Sunday, May 18, 2025

Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Say You'll Remember Me #1

 

Title: Say You'll Remember Me
Series: Say You'll Remember Me #1
Author: Abby Jimenez
Publisher: Forever
Release Date: April 1, 2025








There might be no such a thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong…

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.












I adore Abby's books. She can make me root for the main characters in just a few chapters.

Samantha works as a social media marketing specialist for a mustard company. She finds a kitten that needs help, so she takes it to a veterinarian with good reviews. When she meets Xavier Rush, she is unhappy with his diagnosis. The kitten, Pooter, will need expensive surgery to survive, and even then, things could go wrong, so he recommends putting him to sleep.

Samantha is furious; she leaves and starts a campaign to raise money for Pooter’s surgery. She returns after succeeding to show Xavier she saved the kitten. She is surprised to learn Xavier feels bad about how he spoke to her initially. He had a bad day and might not have had the best bedside manner.

Xavier asks her out, and they have a night to remember. It’s the best first date either has had. But Samantha is leaving Minnesota permanently to move to California to help her family care for her mother, who has dementia.

Samantha tells Xavier to forget her and move on, but Xavier doesn’t want to, and what follows is a love story full of hardship and real problems.

How can these two make it work? Is there a happy ending?

Say You’ll Remember Me deals with a few tough topics:

First, Alzheimer’s dementia in a young person. The disease affects caregivers, their dynamics, and can be scary for the patient. There’s a point when patients with moderate dementia stop recognizing those close to them, and some may want to run away.

Second, long-distance relationships are hard, and they can break a couple apart. It’s never easy to be far from the person you love.

Third, it also mentions abuse as a child and how that abuse can affect your personality later in life.

As always, Abby Jimenez makes her characters likable and relatable. Although I felt that Say You'll Remember Me had less humor than its predecessors.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

The Last Secret Agent:
My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines
by Pippa Latour


Title: The Last Secret Agent: My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines
Author: Pippa Latour
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 13, 2025








After decades of silence, the last surviving World War II British spy reveals the real, untold story of her time as a secret agent in the deadly world of Nazi France.

From a unique and singular voice comes the incredible true story of the last surviving undercover British female operative in WW2. Pippa Latour parachuted into occupied France in 1944 to conduct sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Selling soap to German soldiers and hiding codes on a piece of ribbon, she sent back crucial information about troop positions in the lead up to D-Day, and continued her work until Paris was liberated. From her childhood as an orphan in South Africa to her years as an undercover agent, Pippa's story is that of a woman determined to honor her principles and risk her life to fight against the greatest evil of the 20th century.

The Last Secret Agent is a posthumously published memoir, co-written with journalist Jude Dobson. Pippa was decorated highly for her actions, including being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire and receiving the Légion d’Honneur in France. For years, Pippa kept her involvement in the war effort secret from everyone, including her family, but for the first time, her story can now be told in full.











I'm always drawn to World War II stories, and being able to read this memoir of a true secret agent was quite an experience.

Pippa Latour’s life was unlike most. Raised in South Africa, France, and England, she endured multiple losses as a child and teenager. She became an English spy in France, working against the Nazi regime.

Parachuting into occupied France in 1944 as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, her mission was to sow chaos for the Nazis. She sent intelligence to England, traveling from town to town disguised as a 14-year-old girl selling soaps for her “grandparents” while gathering critical intel and transmitting it back using hidden wireless radios.

What she witnessed and experienced was a living nightmare, with death all around her. She narrowly escaped capture multiple times and was deeply affected by the horrors she saw, yet she stayed focused on her mission and succeeded.

What a brave and incredible woman Pippa was! She kept her role as an SOE agent secret from everyone until her children discovered an article about her online. Only then did she share her story, which she so richly deserved to tell.

Jude Dobson, the narrator of this Memoir, captures Pippa's voice, transporting us to the past she endured.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Love Haters by Katherine Center

 

Title: The Love Haters
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 20, 2025







It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.











Enjoyable!

Katie Vaughn is worried about being laid off from her job. Then, she’s given the chance to create a video about Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West, already internet-famous for saving a famous actress’s puppy. Katie is told that Hutch doesn’t do interviews, but she might convince him for a “Day in the Life” segment after filming the Coast Guard video. Determined to keep her job, Katie will do whatever it takes.

Katie arrives in Key West without her suitcase, but Hutch’s Aunt Rue helps by providing clothes from a store and a place to stay in one of her villas. Katie is deeply grateful. While shopping, she bumps into Hutch himself. She’s instantly attracted to him but unsure how she’ll manage the assignment, as it requires swimming—and Katie doesn’t know how.

Aunt Rue helps with this, too, arranging swimming lessons with her and the gals. Katie is ready to try until she discovers the instructor is none other than Hutch.

Despite learning Katie can’t swim and that she’s filming the video instead of his brother Cole, whom he expected, Hutch agrees to teach her as long as she puts in a good word with Cole.

A fun, fast-paced romance with characters you wish were real, especially the Great Dane, George Bailey. Narrator Patti Murin does a great job bringing these characters to life. Though I loved the characters, I found the romance took a backseat to Katie’s body image struggles. 

Will I read Katherine Center's next book? Absolutely!

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

 

Title: King of Ashes 
Author: S.A. Cosby
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: June 10, 2025








When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family—and the family business—together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger.

Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he’s forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his himself, and his own particular set of skills.

Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything.

Because everything burns.












Roman Carruthers has a knack for numbers. As a financial advisor, he can make money for anyone. His clients are certainly happy when their portfolios always do well.

Roman is called to his family home after his father is injured in a car accident. His father is in a coma, and his sister Neveah struggles to keep their family business, Carruthers Crematorium, afloat without help. Their father opened the crematorium years ago, and it has been a successful enterprise. When Neveah asks Roman for help, he leaves everything behind to return to Jesserson Run.

Upon arriving, Roman learns that his younger brother, Dante, has been running with the wrong crowd and owes a large debt to criminals. If Dante doesn’t repay them, his life is at stake.

Roman tries to settle his brother’s debt, but things go wrong, and the criminals force him to undertake dangerous and illegal tasks.

How will Roman help his family escape this situation?

King of Ashes is filled with complex characters. Nothing is purely black or white; the story explores shades of gray. Roman commits morally and legally questionable acts, but they’re necessary to protect his family.

The book includes vivid descriptions of violence that match its dangerous setting. Narrator Adam Lazarre-White does a fantastic job, making the story feel all too real. I knew the ending wouldn’t be tidy, but I hoped Roman would survive.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay

Title: Parents Weekend 
Author: Alex Finlay
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 6, 2025







From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella—The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them—come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present—and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift—Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.












Agent Sarah Keller is back!

This new case involves five university students—Stella, Libby, Blane, Felix, and Mark—who all go missing during the Parents’ Weekend dinner at Santa Clara University. Campus police and the FBI are called in, as one of the missing students is the child of a Federal State Department official, and another is the child of a famous judge.

Sarah, temporarily working in California, is assigned to assist with the case. She senses something serious is afoot, not just kids fooling around. She must determine if the incident is payback for something one of the parents has done or if one of the students triggered it.

I always enjoy Alex Finlay’s books. This one features short chapters from multiple POVs. The audio, narrated by Brittany Pressley, helps me keep everyone straight. I wasn’t thrilled with the denouement, but overall, it was an entertaining novel.

It’s worth mentioning the addition of an interesting character, Annie Hafeez. I wonder if she and Sarah will team up again.

Cliffhanger: No

3.5/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Macmillan Audio via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon

 

Title: Only Love Can Hurt Like This
Author: Paige Toon
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Release Date: April 25, 2023







An earth-shattering secret. A life-changing love story.

When Wren realizes her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover.

On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on.

Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again.

But Wren doesn't know that Anders is harboring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone. Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine. But, knowing the truth, how can she possibly stay?












A slow-burning romance!

Wren is heartbroken after her fiancé falls in love with another woman, shattering her dreams of building a family with him.

As a child in the United States, Wren’s life changed when her father left her mother and her for another woman. Her mother then returned to England with her, and Wren has since seen her father only rarely. Recently, her father’s wife retired, and they relocated to a farm in Indiana. After Wren’s breakup, her mother suggests she visit her father for a change of scenery. Wren agrees, thinking time with her father and stepsister might do her good.

Anders, meanwhile, has been barely living since the loss of his wife in a car accident. He avoids dating, feeling it would betray her memory. Concerned about his brother’s recent depression, Anders frequently visits their family’s farmhouse in Indiana to check on him.

When Wren and Anders meet, their connection is immediate and powerful, despite their personal struggles. The more time they spend together, the harder it is to ignore their growing feelings. Just when things are improving for both, an unexpected twist upends everything.

Only Love Can Hurt Like This is a beautifully crafted novel of self-discovery and personal growth, blending heartache with love. The romance is well-developed and quite convincing.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland


Title: The Seven O'Clock Club
Author: Amelia Ireland
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: April 15, 2025








Four strangers are brought together to participate in an experimental treatment designed to heal broken hearts in this surprising and heartfelt debut novel from author Amelia Ireland.

In a perfectly ordinary building, four strangers who couldn't be more different meet for the first time. Their skepticism of this new kind of grief therapy—and the unnervingly perceptive group leader—means they're all wary, but as the weeks go by, they find themselves returning again and again, pulled to work toward healing, even if it means first facing the pain head-on.

A sharp-tongued lawyer who has no intention of letting down her walls, a fragile young woman looking for a place to belong, a musician at the top of his game who's one drink away from losing it all, and an interior designer facing the crumbling of her picture-perfect life—this unlikely group slowly opens up, not only to the possibility of a happier future but to friendship, change, and even romance.

When a shocking revelation reveals the real reason they were chosen for this group, it shakes the very foundation of what they thought they knew. What began as a journey designed to heal turns out to be a much greater test of friendship, strength, and love as they realize happiness is just outside the door...if they're brave enough to seek it.












A twist I didn't see coming!

The Seven O’Clock Club begins with Genevieve, a therapist, conducting an experimental grief therapy group. She has selected four participants—Victoria, Callum, Mischa, and Freya—who must attend weekly group therapy sessions for four weeks.

Initially, the group is hesitant. Victoria, Callum, Mischa, and Freya are either skeptical about therapy or reluctant to share the reasons for their presence. What we do know is that they all have lost someone, and the loss has marked them.  At different stages of grief, they doubt Genevieve’s ability to help.

As readers learn about these characters and their losses, it’s easy to grow attached, rooting for their healing and the release of their inner demons. Then comes a plot twist that changes everything.

This entertaining debut delivers a compelling narrative and richly developed characters. Despite exploring profound loss and guilt, the story avoids being overly somber. Ultimately, it offers hope.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Berkley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.