Week of September 29, 2025

We woke up Sunday morning to quite a surprise: our daughter Maddie, who lives in Idaho, was in our family room. 🙂 She flew in to surprise us and spend a few days convalescing with Ross while he recovered from his surgery, and what a great few days it was. Having everyone together lifted Ross’s spirits and made the dull days at home go much faster. Her visit was much too short, but we enjoyed it while it lasted.

After Maddie left, Ross got the all clear from his doctor for his recovery to really begin, and we high-tailed it to New Jersey for a change of scenery. So we took advantage of bare feet on the beach in October and got Frankie out for his sunny golf cart rides and his beach swims again, and it’s therapeutic for all of us. Getting Ross back to himself is good for all of us. Being his primary caretaker, even only for 8 days, is a lot. But now that he can drive again and he’s not on pain meds and he’s getting back to himself, life is starting to feel somewhat normal again. So we’re grateful for that.

I spent a lot of time picking up and putting down a particular book this week. The book is Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. I started it more than two weeks ago and I can’t for the life of me settle into this book. Some of the chapters are a single page long. It bounces around from one POV to another and it doesn’t tell you who’s POV you’re reading. I don’t typically read more than one book at a time - I like to immerse myself in one book, devour it, and then move on. But this one? I just couldn’t get into it. I’m finding it, well, weird. So this is probably why, for the last couple of weeks my reading count has been a little low (for me, it’s been low.) This book has been lingering like a bad cold. So I called it quits for good. It has good reviews, but I just couldn’t sink my teeth into it at all. Maybe some other time I can pick it back up and try again, but for now, this isn’t it for me.

• 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!

1. The Cuckoo’s Call, by Lily Morton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 296 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM romance, Age gap

   Wren meets older man Mateo while on vacation in Majorca, and Mateo sweeps him off his feet. Mateo, however, wasn’t expecting to be swept off his feet in return. Wren’s free-spirit proves to be just what Mateo needed to allow him to experience life through a different lens for just long enough to see what he’s been missing. This is a classic tale of the wealthy older man wooing the poor younger man who grew up in foster care and never had a sense of belonging anywhere. But it turns out that being bounced around from home to home in his younger life strengthened Wren’s ability to see the positive in things and be as open minded about people as possible. Mateo recognizes this in Wren and he falls for him quickly though he can’t admit that to himself or anyone else out of fear of rejection. This is a nice love story with a found family component to it when Mateo’s grandfather finally gets back involved in Mateo’s life again, and becomes somewhat of a much needed surrogate father/grandfather to Wren as well.

2. We Could Be So Good, by Cat Sebastian. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 383 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM Romance, Historical Fiction

   Loved this book! I’ve said many times that I’m drawn to MM romance books because of the broken male characters, but neither Nick nor Andy was particularly broken and they were absolutely wonderful. This book is set in 1958 in New York City, a time when being queer was a criminal offense, so I suppose that alone is the only “flaw” that makes them broken, and aside from that they were stunning characters. Kudos to this author for very eloquently shining a light on the plight of so many young men during a difficult time in America. This was a beautifully told story, not overtly sexualized, and you couldn’t help but root for Andy and Nick to get the HEA that they deserved to have despite history being against them. Well done.

3. Red Dirt Heart, N. R. Walker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 196 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM Romance, found family

   This was a very quick read, and it reminded me a bit of Unbreak Me by Jesse H Reign, though the scenery was a bit different (South Africa vs. Australian Outback). The plot of this one was relatively simple, with Charlie being the closeted, terrified man, afraid to let anyone know he was a gay man in charge of one of the largest stations in Australia. His father belittled him and sent him away to Sydney to try to educate the gay out of him, and died before the two could ever resolve their differences, whatever that may mean. Charlie had a wonderful surrogate father in George who loved and accepted him, but his biological father’s words still haunted him. When Travis showed up from Texas for a month long work program in Australia, the two are instantly drawn to each other, but neither has the courage to figure out if the other is inclined to act upon their curiosity. They eventually do, of course. And their resulting chemistry is worth waiting for. They are both great characters and their passion for their work and for each other makes them perfect together.

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