The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag

What begins as a semi-magical stay at a semi-magical cottage ends as another story about pregnant women at an English Women’s Shelter.

19 Years of Reviews

Despite all the buzzy, instagram-thick keywords about making a living as a media blogger, cook and home renovator, the main character's Mrs Marple is just a bit too stupid, a bit too simplistic to care about or believe in. The Hidden Corpse by Debra Sennefelder

"Don't you know I'm going to live happily ever after anyway?" After painting, waxing, polishing, wallpapering, and flowering up her old Nantucket house, Nan tells Sara about a man she met and loved. Sarah replies: but wouldn't it be nice if you met him again and fell in love and livedThe Beach House by Jane Green read by Cassandra Campbell

"You know how Thais are: totally fair minded Buddhists until their personal income is threatened." For we farang, the improbability of Thailand is as good as fiction. Where else would one find a dejected pot-smoking homicide detective and his long-haired assistant, a "Kathoey transsexual who has not yet scraped together theThe Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett read by Stephen Hogan

Good defense attorneys are familiar with the figures of vulnerability: the good father of a mad, ungrateful daughter, the young grieving widow, the secretary who knows too much. And they are familiar with the figures of corruption: the oversexed politician, the narrow-minded small town sheriff, the power hungryThe Suspect by John Lescroart read by David Collacci

Read by Stephen Lang who is good doing liddle giwls and the monotones of the personal(it)y disordered but not wonderful doing Barty who is (we guess) the hero. Unless the real hero is: the theory of quantum mechanics as interpreted by Feynman and the possibility of understanding that things are always all theFrom the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz read by Stephen Lang

Hitachi's beautifully directed High Definition video series called True Stories features a segment on "Coal's Comeback". A bunch of old em·phy·se·mic grandpas are fishing, muttering into the wind, when the voice of Bruce No of Hitachi America announces that Supercritical Technology is the new generation of Coal, the cleanSister Mine by Tawni O'Dell read by Renee Raudman

Remarkably lean and unfussy novelette about a female chef who rediscovers that experimentation is the best part of cooking...The Wedding Gift by Lisa Kevin

The spunky wife of a floor licking, scum sucking, receptionist-nailing hack accountant discovers her husband's infidelity and writes up the dastardly deed in his monthly newsletter which she emails to kith and kin and customers. She accumulates notoriety ("SCORNED LOCAL WIFE SUED FOR SCATHING E-MAIL") , attractsAnd One Last Thing by Molly Harper read by Amanda Ronconi

Do you really want to spend a half an hour of your time listening to a blow by blow account of how Diane, an Elm Creek Quilter, who never remembers to charge her cell phone, gets stuck in a snow storm with only 8% of her battery left to make...A Quilter's Holiday by Jennifer Chiaverini read by Christina Moore

Jesus Mary and Joseph in Rocksburg, Pa. Heartflipping. Smile wrenching. Honestagawd. Self-conscious, thoughtful, slightly misaligned human being, good son, and Detective Sergeant Acting Chief, Rocksburg Police, Rugs [”because some people think they can walk all over me”] Carlucci, falls in love while investigating death of sociopath baseball legend. Utter-fuckingly wonderful.BRUSHBACK by K.C. Constantine :: Lloyd James

Increasingly, the essay, the critique, the report and the annunciation are being reconfigured in the form of fiction. Michael Crichton has mastered this form. His Next is more than a story about the re-distribution of genomes; it is Critique, Satire, Farce and Science Report, with: just the right amount of ironyNext by Michael Crichton read by Dylan Baker

From the very first paragraph, when she almost breaks her tooth on something hard that her mouth found in her peanut butter cupcake, Emily is interesting. Yes, she says yes to an engagement ring. But this is not another goofy romance in which the female not only saves the universeThe Coroner by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush read by Sophie Amoss

Grace, who practices psychiatry on Manhattan Island, relays a story about one of her patients to the interviewer from Vogue: At a very early point in their relationship, before they were married, her husband told her that she had ugly feet. She accepted this, and having accepted this one instance ofYou Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz read by Christina Delaine

An intimate look at the arrangements, organization and order of small town French village life, through the eyes of the jovial, wise and well fed chief of police, for "...not a single pig made it to market without some part of it being offered as part tribute part toll toBruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker read by Robert Ian MacKenzie

Delicious, delightful, entertaining romance about an ambitious lawyer in Chicago and an FBI agent who meet when she agrees to help them capture a corrupt senator. Fast paced, witty dialogue, enchanting story line. Brava!Love Irresistably by Julie James narrated by Karen White