Mini Reviews Wrap Up March 2025

Posted March 31, 2025 by Julie S. in Wrap Ups and Mini Reviews / 0 Comments

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

What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile Book 1): This was an exciting read! I loved Ancient Egypt as a kid, and this has Tomb Raider vibes too! The audiobook was very well done. I loved the characters, the rivals-to-lovers romance that wasn’t the main story line. I enjoyed the bits of magic and search for the tomb and artifacts a lot. The betrayals, heart break, and yearning for revenge was quite the ride. It ends in a cliffy so I gotta read the next one as soon as the library delivers it to me.

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking: It was cute, the first half maybe more MG but the last third was quite fun. Quite enjoyable to save a kingdom with bread soldiers.

Romantic Comedy: It was really cute, I especially liked the banter emails back and forth. The comedy writer is fun and spunky, but jaded. The pop star host of that week’s show (think SNL) is cute and sweet. Their slow burn reconnection during the pandemic was lovely, and brought back a lot of isolation memories from 2020. It’s a great pick when you need an easy going happy read as a palate cleanser.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January: What a ride – full of confusion and breaking of the fourth wall and several people’s storylines that didn’t make sense until they did. I struggled to wrap my head around what was going on at first, especially when the narrator kept stopping the story to talk to the reader. But, it wasn’t really the reader she was talking to – it was an intended specific person who was to read the story in hopes of returning memories. Once it all came together, all the pieces fit, and it was quite good. The audio narration was well done – so many accents and characters. I do love a portals story with only some people having the abilities to create and open doors long closed.

The Teachings of Shirelle: Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead: Ok so this is a cute book about a dog and what her human learns about life through her. It’s autobiographical that way. I did find it funny that the cuss words were barked out, not bleeped out, but a dog bark sound instead. Silly. Also, not sure how I feel about the gong in between sections. Why was that necessary? It was getting really annoying by the end. The dog sounds absolutely gorgeous and wonderful though. I enjoyed the poems in the book, especially the poem about dog fur everywhere. Having gone through our own dog tumor situation, I definitely felt for the dog and her owner. Some of the book turned into a psychology/sociology lesson. But overall it was a cute book about the impact this dog had on her owner. Pets are very special.

THE STARLESS CROWN: Solidly on the fence about this one. Calling it 3.5 rounded up to 4. The actiony parts are well done, fast past, riveting, where Rollins really shines. But the majority of the book is world-building. And that’s where I struggled. The world-building is interesting, don’t get me wrong. I just tend to zone out with that much in the story. I appreciated how the story begins with the characters, telling their separate stories. Then as the different characters meet up, they add to each other’s stories and the book as a whole. I didn’t really enjoy all the hand-ringing and guilt that the main characters take into themselves, especially when that guilt is over the action of others. After the ending, I don’t know that I care enough to read the next book in the series. Could just be that I’m over fantasy at this point.

TOXIC OCTOPUS: After loving Remarkably Bright Creatures, and needing a (SERIOUS) break from fantasy, I thought what the heck. Let’s read a book about an octopus being implicated in the murder of his keeper. This is a quirky murder mystery to be sure. Xena runs a spy shop, does parkour, and is a private eye. She’s definitely one of those cool book characters that I want to get to know! I also really enjoyed the secondary characters. They are well-developed and entertaining. There are some very funny scenes in this book, including a Segway chase and the most hideous dress in the history of galas.! Xena is a bit more trustworthy that I’d be in her position. But she’s really good at solving mysteries! And now I need a bunch of spy tools to carry around in my bag. 😉 But no creepy stuffed animals with eyes that follow you everywhere.

A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING: Cute. Made me hungry for pastries. Was not expecting the save the town with baked goods vibe. Nor the general hatred and bigotry of people with any kind of magical abilities. Allegory! More of a middle grade book than a YA book. But still fun. And now, never eating another gingerbread man.

TRAVEL BY BULLET: Loving this series. Quinto’s narration is on point. Scalzi’s writing is fast-paced and imaginative. If you’ve read the others in this series, the title makes perfect sense here, once it’s explained. Pandemic storyline is a bit dated now. But still relevant. Fun and quick listen.

THE BOOK OF SECRETS: I picked this book on a whim. And it was ok. I was really looking for some non-fantasy story about a book store. More mystery than magic. Which I thought was what I was getting here. But instead, it’s the book store that turns out to be magic (an oracle) and I was not overwhelmed. Sure – the main male character was appealing. But Helena’s naivety was irritating. And the reason for the war between the two factions of mages was two sides of the same coin. Fine but not amazing. 3 1/2 stars.

FINLAY DONOVAN DIGS HER OWN GRAVE: Look. It’s a Finlay Donovan book. And #5 in the series. If you’ve read the others, you already know what to expect. There are some very funny scenes (usually involving the kids), some smolder-y scenes (usually involving Nick), and Vero and Finlay get into hot water. Yep. All that happened. And more. It was nice to see Nick and Finlay’s relationship progress. Enjoyed the addition of Mrs. Haggerty’s back story. She’s a pill. My only real complaint is with the narration. As more characters (especially men) are added, the character voices tend to merge together, making it more difficult to tell which character is speaking. If you enjoyed the other books, I imagine you’ll also enjoy this one.

NOT IN LOVE: TBH, I probably should have stopped at the author’s note, with the specific mention that this is not a rom-com. But I was committed. And true – definitely not a rom-com. The spice level here is also high – loads of sex scenes. But those make sense for the way Rue and Eli meet – on a hook-up website. Rue’s insecurities become irritating after a while. From the romance side, Eli falls first. I would have appreciated Eli’s POV in a number of scenes. Rue doesn’t figure out she has emotions at all til the end. Which, from a reader’s perspective, makes the couple feel less emotionally attached that I would have preferred. Overall fine. But not shout from the rooftops exceptional. Let’s call it 3 1/2 stars, rounded up to 4.

ROMANTIC COMEDY: When I mentioned that NOT IN LOVE wasn’t the rom-com I expected, Julie suggested this. And I agree with her. It’s a cute palate cleanser. Plus, short! But like Rue in NOT IN LOVE, Sally’s insecurities were also grating. She’s confident in her professional career (mostly). Could we also not have her confident in her personal life? I also liked the email banter. But flash-backs for sure from the pandemic are a bit too much on the nose. (I think pandemic books will need there own trigger warnings!) I did really like Noah. He’s the fantasy of that rock star falling in love with a real person. Audio narration is well done. Overall, enjoyed this one. Good recommendation from Julie!

Books we reviewed in full this month:

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