An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena is a cozy murder mystery that centers around an interesting cast all of whom have brought more than just their overnight packs of baggage with them!

This was the perfect read for a cold January day! I could not put it down.

Can you imagine being snowed in at an inn with a bunch of strangers out in the middle of nowhere? That alone sounds like a nightmare to me! But add in a murderer that is on the loose and a power outage?! No thank you!

But that is exactly the situation that this cast of characters finds themselves in when they have traveled to an inn for a nice weekend away. This tale beings on a very snowy and windy Friday afternoon, and ends on a Sunday evening. But not everyone who arrived at the inn walks out of there alive.

Here's a quick breakdown of the characters and some initial notes about them:

Gwen Delaney is taking Riley Shuter for a weekend getaway to help Riley relax after being in a war-zone as a reporter.

David Paley, a criminal attorney, is determined not to think of work for the weekend as he spends time away from the city.

Lauren Day and Ian Beeton are a couple that want a naughty weekend away. They come across Gwen and Riley who’s car had gone off the road, and drive them to the inn.

Beverly and Henry Sullivan are in a rough spot in their marriage. Beverly is hoping to fix the rift between them while they are away for the weekend.

Dana Hart and Matthew Hutchinson are engaged and want a relaxing weekend away from wedding planning before the big day arrives.

Candice White is there for the weekend working on a book and trying not to worry about family.

James and Bradley are a father and son duo who own/run the inn.

Very early on, I realized that I disliked many of the characters. This usually kills a story for me, but in this case it just worked. Each of the characters was just so interesting to me! I loved learning more about each of them and seeing just how much personal baggage they all brought with them.

I won't talk too much about the actual story-line, as this is definitely one you want to read on your own! I will say two quick notes about the ending in the two paragraphs below, so feel free to skip those!

Try as I might, near the end of the book, I could not even wager a bet on who the killer was. When it was revealed, it was so wonderfully done. I immediately wanted to start reading again to see if I could pick up on it the second time around!

And then... this book had my all time favorite elements... There was a very last bit that made me close the book and immediately stare into space thinking, "Woah, what?!"

Bravo!!


Beware, the slight negatives:
My only slight irk is simply that there was a lot of repetition.

Many of the characters, especially Gwen and Riley, thought the same things over and over and over again. Some of this repetition made sense based on the situation that they were in, but other times it was just a little irritating.

Also, where the book jumped perspectives quite a bit, there was a lot of recaps that kept occurring that I didn't love simply because repetition is my major reading irk. If I hadn't read this book in two sittings, I don't think I would have picked up on the repetition as much... but I still had to note it. That all being said, that actually didn't affect my overall rating in the slightest!


My favorite passages:
Her thoughts are speeding away with her like a runaway train headed for catastrophe.

How dangerous people can become when they’re scared...


My final thoughts:
Overall, I really enjoyed this read! I loved how I was totally sucked into the story, even though I didn't love all of the characters, I was so antsy to see what would happen next!

It has been a long time since a book has kept me up late into the morning simply because I couldn't put it down.

No Exit by Taylor Adams was a tale about a young woman who stumbled across a kidnapping in progress. With each twist and turn, my stomach dropped. I just had to keep reading to find out what would happen next!

At the beginning of the story, we meet Darby, a young woman in college who receives a text from her sister, telling her that their mom has cancer and is in the hospital. As Darby rushes to drive across the mountains to get there before her mother passes, she runs into a nasty snowstorm that strands her at a rest stop with four others; an older man and his female cousin on their way to visit family for the holidays, and two younger men, one of which won't stop talking and another that hardly talks at all.

As Darby fights to find a signal on her dying cellphone, she discovers that in the back of a van in the parking lot, a young girl is locked in a cage. Darby is determined to save the girl, but she has no idea the intensity of the situation that she has stumbled into. The plow trucks are expected to be there in thirteen hours, but will Darby survive until then?

This novel is one of those fast-paced thrillers that will keep you up at night simply because you need to know how things will turn out! I picked it up one evening, and before I knew it, it was 1:30 AM, which is long passed my usual 10:30 PM bedtime!

The original premise of being trapped at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere while desperate to get through the storm on the way back home is terrifying enough. But add in four strangers, a kidnapping, a no cell phone service... Yikes! There were so many twists and turns that I did not see coming. Each time I thought Darby was onto something that would be helpful, my hopes were soon dashed.

I didn't particularly love the main character, Darby, at first, but I was definitely routing for her all along! I loved how persistent and brave she was, no matter what she was facing. I also enjoyed that she kept her sense of humor, even after being put through the ringer. She was so protective of little Jay (the girl who had been kidnapped), and I loved seeing how close the two girls became in such a short time. While facing terrible horrors, they quickly began bantering like sisters.

In order to preserve the tale, I will stop there.

My final thoughts:
If you enjoy thrillers that span a very short amount of time and keep you on the edge of your set, then I highly recommend this one. However, there are bits that are not for the squeamish! One scene in particular made me cringe and groan out of sympathy for the character.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is a powerful tale of true love and survival during one of the darkest times of human history. Based on a true story, this book is one that you will definitely want to keep tissues near by while reading.

When I started reading this book, I was so nervous. I love reading about true stories and history, but there are some topics that are more difficult to read about than others. The Holocaust is definitely very high on my list of difficult topics.

This book was a bit tough for me, simply because of the horrible setting and events. However, the story was also incredibly hopeful and positive. I adored the tone that the author made sure was prevalent throughout as I felt that it really matched the overall mindset of the main character.

The entire book was written so wonderfully. When the main character was afraid, I, too, felt afraid. When he was enraged, I was enraged. When he was heartbroken, I felt heartbroken. And when there were moments of heartwarming love or immense relief, I felt similar feelings. Of course, I could never imagine the true power of each of these emotions, as I didn't live the same experiences, I thought the author did an amazing job really putting you in the shoes of the characters.

I really enjoyed how character driven the story was. Each of the characters really came to life within the pages. Even when I put the book down, I found myself thinking about them and worrying about what was going to happen next. Each of the friendships that developed were so extraordinary. Seeing how people can band together and take care of one another in times of terror is absolutely incredible.

This is a book that you just have to read.

As a reader, I am so grateful to Lale Eisnberg for sharing his story, and for Heather Morris for putting this wonderful novel together.

My favorite passages:
He forces a small smile. She returns a smaller one. Her eyes, however, dance before him. As he looks into them, his heart seems simultaneously to stop and to begin for the first time, pounding, almost threatening to burst out of his chest.

Whenever possible, he listens to the talk and gossip of the SS, who don't know he understands them.They give him ammunition of the only sort available to him- knowledge, to be stored up for later.

"You must first learn to listen to her. Even if you are tired, never be too tired to listen to what she has to say. Learn what she likes and, more important, what she doesn't like. When you can, give her little treats- flowers, chocolates. Women like those things."


My final thoughts:

A must-read. This book is so powerful. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This story kicked off recapping the losses that Riley has had to endure... Poor Riley! I've got my fingers crossed that something good happens for her soon!

We’re a week out from when we saw her and Ocken last, and the two are on a mission from Viper. The two are about to complete a kidnapping and the action begins immediately as their plan is disrupted by assassins.

The events of the day take another turn when Riley learns who it is that they were trying to kidnap and before the end of the tale, Riley learns first hand what additional power the sword holds...

Yet another story filled with suspense and action. I can't wait to see where the tale goes next!


My favorite passages:
If there was one thing Riley was beginning to learn, it was that she didn't need a crown or title to change lives. The ordinary people with big hearts and hands willing to help- they were the real heroes.

Riley felt a brief pang of remorse for the loss of the man's life, for any death was worthy of sadness.

When death came knocking, how could anyone hope to rebuff him? He was a thief in the night, slipping through the most well-prepared defenses and the most cautions of proprietors.

Accidental Assassin was the second story in the Sellswords collection and yet again, the first couple of pages of this story gives the perfect amount of backstory to help the reader dive right in! This tale begins three months after the last short, and they are almost out of money again.

This time, the duo are approached by someone that they were trying to avoid and asked to make an assassination look like an accident. But can they pull it off and vacate the area without causing too much of a scene?

In this tale, we are treated to another situation of high suspense as well as an ending that left me anxious to see what happens next!


My favorite passages:
Chaos. The very nature of the word implied unpredictability, like a storm that appeared out of nowhere or an ambush that caught the victim by surprise. Chaos is the enemy of order and Ocken liked order.

In truth, he hated tea. He had never liked any type of drink that required you to let it cool and slowly sip it. Ocken was too impatient for that.

The best lies were often the ones closest to the truth.

The first couple of pages of this story did a wonderful job catching the reader up to speed to the story. This quick summary would be effective for both people that have read the other short stories and books in the series as well as new readers entering this world for the first time.

In this story, their money has run out and so Ocken has found himself and Riley (who is now 18) a job. But of course, this isn’t a simple job... They are hired to steal a dagger from the second most feared man in their region; Edward Zimmerman aka Fast Eddy. Per usual, the two get themself into quite the tricky situation.

The stress that this heist caused me... phew! I could hardly breathe during the event! The action was perfectly written, per usual. I love how intense it is! For example: “The first two guards regained their composure and came at him again, but Ocken used the impaled man as a weapon, swinging his swordstaff and catapulting the body into his comrades. They fell down beneath the body’s weight. Ocken quickly descended on them, and thrust his weapon through the heart of one man and cut down the second as he started to rise.”

Ah and the ending! I need to know more!!

Favorite passages:
“What were you expecting?” Riley shot. “How did you think I would respond the first time a man groped me?”
“You didn’t have to break the poor man’s arm,” he said.
“He’s lucky that’s all I broke,” she said with a huff.

The moon shone brightly that night without a single cloud to mar the skies. In the distance, a bell from a buoy gently rang in time with the lapping of the waves.

This was what had been missing from their life. This was what Ocken had fought so hard to avoid in trying to keep Riley safe. Yet it was this cutting down of the wicked and the bringing back of a little light into the world that they needed most.

It's been three days since the kidnapping went sideways for Riley and Ocken. Riley is still wounded, both physically and emotionally.

The two head out to get a meal and as they eat, they plot their next course of action. Soon after they finished their meals, Ocken is attacked by three of the city guard. After the short fight, Ocken and Riley are approached by just the man they were hoping to run into and they are given jobs at the docks.

Luckily for them, the dock is just where they wanted to be. But of course, their master plan is thrown off course yet again when someone arrives that the two weren’t expecting, which lands them in a tight spot...

Per usual, I just love Ocken's pep talks and the banter between him and Riley. It's so realistic and a bit humorous. I also really loved how this tale came full circle on the mistake element! I love when authors do that!


My favorite passages:
Sometimes a mistake meant that a meal was a little too burnt, or bland, or chewy. Other times, it meant losing everything or everyone a person cared about.

“Don’t talk to me about honest work,” she retorted. “You’re getting paid more than me to stand there and look pretty.”
“I perform a highly important service for the maintenance of the crew’s continued wealth,” he said.
“You punch people and throw them in the water,” she said dryly.
“I never said it was hard work,” he said with a chuckle.

In This Ground by Beth Castrodale is a tale about love and friendship, music and art, a cemetery, mushrooms, knitting, music, and letting go of the ghosts that keep some anchored in the past. That may sound pretty random, but I'm sure it peaked your interest! It certainly peaked mine!

I'm so grateful to have been given the chance to participate in the TLC Book Tour to help promote this novel!

This tale was so wonderfully written and the cast was fantastic! I had so much fun reading it.

If you want to dive into a book and be totally wrapped up in the tangled web of a wonderful cast of characters, then this is a book for you.

I absolutely adored the characters in the novel. I was so interested to learn more about each of them, whether that was through the current timeline or flashbacks into the past. I also really loved how each of their story-lines seemed so separated and random at first, but then they slowly started to cross paths.

While reading, it felt like each chapter was bringing me closer to understanding the full scope of things. And that ending certainly didn't disappoint! When it comes to the pacing, I hate to say that it was "slow" because I feel that too many people see that as a complaint, and that's not the case here. The story moseyed along at a leisurely, but perfect speed for the story line.

I found the setting, the cemetery, so interesting! I used to love hanging out in the cemeteries in my hometown, enjoying the quiet and trying to find the oldest headstone. Of course, some of the cemeteries had ghost stories related to them, so that always added a bit of nervousness and excitement to the trips.

In this story, I really enjoyed learning more about the proper upkeep of a cemetery, as well as the funding. Those were two elements that I certainly hadn't thought about before! I also had never heard about green funerals before, but found the idea wonderfully interesting!

My favorite passage:
Nature will have her way with all of us, son, no matter what tricks we try to pull. If you want someone to stay the same forever you better take a picture.

My final thoughts:
I highly recommend checking this one out, especially if you're a fan of music! This was such an enjoyable read. I can't wait to read it again soon!

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is a dark and twisted tale about passion and obsession. I have to say right off the bat, that I have never read a book that made me feel the way that this one did.

Theo Faber is a psychotherapist and he has set his sights on Alicia Berenson, a patient at the Grove who went silent after killing her husband. Theo is determined to get Alicia to speak. But as the unit is on the brink of being shut down, will he get her to speak in time? Or if she does speak, will they like what she has to say?

This book was a very interesting read for me. When I read the last page and closed the book, I had to sit there for a moment. I don't think I have ever read anything similar to this book before. I felt so very unsettled the entire time I was reading. There was just something I was feeling about the main character, Theo, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

There were three main elements of the story;
- Alicia Berenson's Diary where we got a glimpse into her personal life from her perspective.
-Theo while he was at work the hospital with Alicia.
-Theo in his personal life.

This story is a bit like a puzzle that seems like it is missing some pieces... up until the very end when the pieces are found and put into place. Only at the very end did everything come together for me and I realized what I had been feeling all along...

Unfortunately, as cryptic as that is, that's all I can say! I just don't want to give anything away.


My favorite passages:
The bare trees stood like skeletons along the road. The sky was white, heavy with snow that had yet to fall.

It was obvious not much had been spent on the upkeep of the building in several years: paint was crawling away from the walls, and a faint musty smell of mildew and decay permeated the corridors.

And this would take time- nothing would be accomplished overnight. It would move slowly, like a glacier, but it would move.

Love that doesn’t include honesty doesn’t deserve to be called love.

She had been like a closed book to me; now that book was open and it’s contents had taken me altogether by surprise.


My final thoughts:
If you enjoy books that have you feeling a bit unsettled throughout though you can't really put a finger on why you're feeling that way... I highly recommend this book for you!

I will conclude with one last comment: I considered DNFing this book because it was seriously rubbing me the wrong way. I was thinking about rating this book as two stars, until the last few pages and then, it jumped up. The only reason why it didn't get a full five stars from me is because I save my five-stars for books I know I am going to reread time and time again. While I definitely want to reread this one at least once more, I'm not sure how many times I would be able to reread it.

Cubicleland by Rook Winters is a hilarious and genuine tale about office politics, friendship, secrets, doughnuts, tachos, beer, and other real-world elements that go along with working in the tech industry.

I was given a copy of this book ages ago from Mr Rook Winters, and I am so thrilled that I finally had time to read it! Per usual, I am just kicking myself over taking so long! I had SO much fun reading this story and I dreaded putting it down!

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

In this novel, we focus on a young adult named Luke who just wants to do what he can in order to be a great employee so he can move up in his career. Luke is upbeat, friendly, willing to take on extra work and work long hours without hesitation, and he recently joined the company softball team to develop his friendships with others in the office. He even brings doughnuts to each of the Monday morning stand-ups!

Things seem to be going well for Luke, but when he is accidentally copied on an internal email that shares some very upsetting information, he has a major internal struggle. Does he let the higher ups know that he was accidentally copied, does he share the information with his team, or does he just keep quiet?

From my introduction, some of you may be wondering, what are tachos? My friends, those are tater-tot nachos. Yum! With all of the mentions of doughnuts, tachos, coffee, tea, and craft beer... You may want to have snacks ready while reading this book.

Like I mentioned above, this book was so realistic. Rook Winters did an absolutely amazing job setting the scene, developing the characters, and writing up a plot that kept you nervously awaiting the end results.

The characters all seemed wonderfully real, to the point where I felt like I really knew them. I couldn't help but think of people in my own office that were very similar to each of the characters.

Needless to say, I hated when I had to put this book down. I just wanted to keep reading to see how everything would turn out for these characters that I started thinking about as friends.

My final thoughts:
This book is so upbeat and fun. It was truly a treat to read! Of course there is drama that will make you anxious and office politics that will make your blood boil, but there are also many situations that will make you laugh and the banter between the coworkers is just so fun.

If you have ever worked in an office setting, or work in one now, I highly recommend this book!

Thanks for reading!
Have you ever worked in an office setting? I work in one now and I couldn't help but related some of the situations in this book to things that I have seen over the past year with my job.