Story for the Week
I don’t remember the last time I read only 12 books over the course of an entire year. Every year, I join the Goodreads reading challenge, and in the past, I’ve consumed about 50 books each year. This year, knowing I was reading less, I made a goal of 30 books…and didn’t reach even half that. (As I write this, Goodreads seems to think that I can still do it in the 6 days left in the year. 🤣) I read about half the number of pages I did in 2020, and 2020 was a third less than 2019.
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know why I haven’t found solace in reading recently as I have all my life. If you’re new, this recap of all of the books I’ve blogged about over the last year will provide plenty of context, along with some great books to add to your own TBR (to be read) list.
This week is about 2021. It’s a long list because I highlighted books I’ve read in previous years that were 3-, 4-, and 5-star reads. If I had stuck to just this year, there wouldn’t be a whole lot to share 😮, and I figured if I was going back in time, I didn’t want to focus on the books I didn’t enjoy. I’ll save that for real-time reads. So there are quite a few books here that I read before I ventured into the world of blogging, so I’m glad I have a platform to share them now.
Next week, I’ll write about my plans for 2022, which (fingers crossed 🤞) is more than the 11 pages per day that I averaged this year 🤦♀️. I hope you enjoy my book year in review, and bring on 2022!
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3-Star Reviews Of 2021
- For All She Knows by Jamie Beck—women’s fiction
Two mothers face the consequences of their choices when an accident tears their friendship apart. The former friends stand to lose everything they love unless they learn to forgive—both themselves and each other.
Featured in Are You Do as I Say or Practice What You Preach? (May 31)
4-Star Reviews Of 2021 (includes 3.5 star reviews)
- The Truth is a Theory by Karyn Bristol—women’s fiction
When a 30-something woman’s husband storms out, she knows the key to her future lies in discovering the truth about her mother’s disappearance when she was a child. The burning question, however, is if you ever find the truth, does it heal you or destroy you?
Featured in Searching for the Next Walter Cronkite (January 10) - Whisper Network by Chandler Baker—mystery, thriller/suspense
The sudden death of a corporate CEO dramatically changes the dynamics in an office because of rumors about how the up-and-coming CEO treats women.
Featured in Palm Beach Story to #MeToo (February 28) - Believe Me by J.P. Delaney—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
A British drama student without a green card in New York takes the only job she can get working for a firm of divorce lawyers, posing as an easy pickup in hotel bars to entrap straying husbands. But then the game changes.
Featured in I Saw This Video on TikTok…. (May 16) - Guess Who by Chris McGeorge—mystery, thriller/suspense
A “modern day Sherlock Holmes” wakes up handcuffed to a bed in an unfamiliar hotel room. Around him, five strangers are slowly waking up, as well. When they discover a corpse in the bathtub, he is challenged to put his deductive skills to the test. He has three hours to solve the murder, or they all will die.
Featured in There Really are No Small Parts (May 23) - The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin—thriller/suspense, women’s fiction
A woman’s friends reluctantly accept an invitation to her birthday party, and it quickly becomes clear that there is more to the weekend than they are expecting. One of them is hiding a secret, and the woman plans to reveal it.
Featured in Denny’s, Here I Come for My Senior Discount! (June 20) - To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne—romance
A woman takes over her father’s Midtown Manhattan champagne shop after his death. As margins are squeezed perilously tight, she tries to make over the shop while avoiding a buyout.
Featured in Cherish All the Footprints on Your Heart (July 1) - The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones—mystery, thriller/suspense, women’s fiction
When three couples travel to Portugal for a destination wedding, the secrets each of them holds begin to spill, and friendships and marriages threaten to unravel. They went away as friends. They came back as suspects. Jumping to conclusions can become the difference between life and death.
Featured in Hitting the Road, Just Three Girls and a Dog (August 4) - Even If I Fall by Abigail Johnson—teen/young adult
A girl’s family has been ostracized in their town after her brother confesses to murdering his best friend. When she comes across his brother one rainy day, they develop an unlikely and tender relationship.
Featured in From Poop 💩 to Pickles 🥒 to Pals 👯♀️ (August 22) - My Virtual Life by Sharon Dempsey—teen/young adult, women’s fiction
A single mom lands her dream job as fashion editor at a teen magazine. Soon after, her daughter starts a blog to pour out her teenage angst, and a rival magazine offers to publish it as a column.
Featured in Do What You Love but Not Just for the Money (August 29) - The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
A mother is startled awake by a phone call informing her that her teenage daughter has fallen off a bridge. Not only is her daughter brain dead, she’s pregnant and must remain on life support to keep her baby alive, but there are also suspicious bruises on her wrists.
Featured in What’s the Punishment for Sneaking Out These Days? (September 5) - The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves—women’s fiction
A former couple reconnects after 10 years apart and considers taking a second chance at love.
Featured in And Just Like That, It’s Been a Year (or 20) (September 11) - The Promise by Teresa Driscoll—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
Three friends from Catholic boarding school share a secret from when they were 14 that they promised never to tell. Thirty years later, some shocking news threatens to unearth their dark secret.
Featured in “Three May Keep a Secret, If Two of Them are Dead” (October 31) - My Kind of Forever by Tracy Brogan—general fiction, romance
The youngest mayor a small town has ever elected wants to prove she’s up to the challenge. Stepping out of her practical teacher flats and into her sister’s treacherously high heels, she (literally) stumbles her first day on the job into the arms of a handsome stranger.
Featured in From This Day Forward, as Long as We Both Shall Live (November 14) - Nanny Dearest by Flora Collins—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
A 20-something woman, having recently lost her father, bumps into her nanny from 20 years prior. She eagerly welcomes the former nanny into her life but soon uncovers the truth of her presence and her departure from their home so many years ago.
Featured in It Takes a Village, But Who’s Your Village? (November 21) - The Good Friend by Jo Baldwin—mystery, psychological drama, thriller/suspense, women’s fiction
After eight years, a woman reunites with her former best friends but discovers one of them has played a clever game all along to manipulate and control those around her.
Featured in Who Was Your Childhood “Best Friend Forever”? (November 28) - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center—romance, women’s fiction
A female firefighter in Texas gives up her whole life to take care of her estranged and ailing mother in Boston and suddenly has an emergency of her own.
Featured in Women Can Be Whatever They Want to Be (December 12)
5-Star Reviews Of 2021 (includes 4.5 star reviews)
- The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
A woman awakens with no memory of an accident that her husband tells her took place five years prior. As she pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins to question her husband’s motives—and his version of events.
Featured in Would You Like to Play a Game? (January 3) - Love in a Mist by Sarah Harrison—romance
A woman who feels condemned to live in the shadow of her parents’ standards of beauty, success, and romance falls in love for the first time when a devastating piece of news unearths a series of shocking secrets.
Featured in The Therapy of Throwing Things Away (Or Not) (February 7) - Crashing the A-List by Summer Heacock—women’s fiction
An unemployed book editor accidentally stumbles upon some private information about a famous British actor. While he’s convinced she’s a blackmailer, the tabloids have pegged her as his newest girlfriend.
Featured in The Cost of Fame Over Privacy (February 14) - I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
A journalist begins receiving threats every Wednesday from an anonymous caller.
Featured in Do You Stick to a Schedule? (February 21) - And Then You Were Gone by R.J. Jacobs—mystery, thriller/suspense
A man disappears during a weekend sailing trip, and his girlfriend’s bipolar disorder begins to take hold while she desperately tries to uncover the truth of what happened. The investigation throws her mania into overdrive, even as she becomes a person of interest in her own personal tragedy.
Featured in We All Lose Our Minds Sometimes (March 7) - Wrong Place Wrong Time by Tilia Klebenov Jacobs—contemporary fiction, women’s fiction
A woman visiting her estranged uncle for a weekend becomes the victim of a kidnapping.
Featured in Introverts Need Dialog Too (Book Dialog, That Is) (March 21) - An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse—general fiction, women’s fiction
The story of a 94-year-old woman told through her memories of living through the 1940s.
Featured in Can a Mother’s Love Overcome Ripped Jeans? (April 19) - The Other Woman by Sandie Jones—thriller/suspense
There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her son, and now a woman is about to find out just how far her mother-in-law will go to get what she wants: her daughter-in-law gone forever.
Featured in Does My Mother-In-Law Fit The Stereotype? (🙅♀️) (April 25) - The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons—espionage, thriller/suspense
A legendary hacker and marine helps investigate a 10-year-old case involving the disappearance of a woman who had been like a sister to him.
Featured in But Does It Go “Boom”? (May 5) - Waiting to Begin by Amanda Prowse—general fiction, women’s fiction
A woman’s unusual and beautiful coming-of-age story. We watch her become a wife and a mother, all the while holding onto a secret that colors every single facet of her life.
Featured in An Emotional Mother’s Day Journey (May 9) - Her Last Move by John Marrs—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
A detective sergeant lands the biggest case of her career investigating a series of murders with the help of a “super-recognizer” with a natural skill for facial recognition.
Featured in I Hate When My Brain Short-Circuits Like That! (June 27) - When You Find Me by P.J. Vernon—general fiction, mystery, thriller/suspense
Visiting her family’s South Carolina estate, a socialite wakes from a night out to an empty bed. Her husband is gone and a thrashing hangover has wiped her memory clean.
Featured in Don’t Get Stuck in the Middle of Nowhere (July 11) - Until the Day I Die by Emily Carpenter—general fiction, thriller/suspense, women’s fiction
A woman running a tech company after the sudden loss of her husband retreats to a spa in the Caribbean but begins to suspect that she was sent there to disappear.
Featured in This Unbreakable Mother/Daughter Bond…That Makes Me Cry (September 26) - The Shift: 7 Powerful Mindset Changes for Lasting Weight Loss by Gary Foster—health, mind & body
How to—and why you should—treat yourself in a way that feels better and primes you for likelier success.
Featured in Time to Send the Yo-Yo Back Down…Permanently (October 10) - The Perfect Liar by Thomas Christopher Greene—mystery, thriller/suspense
A young widow and single mother remarries a charismatic artist and popular speaker whose career takes her and her 15-year-old son out of New York City and to a quiet Vermont university town. Life is perfectly in place again until one quiet morning she finds a menacing note on her front door.
Featured in Are You Who Your Friends Think You Are? (October 24) - The Girl in the Corner by Amanda Prowse—general fiction, women’s fiction
A woman is left reeling when her husband reveals a shocking betrayal on the evening of their 25th anniversary. Devastated, she takes their anniversary trip with her best friend and sister-in-law, and realizes her choices have always been made for her. Is she really the pushover everyone else sees?
Featured in What’s Your Favorite [Fill in the Blank]? (November 7) - The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain—mystery, thriller/suspense, women’s fiction
Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth—no matter what that truth may bring to light.
Featured in There’s Still Progress to Be Made (December 5)
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