Mini Reviews Wrap Up March 2023

 

Here at Chapter Break, we don’t always write a full review of every book we read. Well, now we decided to do these monthly wrap-up posts with roundups of our reviews this month and mini-reviews to fill in the gaps. Enjoy!

Mini Book Reviews

 

Woo I sure am doing a lot of full reviews this month! Don’t forget to check the list at the bottom of all our full-length blog post reviews.

But no I didn’t do any mini reviews this month.

 

HOLDINGS: I had entirely different plans for the Irish \ Ireland square on Bingo this month. But the book I wanted to read wasn’t available at the library in audio and I wasn’t that motivated to use my one credit to purchase it. Thus we have HOLDINGS. Written by Graham Norton. And read by Graham Norton, which was the selling point for me! The premise of an uncovered very long dead body in a small Irish town was interesting. I appreciated how this one switches narrators to many of the different characters involved. The multiple POV’s really enhanced the storytelling, rather than only following Sergeant Collins. The small town gossips were certainly interesting. And it makes me rather glad to not live in a such a small town where everyone knows your business. The mystery solving is more of a secondary plot to the lives of the characters. I was especially glad to see the progression of relationships and characters by the epilogue. Overall an enjoyable cozy Irish mystery!

THE INHERITANCE GAMES: I enjoyed this one, in a CRAVE kind of way. Girl gets tossed into the unknown (a random gazillionaire leaves her the majority of his estate) while two (of four) brothers vie for her attention as the love interest. I can see the appeal of any\all of the Hawthorne brothers, but Zander is my fav. He’s fun and a lot less serious than the others. I enjoyed the plotting and intrigue. When did the old man start plotting? Who is behind the attempted murders. And I was glad to see the plot points were resolved by the end. Instead of a cliffhanger, the epilogue gives us a set up for the next book. I’m not sure the puzzles and clues translated well to audio, as it’s always difficult to back up and look at that again while listening. The audio narration was ok – I struggled with the Texas accents and the voices for the four brothers weren’t as distinctive as I would have preferred.

FINLAY DONOVAN JUMPS THE GUN: I liked this, but didn’t love it as much as the others. Good but not outstanding. I think it was missing some of the signature humor and bumbling that I chuckled at in the first two novels. This reads more like a bridge to the next book in the series. I did enjoy getting to know more of the characters in Nick’s world and playing the which cop is the bad cop game. I also appreciated learning more about Vero’s backstory. Narration continues to be spot on with Finlay’s voice Though, this time around, with more male characters, I struggled to keep the characters separate. Also at some point, I would LOVE Vero’s and\or Nick’s POV in these stories!

LOVE HACKED: Why yes. Yes I am back on the Penny Reid track! I needed something to listen to on a long drive and this was purchased\downloaded ages ago so it won the prize. And I’m regretting that I hadn’t listened ages ago! I read the first one of this series ages ago, but moved on to Ms. Reid’s other series. Clearly, I have missed opportunities! This was rather a large emotional and sexual roller coaster with loads of ups and downs in the relationship between Sandra and Alex. The combination of an open\lovey\touchy character with a closed\non-trusting character was great! I really didn’t understand Sandra’s issues with being SO MUCH OLDER than Alex. She’s not that much older than him. And really, someone has to be older in the relationship. Why not the woman? What struck me right off was Sandra’s description of Alex’s voice. Which worked well with Zachary Webber’s narration. (If you aren’t on the Zachary Webber fan train – you are missing out!) I also really enjoyed Joy Nash’s narration of the female characters. Ashley Winston in particular is spot on! Now I’m going back and reading the rest in this series.

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Books we reviewed this month:

• [2 Mar] Copper Waters (Annalisse Series #4) by Marlene M Bell ★★★★
• [4 Mar] Holidays of Spring by Amanda Sullivan ★★★★½
• [7 Mar] The Time-Saving Mom: How to Juggle a Lot, Enjoy Your Life, and Accomplish What Matters Most by Crystal Paine ★★★★½
• [21 Mar] The World Small by Kelly Anne Manuel ★★★★★
• [23 Mar] Far Out! by Anne Bustard, Ceej Rowland ★★★★
• [23 Mar] The Fifth Horseman by Jon Smith ★★★
• [29 Mar] The Boots Rain by Kelly Anne Manuel ★★★★

 

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