Well this was cute and easily listened to (at 2.2 speed) in about half an hour.
Eloisa's best friend Mac sets up a Valentine's event at a vineyard. Eloisa make a second party - an anti-Valentines party were you could meet people but still celebrate singledom (they say it would make Leslie Knope proud).
The anti party sounded like my worst nightmare as to what the game involved, but Eloisa finds a certain heartthrob that she spends the night talking to and will find out later why he was there.

Becca's parents run a neighborhood of doomsday preppers. Roy is the boy she is destined to marry because his family are preppers too. When her dad, the leader, suffers a car accident, Becca's mother takes over.....

I did not like Becca's mother at all. What a horrible women to her children! After her husband is in the car accident, she takes the prepping to a whole new level.

I love how deceitful Roy is! He is such a good actor... He does not agree with this lifestyle and just makes his way until he can escape. I felt so bad for Becca's sister Katie. She was so young and impressionable that she bought into all this.
I am all for being prepared for a bit disaster, but feel these groups are just way too extreme in it. The ending was kind of genius in getting people to know what's going on.

Marine and Katie are two ballet dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet School who have been best friends for years there. Always looking out for each other and promising.... If one has to leave, the other will too.

The competition is fierce in the school. They are judged frequently, given a number where anything 3 or lower can be moves for dismissal. Every girl wants to the chance to dance with "The Demigod"- a male dancer who's looking for "The One"

I loved when Katie and Marine had each other backs. When they start to drift apart and compete against each other, I was so disappointed.

This book deals with eating disorders and mental health.

This is a long anthem to the partying of the 80s, to drugs, to friends, to New York.

Phoebe and her friend Carmen go to live in New York. They are soon caught up in the drug and party scene. Phoebe has this thing she does where she saves every movie ticket stub and uses them to "tell the future" or her interpretation of it. She gets a job in a club telling people's fourtunes and starts calling herself Astrid. At some point, Carmen how missing and all Phoebe wants is to find her again.

I thought this was a very slow moving novel. There is no action. I took a long time to get through it. It's more of a character study than anything i think.

What a hilarious story! I was explaining to my husband (who doesn't read) the plot and he immediately cast Melissa McCarthy as Finlay and Kristin Wiig as Vero in a movie. I can see that!

Finlay is overheard taking about her book premise in a crowded Panera. She is mistaken for a "hit man" and hired by the woman that overheard and misunderstood. Then later, Finlay inadvertently does kill this guy she was "hired" to take out.

General wackiness ensues. Mistakes keep happening that make Finlay look more and more guilty. This book is so laugh out loud funny and that ending

Caroline (a bluestocking by all accounts) is sent to India to entertain a dinner with a gentleman and not expected to do more... Unless she wants. If it doesn't work out, she will be stuck in Mumbai since her cousin's home she was living in will be marrying soon himself.
She travels on the ship of Captain Scott. She is liked by some (men and women alike) and very disliked by some. She draws sketches of the crew to send to wives or moms. She befriends the Captain and falls in love with him. Misinterpreting as to why she's traveling to India puts a rift between them.
I really liked Caroline for stating her mind. She was so kind and caring. She was a major help with some major events near the end and for helping a sweet boy on the ship. I liked that Caption Scott didn't dismiss Caroline's thoughts and feelings like some others did. I would have liked a little more resolve of their relationship at the end, but all in all our was a very cute high sea adventure.

Final Girls... You know, the lone girl that survives a murder scene in a movie?
Quinn is a Final Girl. She is the only friend to survive a night at a cabin in the woods. It's been 10 years and she's trying to live a normal life. She won't say HIS name. The cop who finds her, Coop, is there whenever she needs him.
Another Final Girl, Savannahs, shows up and tries to shake up Quinn's world. She succeeds in a bigger way than I thought possible.

I couldn't believe some of the things Sam made Quinn do. I would have found it all very weird and would not have let Sam stay in my house! When everything gets flipped so far around from what Quinn thought she remembered about that night- it was too see i didn't see coming out thought possible. It's not as straightforward as it might seem.

Oh Celia! She divorced her no good husband, then lost her job as advice columnist Dear Calpurnia. She inherits her estranged Aunt's house in Charleston and could possibly become an adoptive mother. She just needs to prove she can take care of the baby which is hard to do after losing your job.

She decides the best thing would be to sell the house so she can have a chance at being a mother. She doesn't expect to cover to the house and have it be a hoarders.

I love the people that take her in as their own. I love that a lot didn't care that she left the town (while some think that's a no-no). She has a lot of work cut out for her. I loved her best friend Calvin. He made me laugh out loud!

This was a very sweet story about learning all about yourself and what you are capable of-even when it's tough going. It's about finding a family that you didn't know you needed. Wonderful story.

This is a beautiful and heartbreaking book about a dark period of history for many Americans.
Elsa lives in a family who doesn't really care about her. When she finds herself in the family way by an Italian boy, while not married, she is dumped on the boy's family by hers. She and Rafe marry and live on his parents farm.

Years of drought are a big part of breaking apart Elsa and Rafe's fragile marriage and Rafe abandons them. Elsa finds herself fleeing to California, land of "milk and honey" to save her son's health.

What follows is so much hardship, really showing how hard the Depression had hit the country. Though this book was started before the pandemic, it eerily rings true to problems today. Problems we saw in the country today are both different and the same. Some not even having to do with pandemic (prejudices and the like)

I felt for Elsa through this whole book. She does anything for her children. She perservers through all the hardships for them. She never sees her own worth because all her life, people have told her she wasn't worthy.

This book kept me in it the whole time. I felt those feelings expressed by Elsa and her kids right along with them. I felt the hardship, the shake from others who thought they were "the better people", and I mourned for the characters and with them. Fabulous book!

Sweet second chance story.
Dexter and Dakota were a high school item. Then suddenly Dex breaks up with her with no good explanation. Dakota goes to college and becomes a New York City reporter. When a scandal sends her to the home she grew up in, she hoped she doesn't run until Dex. But with a small town it's a big possibility.

I think Dex took a cowards way out for most of the book until I got the real reason. Maybe a little misguided in a way but it could have been worse if he's chosen some different choices than he did.

You could tell they both had feelings for each other and the chemistry was still there. I rooted for them to get back together. I love the small town of Holly Grove Island and the people there. They are such good people. I can't wait to read Sinclair's story as she was probably my favorite character.