The next two books in the Countess of Harleigh Mystery series (Dianne Freeman)

A Lady's Guide to Gossip and Murder 

A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder

Why I have these books: I borrowed the audio version from the ebook library, and I borrowed the ebooks from Kindle Unlimited. I do prefer reading rather than listening to these ones just because there are a lot of characters, and it's hard to keep track when I'm just listening.

I enjoyed both of the books, although I did give the "Mischief" one four stars instead of the three stars I gave the "Gossip" one. Of the three books I've read so far, it is the most well-written and (in my opinion) is the most clever.

And the coffee mystery is solved! I don't remember which of these books mention it, but the reason Lady Harleigh drinks coffee is that she is American. Duh. I forgot that detail. That kind of nicely clears that up. I don't remember that connection being made in the earlier books, but maybe I missed it. Or maybe a reader brought it up to the author, and she decided to clarify or had to "fix" having coffee be a part of the story when that's not really common in GB. I'll never know, and that's okay. I'm just glad my mind has it neatly filed away now. Haha...

Clean. There is one situation where there is a pregnancy before marriage. I don't recall any swearing other than the word "arse." Is that even a swear word? 

A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder (Dianne Freeman)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from Kindle Unlimited after my daughter recommended the series to me.

Nice, light reading, which is perfect for the first days of summer break. I'd call it a cozy mystery, set in the early 1900's (I think it starts in 1899).

One surprising thing to me was that the main character (an aristocrat) had a morning coffee instead of tea. Since the setting is London, that was confusing to me. I didn't know coffee was a thing in GB. Seems like now, most Brits prefer tea. But maybe I'm just stereotyping. I did do a brief search of the history of coffee in the UK, and I guess it was pretty big at one time, but it seems like tea won out in the 1800's. Anyway, that was an interesting diversion for me. ;)

Overall, this book rated three stars for me. I might have done a 3.5 if that were allowed on Goodreads, but alas, it's not.

Cute story and premise. I'll probably continue to read the rest of the series.

Clean. I don't think there were any swear words or anything else one could find offensive. The story does deal with murder and affairs.

Prairie Tale (Melissa Gilbert)

Why I have this book: I read the memoir of Alison Arngrim (who played Nellie on Little House on the Prairie), and since she mentioned that she and Melissa Gilbert were the best of friends during the filming of the show, I wanted to read Melissa's book, as well.

Backstory: My mom never liked Melissa Gilbert for some reason. I just remember her commenting negatively about Melissa more than once when we were watching the show. This was back when Melissa was just a child. Of course, that got planted in my head, but I realized as I was reading Alison's book that my opinion was only based on what my mom said, and I decided that should give her a chance.

Soooo... I wanted to read Melissa's book, but it was so expensive and not available at the library. I put it on my wish list on Amazon, and finally the price dropped to $1.99.

What to say...?

The book definitely kept my interest. Celebrity lifestyles are interesting, but nothing to admire for the most part. There is so much dysfunction. The way she paints Hollywood in the 1980's is pretty gross, although I guess it was normal to the participants. Lots of casual sex, drugs, and drinking. It surprised me that she was involved in all that because you just kind of categorize actors based on the characters they play. She played Laura Ingalls for years, so I just didn't think of her as a wild celebrity. 

I was surprised that she dated quite a few of the heartthrobs of that time (Tom Cruise, for example), was engaged to Rob Lowe (which I did vaguely remember), and she hung with the "Brat Pack" of the 80's. 

She experienced some rough things in her life, for sure.

Anyway, the book takes us through the early 2000's, and ends with her in her second marriage (with a dedication to her "true companion"). Apparently they divorced within a year or so of the publication, and she's now married to her third husband.

She has another book out, but the reviews are mixed. I'm not sure if I'll read it. 

I gave the book three stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed reading it, but she does seem to do a lot of name-dropping, and for someone who claims to be insecure, she doesn't come across that way. Maybe she just doesn't understand what her life looks like from the view of regular people. Incidentally, she didn't really talk about her friendship with Alison as much as Alison talked about it in her own book. 

She probably lived the way she was conditioned to live in that environment, but it's really a lifestyle that is messed up. I never got the impression that she's risen above it.

There's no descriptive sex, but she does talk about "flings" and affairs she and her partners (and others) had. There's swearing, including the F-word. It's kind of the typical sleazy Hollywood lifestyle shown to you (the reader), but without you having to actually see it.

Tutored in Love (Barbara J. Adamson)

Why I have this book: Fun fact... I know the author. I don't know her super well, and thus I was surprised to find out from a mutual friend that she (the author) loves romance novels. I never would have guessed that.

I gave this one three stars on Goodreads. I liked it fine. Maybe I'm just not into the "young adult romance" stage anymore. As romances go, it probably had more depth than most Christian/clean romances do, so that's good. The writing was pretty good, as well. It flowed nicely.

Even though "church" played a small part in this story, it wasn't religious, per se. The characters just belonged to a young adult church group, and it never specified which church it is even though it appears to have been published by an LDS publishing company.

Clean.

A Different Kind of Gone (Catherine Ryan Hyde)

Why I have this book: I think Amazon recommended it to me for an inexpensive price, so I bought it. The story sounded interesting.

It didn't turn out to be as intriguing as it sounded. It just didn't get deep enough to really "feel" all the stuff that was going on. I gave it two stars on Goodreads. Honestly, it could have been so much better with just some more depth to it.

I'm writing this a bit after I read it (and backdating it), so I don't remember if there was any swearing. The story involves domestic abuse and murder.

Elvis and Me (Priscilla Beaulieu Presley)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library in both ebook and audio forms.

My grandma was absolutely obsessed with Elvis Presley, so I feel like I had quite a bit of exposure to him as a child. I remember when he died even though I was only about nine-years-old. I always saw him as this amazing singer and obviously super famous and universally loved artist.

I'm not sure why I decided to read this book. Mostly curiosity, I guess. I ended up listening to the audio more than reading the ebook. Priscilla did a nice job narrating her book, and I thought her occasional giggles were cute.

But wow. What a messed up world. Elvis seemed to have some issues. Priscilla's parents had some issues, too, since they allowed her way too much freedom while being a young girl. Priscilla had issues, too, although I don't know if she already had them or if they were created due to her life (from age 14 and up) with Elvis.

I've read a handful or two of memoirs from celebrities. That lifestyle is generally not a healthy one from what I can tell. Not all celebrities end up messed up, but the odds don't seem to be good that one will make it through without getting damaged. No exception here.

I thought that even in describing the dysfunction of her marriage and the other relationships in her circle, she stayed kind and loving to Elvis's memory. I was probably more bothered by what her life was about than she was.

I gave the book four stars, but probably would have given it 3.5 if that were an option. I thought it was pretty interesting, but could have used a little more editing to make things more clear for those of us who aren't familiar with their lives.

Clean'ish. She talks about some of their dysfunctional experiences (drugs, sex) in a not-really-descriptive way.

El Deafo (Cece Bell)

Why I have this book: My friend recommended it early this afternoon, and since it was available to borrow from the ebook library, I read it today.

It's a graphic novel, so it was a pretty quick read (although longer than I expected). It's basically a memoir of how Cece (the author) adjusted to losing her hearing at age 4 and how she dealt with figuring out where she fit in with her peers over the next handful of years.

It seems like it would be a great book for all kids (and adults) to read in order to see how those with disabilities might feel. Obviously, this is just one person's story, but I think it would teach readers to be more aware and willing to communicate about what works for those who are hard of hearing or are blind or have other unique challenges. 

I gave it three stars on Goodreads. 

Clean with a little upper-elementary level humor.

I Must Betray You (Ruta Sepetys)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library because I've loved other books by the author.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. Super intriguing, super eye-opening about a part of history (pretty recent history since it's set in 1989... which is recent in my mind) that most of us don't know much about.

I feel like this was geared toward a younger reader (teenage/young adult), but it definitely was interesting to this full-fledged adult reader. It always blows my mind how very awful life can be for humans who live in places or times that are/were so horrific. This is why reading is so important! This is why it's so important for authors to tell these stories and for people to read them. We need to know what happens in the world. It expands our hearts and understanding and gives us the chance to show compassion or give help if we can. Honestly, just saying that sounds so trite. There's so little we can do, and you have to wonder why life can be so completely unfair depending on where you were born. It feels like life is just a game of chance.

There may have been some swearing, but it's not standing out in my memory. This is set in a revolution, so there's war-type violence that's fairly descriptive. 

My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library.

I heard about Jodi's books back when they were still new and popular. I think I chose not to read them because my standards were higher than they are now (haha), and I heard they had the F-word in them.

I probably didn't read this particular one because (besides the content issues), it deals with cancer. I just don't love stories with cancer and death of loved ones. I kind of forgot about that when I put this one on hold.

I gave it four stars on Goodreads. The main "love story" of the book felt a little "Humphrey Bogart" in tone. Kind of that dry bantering you think of with Humphrey's acting. I don't know. I haven't really seen him in very many movies (probably just clips from movies), but that's what it made me think about. I didn't really feel a lot of depth in that particular part of the storyline, and I didn't feel a real connection to them as a couple, although as individuals, they seemed more developed. I feel like I was able to get to know the other characters much better, which is great because the story was more about everything else going on.

It was a very interesting and thought-provoking book. It reminded me that life can be very complex and difficult, and that at any given moment, there are families dealing with some really rough and unfair situations. It's sad.

Plenty of swearing, including the F-word. A small amount of sexual content, mildly descriptive. The story deals with cancer and death.