The Best of Friends by Lucinda Berry - 5 Stars

Kendra, Dani, and Lindsey have been best friends since they were little and are fortunate that all 3 of their sons have become best friends too. But a tragic incident threatens their relationship. One boy is dead, another in a coma, and the third is too traumatized to speak. 

The women set out to find out the truth about what happened and soon discover that you don't always know someone as well as you thought you did. 

By far the best book I've read this year. This book had me hanging on from the beginning. Quickly paced with lots to leave you hanging on to, there were a few shocking moments in the book, but nothing like the epilogue. The twist at the end actually had me saying "oh...my...god" out loud! I will definitely be checking to see if she has any other books and if she does, can only hope they're as good as this one.  

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai - 2 Stars

 "Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten- year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?"

I ended up having to force myself to finish this one. Both characters were horribly irritating and a lot of the book had nothing to do with the story. The idea that Lucy just didn't know what to do with the boy was a bit of a stretch. And the fact that there really wasn't any concern that he was missing was a bit of a stretch, too. 

The Secret, Book, and Scone Society by Ellery Adams - 5 Stars

 Miracle Springs is a small, but flourishing town in North Carolina. With it's small town charm, people flock here to ease their pain. 

Nora, a local bookstore owner, knows how to choose the right book to help the customer with what ever pain brought them to Miracle Springs. 

Nora meets a mysterious business man and plans to meet him later at the bookstore to help him find the perfect book, but before their meeting, he ends up dead.

Nora forms the Secret, Book, & Scone Society with a group of local women and set out to find who killed this mystery man. The group bonds over their secrets that brought them to Miracle Springs and uncover the truth about the mystery.

This was a really cute cozy mystery. I didn't realize when I chose it that it was actually a cozy mystery. The ending was a little more detailed than what most cozy mysteries are, but it wasn't too over the top.

This was the first in the series, and I think I'll read the next one in the future. 

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson - 4 Stars

 Malcom Kershaw is a used book store owner that specializes in mystery novels. When the store first opened, Malcom created a blog entitled "Eight Perfect Murders" in which he lists 8 of his favorite murder mystery books.Years later, the FBI approaches Malcom about his list. It seems as though someone is using Malcom's list to recreate these murders in real life. 

Malcom starts to wonder if the killer is someone he knows and soon begins to suspect everyone around him. Malcom wonders what he's started by creating this list and wonders if the FBI will find the killer before he does.

This was a pretty fast moving book. The idea of the book (that someone is copying murders in books), to me, made a good subject for Eight Perfect Murders. There were several twists in the book, although the ending when the murderer was revealed was kind of anticlimactic for me. There was one other twist at the end that was a little surprising, though. 

Oh. What. Fun. by Chandler Baker - 3 Stars

 "Tyler, Channing, and Sammy Clauster have descended on their childhood home, with significant others and four-year-old twins in tow, for another good old-fashioned Christmas. Overwhelming holiday magic, as always, comes courtesy of their mom, Claire. They know she’s thrilled to cook, wrap gifts, decorate, accommodate, play games, overprepare every Christmas Eve Eve Eve tradition, and still let Dad be known as the Fun One. It’s her thing, right? Maybe the family should have paid closer attention. Because this year, something is a little off-key—and it’s not just the carols."

This was a short story I found on Amazon and have to say I'm glad that I didn't buy it (it was included with my Prime membership). The idea of the book was kinda cute, but I felt that it was a little all over the place and the ending came and went before I even grasped what was happening. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - 4 Stars

 "Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place."

I was happy to find that this one was actually available through my library (there had previously been a huge waiting list). It was a thought provoking book of how your life could have been different if there were different choices made. The lives that Nora lived were all massively different depending on what choices she had made. It was fun to see what life would hold for Nora in another "book".