This is not a typical genre for me so take my rating with a grain of salt. I read this for a reading challenge that I needed a book about someone with a superpower. I love Wonder Woman, but superhero books just aren’t my thing!

Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind--a plotter--working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Just who are the plotters? And more important, what do they want?

The Plotters written by Un-su Kim tells the story of Reseng, an assassin in Korea, who was raised by Old Raccoon who teaches him to become an assassin. When Reseng doesn’t follow an assassination exactly the way his plotter told him too he finds himself in trouble and possibly on a hit list. When he meets up with three ladies, a convenience store clerk, her wheelchair bound sister, and a cross-eyed librarian things get really interesting.

This book was beautifully written. The descriptions felt poetic even the violent parts however, this really is not the type of book I would normally read so I had a hard time getting into it. It wasn’t until about halfway through when the ladies were introduced that I got into it. I did root for Reseng the entire time and felt for him even though he is an assassin. 3.5 out of 5 stars for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What would you do to protect your son?

Keep You Close by Karen Cleveland was honestly a thriller that I loved reading...up until the end. At that point I felt like I wasted my time reading this book. I am still giving it 4 stars though.

The author had me intrigued from the first chapter until the ending, but I felt it was ruined with the epilogue. The story was told from one point, and then to end with a different view point threw the whole storyline off. It just didn’t sit well.

I still don’t know what happened to the main characters...maybe a sequel is in the authors mind?

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lost You by Haylen Beck tells the story of Libby, a single mom, who takes her son Ethan on a dream vacation. Ethan is three and the type of child who likes to run to the elevator, get in, and push all the buttons. It happened a few times on this trip, but the last time Libby wasn’t able to stop him, and he disappears. You can tell Libby is hiding something, and later, Ethan is found with a woman named Anna, who claims to be his mother.

Flashback to three years earlier, Anna is a struggling waitress who loses her job. A friend recommends she reply to an ad looking for test subjects. Anna is not sure she wants to do this, but signs up anyways, only to find out they are looking for surrogate mothers to help people in states where paid surrogacy is illegal. Anna agrees to become a surrogate because the money is too good to pass up, and the agency she’s working with already has a family matched for her.

Libby and Mason have been struggling to conceive and find an agency where they can pay for a surrogate mother. They quickly find a match for them, and Libby is extremely excited to finally be a mother. Mason on the other hand has doubts which cause turmoil in their relationship. Libby becomes obsessed with the idea of motherhood to the point of wearing a prosthetic pregnancy belly and telling everyone that she’s actually pregnant.

Mr. Kovak is a veteran who works for the agency and watches the surrogates until they deliver to make sure they are being healthy and that they give the baby up when the time comes. He takes any means necessary to make sure that happens. When Anna decides she wants to keep the baby things take a turn for the worse.

This book started off great! I was pulled in right from the start. However, none of these characters are likeable. Maybe Mason, but he’s not a big enough part of the story. I honestly didn’t want any of these people to get the baby and didn’t care what happened to them. In the prologue, I liked Libby, and felt for her when her son disappeared, but then reading the back story, I couldn’t stand her. I felt bad for Anna, but she signed a contract and shouldn’t have changed her mind. As the story progresses, I stopped feeling bad for her because she was an awful person. Throwing Mr. Kovak in out of nowhere and making a huge chunk of the book about him was unnecessary in my opinion.

I do think the subject matter was interesting and haven’t read a book like this before. The book moved at a fast pace which is important to me. I just wish I liked the characters better.

Thank you NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Beautiful story that was beautifully written!

This was a cute and entertaining coming of age novel about Cath, a freshman in college, her twin sister Wren, her college roommate, Reagan, and Reagan's boyfriend, Levi. Cath is struggling in college especially after her sister decides she doesn't want to share a room with her. Cath seems to have some social anxiety so stays in her room and writes fan fiction about Simon Snow who is a character in books about a teenage magician. Reagan and Levi try to get Cath to come out of her shell and help her to get out of the dorm room and involved in life.

I honestly love Levi so much. He's one of my favorite characters in a book! I think he is the reason I gave this book 5 stars. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, but I wouldn't like it as much without him.

I listened to the audio version and thought the narrator did a good job.

I decided to re-read The Outsiders for the Goodreads summer reading challenge, but I listened to the audio book this time. I have always loved this story since I first read it in junior high. I liked in the beginning of the audio S.E. Hinton gives a bit of background on why she wrote the book. I was surprised to learn she was only 15 when she wrote it. That's pretty impressive!

This was such a charming WWII historical fiction novel. This takes place after German occupation of the island of Guernsey located in the English Channel. Juliet Aston is an author who after writing back and forth with the Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society, travels to Guernsey in hopes to get inspiration for her next book from not only the society members, but from other people on the island as well.

This is an epistolary novel written as a series of letters which I thought was the perfect format for this story. Each character brought something different to the story, and I loved them all! The way the author described all of the places really makes me want to visit Guernsey!

I read [b:An Anonymous Girl|39863515|An Anonymous Girl|Greer Hendricks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546956642l/39863515._SY75_.jpg|61659722] prior to reading The Wife Between Us. I really loved the twists and writing in An Anonymous Girl so was excited to read this one. I still liked the writing however felt this book was a bit drawn out. There were a lot of different story lines and keeping up with all of the characters was hard to do at times. I honestly didn't see the first twist coming so that was great for me. I do feel like the authors kept trying to shock us with more and more twists that weren't necessary. I don't want to give away spoilers so won't say more about them.

One thing that really bothered me was that I thought Richard's sister would be more involved in things. I think they just skimmed over what she did at the end. If they were going to do that than why even include her in the story at all?

I am looking forward to Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen's next collaboration!