Some Will Love It, Some Will Hate It, Nothing Objectively Wrong. This is one of those hyper-"progressive" Gen Z TikTok obsessed romances where how you identify with the characterization of the book itself earlier in this sentence largely tells you how much you're going to enjoy this book, at a very broad, general level at least. Obviously everyone is different and even those generally inclined to love this book may actually hate it or vice versa, but at a review level to give you, the reader of my review, an idea of what you're considering getting yourself into... I think it is a completely fair generalization here. The author has "content warning" spoilers at the beginning of the book - always a mistake to my mind, as to me, they should be available on the author's website with a message in that spot to look there. This is at least in part because these spoilers are impossible to avoid on eReaders in this location in particular, and I and at least some other readers prefer to go into books unspoiled. Now, even if one wants to try to argue back at me "but aren't you doing exactly that in this very review"... 1) It isn't at the front of the book at hand. No matter where you are reading this review, you actively came here away from the book. You're not reading it immediately before reading the actual text of the story. 2) I'm also not being anywhere near as specific in my warnings as the author did, intentionally to avoid spoilers while also allowing readers of this review a chance to better determine if this book may or may not be something they are interested in spending their money and time (but I repeat myself) on. For what it is, it works reasonably well. There's lots of (progressive/ Gen Z/ TikTok style) banter, there's habanero level "spice", there's a fair amount of "coarse language" yet also a metric shit ton of "therapy speak", there's some literal laugh out loud level comedy, and there is ostensibly a romance in here that will hit harder for some than for others - same as pretty well any romance book out there. In short, if you can withstand the biases and worldview of the story itself (or even actively agree with them), you're probably going to like this romcom as much as you do a "generic romcom". There's nothing wrong here - but the only things that make it stick out from the pack at all are also the divisive elements that will attract some readers and repulse others, so those elements come out as a wash to my mind as an overall judgement. Because my "subtractive method" of rating, wherein every book starts at five stars and I need specific, describable, and *preferably objective-ish* reasons to remove stars explicitly states that star removals need to be based on something resembling objective criteria, I have nothing to hang a star removal on here. Again, all flaws here are incredibly subjective and utterly dependent on the reader's worldviews and even moods at the time of reading this book. Some will see no flaws at all, others will want to defenestrate the book almost from page 1. I hope I've done enough here to give you an idea which you may be, and if so I think I've done my job as a reviewer. If you do choose to read this review, please do also leave a review of it in the same place you're reading this one. I'd love to see what you thought of it, and all reviews help the author sell books - and help the author *not* sell books to those who might not enjoy the book, thus helping the author to avoid further negative reviews where possible. No matter what you think of the book and no matter how you write your review, *someone* will think you're an idiot and buy the book to spite you and your review, and *someone* will think the author is an idiot and choose not to pick the book up to begin with. Yes, that even includes people reading this review and concluding that *I* am the idiot in question. ;) So hey, if you're all about the progressive/ Gen Z / Tiktok / therapy talk vibe... absolutely pick this book up, I really do think you'll enjoy it. If you're not completely opposed to those things, pick this book up and give it a try. I think it is at least plausible that you'll like it. If you're more solidly/ completely opposed to those things... maybe just skip this one and avoid the headache. There are other books out there more your style, and I can help you find some of those too. :) Recommended.

Strong Travel/ Foodie / Found Family Drama Shoots Itself In The Foot. This is one of those books where everyone is flawed - and it tells a remarkable story *because* of this, not in spite of it. So if you're a reader where at least one character has to be some level of perfect for you to enjoy the book.... I tell you here and now you're not going to like this one. So save O'Neal yet another 2 star or lower review because you've been warned right here, right now that this isn't your kind of tale. For the rest of us flawed humans, this is actually a remarkable tale of picking yourself back up - and finding some fortuitous help along the way to help you do that. And yes, those people are going to be flawed too, and you may actually get a chance to help them even as they help you... hey! isn't that how friendships and families are *supposed* to work? Have so many of us been so damaged by modern life that we've forgotten this? Or is it the idealized world of booklandia that is just too perfect? Regardless, O'Neal ignores the perfection of people in pursuit of the perfection of story, and she does a truly remarkable job here. One of her books, The Art Of Inheriting Secrets, was the first Advance Review Copy review I posted on my then brand new blog when I started it all the way back in July 2018, and it has been a true pleasure reading her most every year since. Of those I've read in that time, this is easily in the upper half in terms of depth of emotion evoked and pure joy of reading. As a foodie and travel romp, this story also works quite well. While we don't get the steaks or *ahem* Rocky Mountain oysters *ahem* of Colorado, once the story starts traveling beyond the US, we wind up in a few different countries and a few different cafes within each, and the food honestly sounds phenomenal. I hope O'Neal had recipes for these fictional dishes, because I absolutely want my wife to try to make some of them for me. No, I'm not joking about this at all. That is how lovely and visceral O'Neal makes these scenes. Also the traveling itself, at times making deliberate choices within the story to slow down and not just jet-set all over the place, to take the time and really embrace the place you're in (or, more accurately, where we find the characters in that scene... warts and all. But I did mention that for all the praise I've heaped on this book - deservedly - it shot itself in the foot too, right? Well, to discuss that part absolutely goes into spoiler territory, and since the various places I post these reviews don't always have good spoiler tags, let's play it this way, shall we? And now… the spoilers. DO NOT READ BELOW HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Giving. People. Who. Don’t. Want. To. Be. Spoiled. Time. To. Leave. Ok, at this point I’ve given everyone’s eyes a chance to leave before you read what I say next, so HERE COME THE SPOILERS. The blatant mistake O'Neal makes is that she allows her utter disdain for one particular type of tool to come through the page of the text here as much as her love of food and travel does. She didn't need to use a mass shooting to achieve the character dynamics she has here, *many* other things would have worked just as well or perhaps even better. Not even that 'perhaps', as using this particular vehicle and using it the particular way O'Neal does will actively turn people off across the political spectrum for a variety of reasons, and many particularly pro-gun people will likely want to defenestrate the book from the highest available window. (But don't. Read the book anyway, because it *is* a particularly strong tale even with this - it could simply have been *so much more* without it.) Also, she kills a dog. Come on. That is a *complete* throwaway that was 100% an unforced error, and *nobody* likes killing dogs - at least nobody that most of society wants anything to do with. Again, there were other ways to achieve the same results as far as characterizations. You didn't have to kill the dog. Yet neither of these are truly objective criticisms - there are many who don't like guns and will share O'Neal's disdain for them, who will thus praise her for using them the way she did, and like I mentioned, *some* absolute idiots don't mind killing dogs. But is that *really* a crowd you want to *market into*???? Still, because they weren't even approaching objective criticism, I couldn't really allow myself to deduct one or even multiple stars for it - yet it *did* need to be mentioned in this review, if deep within a spoiler coded section. And. Now. We. Come. Back. Out. Of. The. Spoilers. Ultimately, this was a fun, if deep and emotional as well, book that did a lot of things right... and then shot itself in the foot. Maybe even both feet. But you, oh reader of my review, give it a read yourself, then let us know your own thoughts wherever you are reading mine. I'd love to see what you think, even if it is just a few words. Reviews don't need to be long - really only about as many words as the first sentence of this paragraph - and can truly just be "I did (not, if applicable) like this book because (insert a reason here)." You only need 24 words to be accepted everywhere I currently know of, and I just gave you 6 of them (or 7 if you didn't like it). *Anyone* can come up with an additional 18 words. Particularly if you've just finished reading a near 400 page book. :) Very much recommended.

Strong Refutation of Gun and Drug Laws. At least in American politics, the political right loves to demand total freedom re: guns (and has a particularly strong textual Constitutional case for exactly that) yet also demand exceedingly harsh punishments for even minor issues wherein a person is using, possessing, or even being anywhere near some substance the government has decided it doesn't like. In American politics, the political left is the opposite - demanding near total freedom re: substances (despite, to be clear, a clear Constitutional case protecting access there) while demanding ever more draconian punishments for any issue they don't like involving certain tools they don't like. In this text, reasonably well researched with a bibliography clocking in at around 23% of the overall text, Reason Magazine editor Jacob Sullum finally writes a book about the two issues he has spent a career writing for the magazine about: gun control and drug control, and how both have remarkably similar histories and even current arguments. Sullum shows how both ultimately come from racist and classist origins and actively have racist and classist causes and effects even in today's society. He quotes the oft-cited Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow, while pointing to some of its shortcomings. He cites others across the ideological spectrum, showing the strengths and weaknesses of several different ideas through the course of both early American history up through history as recent as 2024. Ultimately, this is not even that arguably the strongest take down of both regulatory schemes I've yet encountered in book form - and the fact that Sullum did it with *two* topics (and shows how closely they are linked, despite "both" American Political Parties handling each very differently) at once shows just how much of a master logician he is. I mean, I consider myself reasonably well versed in various forms of debate, but here Sullum may as well be Neo upon discovering that he really is The One, effortlessly slicing through counter arguments as if they were no more substantive than the hot air coming out both sides of Joe Biden's mouth. (And yes, yet again another libertarian-based book, and another book were former US Senator and now former President Joe Biden is cited - and showing how wrong he was - seemingly more often than any other US President, including the current one as I write this review just over a month before publication of this book. The other similar book being Radley Balko's excellent 2013 book Rise Of The Warrior Cop.) If you're at all interested in gun control or drug legalization in the US, from any position and any angle... you need to read this book. Even if just for opposition research. Because even if I didn't agree with Sullum's positions (and I don't... maybe 5% of the time here ;) ) this truly is a very solidly reasoned and examined argument against government regulation of either object, at least as regulations of either currently stand or are largely even thought of at all, and even if you are 100% opposed to Sullum's stances here, you'll do yourself a favor by examining his arguments if only to try to find a way to counter them. Truly well done, truly well organized narratively, and absolutely... Very much recommended.

Solid Conclusion With One Significant Flaw. As a conclusion of a trilogy, this story works *extremely* well. We get a contained story here that is on par with the other books, yet we also get closure for each of our main characters and answers about the overall mythos established in the earlier books as well. Yes, for fans of books having every possible plot thread tied into a nice little bow before "THE END"... this trilogy is "officially" for you. Which means that by its very nature, this book was always going to be rather explosive, and it absolutely lives up to that. Johnson, a lawyer before becoming a published author, manages to bring us into a courtroom... well, like a seasoned lawyer should be able to. ;) But seriously, he actually exposes what the process of a Grand Jury can be like, particularly through the viewpoint of someone testifying about charges the prosecutor is trying to level against the person testifying. This drives a significant part of the book, and is done quite well... mostly. The significant flaw here is that interspersed with the Grand Jury testimony, we get flashbacks to the events at hand. Rather than staying in the courtroom, we flash back and see the events as they actually unfold. Which is awesome, to a degree - show me, don't tell me, right? Yet even with my Autistic brain (some may argue *because of* my Autistic brain if they don't notice this issue ;) ), the actual manner in which we go between courtroom and flashback is a bit jarring and at times even fairly difficult to ascertain which timeline we're currently in. Yes, there are a few clues, but with the way the testimony is written... at certain points it could truly feel like you're in either one. And yet the story overall really is richly layered, really on par with the movie version of For Love Of The Game, wherein there also we get a "real time" event and glimpses of what led to that moment as the moment plays out. (Except that doesn't actually happen in the book form of that tale, btw. This is absolutely one case where the movie form of the tale is *so* much stronger.) Indeed, it is this rich layering that makes the Grand Jury scenes pop as much as they do, as well really begin to see how Mary Beth thinks in ways we didnt get even in the first couple of books here. All of this noted... with this trilogy, each book really does build on the one before it, so go pick up Moonshine Messiah, book 1, first. Then work your way up through this book. If you like kick ass action and cops who aren't afraid to at least test the boundaries... you're going to love this entire series. When you read it, make sure you leave a review wherever you see this one. It doesn't have to be anywhere near as long as this one, it doesn't even actually have to be as long as this sentence. But no matter how verbose or brief you may be and no matter your opinion of the book, it will help the book sell. Even if you absolutely *hate* the book and think Johnson is a complete idiot, some will agree with you... and some (to be clear, I'll tell you right now I'll be in this camp ;) ) will think you're the idiot and buy the book to spite your "negative" review. Thus, either way, reviews help sell books. So please, write one, no matter your thoughts on the book. If the trilogy sells well, maybe we'll get another series from Johnson. Which would be awesome, based on how good a storyteller he proved to be in this trilogy. Very much recommended.

Max Lucado-Style Examination Of John. With a title like this, the easy assumptions are that the book is going to be some kind of fluffy bullshit "self help" slop that never actually helps anyone or that it is going to be so "inclusive" of everything that it excuses everything and just make everyone feel better about themselves, no matter how horrible they may be. Except that is about as far from what we actually get here as is possible to be. What we actually get here is an insightful look through the Gospel of John that shows elements both of the Gospel as a whole and of specific stories herein that even I, who have studied this Gospel extensively throughout my own 42 years and counting and even preached my one "official" sermon on one of the very passages Butler spends a chapter walking us through in this text, had never known before. Even Lucado, for all his awesomeness, hasn't exposed some of the elements of these stories and this book the way Butler does here, at least not in anything I've read from Lucado. (Though Lucado *does* have an even stronger look at what was going on at the Feast of Tabernacles, in a vivid description I'll never forget and have often retold...even though I don't remember which of Lucado's books it came from.) Butler exposes here more clearly than I've ever seen anywhere just how much the Gospel of John was written explicitly to show people just how much God loves them, in a way that the people - particularly his fellow Jews - of the era would understand much more deeply than is obvious millennia later and in a completely different language and far different culture. In revealing all of this rich detail, he does for the overall Gospel exactly what Lucado did for the Feast of Tabernacles - he makes it *so much more real and vivid*. Even as someone who truly has studied this very text off and on almost literally since he could read at all - I'm fairly certain John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life" was literally one of the first things I could read at all, growing up in Sunday School and the Church nearly as much as I was in public school -, Butler reveals elements that make the book so much more alive even *for me*. Details like the entire structure of the book being a common way to structure Jewish tales even as far back as the time of Moses, that the frequent references to time were as much about story as about connecting those particular stories to particular periods of Holy Week / Passover - the days when Christ made His ultimate sacrifice. These are literary details that one may expect a Southern Baptist church to gloss over, perhaps, but I even took a Junior level collegiate class in Scriptural Literature as an elective in college and never learned this! Granted, this was a public college and not even a private school, much less an actual Seminary, but still! *Scriptural*. *Literature.*, and I didn't learn about this *literary* technique! I had to learn about it over 20 yrs later in a random book by some preacher most people have never heard of! Now, about the assumption at the top that this would be some kind of bullshit that excuses everything? Nah, Butler aint about that. Butler was pilloried barely two years ago for his book Beautiful Union: How God's Vision for Sex Points Us to the Good, Unlocks the True, and (Sort of) Explains Everything, because he *dared* look at all aspects of sex from a Biblical, conservative Christian viewpoint. He got a *lot* of fire over that book, including one "reviewer" infamously going in and rating any book with his name attached to it at one star on Goodreads, even a book literally titled at the time "Untitled [I forget the year number here now] Joshua Ryan Butler Book", which given when I saw that she had done this, I suspect he hadn't even started writing yet at that moment! Yet here Butler references the exact same take on these same issues and has similar types of takes on many more. And yet, like Lucado, Butler aint exactly about making people feel judged either. He's not going to hesitate to call out sin... but he also does it in a caring manner that makes it clear that we are *all* sinners in need of grace, he more than any of us. If you don't like Christians or anything to do with Christianity... why are you reading a book that literally has the name of Jesus in the subtitle? Seriously, if you're that bent out of shape for whatever reason - and maybe there is legitimate trauma there even... just ignore this book. If there is trauma there, get the help you need for it. But don't bother reading this book until you do, because it is just going to piss you off - it is literally a book that talks about Christ on every single page, and you're not ready for that. If you're this type of person, just ignore the book - don't bother reading it, and because you're not going to read it, don't be like that other asshole I told the story of above and rate one star something you never actually read. Yes, I know, it gives you that dopamine hit for a minute or two, but that's it, just a shallow high that you'll need something else to get that feeling in five minutes. For those more open to Christianity - again, for whatever reason, even at just a comparative religions type level - check this one out. Even if you don't agree with Butler's takes on sin and the various societal and personal issues he discusses here, like I noted above, there's a lot of legitimate learning here that even I didn't previously know, despite my own extensive studies of this particular text. I might even go so far as to say that even if you have some Doctorate level degree specifically on the Gospel of John... there's probably *something* in here even you wouldn't be aware of. Read this book, then write a review and let the rest of us know your own experience with it. This has been mine, and I'm interested to see what yours is like. Oh, and that star deduction despite everything I've said above? As with so many others - even Lucado, maybe *especially* Lucado - there is rampant proof texting (citing Bible verses out of context as "proof" of some argument) here, even in a book whose overall narrative structure is walking through a single book of the Bible. I wage a war on this practice, and my only real "weapon" in that war is a star deduction on every review I write where the book uses it. Very much recommended.

Excellent And Atypical Examination Of Serial Killers And Their Relationships. When I first met Drake, several years ago now, she was a cowboy romance author. Seriously, that was the first several books of hers I read, and they were all excellent. More recently, she started turning in a more women's fiction direction, and here she proved that she really has a knack for making rooms quite dusty whenever she wants to execute on such a scene. With this book, she pivots slightly to create a women's fiction tale... centered on a serial killer, given the recent fad of books involving that topic. (Even as I've just in the last couple of days seen data that serial killer activity apparently peaked in the 1980s and has dramatically declined since then in the real world, fwiw.) Here though, Drake does a truly excellent job taking a tack I've never seen before: What happens when you've been married to a guy for decades, borne his children, and *then* find out he not only *is* a serial killer, but that he has actively been killing people throughout your marriage? How does this affect you both in practical terms and mentally, relationally, and socially? How does it affect your kids, particularly your teenage son who is old enough to both be cognizant of what is going on and be affected in his own relationships and social structures? Drake applies her usual skill and remarkable storytelling abilities to craft a truly intriguing and insightful look at just how someone could really work through exactly these things, and in making it all too real, allows the rest of us to safely examine one nightmare we hope we never have to actually live out. Very much recommended.

Hilarious And Spicy Beach Read Romance. I don't normally proclaim a book to be a "beach read" as by definition, *any* book you bring to read on a beach is a "beach read", and I don't know what books every reader is bringing to every beach for all of known humanity, thus I can't possibly proclaim what a "beach read" is. That noted, this is *absolutely* a book I could personally envision myself or many others enjoying at a warm beach (again, not all beaches are warm - anywhere sufficiently north or south on the globe yet along a large body of water will have a beach that will be cold) or perhaps poolside on a warm day or perhaps even on a cruise in some warm location. The reason being the two parts (of 5) of the book that travel specifically to warm Spanish locations - Mallorca and Seville, where the warmer-than-the-British-Isles location actually plays a role in how some of the events come to be. Now, for those wanting a *quick* read... this aint that. This book clocks in at nearly 400 pages, and it takes nearly 100 of them to get to Part II - after Mallorca. For those less interested - for whatever reason - in the day to day banalities of being a K12 classroom teacher... know that this book deals fairly significantly with these in the back 2/3 of the book, as that is one of the drivers of the rest of the tale - the couple from Mallorca find themselves working down the hall from each other in a school, in the same department. (In the description so not a spoiler, btw. :D) For those readers who can barely tolerate a warm glass of milk spice wise, know that this tale is somewhere between a Habanero and a Ghost chili - you're *going* to see and feel it, and you might come to regret all that you saw and felt. Which is actually where some (much?) of the comedy comes in, particularly in Mallorca and to a lesser extent back in Seville. The London and Paris sections were seemingly relatively less "spicy" and it was within these sections that we get a lot more of the non-physical drama and romance. Overall I thought this was particularly well done, even at its length. The romance was enough to be both playful and heartfelt. The spice was enough that you may want either your partner or a towel - no shaming here - nearby. The comedy was everywhere from chuckles to damn near literally "I can't read right now because I'm literally rolling on the floor laughing so hard my gut may well explode and my ass may literally fall off". And for those reading this because the title is apparently a Chappell Roan song? No idea there. The most recent music I regularly listen to is now seemingly at least 15 yrs old, with newer stuff from John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, and a few other film composers thrown in along with the *occasional* random find on Spotify. Let's face it, you're coming to me for *book* recommendations, not music recommendations. ;) Very much recommended.

Solid... Mystery/ Christian Fiction? Christian Fiction/ Mystery? This is one of those action/ mysteries where both the mystery and the action pick up almost from the first words... and then you'll hear the characters involved in actively hiding (or hunting, as the case may be at times) also actively praying. It also picks up a bit after the events of Book 1 and actively continues some of the threads left dangling there, so if you've already read Book 1 (and you really should), you largely already know what to expect from Goddard's style here. On the mystery/ action side, this book was 100% spot on. Great use of the Pacific Northwest setting in all of its environments, including both on the water and in the forests. Solid pacing throughout, it is really going to make you feel like you're reading a more explicitly Christian Matthew Reilly or early Jeremy Robinson book at times - the pacing can get *that* frenetic. But it isn't sustained throughout the book, and thus isn't *quite* as "balls to the wall" as those authors tend to do. Still, their fans would likely find quite a lot to like here, and particularly with Robinson's early works being more overtly Christian themselves... yeah, a really good fit action wise there. :) The Christian side is admittedly where some will absolutely *LOVE* that these facets are included, and others will at best roll their eyes or even actively defenestrate the book over. Hence emphasizing this side of the book in the review - if you truly detest all things Christian, know up front this is NOT the book for you, and that is *perfectly fine*. There are many other awesome books for you without this focus, please just let those who do want this to have it, and follow me wherever you're reading this review and I guarantee you I'll show you something more to your liking at some point. :) Ultimately truly a strong sequel, and I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series -= apparently currently scheduled for February 2026! Very much recommended.

Strong Enough Debut. This is one of those books that could have absolutely used a touch more editing re: making the various timeline jumps a touch cleaner, but otherwise was a reasonably strong debut that absolutely did the singular most essential thing for any debut book: It made me want to see what the author does *next*. Was this book perfect? No. There's a fair amount here that various people will criticize for various reasons, but there is nothing really objective about any criticisms here, and I try to keep my own as objective as possible. It technically meets all known RWA / RNA requirements. The spice level is somewhere around a jalapeno, maybe habanero - a touch spicy, but nothing those used to more powerful chilis will even bat an eye at, yet could still give heartburn to those more accustomed to a warm glass of milk. But there is absolutely *enough* here, even if in near extreme slow burn, "JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER ALREADY YOU MORONS" form, to truly want me to see where Blakely goes next, what setting she may choose next, what pacing, etc. Other reviewers proclaim this to be a People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry clone, but I don't exactly read the books that get on all the lists (for the most part) like Ms. Henry's books - I'm the guy you usually come to when you want to hear about the books that will *never* be anywhere *near* those lists - yet are absolutely as good as anything there, and better than most of them. So I can't tell you if it actually *is* similar to that book or not - I can only tell you that I truly enjoyed it, and I've absolutely read romance novels both not as good as this and much better than this, but this is right in that sweet spot in the middle where I'm still truly glad I got a chance to read this book. Truly a solid story, one I think many will genuinely enjoy. Very much recommended.

Less Destination-y, Less Thrill-y, Still Solid Sophomore Submittal. Ochs' debut last year, The Resort, was a book where the exotic tropical setting played nearly as much into the plot as any of the characters themselves, and where the cat and mouse game kept you guessing nearly through the last words (at least per my review I wrote back then - nearly a year and over 200 books between reading this one and that one... I remembered it as solid, but yeah, I don't retain most details that long. :D). This one still takes you to the destination, and you absolutely still see the beauty in the various areas of Australia that she brings us to... it just isn't *as* critical to the overall plot as the destination itself felt in The Resort. The thrills and suspense are still absolutely here, but in a more dual timeline nature where we see stuff happening in each that we know won't end well in either, rather than the more cat and mouse active timeline investigation of the first book. Not to say that element is completely gone, as there is in fact an investigation here, and there are absolutely several twists even through the last words yet again. It just felt somehow... slightly "less" again. More solid standard than spectacular standout. This could well be from the sheer fact that an author has a lifetime to craft their debut... and then just weeks, months if they are lucky, to craft their sophomore and subsequent efforts. So this isn't really a knock on Ochs at all, just the nature of the beast, really. I'm not disparaging this book in any way whatsoever - it really was quite good, and actively better than some. This bodes well indeed for future efforts, as if *this* is *all* the dropoff we get from that phenomenal first foray, Ochs will certainly be an author to watch for the rest of her writing career, however long that may be. Truly an excellent work that shows off several different regions of Australia well enough for someone who has only ever seen those regions on a screen and has never once so much as seen the Pacific Ocean - or even been within 300 miles (roughly 500 km, for those who refuse to use freedom units) of it. I'm sure my friends and colleagues who have actually been to - or even in some cases live in - the areas depicted might have a different take there, but it absolutely worked well enough for this Southern US man. Very much recommended.

Update The Outsiders To 2009 ish Florida And You Have This Book. Seriously, this is one case where the publisher got the first line of the description (at least as it exists on publication day) 100% spot on. While there is perhaps more here than many will be comfortable with allowing even in high schools, much less younger ages, this is also absolutely a book that should be at least on the recommended lists for college level ENGL courses. Speaking of things that are perhaps a touch rough for younger readers - and that many adults prefer not to read themselves, let's dispense with a bit of a listing here: the entire damn book centers around a drug gang and the relationships within it and on its boundaries. There is a fair amount of sex - not erotica level, and really more "fade to black" than anything, but still, more than most will be comfortable with particularly younger readers being exposed to. The violence is at least as intense as The Outsiders, but with a more gun focus rather than the 50s era knives and fists. There are also some rather graphic and disturbing scenes of hunting, including hunting endangered animals that have only recently been brought back from the brink of full extinction through much human effort. Aside from the above though, this really is quite a strong book. Yes, at least as strong as Hinton's famous masterpiece - though one presumes Pan would prefer to have a follow up that gets as much acclaim as the first. Based on what we have here, this reader in particular would love to see what Pan can do when he *doesn't* have a lifetime building up to this day - the day I write this review being release day of the book, despite having had it for several months. It happens to be my 98th completed read this year, and I've read 134 books since picking this one up from NetGalley on November 30, 2024. At nearly 500 pages, this book doesn't *quite* qualify as a "tome", yet is also nearly 50% longer than most books even I read, and certainly one of the longer non-scifi/ fantasy books I've read. Looking back in my records, I've only read 8 books longer than this one that were neither nonfiction nor scifi/ fantasy since my spreadsheet began at the beginning of 2019. But perhaps you're a reader that prefers such longer books. In which case, you're going to love this one. If you're a reader that generally prefers shorter-than-this books... well, I still thought this one worked well even with its length, and I urge you to give it a try. Either way, if you do read it, make sure you leave your own review and let us all know what you thought of the length here. :) Again, for me this was absolutely a strong debut, truly a modernized Outsiders - which is high praise, as I, like so many Americans, truly cherish that story - and is thus... Very Much Recommended.

Pulse Pounding Harrowing Mystery. This is one of those books that feels like it could be a series finale even through the beginning of the epilogue. Spangler has already shown earlier in this series that he isn't afraid to kill team members off, and that knowledge feeds the tension of oh so many scenes throughout this book. But there *is* a lot of prior series history baked into this book, in more than just the obvious ways, and so for that reason it is better for long time fans of this series rather than those potentially looking to jump in. (For those wanting to jump in, I recommend going back to either the *very* beginning, Book 1 - Where Lost Girls Go, or at minimum where I personally joined the series, with Book 4 - The Crying House. I've loved every book since, and I think many who find books due to my reviews will as well. :D) But for those of us who *have* been around this series for a while... wow. What a ride. Spangler has been known to have some creepy killers throughout this book, but with these he is beginning to cross into Thomas Harris (he of The Silence Of The Lambs fame and creator of Hannibal Lecter) territory, though some might argue that Spangler has been at least at that level for several books now, he just doesn't insist on going *that* far with *every* book the way Harris does. :) So whether you're reading this for the coastal Carolina family vibes (and to be clear, those play nearly as much a role deep in this series as the mysteries of each book do) or whether you're coming for the mystery and in particular because I just called out Harris, know that Spangler does a tremendous job of marrying both together, and indeed, as with Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, it is the familial bonds and the comfort there that makes the sheer utter depravity of our killer here balance so well in this book. Again, long time fans, you're gonna love this - and have probably already read it by the time I write this review for my spot in the publisher's blog tour the Monday after the book released on Friday. For those just coming in, you're going to be glad this book is already here... and you're going to want the next one in your hand immediately too. Which means Spangler should probably get a jump on writing it. ;) Very much recommended.

Complex Web Of Secrets. You're in your 30's/ 40's or so - old enough to have mid teen kids yourself - and you've been going to the same lake houses for literally decades at this point with the same neighbor families, so you've effectively grown up with these people. Considered them close friends. Perhaps even family. You know you know them. But do you? Do they know you? Do you as a collective know all the secrets the lake - or even the houses you've come to all these years - may hold? You have your secrets. They have theirs. The lake has its. All is about to be revealed... (Yeah, yeah. I don't normally do a version of a description for a review, but seriously, *for this book*, I think the above is largely the best way to do the review. There are elements here that some will love and some will hate - there are a lot of characters and at least a few different narrators here, and the book takes over 350 pages to tell a somewhat simple (at a high level at least) tale. Breakneck action, this is not. But it *was* a *really* good tale of relatable friends and family... even when some of them are pretty open scumbags. The tale is rather dark, and there are no white knights to be had here. Just a group of people doing the best they can in rather interesting and stressful situations. So give this book a chance, read it, and write your own review and let us know what *you* thought about it.) Very much recommended.

Inverted Hillbilly Elegy. That really is the easiest way to have a general idea about this book. Take nearly everything about Hillbilly Elegy, invert it, and you have a pretty solid approximation of Grant's thinking. Told as a native of the eastern/ southern side of Appalachia rather than the western/ northern side, this is a man who went to prestigious Southern schools (his dad was shot in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting) rather than prestigious Northern schools ("the" Ohio State and Yale). Instead of going into the military as a way out of Appalachia, Grant had already left Appalachia long ago as a businessman and came back during COVID to work in a purely peaceful, yet also Constitutionally guaranteed, service - the United States Postal Service, with its own sworn oath remarkably similar to that of the military's. Instead of "spreading Democracy" as a desk jockey PR flack in Baghdad, Grant was the first person outside their homes and families that many people in his rural area of Virginia saw during the global shutdowns of COVID, spreading hope person to person in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the titular Postman of both David Brin's original book and Kevin Costner's movie (neither of which Grant ever mentions, to be clear). Instead of learning to fire a rifle from ROTC, Grant learned from his family and friends - including his avid fly fisherman dad. Instead of never really needing one in the safe zones of Baghdad (as Vance himself noted, to be clear), Grant speaks of the necessity of his John Browning designed 1911 pistol in the hinterlands of Appalachia - even against explicit USPS policy, as Grant notes more than once. Instead of the dangers of a broken family, Grant's dangers come from both his own mind and the natural world around him, including an incident with a hornet nest as well as the burning and freezing of working out of a largely uninsulated metal box. Now, Grant doesn't seem to have any ambition for public office - even when Hillbilly Elegy came out, Vance was already running for US Senate - and that is truly one key distinction here. And yet, there are so many other similarities that the dichotomies really do speak to how you, the reader of my review of this book, can begin to get an idea of the overall nature of the book and whether you might be interested in reading it. In all honesty, this is absolutely one I would recommend for anyone even remotely interested in learning about the lives of a "normal" (if any of us really are) American in a job most of us will never have, but who came to that job during a period where most all of us experienced massive upheaval. (To be clear, I was atypical during that period - the *only* difference in my job was that suddenly I was doing it from my home rather than driving across town to a cubicle I largely hated being in anyway. At the time I was working for a Fortune 50 global bank, and had been for a couple of years already. I wouldn't leave there until long after the world had regained most normality, such as it had by the mid 2020s at least.) Now, you may be asking me, "Jeff, why didn't you deduct a star for relying on COVID so much? You literally did that in your very last review for a book set in that exact same year." Which is a fair question, because I did do that and I do maintain that I largely don't want to read anything about that year at all. But it is also a *nonfiction* and specifically *memoir* based look at that year (which also spared it the star deduction for lack of bibliography, as this was purely memoir), and it was clear from the description - that mentions Grant losing his job in March 2020 specifically and becoming a mail carrier after that point - that this book would be covering that period in some manner. Thus, I can't exactly deduct a star for a real life look at that period that I was explicitly told up front was exactly that. Overall a truly solid work perhaps more in the vein of the relatively unknown One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Frick (which told of a Dartmouth graduate's experience as a Marine officer who was among the first "boots on the ground" in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the post 9/11 era) than Hillbilly Elegy, yet also with the direct contrasts between itself and Hillbilly. In other words, compelling, interesting, and... Very Much Recommended.

Rich And Multilayered Story Marred By Emphasis On COVID. At one point during/ after the world collapse due to COVID-19, I had an ironclad star deduction policy for any mention of COVID whatsoever. One line referencing it even obliquely was usually enough to trigger it. I've relaxed that policy over the years and no longer apply it for such one off/ tangential references, so long as they are minimal and don't actually impact the story beyond an attempt to acknowledge the reality of setting any story in that period of world history. This noted, I absolutely still apply it religiously when a story makes COVID a primary focus of the story... and unfortunately that happens here. Borgos could have used almost literally anything else to achieve some of the same ends he uses COVID for here, and it would have worked reasonably well - hell, some of them could have even tied into themes from earlier in the series. But he chose to use COVID, and that is damnable to many - and a major issue for me. Enough to warrant the star deduction, at minimum. One of the other major themes here is perhaps just as volatile, if more locally - that of Nevada's wild horses and what should be done about them. This story plays out across the entire book, and Borgos seemingly does a solid job of showing the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. I say "seemingly" here as as a native of the borderlands between Appalachia and Atlanta, I can certainly count on both hands the number of times I've even been west of the Mississippi River - and I'm pretty sure I can count them on one hand. I've only been west of Texas *once* - a weekend nearly 20 yrs ago in Phoenix, Arizona. Thus, I don't really know anything at all about how Nevadans feel about this issue one way or the other, and unlike Borgos, this isn't something I've spent a lifetime in and around- culturally, at minimum. (Now, if the issue is the American Civil War... different story. But that particular topic doesn't apply to this book. :D) Outside of these issues (and even inside of them, to a degree), this is a police procedural in form and format, if a more interesting/ less typical version of the sub genre in its particulars. Throughout this series, Borgos has made a truly interesting and compelling character in Porter Beck, a fully fleshed out, heroic yet flawed in his own ways, man of his world. Supporting characters, including Beck's dad and sister, are equally compelling, and even other relationships come across as all too realistic, particularly as things develop further in this book with these relationships. Even secondary characters such as the various suspects of this book are fleshed out much better than other authors generally do, including some rather horrific backstories that have enough detail to them that they seem based on at least generalizations of specific real world people and events. Indeed, once one gets beyond the COVID and beyond the horse issue- both central to this particular story, to be clear - and perhaps beyond the issues of foreign ownership and mining also discussed here, though less prominently and in far less detail, the actual story here between the various characters themselves is actually quite strong, and everyone plays their roles rather superbly. Borgos has done an excellent job of building this world in a realistic, complex manner that reflects on the real world issues of its place and time in a manner that provides food for thought for all involved and for those completely unfamiliar with the area or its issues, and in so doing presents a solid story for all readers, but particularly male readers who may be looking for more male-oriented books that don't have the problems that more extreme forms of entertainment and/ or discussion all too often have. Very much recommended.

Sun Drenched Suspense. From South Florida to a luxury island near St Maarten (itself, I can personally testify, an extravagance that needs to be experienced), this is one of those books that will transport you to its location quite well... but is it a Hotel California situation? ;) Featuring a female IT specialist as our lead - not an overly common occurrence, even with literal decades of focus in specifically trying to recruit exactly this demographic into both college Computer Science programs and professional level jobs (even long before anyone had ever heard the acronym "DEI") - this is a book that blends different forms of exotic with all-too-common petty jealousies and rivalries into a mashup that looks fresh and yet is also as old as time - well older, if you're a computer geek and know well "when time began". ;) The overall story here is well done, but in a dual timeline model that many will enjoy but some will not. This one isn't going to move the needle either direction for most readers as far as the dual timeline concept goes, but it *is* executed solidly here, with clear jumps and with the earlier timeline having clear and direct impact on the current timeline. Overall a well done tale that fans of Woods' previous book (as Woods), Ladykiller - one of my BookAnon.com Top 24 Books of 2024 - will enjoy, and fans new to this form of Woods' writing will get a solid view of how she now approaches stories and storytelling. I was excited to see where Woods would go coming out of Ladykiller, and I'm excited to see where she will go next after this book as well. Very much recommended.

Lonsdale At Her Absolute Best. Gah. These past couple of weeks. So very much going on. My wife had a widowmaker type heart attack, survived while having 2 stents placed in arteries 90 and 100% blocked, and is having a stent placed in her 80% blocked widowmaker artery later this week. Lonsdale herself suffering an unimaginable personal tragedy that is unfortunately all too common - even one of my own aunts has suffered it, and then we get to the dozens of people - including kids - dead in the Texas flash floods less than a week after Lonsdale's tragedy. Bill Goldberg is facing his retirement match in Atlanta this weekend, and his own father died a week before that match. All the neverending political bullshit. Even I'm facing direct challenges in my own life that in some cases even my wife isn't as fully aware of just how much they're weighing on me as maybe she should be, things that few beyond family would even care about - if even them - and which I doubt I'll ever publicly discuss. And then we get to this book. Escapism at its absolute finest, but with so many layers so expertly and intricately crafted that it pulls at the heart just enough for catharsis without delving into pain. That exquisitely powerful balance that the singular best description I've ever found of it (so far?) was the moment in XMen: First Class where Charles is teaching Erik to harness his full power and move the (60s era giant) satellite dish some distance away. Lonsdale, in this second chance romance book with various things that will irk various readers, manages to capture that feeling so well without ever even acknowledging it. This is a romance for the real person. The flawed person. The one with flawed parents. Even the one without parents any longer. The one who just wants to do their job, do it well, and go home to be with their cat and their friends. (Sorry, dog lovers. This is a cat book. Read it anyway.) If you need your romance books characters to be some idealized Superman or Wonder Woman, well, this book isn't really for you - but you should still read it anyway, because it will pull at even your hardened heart strings. If you need ghost pepper level spice in your romance books, again, this book isn't really for you - but read it anyway and discover how there is so much more to love than just the physical. If you need your books to have some kind of political messaging, again, not the book for you. Read it anyway and discover the power of *real* relationships, where love and community hold sway over the raw desire for domination and subjugation. Read this book because as excellent as Lonsdale's books have been over the years, whether it be the early "Everything" trilogy of romances or the more recent women's fiction books of the "No More" trilogy and Find Me In California, this really is Lonsdale at her absolute best yet. And I am 100% honest in saying that of the 90 books I've read this year upon finishing this one, this is absolutely in contention for best of the year, certainly for best of the year so far. Very much recommended.

Rare (Possibly Unique?) Genre Bender/ Blender From The New God Of Science Fiction. Every damn time I say "this is Jeremy Robinson at his absolute best", he comes out with another book even better - usually with the very next book. :D Here, we get the kick ass scifi action Robinson gained his following for - he's never going to go far from that, in my experience having read every book he's written. But we *also* get an emotional depth that is sometimes less prevalent in his tales, and here we get it to the levels of his most emotional books to date such as The Distance or Alter. Indeed, it even harkens back all the way to The Last Hunter in some ways, with being even more blatant about just how much a father loves his son. But then... the genre bending. Some of it, I'm not going to even hint at here, as it would be a massive spoiler. But I *can* say, given that Robinson has used this particular blend at other times (notably in the "Infinite Timeline"'s The Dark), that the horror here is some of the darkest, sickest, most vile horror I've seen on page in quite some time - the kind of horror that makes you question even friends you've known online for approaching two decades and have even shared a few meals with in real life over the years. The other bit of genre bending though... you're going to have to read this book. It was done at least as well as anything else here, but you'll get no hints from me as to what it is. I will say that as good as the scifi/ horror itself is, this particular addition makes the story here *that much stronger*, and even though Robinson has never gone this direction before, he actually manages to pull it off at least as well as others who write in this space for their careers. Maybe even better. As with so many of his books of late, there is also a fair amount of meta-commentary here, including one bit where even I had to tell him "You're starting to convince me that you actually enjoy the frequent political complaints from both sides thinking they know you. 😃". So before you even get to that line in particular (and no I'm not revealing it), just know that *I* have known this man for nearly 20 yrs. We met in *Myspace*. I've read every book he has written, and I've even hung out with him at the annual (since 2015 or so) Robinsonfest event a few times, including both 2023 and 2024 when it was in St. Augustine, FL, near my home in Jacksonville. And even *I* can't tell you his actual positions on any political or religious point. So if you think you know him better than I do... a few people do. His family. His long time editor. Several close friends, including several fans. Outside of those specific people... no, you most likely do not. Still, I invite you to read this book and write your own review of it, and if you feel you must call him out for some perceived political or religious sin... so be it. Just know that I for one am going to laugh my ass off when I see you do it. :) Overall, this really was Robinson at his absolute best to date, pushing himself in directions I honestly never saw coming from him. Thus, almost no matter what your particular reading preference is... you need to put this one on your TBR. You're going to want to experience this tale from a true Master of his craft. Very much recommended.