Week of October 13, 2025

Knowing that I’ve got to read 8 books per week for the rest of the year (!) in order to hit my reading goal of 350 books is a little daunting, but it’s a target to shoot for. So I’ve picked up some steam and I’m spending more time reading. I’ve picked a few audio books to have on standby as well for those tedious hours at the gym, and that will help get a few more books done as well.

As many of you may know, Tori and I had a podcast that we started last summer (2024) called Let Me Call My Mom. We did in mainly when we were together at the beach, and then did it more sporadically during the fall months when we were home in PA. Once Tori moved to Philadelphia and we weren’t living as close to each other, it became harder to do, and it fell by the wayside for the most part. But we have decided to pick it back up! We have been working on creating new content and a new format and we are working with a web designer to help us create a new online presence. So this is all taking up some of our time lately, too, but it’s been a lot of fun! If podcasts are your thing, you’ll be able to hear Tori and me back together again on Spotify and on Apple podcasts starting in early November with new episodes of Let Me Call My Mom! We hope you’ll join us.

• As always, here’s my rating scale for your information:

  ⭐️ Did not like this book, would not recommend. Lots of errors, plot holes, not worth the effort to read, most likely didn’t finish. But I’m giving this author a single star for making the effort to publish a book. Not everyone’s even gotten that far, so yay for you.

  ⭐️⭐️ Didn’t really like it, multiple issues with style, plot, syntax or characters. Most likely forced myself to finish it. Would consider other books by the same author but I might have to be convinced.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed the book. Perhaps there were issues with plot or style but it was an enjoyable read. I could see recommending it if it were of a specific genre or trope or series. Most of what I read could easily fall into this category and I’d be a happy camper.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good book. Like a really good book. I will think about this book when I’m finished, and there’s a really good chance I’ll buy it for my personal library if it was a KU read. I’d recommend it to other readers of the same genre or trope. I’ll definitely search out other books by this author, probably as soon as I’m finished reading.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. Just wow. Amazing book, amazing story. If there were flaws in the book I’m completely overlooking them because in my mind the book was sheer perfection. I didn’t want the book to end and I’m immediately adding it to my favorites and my re-read pile. And if there’s an audio version I might have to buy that, too. I have a book hangover, I miss the characters, and I feel actual, physical loss in my life when this book is finished.

Thanks for joining me this week! Let’s dive in!

I started the week with a good one: Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins gets an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating from me. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The quick banter in the book, the flow of the writing, and the wit of the inner dialogue from FMC Nora’s POV was all just perfect. Nora is such a relatable character it’s nearly impossible not to root for her. There’s plenty of heartache and trauma in this book, and yet it’s dealt with in such a wonderful way that the reader doesn’t find themself mired in despair but rather looking for the silver lining and looking to Nora to show us the better path forward. She’s a great role model. If I had to find a criticism, I’d have to say it’s that Poe made a miraculous turnaround from grumpy adolescent to pleasant young lady and I didn’t see a specific reason that that to happen. But it’s fiction - so anything can happen, right? And I liked that plot line, so it worked. But all in all, this was a great story of family love, of personal strength, of overcoming adversity, of trusting yourself, and of creating the life you want. Nicely done.

The 2nd book of the week was You’re My Home by Katie Moore. This one was way too long and a bit too syrupy sweet for my taste. I’ll give it ⭐️⭐️.5 but this book could have been 100 pages shorter. It’s a MM romance with a very damaged, constantly crying, very abused Isaac (who changes his name to Zach because Isaac is too traumatizing for him) who meets Brady at age 13 and the two become unbelievably attached to each other. Like Brady carries Zach around and Zach sits on his lap all the time kind of attached. It’s a very slow burn romance story in that Zach is afraid to come out as gay because he’s afraid he’ll scare Brady away. But then it takes Brady nearly 6 years to realize that he’s in love with Zach despite them sleeping together and cuddling all the time. It was a bit much for me. Yes, you get the HEA, and yes, it’s cute, but it was a little over the top. The support characters of Kelly and Connor were great, though. I’d love to think that every confused gay man has a Kelly and/or a Connor in their lives.

I then dove into the book #3, which is the second book in the Monstrous series by Lily Mayne, Edin. This series is really interesting to me. I’m not typically a fantasy reader, but both of the books I’ve read have been really good. It’s a post-apocalyptic wasteland type world where monsters and humans clash - absolutely not my go-to reading genre. And these are basically MM romance stories even if one of the males in each case is a monster and one is a human. The plot in this book was, I think, even better than in the first one, and the characters of Edin and Hunter were both really well done. Having Wyn and Danny from the first book enter into the plot of this one kept the continuity flowing since Edin was introduced in the first book as a friend of Wyn’s, so I liked the pacing. I hope that continues through the series. I will definitely be reading more of these. I’ll give this one ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

I changed up my genres a little bit with book #4 and went with a mystery/suspense type book, My Husband’s Secrets by Kiersten Modglin. I’m torn with this one. I’m giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️, although I think it could have gotten more if the ending had been a little clearer. It got a little jumbled at the end for me, but I thought it was done pretty well. Lucas was a character that was easy to despise and it was almost fun watching his downward spiral. And as much as I wanted to feel sorry for Naomi as the wronged wife, the further into the book I got, the less I liked her character. In fact, each of the women involved in Lucas’ life was awful in her own way. With books like this I’m a little too much of a realist in that I want to know about how the blatant forensic evidence just gets brushed under the rug and his death gets written off as an accident. For the sake of the book, I understand that has to happen, but that’s where it loses some of the stars for me - wrap up those lose ends somehow and I’ll give the book a higher rating. But if you like the twists and turns and want to watch a spoiled man get what’s coming to him, this is the book for you. 🙂 

On October 15th, the book Becoming Us by Alex Cross was released. It’s the second book in the “Us” duet, and I had it scheduled to purchase from Amazon as soon as it was available so it popped up in my Kindle this week. It’s been a while since I read the first part of the duet, Echoes of Us, so I decided to re-read that one first. I’ll talk about both of those here, so technically that’s books 5 & 6 for the week. I first read Echoes in April of this year and loved the book. The re-read was even better. Oh, Atticus and Noah are both such special characters. Atty is so beautifully pensive and naive and supportive, and believes that love is enough to overcome anything, even Noah’s addictions. And seeing them unravel each other in this downward spiral is so hard to watch, yet you just can’t stop. It’s a story of first love and that all-consuming yearning that you can’t get over no matter how you try. The story is told from Atticus’s POV and is a perfect “before” and “after” alternating chapter method. Before and after what, you may ask? Well, there’s no real cliffhanger because you find out very early that they had a devastating breakup that everything revolves around. It’s so well crafted. The epilogue at the end of the first book alludes to the HEA that’s 6 years in the future so it leaves the reader wondering, what could there possibly be a whole other book about? Oh my gosh. Becoming Us might be even better than Echoes, but it’s so hard to read. It’s heartbreaking, especially reading it right on the heels of the first book. This follows the same “before” and “after” format as the first book, but this is Noah’s POV. So we finally get to see how Noah became an addict, his tragic losses and neglectful childhood, and what drove the destructive behaviors we saw him exhibit as he drove Atty away in book one. And boy, is it hard to read. After seeing Noah clear the hurdles of addiction in book one, reading his downfall in the “before” chapters of book two is absolutely painful. The chapters revolving around Noah’s therapy are excellent, as are the topics of Noah’s temptation with his vices and his subsequent reactions to overcoming them. The entire process of his healing and the mature way Atty and Noah found their way back to each other to create a healthy new relationship was absolutely wonderful. Just a beautiful pair of books. Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for each.

Next I read Sterling Touch by LB Dunbar, and, even though I’ve enjoyed her books in the past, this one didn’t click for me that much. It’s a standalone in a series of interconnected books, and it was meh. Although that’s probably a really unfair judgement after coming off the two books I just finished, above. I’ll give this one ⭐️⭐️.5. The pet names between Vale and Cort were a little over the top, and I was getting love bombing vibes once I found out Cort was the one sending gifts to her for 12 years. It felt creepy to me. Why don’t I feel this way about MM romance books? I have no idea. If they were two male characters I’d probably swoon. But make one of them a female and it’s instantly problematic for me. I can’t explain. I do like this author because her characters are all “of age” and relatable in that way. But this one didn’t hit for me.

And I finished the week with The Guy In The Alley by Cara Dee, another new author for me. I heard about this book on TikTok and it didn’t disappoint. This was a charming book, MM romance, with fantastic banter. Ben and Trace were great together and it was a refreshing, mature, blue collar romance book. The added bonus of Ben’s autistic son Alvin made the characters that much more appealing, and it was just a really fun read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen