime if you’re free.

Recommendation

Yeah, I would recommend this book! Especially if you like clean, cute, charming romances with happy endings.

If you are looking for a rated-R romance that’s gritty and whatever other adjectives the negative reviewers prefer to describe their romances, then perhaps this wouldn’t be the right fit.

Like I said, it’s a good beach read and palate cleanser. And for someone who doesn’t take in a lot of romance novels and has no fandom or anti-fandom towards Haley, I had no unmet expectations!

This gets a thumbs-up for me!

[Content Advisory: one incomplete s-word; no sexual content other than kissing]

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

99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them
By: Ashely Alker, MD

[Fulfills the prompt: ‘Book with a medical professional’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2026]

Too much death. 1 Star.

Just kidding.

But I’m going to be honest: I thought this was going to be cautioning me against eating too much whipped cream, or warning me about sticking a fork in my ear in the exact wrong spot, or how my lawn mower can blow up, or if I sneeze during surgery I’ll get stabbed and die. Or even killer bird stuff— those murderous creatures.

I was looking forward to the bizarre and random ways of dying (that’s a weird sentence to type and applies to this particular book only).

Back in the day I used to catch a few episodes of the TV show 1000 Ways to Die and if I’m remembering correctly, there was some pretty crazy stuff (perhaps not my best choice in show).

But, I have to break it to you. This book is not like that.

Let me tell you who this book is NOT for: the hypochondriac. The person with pre-existing fears of illness, food, animals, bacterias, worms, traveling, invisible gases, and the like. You will live a much better life without this book.

For all the other freaks out there who love diseases… have at it.

I’m actually neither of these… although this book has unlocked some new fears I’m not happy about. I’m not death-obsessed or fascinated by parasites. I’m not that worried about germs (to my husband’s chagrin) and I have no interest in visiting the Amazon, the Outback, an underwater cave, or eating pufferfish.

So why did I read this book?

Purely curiosity.

Some say curiosity kills… but that was not covered in this almost 400 page book so I didn’t know better.

Unfortunately, this book ended up being quite the drag for me. I didn’t want to read about ACTUAL ways of dying like strep throat and TB and Ebola and high blood pressure, cocaine, measles, mold, water, cars, and gun violence. And I definitely didn’t need the chapter called ‘butt stuff.’

It was a bit depressing to read the statistics about how many millions of Americans are addicted to drugs, alcohol, or smoking or to know how many are infected with sexually transmitted diseases or to hear about all the children that came through Alker’s emergency department.

I did not look forward to picking up this book each day and seeing what else was in my immediate life waiting to murder me or being confronted with national— and preventable— statistics.

In that way, I guess this book was not really for me and explains why it has taken me two months to get through.

Granted, I did learn some stuff— like that a poop transplant is a real thing and why ‘A dingo ate my baby’ was really said— and was able to confirm my life rules like: no bats, hippos, bodies of water, bushes, eating poop, snails, or tapeworms, recreational drugs, or helicopter rides.

There was some humor (I wouldn’t call it hilarious…) and creativity in the way she described things:

“The brain’s blood vessels are like roads with semi-trucks full of oxygen trying to make their required delivery to different destinations within the organ, and the brain is an Amazon-addicted twenty-year-old with her mom’s credit card. The oxygen semi-trucks are never-ending.”

…and I appreciated her references to Blo-Pens, Murder She Wrote, Michelle Tanner’s horse accident, and Oregon Trail.

Plus once we got 60% of the way through and hit on animals it got a little bit more interesting— though possibly more terrifying (don’t Google Goliath birdeater).

[Important Question: How the heck do we know that the world’s oldest spider is this one specific trapdoor spider that lived 43 years until she was eaten by a parasitic wasp?! Did we Big Brother her and every other spider for 43 years?!]

Buuuuuuut overall 99 Ways to Die just fell short of what I think I wanted.

I think if it was shorter and perhaps less comprehensive, I think the learning part could have been enough for me even if it wasn’t weird and crazy. The chapters and medical knowledge about random diseases and bodily ailments felt too endless and repetitive. I don’t want anyone else telling me to exercise more and eat a balanced diet. Booooring.

I did appreciate the section on health influencers and how they love to employ correlations (rather than causations) in their medical advice, often (inadvertently or otherwise) spreading lies in order to go viral.

She reports an MIT study finding “that false stories are 70 percent more likely to be shared than true stories, resulting in the truth taking six times as long to reach 1500 people.”

Alker is correct to say “the testing of beliefs is essential to finding truth.”

But if we’re going to talk about beliefs then I’m going to have to poke at a few of hers.

Like most scientists out there, Alker touts evolution as a fact rather than a theory (that can’t even be tested).

The first sentence of the book reads: “In the beginning, there was evolution. If I’ve lost you already, this might not be the book you want, but it is the book you need.”

I believe she was mostly saying this to be funny and to lead into her bit about natural selection taking the ones who can’t hack it and thus writing a book to help us all survive: “Every time evolution rears its ugly head in the form of a table saw without a safety stop or a loaded gun stored in a front pocket, emergency medicine fights back… I wrote this book to prevent emergency department visits.”

But joke or not, it still feels worth pointing out the inconsistencies in her ‘beliefs.’

I also want to poke at her ‘teaching’ and belief regarding abortion.

In cautioning readers on the dangers of pregnancy, she mentions abortions. Well, unsafe abortions— “unsafe abortions, which refer to abortions done improperly.”

She is not just talking about abortions done due to ectopic pregnancies because she references legality and those kind of ‘abortions’ are not illegal.

I’m glad that she recognizes life as a miracle but I disagree with what she says here:

“Unfortunately, the gestation of this little miracle will be the total, life-threatening responsibility of the fairer sex until further notice, and that is intrinsically unfair. There will never be equality in the creation of a human being, but there can be equity. Women must fully understand the risks they take in choosing to be pregnant, and society must support their efforts, for there to be any semblance of fairness.”

As a woman who has birthed four babies (two of which were early NICU babies), I think it’s pretty trivializing to call the experience ‘unfair.’ Pregnancy and delivery was definitely one of the hardest things my body has ever gone through, but it was also one of the most amazing things!

She makes it seem like women draw the short stick, but I don’t think that’s true. Sacrificial love is a beautiful and respected thing, not something to shout ‘Not fair’ about. What an honor and a privilege it is that God gave women the unique gift and ability to give their babies a home for nine months before bringing them into the world. Fathers will never get that experience.

I think it’s a cultural belief that sex is the best thing to happen to you and suffering is the worst. And a life built on those two statements is not much of a life. More and more I am convinced how instrumental and vital suffering is to the human life. Suffering leads to growth and resilience and ultimately to joy. We aren’t inspired by stories of comfort. When we think of what makes us who we are, we typically point back to hard things that we were able to overcome that shaped us.

It’s tragic for Alker to look at pregnancy and giving birth merely through the lens of suffering. Sadly that’s what drives the abortion industry. People want to avoid what they think will be too hard and they miss out on something life-changing. They are blinded by their need to avoid suffering that they miss out on a path to deep joy.

Alker does point out women’s need of support. That is true. And that’s why a biblical worldview of sex, marriage, pregnancy, and life is crucial and helpful. God’s design is for a nuclear family where a man and woman get married before having kids. That’s for a variety of reasons, but one result is that the woman is supported by her husband and they share the responsibility to care for and love their child. If both men and women understood their role and took responsibility for the life they created, then maybe abortions wouldn’t feel like ‘solutions’ to the women who seek them.

In a different chapter regarding gun violence she brings up how “two economists offered evidence that the legalization of abortion ‘contributed significantly’ to the plummeting in crime rates, including homicide” as if this correlation should be taken seriously.

How does it make sense to legalize murder to decrease murder? She critiques other correlations throughout the book but doesn’t take the time here to ask any questions about this correlation because it fits the cultural narrative that abortion should be legalized everywhere. But I wonder how much the homicide crime rate went down in relation to how much the abortion rate went up. I’m guessing millions of lives were aborted compared to hundreds that were ‘saved’ on the other side. Even if someone could prove a causation, it would not be enough to make legalizing murder make sense.

After each description of ways to die, Alker gives the way to avoid it: allergies → EpiPen; (half the diseases) → healthy diet and exercise; Mad Cow Disease → don’t eat beef. You get the idea.

It’s almost comical what her solution is for sexually transmitted infections and diseases: wear a condom and have all your sexual partners checked. When it comes to pregnancy, you need to weigh the risks to decide if you want to abstain from being pregnant, but when it comes to sex, abstinence isn’t even in the vocabulary. Nowhere does she state that there is a highly effective option: wait to have sex until you marry and only have one sexual partner. What are the statistics of contracting STDs then? They aren’t going to tell you; it doesn’t fit the narrative that sex is the best thing to ever happen to you.

I think it’s pretty crazy that a medical doctor who claims to really want to help you avoid these things won’t even suggest this to readers. They also won’t tell you that 87% of abortions are for unmarried women.

What we do with our bodies matters for a multitude of reasons and if you actually want to avoid STDs, have support for your pregnancies, and not be so afraid to endure hard things, maybe consider a different worldview than this author and the culture at large.

Given our divergence in certain beliefs, I was curious to see where Alker’s final chapter titled ‘The Afterlife’ was going to go.

She says she doesn’t know anything about the afterlife, but she wants us to acknowledge that “death is more than an end. It is the force that defines human life as a temporary, precious spark of magic.”

“The odds of you existing is less than one in ten billion trillion… And now that you have this life, what will you do with it?”

We could follow the advice she gives henceforth and pay attention to chest pain, finish our antibiotics appropriately, avoid eating mystery mushrooms, and get our vaccines, but that doesn’t quite measure up to what I would call a ‘spark of magic.’

After 400 pages of helping people avoid dying, she doesn’t really give readers any reason to live. If death is all there is in the end and we’re all products of random evolutionary consequence, why do our deaths even matter?

Our lives aren’t magical because they’re short and unexpected.

They’re magical because we have eternal souls created on purpose with a purpose. The ‘odds’ were perfect because a Creator God, in love, breathed life into our bodies.

And there is far more to life than avoiding dying. In fact, the only way to truly live beyond our short time on earth is to die twice. Before we succumb to one of the 99 ways of dying, Jesus asks us to follow us in his death by ‘crucifying’ our sin, dying to ourselves, and living for something better. (Galatians 5:16-24)

There is an afterlife, and if you don’t know what that’s all about, I encourage you to read the Bible, start with John. Meet Jesus. See what he has to say about your life and what you should do with it.

And if you find his words to be true, then these 99 ways of dying will only be the bridge to life eternal with the One who loves you more than you ever imagined possible.

Do more than avoid dying… find a reason to live. And live twice.

Recommendation

I think there is an audience for this book— people who are interested in the medical world and legitimately want to know all the ways to avoid a variety of ailments. If you want to be INFORMED, this book is for you.

I also think authors who are looking for interesting or obscure medical ways to kill off their characters will get a LOT of ideas here.

However, I would not recommend this book for hypochondriacs or people susceptible to anxiety. I would also say there will be a contingent of people who will disagree with the author on one or more things like abortion, sex, vaccines, and Covid. Of course you can read and ignore her advice on those specific things, but if that is something that ruins the rest of her advice to you, then don’t bother with the book.

The reason I didn’t really like this book is not because I have a different worldview than her (I kinda expected that) but hinges on my disappointment in what it could have been. It was long and boring and depressing to read about common and normal ways of dying instead of something more bizarre or random.

It was too long to be only informative.

The End.

**Received an ARC via NetGalley**

[Content Advisory: 1 f-word, 1 s-word; some gruesome details about medical things; obviously the section of chapters titled ‘Sex’ describe some things but it’s from a very medical standpoint]

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

The Perfect Hosts
By: Heather Gudenkauf

[Fulfills the prompt: ‘Book with food on the cover’ for the Shelf Reflection 2026 Reading Challenge]

“She feels the sudden urge to flee, to run away from this nightmare. But she knows she can’t. This is her life now. There’s no running. She has to face whatever is coming her way head-on. She has no other choice.”

My first Heather Gudenkauf book was The Overnight Guest. I enjoyed that one and similarly, I found The Perfect Hosts to have the same fast pace.

Set in Wyoming, the plot revolves around a gender reveal gone wrong— wrong like a bomb, someone was murdered, and a bunch of people were injured kind of wrong.

Unlike The Overnight Guest which has multiple timelines, The Perfect Hosts takes place over the course of a few days as the bomb/gun-Fed-guy (we’ll call him an ATF agent) tries to figure out who planted the bomb and why.

The multiple POVs definitely have you side-eyeing the characters— “What are you up to?….” It seems like everyone has some hidden agenda in the works and it’s unclear whose plan is going to succeed.

The cast of characters is not super likeable.

The parents-to-be— Wes and Madeline— are super rich with their ginormous ranch and basically ‘own’ the town in more ways than one. Their obnoxiously planned gender reveal party is evidence of their wealth and superiority.

But Madeline earns points with the reader because 1) she’s pregnant and 2) she doesn’t actually want this grand gesture and facade of a party.

Johanna is Madeline’s best friend and midwife but after she is murdered, we find out she had some sketchy stuff going on and we do NOT like best friends who betray best friends so we aren’t sure about this one.

Lucy is Madeline’s estranged stepsister who just so happens to show up right when all this goes down.

It was interesting that Mellie’s chapters were the only ones told in first-person, and based on the book’s ending, I don’t think it was to garner sympathy. Mellie has her own delusions and is not going away any time soon.

Jamie is the ATF agent called in to investigate the situation. But he’s no unbiased third party. He spent a short stint of his youth in Nightjar, Wyoming and it was the worst time of his life. Not only did his sister, Juneau, go missing, but that same night Jamie was run off the road and beaten to within inches of his life. The culprit was never found, his sister was never found, but Wes found him that night and saved his life. Jamie is here to solve the mystery of both the bomb and his sister’s disappearance.

And of course at the center of it all is Wes. What kind of husband is he? What is his true character and what are the red herrings?

I liked the way the book was written. The alternating POVs and cliffhanger chapters made this book hard to put down. It didn’t have the same Iowa nostalgia as The Overnight Guests (although we did get a cameo of an Iowa Hawkeye sweatshirt) and there was quite a bit more swearing, but it was a good page-turner that kept me guessing.

While we do get some justice in the end, there are some things left a little unresolved. I can’t tell if that means Gudenkauf wants to return to this or if she just wants the readers to imagine what happens next. I think I would be fine either way.

Recommendation

If you are looking for a good multiple POV thriller with a lot of suspects, or enjoy books with horses and pregnant ladies, this is for you.

If you want another book that has Wyoming and horses but a better hero, check out Out for Blood by Ryan Steck.

If you want another book with a bomb and domestic drama and a sketchy woman who shows up and overstays their welcome, you definitely want to read The Guest by B.A. Paris.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and will keep Gudenkauf on my radar— I might have to read some of her backlist!

[Content Advisory: 41 f-words, 11 s-words, couple handfuls of other swearing and blasphemes; infidelity, domestic abuse]

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