Review: Reliquary

Reliquary by Sarah Fine
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A disappointment.
Mattie lives in a magical world. She happens to be a reliquary; a magic carrier with the ability to hide that magic (but she can't use it). Her fiance Ben is kidnapped and she jumps in to find him. She meets Asa, a smuggler, who also happens to be Ben's estranged brother. She helps him, he will help her.
Lovely, a love triangle involving brothers. But Ben has a dark side. Unbeknownst to her, Ben is a magical addict and owes a very large sum of money. He also used magic on her without her knowing. Ben is an asshole. But, does she decide he should stay missing? Nope. The ending sucked.
Spoiler- she forgave him and they are still together at the end of the book. I would have thought lying and manipulation would have been ample break-up material.

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Review: Tough Luck

Tough Luck by Annabeth Albert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Age gap (Cash is 38, Danny is 25), best friend's brother, forced proximity (for a bit).
Danny is a retired child actor who is in recovery. He has a stalker. Cash is freshly retired from the military and is unsure of what he wants to do now. His best friend Duncan runs his own (security) company. As a favor, Cash will play bodyguard while stalker is on the lose.
Story is told in alternating points of view. Both find themselves attracted to each other. Overall, I liked the romance, but thought the stalker angle/suspense was very underdeveloped IMO. Danny started out as somewhat immature (mainly because didn't know how to do some routine life things like cooking, driving, etc.). He got better towards the end.

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Review: The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource

The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource by Christopher L. Hayes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good reminder to pay attention and limit screen times on the phone/tablet if browsing/looking at social media sites. Get out and meet people! A good point about the overabundance of information; quite a bit is misinformation.

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Review: Stephen Colbert's Midnight Confessions

Stephen Colbert's Midnight Confessions by Stephen Colbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I adore Stephen Colbert and he is one of the late show hosts that I watch. He is almost always on point with his humor and monologues. This book was fun and exactly what I needed right now.

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Review: Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause

Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About Menopause by Naomi Watts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As I'm getting older, I'm more interested in this subject. For the record, I just turned 47. I like Naomi Watts as an actress and was super curious to check out her book on menopause. I really liked her narrative style. It's very relatable and she goes through the things she's learned and what works/worked for her.
She also points out that menopause is something that hasn't really been studied. It just targets women and who cares, right? It's normalized that it's supposed to hurt to be a woman (periods, childbirth, etc). If a woman asks for something, points something out, and/or advocates for herself, there are still some in the medical community that assume she is hysterical, exaggerating, and something else. The DOGE cuts will hurt research (as will DEI being removed from government websites).
Email or call your congress people. 5calls.org is a good resource.

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Review: Wickedly Wonderful

Wickedly Wonderful by Deborah Blake
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the first book. I struggled with this one and could not get into Beka's (the youngest Baba) story.

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Review: History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don't Want You to Know

History vs Women: The Defiant Lives that They Don't Want You to Know by Anita Sarkeesian
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating since most of the women featured here are unknown (or mostly unknown). This has women who were rebels, villains, athletes, artists, and/or politicians. Most will have heard of Ida B Wells and Margaret Thatcher. And maybe Griselda Blanco (courtesy of Netflix). Just about everyone else will be someone new (or n"newish").

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Review: In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some

In Gad We Trust: A Tell-Some by Josh Gad
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's Olaf! Anyway, Josh Gad is interesting.

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Review: Sagitta

Sagitta by Ruby Lionsdrake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This picks up where the 2nd book left off. A bit of a summary; because while each book covers a different couple, the story-arc continues. In book one, aliens have found (accidentally from the sound of it) Earth (Gaia). Bad thing is, these aliens were slavers who kidnapped humans, aliens and sell them. There is an alien race called the Zi'i that love the taste of human flesh, and these slavers assist them with procuring their preference of meat. Enter the Star Guardians. They are the intergalactic police force. They rescue and arrest the kidnappers. The first book was Orion (a bounty hunter working with the SG) and Juanita (one of the women).
The 2nd book is Angela (she worked at an animal shelter with dreams of becoming a dog trainer & had an unconventional upbringing) and Treyjon's (a SG whose specialty of training svenkars; think dog-like, but bigger and more lethal) story. The story-line progresses. There is an issue with returning to Earth. Some in the coalition do not want to make their presence known. There is also worry of other groups taking advantage of Earth's resources (in this case, the people).
This book is Sage (the Captain) and Tala's (a surgeon on earth) story. Sage has defied orders and left to return the women to Earth. On the way, they encounter the Zi'i who may or may not have an alliance with another alien race (the Scyllan). The Scyllan are fairly unknown and have not been interested in alliances with the human contingent. They barely escape and end up in an unknown & unexplored part of the galaxy. Tala and Sage have a HFN ending (the romance was weaker in this one IMO & is was slow until the Zi'i made an appearance) and a bit of a cliffhanger ending.

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