The Overbooked Bibliophile

  Rating: 4.5⭐ Having read and enjoyed the author’s previous works of WWII fiction,  A Song of Silence  and  To Dream Of Shadows , I was eager to read  Steve N. Lee ’s latest offering and I’m glad to say the author does not disappoint. Set in WWII Warsaw and inspired by true events,  The Ruins in Which We Bleed  follows thirteen-year-old Helena Sliwicka in the years following the Nazi invasion of Poland. Though the novel begins in 1943 Poland where we meet sixteen-year-old Helena, the narrative moves back and forth between 1939 and 1943 slowly shedding light on the events that impact the lives of Helena and those around her. The vividly described setting and the author’s meticulous attention to detail transport you to WWII Warsaw and life in the Ghetto with Helena and her family. The descriptions of the living conditions within the Ghetto, the hardships faced by those struggling to survive and the violence inflicted upon them by the Nazis, render this ...

  Rating:  4.5⭐ “Leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.” Set in 2018 Dublin ,  Nesting  by  Roisín O’Donnell  revolves around Ciara Fay , former English teacher and presently homemaker and mother of two in her mid-thirties, who decides to take her two young daughters, Sophie and Ella, and leave her controlling and emotionally abusive husband, Ryan, after five years of marriage. This is her second attempt to escape her marriage to Ryan, who outwardly appears to be an ideal life-partner, having left him once two years before only to return soon after. Ciara’s family lives across the sea and she has no close friends she can turn to for support. Having given up her career after marriage, Ciara has only a bare minimum of funds to support herself and her children until she can find a job and is put up in a hotel room as waits for her turn on a long list of those awaiting social housing. Complicating matters further is Ryan, who oscillates between asse...

Rating:  3.5⭐ ”The world went on in spite of its prisoners.” Set in 2014, Florida  A Season of Light  by  Julie Iromuanya  revolves around a  Nigerian immigrant  family: Fidelis Ewirike- a barrister and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War and his wife Adaobi, an educator and their children sixteen-year-old daughter Amarachi, “Amara” and fourteen-year-old son Chukwudiegwu “Chuk". News of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in Borno State, Nigeria, triggers a traumatic response in Fidelis, taking him back to the year he spent fighting the Civil War in Nigeria and the tragedy that befell his family and the disappearance of his younger sister Ugochi. His sense of past and present blurred, concern for his daughter’s safety prompts Fidelis to lock Amara, who bears a strong resemblance to Ugochi, in her room keeping her from leaving the house. Though he makes a point of attending to her needs, he offers no explanation or justification for his actions. We follo...

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Rainbows are funny things, aren’t they? The harder it rains, the more beautifully they shine. Who knows? Maybe it’s a gift from God, for those who’ve endured the storms.” The Rainfall Market   by  You Yeong-Gwang   (translated by  Slin Jung ) is a fantastical story that revolves around a young girl named Serin who wins a “Golden Ticket” to a mysterious market that operates only during the rainy season – an experience that is rumored to enable one to change one’s life. Serin, a lonely girl with a fair share of troubles and though a tad doubtful, hopes that she will find a way to change her life for the better. The author weaves a fascinating tale with a meaningful message, combining elements of Korean myth and folklore, wit and wisdom, magic, mystery and adventure. I had a wonderful time following Serin’s journey and loved how the author describes the Dokkaebi and the magical market. I loved how Serin bonded with Issha, the spirit creature (in the form o...

  Rating:  4.5⭐️ “Indigenous women disappeared, they disappeared twice. Once in life and once in the news.” After a devastating personal loss, former Chicago detective Carrie Starr returns to the Saliquaw Nation reservation in Oklahoma, where her father was raised. As the newly appointed tribal marshal she has been tasked with revisiting cold cases of the disappearance of Indigenous women over the last decade - cases that have been largely ignored, almost forgotten over time due absence of local law enforcement presence on the reservation. With minimal resources at her disposal, Carrie has to juggle keeping peace among the community over proposed infrastructural changes to the area that have several entities involved who would go to any length to protect their own interests, look into the cold cases and investigate the recent disappearance of Chenoa Cloud, a local young woman reported missing by her mother. The narrative follows Carrie as she digs deep into the lives of the cl...

Rating:  4.5⭐️ A chance meeting between twenty-two-year-old Winona and a young woman named in a grief counseling group eventually leads to her renting a room at the infamous “Mirror House” – a rental property decorated on the outside by its residents with mirrors - where she hopes to find friends and a sense of family. Simon Spellmeyer, an eccentric former psychologist who leads the group, employs his own unconventional methods for self-improvement that the Mirror House boarders must be willing to accept. Winona, despite her misgivings, convinces herself that giving in to Simon’s methods is the best option for her. We follow Winona as she navigates the shifting dynamics within the group and Simon’s leadership and his eccentricity. As she begins to buckle under the personal and psychological pressure of being a “Mirror House girl,” will she be able to extricate herself from the hold that Simon and her new “family” have on her and if so, at what cost? Smartly crafted with an interest...

  Rating: 3.5⭐  (Audio Narration: 4.5⭐) “Sometimes I think we are all the unreliable narrators of our own lives.” One year after the mysterious disappearance of his wife Abby, author Grady Green is facing financial troubles and struggling with his writing career. Despite his last book being a NYT best seller. Consumed by grief for his missing wife, he is unable to write and his publishers aren’t happy. His agent, who was also his wife’s godmother, throws him a lifeline, offering him the use of a cabin on a Scottish island, previously owned by a successful writer, which she inherited upon his demise. But the remote island of Emberly, population of twenty-five, holds many secrets. From seeing a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his missing wife, to the eerie occurrences at his cabin and the strange behavior of the locals – Grady soon realizes that not all might not be at it appears on this isolated island and he is trapped. Is there any truth to what he is experiencing o...

Rating: 4.5⭐ Two and a half years after he left his friends and family in Potsdam, New York, forty-two-year-old Kyle McCray is called back home after his father suffers a stroke. Returning home means facing everything and everyone he left behind - his father Danny, his ex-wife Casey with whom he had been together for twenty years, his former brother-in-law Wyatt whose concern for his sister has prevented him from moving away on his own and his friends and colleagues. Casey tries to hold him at arm’s length, but her concern for Danny with whom she shares a close bond makes it difficult to keep a distance. Kyle initially intends to leave once his father recovers, leaving everyone to get on with their lives, but he is unable to stay aloof and begins to realize how his departure impacted those close to him. As Kyle is roped in to coach the middle school hockey team, he will have to adjust to working with Casey, a teacher who is also involved in managing the team, but it won’t be easy for e...

Rating: 4.5⭐ After his fiancée's son is charged with the murder of his long-time on-again, off-again girlfriend, Rusty Sabich, retired judge and former Kindle County, IL defense attorney now in his seventies, is back in the courtroom. Defending Aaron, who is in his early twenties and was living with Bea and Rusty while on probation after serving a short sentence for drug possession, won’t be easy given that Mae was found dead after Aaron stormed off after an argument with her while on a road trip together. Initially reluctant to defend someone who is practically family, not only does Rusty worry about how defending Aaron would affect his relationship with Bea, Aaron’s mother, but complicating matters further is the fact that Mae’s family is well-connected and influential in the legal community and law enforcement, with Mae’s grandfather someone Rusty considers a friend and holds in high regard. Aaron is the only suspect and Mae’s family firmly believes that he killed Mae. The narra...

  Rating: 4.5⭐ Two women from different walks of life – Stephanie Monroe and Jasmine Littleton – cross paths on a flight to Denver- Jasmine hoping for a fresh start and on the run from an abusive partner and Stephanie on her way to attend a conference in San Diego. Seated in the same row, they share casual conversation during the flight. A few days later, each of them is untraceable, and strangely enough, the last few messages Jasmine and Stephanie each sent to their close friends mention being charmed by a man by the name of Trent McCarthy. Coincidence? What happened to these women and how is Trent McCarthy connected to these disappearances? What follows is a complex web of deceit, manipulation and much more. An entertaining psychological thriller  The Business Trip  by  Jessie Garcia  had me frantically turning pages until I got to the very end. The short chapters and consistent pacing with twists, turns, and revelations that shock and awe rendered this an unp...

Rating:  3.75⭐️ “Most people approach cold cases with the mindset that there is one simple answer, just waiting to be uncovered. But life isn’t so simple. We all carry our own individual truths, our own stories, our own reasonings for our actions. No one wants to be the bad guy, and so we distort facts to suit our images of ourselves, and we do this so often that eventually, the lie becomes the truth.” Forty years ago, university professor Einar Pálsson and his nine-year-old son Magnus left their hometown of Bifröst, Iceland for the United States after the gruesome murder of his twenty-six-year-old wife local schoolteacher, Marie and their six-month-old daughter, Agnes. Though he was never formally charged with the murders, friends and neighbors were convinced of his guilt. Forty years after the murders Agnes Glin, Einar’s twenty-seven-year-old granddaughter arrives in Iceland hoping to clear her late grandfather’s name. As the fortieth anniversary of the murders approaches True Cr...

  Rating: 4.5⭐ Having read and loved  The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot  by  Marianne Cronin , I was eagerly looking forward to her most recent novel and I’m glad to say that  Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love  did not disappoint! Ninety-year-old retired academic Eddie Winston spends his days sorting through donations at The Heart Trust Charity Shop, where he volunteers. As he goes through boxes of donations both from those who visit the shop personally or items collected from the estates of the deceased, he endeavors to gain a deeper understanding of the lives of the original owners. Items he feels to be of special significance find a place on his “Eddie Shelf” at home, often intending to return them to their rightful owners under special circumstances or if they decide to come back for the same. Eddie lives alone with his pet guinea pig and has never been in a relationship despite having fallen in love once in the past and has never even been kiss...

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ “We may spend midwinter surrounded by warmth, good food, and companionship, but Christmas coincides with the darkest time of the year, and the legends we have repeated and adapted over the centuries remind us that beyond the glow of firelight, the shadows are waiting.” Meticulously researched and informative,  The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures  by  Sarah Clegg  is a fascinating read that delves into traditions and folklore that are rooted in the darker history of winter traditions in Europe. Featuring witches, ghouls, monsters, and other “wicked” creatures ( Krampus, Grýla, Mari Lwyd and Père Fouettard among others) the author takes us on a journey through history tracing back to the Ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, to the Kalends of January celebrated through Late Antiquity and how several traditions have evolved. “For most of the last two thousand years, the days we now call Christmas were a time when you ...

Rating:  4.5⭐️ To Die For , the third installment in  David Baldacci ’s The 6.20 Man   series follows former U.S. Army Ranger Travis Devine, who is now employed by the Office of Special Projects (a stealth operation under the DHS), on his new mission, which takes him to the US West Coast. Danny Glass, a decorated former military man presently under investigation for RICO charges, is applying for guardianship of his recently; orphaned twelve-year-old niece Betsy Odom, and Travis is tasked with Betsy’s safety in collaboration with the FBI and supervising her visits with her uncle. Travis soon realizes that there is more to Betsy’s parents’ death than meets the eye and Danny’s enemies might be targeting her next. What follows is a complex web of murder, cover-ups, corruption, government secrets and much more! Complicating matters further is “The Girl on the Train,” who, after two failed attempts, is only more determined to complete her mission to kill Travis. Complex pl...

Rating:  3.5⭐️ “Firing pottery is like lighting a fire in your heart. There might be something inside that you’re trying your best to ignore, but it’s only by turning your gaze toward it that you can see it clearly.” The Healing Season of Pottery   by  Yeon Somin   (translated by  Clare Richards ) revolves around Jungmin, a young woman on the cusp of thirty who shuts herself away from the rest of the world after she quits her job as a broadcast writer after her disillusionment with her job and work pressure culminate in an emotional breakdown in her workplace. Living alone in a small apartment in Chestnut Burr Village, Jungmin struggles with depression and rarely ventures outside her home. On one of her rare outings, she discovers a pottery studio and gradually, as she begins to connect with the clay she is molding and the other members of the community among whom is an old friend with whom she shares a traumatic history, she also reconnects with herself. “Somet...

Rating: 4.5⭐️ In  Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark, author   Leigh Ann Henion combines scientific facts with her own life experiences, ‘lore and much more as she takes us across the landscape of Appalachia exploring the magical beauty of the nocturnal world and the living creatures that thrive after the sun sets. “Darkness turns familiar landscapes strange, evoking awe by its very nature, in ways that meet people wherever they stand. In Appalachia, as everywhere, night offers a chance to explore a parallel universe that we can readily access, to varying degrees. Nocturnal beauty can be found not only by stargazing into the distant cosmos or diving into the depths of oceans, but by exploring everyday realms of the planet we inhabit.” The author writes beautifully with a reverent appreciation for nature in all its wonder. A running theme in this stressing how artificial light pollution and the use of blue light technology...

  Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ A new installment in author  Steve Cavanagh ’s  Eddie Flynn  series is always among my most anticipated reads, so much so that I don’t mind ordering a copy from the UK so as not to wait for the book to become available in the US ( Thank you, Blackwell’s for the getting the book to me a day before UK publication day!). I’ve enjoyed (to varying degrees) all the previous books (including one short story and one novella) in this series and I’m glad to say that the latest installment  Witness 8  is a worthy addition to the lot! Ruby Johnson, a young woman in her twenties, works as a maid and nanny in several houses in an affluent New York neighborhood. Once a resident of the same neighborhood, she is haunted by the events that caused her family’s downfall. She is cunning and perceptive and one night, after witnessing the murder of the wealthy socialite, she decides to use this information and manipulate the truth to further her own agenda. The narr...