Reviews (Author-wise)

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First Lie Wins - Ashley Elston - ★★★★

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AUTHOR: Ashley Elston GENRE: Cat-and-Mouse Dramatic Thriller RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: An interesting cat-and-mouse drama. Steady-paced, twisty enough, gripping throughout. Recommended, but not necessarily as a fast-paced thriller. Story Synopsis: Evie Porter has just moved in with her dreamy boyfriend Ryan Sumner, a rich businessman with a grand family home. Is she excited? Yes, but not as you would imagine. You see, ‘Evie Porter’ doesn’t exist. The identity of Evie has been given to her by her mysterious boss “Mr. Smith”, and moving in with Ryan and learning everything about his business is one of her tasks on this ‘job’. She cannot allow her comfort with Ryan to supersede her professionalism. But when an unexpected surprise reveals itself, Evie begins to wonder if she is on the job, or if she herself IS the job. The story comes to us in Evie’s first person perspective. PSA: Go in blind! Bookish Yays: 😍 The plot: Innovative without being over the top. I like this kind of ...
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Tomb Sweeping - Alexandra Chang - ★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Alexandra Chang GENRE: Slice-of-Life Anthology RATING: 3.2 stars. In a Nutshell: An anthology written in slice-of-life style. Some really good writing herein, but unfortunately, the writing didn’t work as expected for me. This is a collection of fifteen character-driven stories, all focussed on Chinese or Chinese-American experiences either in China or in the USA. The stories are literary in approach, meaning they focus more on character development than on plot progression. They are also slice-of-life in style, which means we don’t always get a traditional start-middle-end. Both of these factors work well for me in full-length or novella-length fiction, but are a hit-or-miss in short fiction. Without an author’s note, I couldn’t find a connecting theme to the stories except for the commonality of the Asian background and having a character-driven plot development. The stories cover a range of genres, from dramatic to fantastical. There is an undertone of melancholy to most o...
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A Little Christmas Magic - Suzanne Rogerson - ★★★.¾

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AUTHOR:  Suzanne Rogerson NARRATOR:  Colette Davies-Kerwin GENRE: Contemporary Christmas Short Stories PUBLICATION DATE: November 17, 2025 RATING: 3.8 stars. In a Nutshell: A sweet collection of holiday short stories. Covering varied characters and emotions. Utterly feel-good and perfect for the festive season.  This collection contains eight short stories. As the title promises, each of them contains “a little Christmas magic”. The word ‘magic’ is used in both its interpretations: figurative and actual. Goodreads shows this book to be a part of the Winter Warmers series, but the series comprises short story collections that are independent of each other and hence can be read in any order.  As feel-good stories set during the Christmas season, the tales are obviously heartwarming. You might even assume that these are predictable, and many of them are. BUT this genre is anyway not meant to be twisty. AND there are a few stories that offer unexpected surprises, so...
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The Thin Blue-Yellow Line Between Love and Hate - Anton Eine

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AUTHOR: Anton Eine GENRE: Memoir RATING: A must-read, but I can't quantify it. In a Nutshell: A horrifying exposé about the life of ordinary Ukrainians after Russia invaded their nation on Feb 24th 2022. Written in the form of a journal and covers the first hundred days of the war. I knew this book would break me; I still read it for the author and for the people of Ukraine; I am now torn apart, much more than what I thought was possible. Anton Eine might be a new name to many of you. As an indie author who primarily writes in Russian and has his works translated to English, his works are virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. I too hadn’t heard of him until the day I stumbled upon one of his short stories on a website. Since then, I have read a few more of his short fiction and even his full-length sci-fi novel. Fiction is his forte. (He is fabulous at sci-fi.) Whatever I have read of his works, I have enjoyed. Until this book. The word “enjoy” simply can’t be applied ...
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Twice - Mitch Albom - ★★.½

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AUTHOR & NARRATOR: Mitch Albom GENRE: Magical Realism PUBLICATION DATE: October 7, 2025 RATING: 2.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A magical realism novel about a man who gets two chances at everything in his life. Intriguing storyline, decent exploration of human psychology. Flawed lead character, too many plot holes. Needs much suspension of disbelief. Not sure if I can recommend this with gusto, though it will certainly work for many readers. This is an outlier review. Plot Preview: When senior citizen Alfie Logan is apprehended in the Bahamas for allegedly cheating at a casino and winning a huge amount, Casino Detective Vincent LaPorta isn't prepared for Alfie’s explanation that he gets a second chance at everything in life. The detective obviously doesn’t buy such a nonsensical explanation, but Alfie is determined to prove his claim, handing the detective a composition book that tells the story of his life, and of how he simply needs to think of a past time and say the word “Twice...
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