Jen Ryland Reviews

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My Four Favorite Books: January February 2020

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I started doing a monthly post of my four favorite books on Instagram and decided why not post it here as well? Read below for my four favorite books for January and February 2020!

My Four Favorite Books January February 2020

My Four Favorites February 2020

Well, there’s a little of something for everyone here! Whether you want issues, family drama, a paranormal read, diversity, feminist or LGBTQ themes, YA or adult, or just a sweet and fluffy book – I have you covered!

Original photo of The Bromance Book Club and Undercover Bromance

Undercover Bromance (and also Bromance Book Club, a January pick) both by Lyssa Kay Adams and published by Berkley.

These are for you if you like:

  • adult romance
  • a book club filled with funny guys, some hilariously clueless about love and others who are more enlightened …. after reading romance
  • a second chance at love plot (Bromance Book Club). I guess you could call Undercover Bromance hate to love, but then again Liv (the main character) sort of hates everyone.

Read my review of Undercover Bromance here and my review of Bromance Book Club here. Want more rom com? Check out my full listing of recent rom coms, rated by steam level, humor level, and tropes.

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey is another recent favorite of mine. I’ve been feeling ready for paranormal romance again!

This one is for you if you love:

  • friendship stories
  • books with coming of age themes
  • books with diverse characters, including queer characters
  • suspense – I thought this one was suspenseful, since the book starts with an accidental murder

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord was a super cute and fluffy YA romance

Original Photo of Tweet Cute by Emma Lord on a table next to an I Love New York sign

Try this one if you’re in the mood for:

  • A YA romance with a Romeo and Juliet vibe – these two kids are from families who own warring restaurants
  • Descriptions of delicious food

Long Bright River by Liz Moore is a literary mystery I just finished.

Check this one out if you enjoy:

Original photo of a copy of Long Bright River on a tray next to a succulent and a smoothie
  • police procedurals
  • mysteries with a more literary writing style
  • themes of addiction and troubled families

My Four Favorite Books January 2020

Since I didn’t post these on my blog in January, I’m going to highlight two of my picks for that month:

Conviction by Denise Mina

My Four Favorite Books January 2020

You can read my full review of Conviction here.

This was an odd one, but I do like odd books with an edge. If you liked Where’d You Go Bernadette, then check this one out!

Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

This was a fun YA mystery. You can read my full review of Good Girl’s Guide to Murder here. Check this one out if you like:

  • an intrepid teenage girl investigator
  • true crime/podcast themes (this one seems a bit inspired by Serial)

What was the best book you read in February? Tell me in comments!

Best YA Mystery Books to Read

I’ve reviewed YA for 15 years. I love mysteries. Here is my list of the Best YA Mystery Books to read. Whether you like girl detectives, science-driven stories, YA historical mysteries or teen books inspired by Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes – I have you covered! Best YA Mystery Books to Read was updated in 2026!

[Read more…]

Review: Conviction by Denise Mina

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Looking for a puzzling, quirky, surprisingly comic, readable book? Definitely check this one out. Find out more in my review of Conviction by Denise Mina

Review: Conviction by Denise Mina

Conviction by Denise Mina. Published on June 18, 2019 by Mullholland Books.

Synopsis: The day Anna McDonald’s quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people’s problems are much better than one’s own — a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna’s problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she’s taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened.Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened — and in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, she goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.

Review: Conviction by Denise Mina

I’d read some of Mina’s Paddy Meehan books back in the early 2000s and liked them – they featured a female reporter in Glasgow. But then I started reading YA and read fewer thrillers.

When I saw the podcast element of this one, I was hooked. I love podcasts – I listen to them every day while walking the dog. I do a mix of news, true crime. Right now I’m listening to Catch and Kill.

This book was just the kind of mix of quirky, funny and suspenseful that I love.

Anna loves podcasts too. There are some reasons for that, some of which she’s willing to tell us (a distraction from issues with her marriage) and some she’s not. When she recognizes someone from her past in her podcast AND her husband makes an announcement, her life is set on an unexpected course.

The narrative of this was first person and a bit jumbly. Anna would allude to something but tell us she’d get to that later. She’d mention something and then just drop it. As a result, you need to pay attention to all the details, as they could be important later.

At first I was intrigued but a bit confused, but gradually, all the puzzle pieces Anna kept offering began to fall into place.

Definitely recommend this if you enjoy mysteries and thrillers and are okay with a plot that’s not a linear police procedural but a little more unconventional!

Want more mystery and thriller reviews? You can find them here!

Reviews: The Last Widow and Pieces of Her

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These reviews of the Last Widow and Pieces of Her are also a tale of me, an author whose books I loved and then quit reading, a jump-off to tomorrow’s discussion post, AND an announcement of a FREEBIE FRIDAY this week (yay!)

I read all the Karin Slaughter Grant County books until Slaughter violently and unexpectedly killed off a central character and I decided that her books had just become too grim and violent for me. So I took a loooong (10?) year hiatus from her books. (Yes, readers do this and that will be tomorrow’s discussion topic, so check it out!)

Recently I dipped a toe back into the Slaughter water (ha!) with both a standalone AND a book back from that former series. So… check out my reviews: The Last Widow and Pieces of Her. *cue suspenseful music*

Here’s what I thought:

Review: Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Published August 21, 2019 by William Morrow

Thanks to the publisher for sending a review copy. My links are Amazon Affiliate links and all money raised goes to Metavivor. You can find out more here.

Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: Andrea Cooper knows everything about her mother Laura. She’s knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Gullaway Island and she’s never kept a secret in her life. All that changes when a Saturday afternoon trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one will ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Review: Pieces of Her

I really enjoyed this one – I love stories about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. Andrea (Andy) suddenly realizes her mom has been hiding a BIG secret and has to a) figure out what her mom is hiding and b) how to help her.

Pieces of Her has a dual timeline – one following Andy in the present and the other taking us back to her mom’s secret life in the past. Andy was annoying at times, and the dual timeline wasn’t 100% successful for me, but overall I really enjoyed this and I think it will make a great Netflix series.

The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

Published on August 20, 2019 by William Morrow

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.

Synopsis adapted from Goodreads:

A mysterious kidnapping: A scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. A devastating explosion: The serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast. A diabolical enemy: Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre—putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.

Review: The Last Widow

So … there were two elements of the book for me: the Sara and Will romance part and the story itself. Full disclosure: I was never the biggest Sara fan (maybe part of why I was so annoyed about the character who was killed off). I like Will well enough.

There was an “it’s not you, it’s me” situation between me and this book which happened the have themes and plots that I strongly dislike.

I don’t like kidnapping plots and all and really don’t like woman-in-jeopardy kidnapping plots. (I think I would have liked this more if Will got kidnapped and Sara had to try to save him.)

The rest of The Last Widow had elements I also wasn’t crazy about, namely pedophilia (horrible) and infectious diseases and germ warfare (really creepy). So, I’ll be honest: I did a lot of skimming.

Will I cautiously go back to Karin Slaughter books? Yes, if they are standalones. And yes, I will definitely try the Netflix series. But I think I’m done with Will and Sara (sorry, guys! Wishing you all the best!)

Have you read Karin Slaughter? Talk to me in comments! Also, come check out my “Author Breakup” post tomorrow.

Looking for thrillers? Check out yesterday’s review of The Turn of the Key!

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