#8 [2025/CBR17] Mr. Nice Spy by Tiana Smith

I downloaded the audiobook of Mr. Nice Spy (2024) by Tiana Smith because it looked like a fun book to listen to on my commute. I'm a big fan of adventurous romances with hunky, protective men, and I figured a book with a CIA agent as its hero would be right up my alley. Mr. Nice Spy started out well. Adam Chan, before we even know he's a CIA agent, saves our heroine (Andee Paxton) from a hulking man who is after her. He's immediately interested in Andee, and manages to clearly convey that to her without being overbearing or creepy.

After a very compelling first scene, the story gets kind of crazy. It's still entertaining, but you definitely just have to go with the flow. Andee is a young, single woman who works as a fireworks designer (cool job). Andee's mother had always told her that her father was a famous actor. After seeing her presumed actor father on TV talking about DNA testing, Andee decides to get tested herself to know the truth once and for all.

Suddenly Andee's been picked up by the CIA after a (very illegal) search of her apartment. They inform her that her father is actually the very dangerous, recently escaped prisoner, and international arms dealer named Holt. They want Andy to work with the CIA. Their plan is that they use her like a pawn in order to draw Holt out, so they can nab him again. Adam Chan is one of the CIA agents, and for what it's worth, he advises her against working with the CIA because its too dangerous and he's interested in dating her.

Before Andee can even make up her mind, both Andee and Chan are kidnapped by Holt and brought to a secret lair in the catacombs of Paris. Holt knew he had a long, lost daughter, and he's been looking for her for years. He had the DNA results even before the CIA, and he acted too quickly for them. He wants Andee (who he calls Karma) to join him in his diabolical scheme to wreak havoc all over the world. Andee and Chan pretend to be a couple, so the gangster won't find out that Chan is CIA. Luckily, they are given a little room dug out of the caves with a rustic ensuite. 

The longer the book went on, the more bonkers the plot got. I liked some of the scenes with Andee and Chan getting to know each other and becoming closer, but the pacing sometimes felt off. I even got a little frustrated at the end when Andee is dragged back into it all over again. In the end, I did like the characters, but this wasn't a favorite for me.

#7 [2025/CBR17] The Women by Kristin Hannah

The Women (2024) is now the third book I've read by Kristin Hannah. I started with The Great Alone, which I loved. Then I moved on to The Nightingale, which I'd seen on countless 'best of' lists. There were some good things about The Nightingale, but on the whole, I was disappointed with it. So, it was with just a little bit of trepidation that I started The Women. Fortunately, I thought The Women was a very good book. I would put it behind The Great Alone, but significantly ahead of The Nightingale.

The Women follows Frances "Frankie" McGrath as she becomes an army nurse in Vietnam. Frankie grew up in a very privileged home on Coronado Island in San Diego. After her beloved brother graduates from the Naval Academy and goes to Vietnam, Frankie decides that she wants to go there as well. Unfortunately, shortly after her decision, her family is informed that Frankie's brother was killed in action. Frankie's parents do not want her going to Vietnam, and she is struggling with grief over her brother's death, but it's too late.

The first half of the book is all about Frankie's experiences in Vietnam. Her culture shock when she arrives, and the noise, bombardment, and violent injuries she sees all deeply affect her. This book really dives into the violence that Frankie sees and the dangers she faces, as well as how everyone there dealt with the stress. Frankie goes from a FNG ("fucking new guy") with no practical skills to a dedicated and talented surgical nurse. She eventually becomes best friends with her roommates, Ethel and Barb. Frankie also falls for a couple men while she's out there: Jamie and Rye. After two tours, and after Ethel and Barb have already been home for some time, Frankie finally goes home herself.

The second half of the book is Frankie's life after Vietnam. Coming home after two years of unending violence and destruction is as much of a culture shock as first arriving in Vietnam was. I think Hannah did a very good job describing how hard these transitions were. When she comes home, the war is already very unpopular, and that is often taken out on those who were over there. Even at the airport, she is verbally attacked and refused taxi rides. But when she arrives home, the reaction from her parents is even worse. As Frankie tries to digest everything she's been through, her parents want to pretend it never happened. In fact, her father had told everyone that Frankie had been studying abroad in Florence this whole time.

Suddenly, Frankie is struggling with nightmares, flashbacks, and inexplicable anger. Time and again, Ethel and Barb come to Frankie's aid--helping her find some semblance of a normal life. Twice, in desperation, Frankie goes to the VA hospital seeking some kind of help, but she and her problems are abruptly dismissed. She is told "there are no women in Vietnam" and that she wasn't in combat, so she needs to solve her own problems. This was so frustrating to read because it was so obvious that Frankie desperately needed help.

Eventually things come to a head, and Frankie is able to go to an in-patient clinic for addiction. There she is finally treated for PTSD, and she is able to make some progress.

Like I said above, I did enjoy this book. Frankie was a complex, often troubled character, and I wanted the best for her. The book was easy to read and very much a page turner. I read the entire last third of the book one morning when I had plenty of other things to do. I also really appreciate that Hannah focused on the women in the Vietnam war, as they are often overlooked. I thought Hannah did a very good job with Frankie's struggles as she joined the war and then tried to get away from it.

Like The Nightingale, there were a lot of coincidences and somewhat unbelievable aspects to this story. It's something I probably paid more attention to after reading The Nightingale. These coincidences/storylines made the story dramatic, but were often just on the edge of being too much--maybe even spilling over to make the story less believable. For instance, Frankie learns of her brother's death the moment that she is telling her mother that she has enlisted. In addition, many people die in Frankie's arms, and they all seem to survive the exact amount of time it takes for Hannah to describe them. Finally, Frankie just happens to run into a man in three different places across the country because he might just be the next love interest. There are some others that would get into some bigger spoilers, so I will leave it at that. However, even though I noticed some of these unlikely coincidences, this book was still moving and informative. Recommended.

#6 [2025/CBR17] Vanishing Treasures by Katherine Rundell

I found Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures (2024) by Katherine Rundell because it was available as an audiobook from my library. Environmentalism and animals are two themes that are right up my alley, so it was no surprise that I downloaded it as soon as it was available.

Vanishing Treasures is a short collection of essays on endangered animals (or animals that have a subspecies that is endangered). The animals vary widely from the very common raccoon and bear to the rarely seen or studied Greenland Shark. Rundell also discusses incredible animals such as the American Tree Frog, whose heart simply stops beating in the winter when the frog is frozen solid. But the heart starts again, on its own, once it warms up--humans have no idea how this works.

The essays often begins with some discussion of the uniqueness of each animal. The Swift is a bird that flies thousands of miles, eating and sleeping in the air. Rundell also often ties in quotes or stories of how humans have viewed these animals throughout the years. For example, the Greenland Shark can live over 400 years. There are sharks swimming around in the ocean that have been alive for so much of our human history. In addition, people's history with bears is rather sad. Bear baiting was popular from the 12th through the 19th centuries, and people kept bears for this purpose. Time after time the poor bear would be put in a pit and attacked by dogs for the entertainment.

Other animals included in this book are the sea horse, wombat, lemur, narwhal, and many others. The pangolin is another animal that is endangered. The world will certainly be less interesting if this scaly anteater were to disappear.

The stories of these unique and interesting animals all end in the same way. Their numbers are declining, and they are endangered--all of them by human action or inaction. Climate change, habitat destruction, and the black market for rare animals or parts of animals are the primary culprits. Unfortunately, the demand for the animal increases as it becomes more rare.

On the whole, I liked this book. It has a purpose, and it educates us on some of the fascinating animals that are at risk--even though it can feel far away from our normal lives. I sometimes wished for a little more information on the animals instead of what just felt like the highlights. I also think this book would have been better reading in paperback rather than audiobook. There are beautiful illustrations throughout the book that I missed out on while listening to it. 

#5 [2025/CBR17] Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge

We chose Mastering the Art of French Murder (2023) by Colleen Cambridge for our next book club book. A young American woman who lives in Paris after World War II solves a murder with the help of her friend, Julia Child. I had never heard of this mystery novel before and wasn't too sure what to expect from it. I enjoy the occasional mysteries, and I like The Great British Baking Show, but I'm not much into cooking. I wasn't sure how I felt about reading about cooking--and/or how the mystery and cooking elements would mesh. But in the end, it was a fun, interesting book. The characters were likeable, and the story was often suspenseful. Apparently, this novel was the beginning of a trilogy, and I think I'll be reading the second book on my upcoming vacation.

Tabitha Knight moved to Paris to live with her grandfather after World War II. She grew up in Detroit, and during the war she'd fixed airplanes. However, since the war, Tabitha had been pushed out of her job by the returning servicemen, and she'd become disenchanted with her options. So she traveled to Paris, where she helps take care of her grandfather and his companion, whom she calls Oncle Rafe. Because of her French mother and grandmother, Tabitha speaks French fluently and sometimes tutors other Americans in Paris.

Tabitha first met Julia Child at the market, and they've become good friends. I only know Meryl Streep's version of Julia Child from Julie and Julia, and the book describes her in a very similar fashion. She seems delightful. Anyway, Julia, her husband Paul, and Julia's sister Dorothy all live together across the way from Tabitha's grandfather. One day, after a late theater party with Dorothy's friends at the Child flat, the body of a young woman who had been at the party, is discovered in the basement. She'd been stabbed to death with one of Julia Child's cooking knives. And Tabitha's name and number is discovered in her coat.

Tabitha's father was a detective, and her natural curiosity gets the better of her as she begins to nose around the case. The French inspector, M. Merveille does not appreciate her intrusions, and the two have an interesting dynamic throughout the book. Tabitha often finds herself in danger as she discovers clue after clue. There are a series of very lucky coincidences that allow Tabitha to solve the case, but the book acknowledges these with throwbacks to all the mystery novels Tabitha loved to read as a child.

In the end, the conclusion of the mystery was a little bit of a let down. But because the book itself was fun and sometimes suspenseful, it was easy to overlook the details of the murders. Recommended.

#4 [2025/CBR17] Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

I've read and enjoyed two books by Christina Lauren*: The True Love Experiment and The Soulmate Equation. So, I decided to go looking for more by them, and that's when I found Something Wilder (2022). I was excited to read this one because Christina Lauren had already proven themselves to me, and because this book takes place in Canyonlands National Park. I love Utah, and I also love a good romantic adventure, so I had high expectations when I began listening to this audiobook. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one as much as the other two books I've read by Christina Lauren.

Something Wilder is a second chance romance between Lily Wilder and Leo Grady. They met each other back in Wyoming when Lily was only eighteen or nineteen years old, and Leo came from New York City to help on her father's ranch for the summer. But circumstances and misunderstandings intervened, and the two haven't talked or seen each other in ten years.

Lily wants nothing more than to be back at that ranch in Wyoming, but her father sold it shortly after Leo's departure. Now she lives and works with her best friend Nicole, as the leader of trips into the red canyons near Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Lily's father, Duke, was a semi-famous treasure hunter, and she uses his fame to go on fake treasure hunts in the wild with her groups.

Then one day, Leo and a small group of his friends show up for one of Lily's tours. Both Lily and Leo are shocked to run into each other. Leo's friend, Brad, was in charge of trip planning that year, and Leo had no idea where they were planning to go until they arrived. Leo also assumed that Lily was still in Wyoming at her beloved ranch.

This part of the book was fine for me. I was excited for Lily and Leo to get over their misunderstandings and get to know each other again. I thought the backdrop of Canyonlands could make for some interesting adventures. But all of a sudden, it felt like the plot went off the rails--or at the very least, the book took off in a direction I was least expecting. Suddenly, there were guns, murder, and very unbelievable treasure hunts.

Instead of enjoying the quiet romance I was expecting, I was suddenly scoffing at the unbelievability of it all. It felt very far fetched, and I think it took away from the romance. I do realize that I'm reading a romance novel, where realism and believability are not the most necessary parts of the genre. However, if ridiculous things are happening in the book, and I'm not distracted by how good the romance is, it will ruin the book for me. Also, because I've spent a fair bit of time hiking, backpacking, and rafting in the area, I've had considerable personal experience in this book's setting. So, the storyline became frustrating and felt silly, which made me lose interest. Perhaps this escapist literature is best when it really has no connection to your real life. I am sure I will try Christina Lauren again, but I definitely preferred the first two books I read by them.

*Christina and Lauren are best friends and a writing team. They use their first names as the author of their books.

#3 [2025/CBR17] Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell

"An Ode to my High School Crush"

I've read a number of books by Rainbow Rowell and always enjoyed them. She writes quiet, introspective, romantic, young-adultish novels with atypical protagonists. So, when I saw that Rowell had a new book out, Slow Dance (2024), I put it on hold immediately. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed this novel. It had well-written, flawed, believable characters, and a similar feel to her other books.

Cary, Shiloh, and Mikey are best friends in high school. But Cary and Shiloh have a special bond. He drives her home every day, and they are more often than not together. Shiloh is constantly bothering him, poking him, and touching him. But despite what seems obvious to everyone else, they remain completely platonic. The book jumps back and forth in time from high school, to college, to the present day.

It's only after graduation, when Cary comes to visit Shiloh in college, that things change. Cary has joined the Navy and made it through bootcamp, and he only has a couple of days to spend with Shiloh. Their relationship is suddenly no longer platonic, but they also don't know how to take things to another level. It seems impossible with Shiloh in school and Cary heading off to his first assignment in the Navy. Eventually their letters peter off, and shortly after that Shiloh begins dating. After her marriage to Ryan, another theater guy from college, Cary and Shiloh lose touch.

Fourteen years later, Cary and Shiloh see each other again at Mikey's wedding. So much has happened, but it seems their attachment to each other has not changed. The two have many misunderstandings and hurt feelings, but they're still very close. Unfortunately, things are even more complicated now. Shiloh has two kids, and Cary spends months at a time on a ship across the world.

I really enjoyed this book. Rowell's characters always feel odd and interesting, yet still like real people. I was rooting for them from the beginning. But what hit me--viscerally and immediately--when I read this book was how much it reminded me of the boy I became very attached to in high school. Let's just call him Matt.* 

I didn't really get to know Matt until my junior year, when he was a senior. We were both in band. I can't remember meeting him, but we became friends and slowly started spending more and more time together. He was a genuinely good person, insanely smart, and a truly amazing piano player. I really admired him. He often drove me home, we saw movies together, he introduced me to amazing music I'd never heard before, and he helped me with my Physics homework.

I had a number of sweet, memorable experiences with Matt. One day he stayed with me after school (I can't remember what I was waiting for), and we were alone in the lockers behind the band room. We were talking and stayed so still that the automatic lights turned off. Then it turned into a game to keep the lights off. We tried moving very slowly, and inch by inch, rolling around on the floor. It was silly and ridiculous, and I had so much fun with him. 

Even with the admiration and affection I had for him, it took a long time for me to realize I *liked* Matt. I think I struggled with low self esteem, so it was hard for me to imagine myself as anyone's love interest. Also, I was absolutely petrified of rejection. It didn't help when another young lady showed interest in Matt, and I couldn't imagine that he would ever choose me over her. Despite how comfortable I was with him and how close I felt to him, our relationship was always purely platonic.

One day, I thought I might risk everything and see if he wanted to go to prom with me. While he drove me home, I'd keep taking a breath and saying, "Okay"--trying to get myself to just blurt it out. But I couldn't do it. Another time, a mutual friend (but more Matt's friend) asked me if I was interested in Matt during Physics class. My knee-jerk, defensive reaction was, "no". There was no way I was baring my tender feelings to that guy in the middle of class.

When Matt began receiving his acceptance letters to colleges, we would drive by his house first to check the mail before he drove me home. I was so excited for him, but I was also miserable that he would be leaving me behind. 

In the end, Matt got into Stanford, a school that did not accept me the next year when I applied. We definitely saw each other again, but I never felt that same closeness and potential for more that I had felt in high school. Even so, it took me forever to get over him, and I was pining for a ridiculous amount of time. 

Rowell's book made me wonder what would have happened if we'd actually gotten together in high school. Maybe a real relationship with someone I liked so much when I was young would have been amazing--affecting the trajectory of my dating life forever. But it's also hard to imagine a relationship lasting through five or more years of separation as we went to different colleges. And if I was pining that badly for him and we'd never even kissed, I can only imagine how bad it would be if we'd been a real couple for awhile. Also, if we were too uncertain and immature to tell each other how we felt, maybe the friendship we had was perfect for the circumstances of our lives at the time. I might only be pretending it could have been better because it never actually happened to prove me wrong. (And it's also very possible that he just didn't like me.)

Since Matt, I have dated a number of guys who were varying levels of not right for me and not good for me. And then I found one that was both right for me and good for me, and we got married a couple of years ago. I haven't thought about Matt or all the angst of high school in so many years. However, the part of this book when Shiloh and Cary are in high school brought the memories and nostalgia back hard.**

*Because his name was Matt

**It looks like this has turned into one part review and five parts therapy, but it felt good to excavate and examine my feelings about this after so much time. Thank you for your patience.

#2 [2025/CBR17] Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

I've been a fan of Liane Moriarty ever since I got sucked into reading Big Little Lies back in 2015. When I saw that she had a new book out, Here One Moment (2024), I knew I was going to read it. Unfortunately, Here One Moment, is my least favorite of Moriarty's novels. It's not bad, but it did not live up to my high expectations. Fortunately, it did get better once I got past the beginning of the novel.

On a delayed flight from Hobart to Sydney, a woman stands up in a trance and tells almost everyone on the flight when and how they are going to die. The woman is an older widow named Cherry and when she is done, she remembers nothing. But a lot of people on the plane have just heard some very disturbing news, and they have to decide if they believe it and what to do with that information.

A stressed out mom with two young kids learns that her baby son is going to drown when he's seven. A brand new bride and groom traveling in their wedding outfits hear that the bride will die of intimate partner violence in a couple of years. The beautiful flight attendant learns on her birthday that she will die that year from self harm. An 18-year-old is going to die in a car crash when she's 19. A middle aged man will die in a workplace accident after his next birthday. A young man who is already grieving the recent death of a good friend learns that he will die in the next year from an assault. And a delightful, retired couple hears that the wife will die within five years of cancer. (I know planes carry a lot of people, but to have so many upcoming deaths on one plane is more than unlucky.)

The book jumps back and forth between Cherry's point of view, as we find how she came to be on that plane prophesizing everyone's deaths, and a select number of other characters from the plane as they digest and react to this unwelcome news.

There were a number of reasons this book didn't work for me as well as some of Moriarty's other books. First, there were so many characters that it took a while to dig into their actual lives and learn something about them. The beginning of the book is just pages and pages of people on a plane, and I needed more information to find them interesting. In addition, besides Cherry acting like a crazy lady on an airplane, I wasn't very invested in her, so I didn't understand why we were getting her life story. As I got to know the characters more, the story did become more interesting, but it took a long time to get to that point. Also, much of the plot felt like it was just random things being done to the characters--things they had absolutely no control over. It wasn't very satisfying.

Secondly, this was a bad time for me to read a long book where the central theme is death and dying. I have a good friend who is currently on hospice. Death seems to be front and center in my life right now, and I'd rather not focus on it for entertainment as well. I did not choose wisely in this instance.