Book Life Rambles

Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson HarperCollins Australia NetGalley About Summary A sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us. Parker Navarro’s debut novel was meant to define his career - until critic Selina Chan’s blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can’t refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins - one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity, and each other. Both incisive and tender, Bad Words lays bare the costs of creation - the pull between ambition and integrity, the vulnerability of being seen, and the unexpected closeness that can grow in the space between critique and care. When words can make or break us, how do you stay true...

Charity Trickett Is Not So Glamorous by Christine Stringer G👀dreads About Summary ...based-on-a-true-story, behind-the-scenes tale of a young woman’s calamitous adventures trying to break into the movie industry in 1990s Hollywood. Hollywood, 1997. When Charity Trickett moves to LA to assist the director of the biggest blockbuster film of the year, she quickly realizes that Hollywood isn’t all red carpets and Rodeo Drive. But her determination to become a screenwriter and producer in this glamorous yet cutthroat industry cannot be stifled. Working harder than she ever has before, she impresses the top brass at Canopy Studios and inches herself closer to her dream. But her ambitions and tender heart are threatened by backstabbing coworkers, an evaporating bank account, love gone wrong, a mistake that could cost the studio hundreds of millions of dollars, and an FBI investigation that could land her in jail. Surrounded by fame and money but unsure how to access either one, Charity’s gri...

They Say a Girl Died Here by Sarah Pinborough From the author's IG page NetGalley About Summary ...a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about two murdered girls, a town with dark secrets, and a race to break a deadly cycle Anna Maybourne never imagined herself living in a place like Harper’s Creek, a nowhere town full of dusty farmland plagued by drought. It’s supposed to be a new start for her and her family, but after dropping out of college, Anna feels stuck in place—working a part-time job, watching her little sister grow up, and taking care of her grandmother with dementia, whose paranoid episodes have started to unnerve her. The only interesting thing about her new town, it seems, is the string of grisly murders attributed to a killer called the Farmhandman—and the clue she discovers that reveals the case is yet unsolved. Along with outspoken loner Melissa Laverne and handsome deputy Todd Greenbough, Anna fills her hours with the town’s darkest curiosity—but even though the p...

Dolly All The Time by Annabel Monaghan G👀dreads About Summary If they start by pretending, can they end with something real? Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn’t solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island, for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home. So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield—annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family—with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it’s in her nature to help. But Stewart’s proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high-society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She’s never relied on anyone besides herself—can she really start now? Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Fake Dating, Chick Lit The ...

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune Cover Wars Created with Gemini AI (I provided the images, AI created the labels) G👀dreads About Summary Welcome to Charon's Crossing. The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through. When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead. But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days. Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home. Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, LGBT, Paranormal The How/Why: One of my bookie friends suggested it.   ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🎉 Overall Storytelling?  🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉🎊 🎣 Did it grab and keep my attention...

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter Cover Wars *SO*MANY*Beautiful Covers 3, 4 and 8 are my favs, 6 is a good one too.  Fun fact about #6, Italian Cover at the end in Extra Tidbits. Apparently I enjoy the images of the glamorous women  over the beautiful coastal landscape. I'm not sure any of them really grab the storyline in a nutshell. Picturesque Italy vs Manipulative Hollywood. G👀dreads About Summary The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier. What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply hum...

Cruising  Through Midlife by Addison Moore *DNF* G👀dreads About Summary An impending divorce. An ornery homicide detective. The cruise of a lifetime. And ghosts. Midlife on the high seas is proving to be a real killer. A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel: Cruise Ship COZY MYSTERY Escape to the tropics! Take a cruise to Hawaii without packing your bags. From all-you-can-eat buffets to Broadway-worthy musicals, the Emerald Queen has them all. Don't miss out on friendships, romance, and mystery. All board! Take a cruise today! If I thought the first half of my life was a bumpy ride, I’d better buckle up because I’m about to go over the hill and off the rails. My name is Trixie Troublefield, and I see ghosts. It’s sort of a new thing, and it’s more than a problem. While I was busy running around doing some last minute packing for my tropical anniversary cruise, my husband was busy bedding three other women—at the same time. So I did what any other sane person would do—I grabbed m...

Daughters of the Wreckage by Stefanie Koens Cover Facts:  Was published in Australia as Daughters of Batavia NetGalley About Summary Two women. One shipwreck. And four centuries of secrets. Shortly before Christmas in 2018, Tess McCarthy, after years as a hard-working English teacher who never did anything out of the ordinary, flies to Western Australia's remote Abrolhos Islands. She is in search of answers--both to the infamous Batavia shipwreck and her personal family crises. In 1628, Saskia, an orphaned young Dutchwoman, boards Batavia with relatives, bound for a new and potentially dangerous life in the East Indies--only for her world to first collide with Aris Jansz, the ship's taciturn under surgeon. Tess, Saskia, and Aris--their lives linked by secrets that span generations--carry the baggage of past losses and the uncertainty of their futures. And, in the most unlikely circumstances, they may find qualities that echo through centuries: faith, acceptance, and love. A w...

The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester Mini Cover Wars Created with Gemini AI  (AI provided the verbiage on the notes) G👀dreads About Summary A sheltered young woman living at the Chateau Marmont falls under the spell of a scandalous, secretive man as all of Hollywood's glamour swirls around her—a stunning feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre. In 1957, newly orphaned Aria Jones is sent to live with her aunt, a fading star who hides away in Hollywood's infamous Chateau Marmont. There, two aspiring actresses, Calliope and Flitter, take grieving Aria under their wing. But the Marmont isn't meant for small girls with big hearts, and Aria's first few nights reveal an insidious secret that continues to haunt her as she grows up in the hotel's halls, where the bright lights of Hollywood cast even darker shadows. If Aria can just stay invisible and invite no trouble as she saves money, then she can leave the Marmont and live life on her own terms—alone, but free. All her c...