Author: gplmmcnichol

I am a fan of Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series of historical mysteries and when I heard she’d written a new mystery, Killers of a Certain Age, my curiosity got the best of me. I am very glad it did! I LOVED it! Talk about a fun romp! Without giving too much away, the gist of this book is that it is about four 60 year old women who have just retired from 40 years of being….ASSASSINS. Not just the bad kind (if this is possible), but the kind that worked for a secret international organization that started out hunting

Having loved author Jennifer Ryan’s “The Kitchen Front”, I could hardly wait to read her new book “The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle”. It was just as good!!! During the London Blitz, famous fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses her design shop and her home. Having nowhere else to go, Cressida returns to the family manor house (that she fled decades earlier) in the quaint country village. Arriving with nothing but the clothes on her back, and at a loss of how to rebuild her business, Cressida’s niece Violet is thrilled to finally meet her renowned aunt. Violet is a self-absorbed and

As a princess, but a third daughter, Marra has seen her two older sisters married off to the same terrible prince. One came back dead, and one is being abused by him. To save the sister who is still alive, Marra decides to kill her sister’s awful husband. Marra is not sure how she will fare; she’s quiet, not very bold, and lives a peaceful life at a convent though she’s not a nun herself. But when she decides to save her sister, she knows what she has to do. She tracks down a witch that tells her that if

Thanks to one of our library patrons raving about this book, I read “The Lost Summers of Newport” by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White over the weekend. This is the 4th collaboration of these 3 authors and what began as a fluke while they were enjoying a night out together, these 3 best-selling authors have found their niche (and they’re all fun reads)! This book is a storyof money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, RI, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day. The authors divided this story into 3

It is 1986 and 12-year-old Nova is waiting for the launch of the Challenger Space Shuttle, and for her sister, Bridget, to return as she had promised. Seven years earlier, Nova and Bridget were put into the foster care system where Nova relied on Bridget to be her voice and advocate, but now her sister is nowhere to be found and Nova needs to find a way to communicate and defend herself. The book Planet Earth is Blue shows the struggles of having autism before communication devices like tablets and cellphones were available for support. Now, in the present, Nova

Based on the book by Sara Gay Forden, the cast of House of Gucci is full of well-known actors who really knocked it out of the park. Even though Lady Gaga as an actress in the leading role is mainly what drew me to the movie itself, I was still caught by surprise by how dysfunctional but glamorous the Gucci family is in this tale of betrayal. The love story between Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) does feel pure when they first meet and eventually get married, but that doesn’t make their future any less complicated

I’ve spent this year reading books that I normally wouldn’t even think about reading for a change of pace, and this one did not disappoint! Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson is a thriller about Christine, a woman who has a fictional type of amnesia where she cannot retain short-term memory. The book had my heart pounding with each new discovery, and I was rooting for Christine to find out who she was and what truly happened to her. watching in disbelief as Christine wonders who could she trust in her inner circle since she couldn’t recall anyone.

In need of a humorous feel-good book? I highly recommend “All About Me” by Mel Brooks! I also recommend that you listen & read it-as Mel narrates it and the book provides photos. I listened to this while I was walking and found myself laughing out loud. I am sure all that walked past me wondered what I was listening to-ha!  Mel Brooks is more than meets the eye by the way. Did you know that Mel, 95 years old, was taught military engineering skills at the Virginia Military Institute and served as a corporal in the 1104th Engineer combat Battalion,

It’s 2061, and a comet is about to hit Earth, wiping out the world’s population and making the planet inhabitable. Only a privileged few get the opportunity to go to space and live on a new planet. Twelve-year-old Petra Peña and her family are given this rare opportunity because her parents are scientists who will be able to help make the new planet habitable for humans. The catch is that getting to the new planet, Sagan, will take 380 years, so Petra, her brother Javier, her parents, and the many other passengers on the ship will be put in a

Max is a biracial (White and Japanese) transgender teen boy who is learning how to grow into himself and is facing struggles with school, home, and the fact that he now has magical powers.  Max’s trusted friend Jen is the only one who knows that Max is a boy at the novel’s beginning.  Max decides to come out to his mom and dad on his 16th birthday, but his mother can’t accept the fact that her little goddess wants to transition since they are descended from the Goddess of Light, Aurora.  Max’s powers transform him into an uncomfortable frilly dress