Every Man a King (King Oliver, #2) by Walter Mosley

Every Man a King by Walter Mosley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This 2nd book in the King Oliver series was so suspenseful as King tries to find out if a white nationalist is guilty. He does this at the behest of his mother's "friend" a very rich white man. And what unwinds really has King and his other helpers in danger trying to get to the truth. Can't wait for the next one in the series!!!

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City of the Dead (City Spies, Book 4) by James Ponti

City of the Dead by James Ponti
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

this 4th in the City Spies Book was so awesome with the team inching ever closer to Clementine but Mother's son now becomes a part of the team (?!?), with their latest mission taking place in the City of the Dead in Egypt. I love how they work together but are still individuals with quirks, strengths, and allegiance to one another!

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Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni

Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OMG, this latest Robert Dugoni detective and courtroom mystery was so suspenseful! I loved Keera Duggan, her dysfunctional family which has been forever altered due to her father's life long alcoholism. Keera catches a case where she represents the husband who is accused of killing his wife. I loved the way Dugoni unfolded the story through the chess game, the mysterious Mr. Worth who leads her to many people who grew up/knew the accused who is a multi-millionaire investment advisor, her father's missteps, and her ambition to show up the prosecutor. It definitely was like a game of chess with each move calculated keeping the reader on pins and needles. You never meet the murdered wife, but the title, Her Deadly Game was perfect in so many ways. Readers will enjoy wading into this juicy mystery. An awesome crime thriller!

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No Matter the Distance by Cindy Baldwin

No Matter the Distance by Cindy Baldwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this fiction novel in verse based on the author's cystic fibrosis and her life in middle school. Penny Rooney is a 6th grader with a supportive best friend and family. I learned so much about cystic fibrosis both from Penny's perspective, her parents, and also the dolphin who meanders into her creek. Immediately Penny can relate to this dolphin which she names Rose while her father contacts a friend who is a biologist and brings her team to the creek. As time passes, Penny and Rose forge a bond/friendship and as Rose battles a lung infection & Penny battles CF, it becomes critical to get meds into Rose & help her out to the ocean. I just loved so much about this book! Penny is so strong but the pain of CF is a daily, weekly, life long disability that she and her family deal with; the words Cindy Baldwin uses in this novel in verse sing to me, and the beauty in her words open a new world of Penny's life with this special dolphin in her life.

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Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Cara McBrien for lending me this gut wrenching, awesome read about teens falling in love, reality and the truth come crashing in and someone is dead! Lily and Olivia are the main characters telling the story from their viewpoint, before and after. It is a look at Olivia's son's Asher's romance with Lily, and Olivia's abusive marital relationship until she ran with Asher to a normal life of beekeeping, until it wasn't. I loved the courtroom scenes with Olivia's brother as a brilliant lawyer working with his wife as investigator to prove Asher innocent. There was so much to take in, but I have read many LGBTQ books also transgender books as a YA librarian and I just keep reading them because they are a must read and each book is more enlightening, engrossing, and relatable. There was so much suspense I could not put this book down!

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Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong

Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved these two novellas with the reappearance of Roma and Juliette and tying Foul Lady Fortune with the original Chloe Gong books, The Violent Delights & Our Violent Ends! I can't wait to read the next book, Foul Heart Huntsman because the suspense is killing me about this dangerous chemical weapon that Orion's mother created---and how it manipulates people to follow commands, even killing themselves! I love the romance, horror, and sinister evil these characters fight! You will too!

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Spying on the South: Tavels with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land by Tony Horwitz

Spying on the South: Travels with Frederick Law Olmsted in a Fractured Land by Tony Horwitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Since I read and Loved Horse by Geraldine Brooks, I decided to read one of her husband's books that he was researching at same time as she was writing Horse. I loved his dedication to Geraldine and this book was a compare/contrast to Frederick Olmsted travels through the South, his beliefs, and his life of abolition and change in career to land planner (as well as other changes in his beliefs, etc). I highly recommend this audiobook narrated by Mark Deakins and Tony Horwitz as it also compares our current political conflicts with Olmsted's time period.

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