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With a week in Mexico to end the month, I was able to read some in airplanes and by a pool!  I am hoping that I am back on the reading train and can find some more quiet moments this year to get lost in a book. 

1. The Housekeeper's Secret by Iona Grey

2. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

3. Happily Ever After by Elizabeth Maxwell

Total pages read, clicked and flipped:  1,008

Where Have I Been Reading?:

Northern England

Annapolis, MD

Review: Shopgirls by Jessica Anya Blau

Publisher: Mariner Books

Pages: 266

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Nineteen-year-old Zippy can hardly believe it: she's the newest and youngest salesgirl at I. Magnin, "San Francisco's Finest Department Store." Every week, she rotates her three spruced-up Salvation Army outfits and Vaseline-shined pumps; still, she's thrilled to walk those pumps through the employee entrance five days a week as she saves to buy something new. For a girl who grew up in a one-bedroom apartment above a liquor store with her mother and her mother's madcap boyfriend, Howard; a girl who wanted to go to college but had no help in figuring out how; I. Magnin represents a real chance for a better and more elegant life. Or, at the very least, a more interesting one.

Zippy may not be in school, but she's about to get an education that will stick with her for decades. Her fellow salesgirls (lifetime professionals) run the gamut from mean and indifferent to caring and helpful. The cosmetics ladies on the first floor share both samples and advice ("only date a man with a Rolex"); and her new roommate, Raquel, an ambitious lawyer, tells Zippy she can lose ten pounds easy if she joins Raquel in eating only every other day. Just when Zippy thinks she's getting a handle on how to be an adult woman in 1985, two surprises threaten both her sense of self and her coveted position at I. Magnin.

Kritters Thoughts:  What a fun book!  Zippy is a young woman in the 80s who has been working at a dress shop and is surrounded by the most fun cast of characters.  Zippy doesn't have a lot, but she does have the drive to make this job into a career.  

While Zippy was for sure the main character, the cast of characters surrounding here were so entertaining.  I loved Zippy, but I loved even more how she reacted with the ladies around her.  AND the inner workings of a dress shop were so fun.  The ladies coming and going and getting their outfits picked out - I wanted to watch a tv show based on this store and these women.    

I found this book to be the right amount of young girl big city and I loved following Zippy through the ups and downs of this book.  I would recommend this book to those who love this kind of story, who love to follow a young girl through a great story arc.  I love when I finish a story and I just wish a sequel was on its way because I could have used more of Zippy when this one was done.      

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With a newborn in the house, there was more vegging in front of the tv than curling up with a book, SO one book complete is good from my point of view!  I am hoping for more over the next few months and to end with a great 2026 of reading.  

1. When I Kill You by BA Paris

Total pages read, clicked and flipped: 304

Where Have I Been Reading?:

London

Review: You Can't Hide by Emily Shiner

Publisher: Inkubator Books

Pages: 225

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:   Beth thought she’d escaped her past. But all this time, it’s been waiting for her…

Beth and Ian are desperate to have a child. So much so that they decide to sell his family cabin in upstate New York to pay for IVF.

When they arrive at the cabin, they meet Ryan, the caretaker. But Ryan is not who he says he is… He’s here because he knows Beth has a dark secret. And now he intends to use it against her.

He threatens to tell Ian everything about Beth's past unless she does exactly what he says.

Beth finds herself caught in a nightmarish trap. If Ian discovers what she’s been hiding from him, she’s sure he’ll leave her. She’ll lose everything she cares about, including the chance to have a child of her own.

On the other hand, what Ryan wants her to do is so dark and twisted it’s beyond horrifying.

Either way, Beth is sure her life is over, she can see no way out. Unless… Unless she digs deep and finds a part of herself that is willing to do something so awful it doesn’t even bear thinking about…

Kritters Thoughts:  A dark and twisty mystery that took me on an adventure and because of that it had me flipping pages one after the other, on my kindle of course!  Told from two different perspectives and I couldn't wait to see when and where these two women would collide.  

Beth and Ian head to their family's remote cabin to get it ready to sell and from the beginning there are eery feelings.  I loved that from the very beginning I was in the book and the mood was set; especially with the book being a little on the shorter side, I was glad the author dove in and got the story going.  And then Lizzie's story is hard to read from the start, it was difficult to read but I kept going wanting to know where these two worlds would come together.  

I would suggest you hold and read this book for the spooky season as it was quite the perfect read for that season.  It was also a quick read if your spooky season is busy! 

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