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The discovery of long-lost mail delivers a marriage proposal, a missing person, and a magical mystery.

A road trip with Gabe and her friends leads Sylvia to discover more about her mother’s veiled past yet throws up several questions, too. The stack of unopened letters addressed to her family will hopefully provide answers. As she delves into the contents, a startling revelation the letters allude to a clandestine union between two magician families, hinting at the elusive identity of Sylvia’s father.

Full of hope, she embarks on a quest to find the author of the letters, only to discover an artless youth who vanished decades ago, a dead man with the wrong name, and a hospital for former soldiers that connects them. The further Sylvia and Gabe delve into these mysteries, the more lies they expose, including long-buried secrets that certain individuals will stop at nothing to protect.

When danger strikes, Sylvia wonders if finding answers is worth the risk.

Book four of the series was fun because it focused more on Sylvia and her life, which I enjoyed. After three books of not knowing much about her, it was great to see her get some time to investigate her own life for a change.

My big complaint with this story is that it didn’t settle much of anything–it just prolonged it more. Nothing happens between Alex and Daisy. Nothing happens between Gabe and Sylvia. They just sort of keep doing what they’ve already been doing for three books. I would have liked to see more advancement in their relationships (either definitely coming together or definitely splitting up) and more concrete information for Sylvia on her family history.

Overall, though, I still love the characters and their interactions, so it was an enjoyable read (and I will likely read book five).

Rated PG.

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Fore more of the Glass Library, check out:

The Librarian of Crooked Lane

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I came to Excelsior Parks for my dream designing world-class roller coasters.

Theo Riverton is the one variable I didn’t account for.

He’s the brilliant, demanding head of the Orlando office. And he has no problems reminding me that I’m the rookie who hasn’t earned her place at the table. Yet. Every design meeting feels like a stress test—with me as the weakest structural component.

The more he pushes, the more I want to prove him wrong. But the more time I spend under his watchful eye, the more I realize his impossible standards aren’t personal. Beneath the designer suits and grumpy facade is a man who cares deeply about his people. Including me.

And that’s the problem. Because falling for the boss is strictly off-limits.

Worse? I’ve also been living a double life. I’m not just Kaori Minami, a junior engineer. I’m also a Japanese princess. If Theo or anyone finds out the truth about who I am, the independence I’ve fought so hard to gain will vanish in a cloud of paparazzi flashes.

I’m used to calculating G-forces and fail-safes, but navigating the high-speed turns of a forbidden attraction? That’s a whole different kind of thrill ride—and I just hope I can survive the fall.

My first Tomi Tabb book, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It took me some time to get used to her writing style, but once she hooked me, I was in.

This is not your typical “romance starts in the first 1-2 chapters” type of sweet romance. Tabb takes time to set the scene and introduce her cast before letting the romance bloom. That’s a different style of writing than I’m used to, so it took me a few chapters to settle in, but once I did, I couldn’t wait to see how the story ended–I lost quite a bit of sleep in my need to know what happened!

There were so many fun, new aspects to this book, including a new look at a royal romance and such a unique setting/career path for the MCs. If you like a slow burn and royal stories, I highly recommend this book.

3.5 stars

I received an ARC copy of this book. The opinions are my own.

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For more sweet/clean romance novels, check out:

The Follow Through by Lauren Andrew
When You Renovate a Grump by Lia Huni

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Charlie Kingsley is not a private investigator. She makes and sells custom teas out of her home. Which is why she initially refused to look into a recent case of a bar that had burned down.

Yes, it was tragic that the owner’s body was found inside. But this is an arson case, and what does she possibly know about arson?

Except…one of the waitresses is missing.

Who’s pregnant.

Who everyone thought was having an affair with the owner of the bar.

How can Charlie say no to the owner’s widow? And when Charlie accidentally finds the pregnant waitress, things start to take a strange turn. And suddenly, Charlie finds herself thrust into a decades-old mystery that haunts Redemption to this day.

A mystery that could very well cost Charlie her life.

Book 8 in the Charlie Kingsley series, this book takes readers back to Redemption while introducing a new subcommunity, the 1888ers (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but it helps you keep the characters separate).

My second Charlie Kingsley book, this sticks to the pattern and style of my previous read–a vast cast (including characters from Wacek’s previous thriller series), the small town, and my favorite part of every cozy mystery series, a love interest. This story does pit some characters against each other and doesn’t wrap everything up at the end, but Wacek ends the book with a promise that there’s more to look forward to in book nine!

For fans of cozy mysteries, this hits: a small town, amateur sleuths, clever clues, and good friendships.

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For more Charlie Kingsley, check out A Mysterious Christmas Collection.

Eighteen-year-old Anna bears the marks of a childhood tragedy that left her motherless, scarred, and lame. Hidden within the household of her father, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy councilman of the Sanhedrin, her days are measured in herb gardens and healing tinctures, in the steady work of hands trained to help others, and in the quiet safety of a world made small.

Then Andrew of Bethsaida arrives at her father’s gate with urgent business for Joseph and talk of a teacher who calls ordinary people to extraordinary purpose. A fisherman turned disciple, Andrew follows the rabbi Jesus with a conviction that unsettles every long-held expectation—including Anna’s own.

When Andrew’s kindness cracks open the door to a larger world, Anna faces an impossible remain in the safety of her father’s estate or risk everything for the possibility of healing, love, and a life she never dared imagine.

Set against the dusty roads and fishing villages of first-century Judea, where miracles unfold and mercy walks among the broken, Anna of Arimathea opens The Arimathea Chronicles—a richly imagined tale of faith, first love, and redemption in the footsteps of the Messiah.

As I continue to challenge myself to read outside my preferred genres, I picked up another biblical fiction novel to test the waters.

This book was 50/50 for me. While the story is sweet and the author writes beautiful descriptions, the story is buried under pages of description (at one point she takes an entire page to describe one person). I understand the need to create the setting, especially in historical novels, but the story got bogged down in the details. This leaned more heavily toward literary fiction than historical fiction, so the writing didn’t fully match my expectations in that way. Anna’s life did intrigue me, though, and I found myself wanting to know what happened to her.

There was also a theological issue that jumped out at me–the book implies that Jesus is okay with lying for the sake of protecting one’s self and family. I can’t see in Scripture where that’s supported. Maybe that’s not what the author meant, but that’s how I interpreted that scene, which isn’t something that aligns with the Bible.

Overall, I liked reading Anna’s story, but it got lost in the description. I’d also hesitate to recommend this to non-Christians, as the lying episode could lead them to the wrong biblical conclusion. 2.5 stars for me.

Rated PG.

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For more biblical fiction, check out:

Heavenly Lights by Barbara Britton

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When Amos Decker returned home to find the bodies of his wife and only daughter, he didn’t think he could carry on living.

Overwhelmed with grief, Decker saw his life fall apart, losing his job as a detective, his house, and his self-respect. But when his former partner visits to tell him that someone has confessed to the murder of his family, he knows he must seek justice for them.

Then tragedy strikes at the local school: teenagers are gunned down and the killer is at large. Following the serious brain injury Amos suffered as a professional footballer, he gained a remarkable gift – and the police believe that this unusual skill will assist in the hunt for the killer.

Amos Decker must endure the memories he would rather forget, and when new evidence links the murders, he is left with only one option…

I’ve been enjoying David Rosenfelt books recently, so I wanted to try some other suspense/thriller/mystery authors. For my first Baldacci book, I borrowed the audiobook from the library.

First off (and I’m not letting this impact the review), the audio recording is surprisingly low-quality for such a large publisher. The sound quality between the different narrators is different, and you can tell anytime something was edited because the background noise and narrator voice changes. It was not my favorite.

This was a 13-hour audiobook that could have been half as long–there were so many unnecessary and repeated details (yes, he has size 14 feet). I wanted to know what happened, though, so I decided to plow through. Overall, the plot was interesting, but there were too many details that slowed it down. It was also quite dark. The MC describes every person he sees, and there’s only one attractive person in the whole book — everyone is grotesque and the settings are all depressing. The violence at the end was more descriptive than I’m comfortable with, so I skipped past it.

Overall, I liked the twists and turns, but the writing was too bogged down and dark for me.

Rated PG-13/R for violence, drugs/alcohol, and some swearing.

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For lighter, legal suspense, check out:

Bury the Lead by David Rosenfelt