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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