Summary:
Blake has spent most of her life learning to deal with her gift - she can see emotionally charged memories from people's pasts as well as premonitions of their futures. When she is approached at college by a man named Nicholas, she learns she is not alone. Magically powered people contain Nine different types of giftings, and Blake finds herself trapped in a political war between factions wanting to use her, as she is more powerful than she realized.

This book was a super quick (one day), fun read. Overall, I felt like the cool aspects of the magic outweighed the parts I didn't like as much because I wanted to keep reading.

What I enjoyed:

I felt the same way about this book that I felt about Twilight when I read it back in high school - it was a decent ride, but was not a fan of the insta-love and teenage obsessions. I did enjoy the aspects of the wolves and their struggles.

I wished the main character had more personality beyond her love for Sam and the wolves. The writing was pretty good and made the book flow easily, so it was a quick read. But it also felt sort of bland and slow. I'll probably read the next one because I got it for only a few dollars, but I'll do so a little begrudgingly lol.

Woah, what an interesting read! It went by very quickly. The ending blew me away and made me want to go back and reread parts of the book to piece everything together.

Some might criticize the writing style because it was a bit flat and disjointed, but I think that was the point. Cadence, the main character, has a traumatic brain injury and is missing pieces of her past. She experiences chronic pain and confusion and cannot remember what happened on the day she got injured, but she suspects that someone tried to hurt her.

I really liked the feel of the book, that you didn't quite know what was going on. We were super immersed in Cadence's worldview of having missing information and feeling withdrawn.

I loved the little fairytales she told between chapters and it was fun to interpret what they meant to her.

Summary: For Pippa's senior project, she decides to investigate a murder. Five years ago, popular high school student Andie Bell went missing. Blame quicky fell upon her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who was found dead soon after. But Pip thinks there is still a mystery to be solved and a murderer running free.

The best way to describe this book is FUN! It is a murder mystery but the reading experience was soo enjoyable. I laughed out loud and connected so much with the characters.

Pip is such a strong female lead. I loved her determination and compassion. It was amazing to watch her fight against years of biases in her community to find the real story of what happened to Andie.

So many secrets.
So many suspicious characters.
So many threads for Pip to tie together.

There were lots of twists and turns, and the ending was unexpected! Some parts were a teensy bit unrealistic but I can suspend belief for the sake of a fun and immersive story ☺️

Overall 4.5/5 due to that, but round up to 5 because of how much I enjoyed it. Will definitely read the next one!!

The first half of this book was fantastic! It is so helpful to learn about the pain-pleasure relationship in the brain and the role that plays in addiction. Learning about these patterns brought awareness to my own behaviors and feelings.

I enjoyed learning about the process of resetting your homeostasis and how to explore our own tendencies through the acronym "DOPAMINE." This gave me a lot of thoughts to apply to my own counseling practice.

The ending lost me a bit and wasn't quite as engaging/interesting, but it was overall a very insight-provoking read for me.

Summary: Casey Flesher is forced to get out of the celebrity spotlight by retreating to her family cabin on a lake. But the home quickly starts to haunt her as she recalls the death of her husband and copes through drinking. She starts to get to know a neighbor across the lake, a supermodel named Katherine, until Casey begins to suspect that Katherine is in danger.

My rating: 4.5/5 stars

Things I loved:
- The role of voyeurism was perfectly creepy. There were a lot of scary moments that made me jump but also want to keep reading!
- Casey's character was a great mix of being slightly unstable while also smart enough to investigate the mysterious happenings on the lake
- Loved the relationship between Katherine and Casey. It drove me to wonder what was going on along with Casey.
- The twists caught me totally by surprise, but I enjoyed them overall.

Things I didn't enjoy as much:
- I would have liked a little more foreshadowing about one of the twists, because it felt out of the blue.
- Wish some of the aspects of the alcohol use and recovery were handled slightly more accurately? That's just me being picky as a mental health counselor lol.

I thought this book had a lot of helpful information - I guess I've read a lot of similar books recently so it didn't really feel like it brought anything new.

I thought Jennie did a great job of helping us manage unhelpful thinking without using spiritual bypassing. I also ppreciated how much she still advocated for counseling when anxiety is impairing functioning.

You'd think that as a someone who integrates mindfulness practices into therapy on a regular basis, I would enjoy this book more. But ugh, I just had an incredibly difficult time getting through it. Tried once as an ebook and didn't get far, then struggled to get through the audiobook. It felt very repetitive and dull to me.

The topics I enjoyed were learning how to notice the "self" who is observing, finding the balance between extreme/dialectical thinking, and using the reality of death to bring meaning to life.

Overall, I think the book's concepts would be incredibly helpful for someone learning about the concept of mindfulness, non-judgmentalness, and self-observation. But if you've already studied the topic a lot, it felt like a repeat of a lot of ideas.

This book was so sweet and heartfelt!

Summary: Eighteen-year-old Finley Sinclair is still grieving the loss of her older brother Will when she decides to follow in his footsteps to study abroad in Ireland. She hopes that by reading through his travel journal, she'll reconnect with God, who she feels has left her since Will died. Finley meets new friends and walks in her brother's shoes, but the pressure begin to rise. As she begins to seek control in unhealthy ways, she wonders if God will show up at all.

I don't read a ton of faith-based fiction, but this book honestly surprised me with how well done it was. Teenage Jen would have related to a lot of Finley's struggles with seeking control, struggling with body image, and not knowing if God was there.

I thought the author did such an incredible job integrating real issues in Finley's journey including grief, perfectionism, eating disorders, and relationship stress. The romance was wholesome and Finley's relationship with old Mrs. Sweeney was really touching.

Finley's journey trying to connect with her brother and God felt so real and natural. I think anyone who has ever wondered if God is listening would enjoy seeing how Finley wrestles with these questions and eventually finds her own answers.