Ashleigh's Bookshelf

Better Beginnings by Cyprus Hart After breaking up with her boyfriend, Leigh just wants to get as far away from LA as possible. Small town Maine seems like the perfect place. After being surrounded by fake people looking out for themselves, she is shocked by the realness of her new neighbors, who seem to look after each other. Except Ulysses. The bearded lumberjack just doesn't seem to like Leigh, and that doesn't sit right with her. Can she win him over, or will finding out his secret be too painful? For both of them. I'm not sure if it was the author's intention, but I really did not like Leigh. Like Ulysses, I found her shallow and egocentric and vain. I only kept reading beyond the first few chapters because I was convinced she would change. I hope it's not a spoiler to say that, in my opinion, I did not see much growth in her character. While she does eventually show she is capable of caring for one other person, I would have lik...

Chase: The Boy Who Hid by Z Jeffries Chase is angry. While everyone believes his grandad is dead, he knows the truth: Grandad is just missing. Since no one believes him, it's up to him to lead the search. Unfortunately, that means taking his spot in a top-secret government game of hide and seek, gaining the trust of the team, and maybe even interviewing the enemy. All without getting himself killed. Piece of cake, right? While I found this book entertaining, the worldbuilding was a little confusing. I understood the need to keep the descriptions of the Lack vague, but there were other elements I would have like to have explained a little more. For example, if the ball was for only the team captains, who were all the other people present? And, I was confused by some of the technology used by other teams during the game. I would have liked if the author had spent a little more time describing that for me. I would have also liked to have seen a little more...

Up to No Gouda by Linda Reilly After the death of her husband, Carly has moved back to her small Vermont hometown to pursue her life-long dream: opening a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese. Despite the fact business is booming, her new landlord decides not to renew her lease. When her best employee becomes the prime suspect in a murder, Carly embarks to prove her friend's innocence, maybe saving her shop in the process. The first chapter of this book is a huge backstory with a lot of information that will be repeated later in the book. However, once I got past that, I found this story fairly enjoyable. I liked the characters and I found myself trying to solve the mystery along with Carly. While I did figure out the whodunit before her, I didn't catch the motive until just before she did. I did have a few issues with the book. There were times when the dialogue felt a little forced and not natural. There was also the scene where Carly share...

Pixie's Gift by Raven Wolfe Four years after the death of her brother, Stephanie is still tortured by nightmares about the water. Meanwhile, Adam is numb from the recent loss of the woman he loved. They don't know each other yet, but a gift from Pixie is just what they need to begin healing. Despite its short length, the story was a slow read. It contained very little dialogue and there were many times I would have rather been shown information instead of having it been told to me. There were also numerous grammatical and proofreading errors and the book overall was formatted as a webnovel instead of an e-book. That said, I enjoyed this story, although I would have liked to have seen a lot more worldbuilding. I didn't really get a much of a sense of where and when this was taking place. For some reason, probably because of the cloaked woman on the cover, I kept wanting to think this was set in the Victorian era, even though there were pl...

Odyssey: The Reboot by Keith Tokash According to Homer's cousin, the original Odyssey was severely over embellished and this is the real story about the ancient king of Ithaca. As a former Classical Studies student, I am familiar with ancient Greek mythology, especially the story of Odysseus, and looked forward to reading this story. I was not disappointed. Although this book contained many grammatical and proofreading errors, the story was enjoyable. This is the second book in a series, though it is the first one I have read. This was not a problem, however, since the events of the first book were mentioned many times. In fact, some information was mentioned more than once. While I found this repetition slightly irksome, I think it would have been more of an issue had I read the first book. There were a few characters in whom I would have liked to have seen a little more development, but the main characters -- the narrator and Odysseus -- were very well deve...

Murder at the Abbey by Frances Evesham When human bones are discovered in the river, Libby and the rest of the historical society are excited to learn they most likely belonged to a 16th century monk from the nearby abbey. They organize on overnight ghost hunt, which results in the attack of a friend. Now, Libby and Max must try to identify the culprit before someone else is injured. Although this is the eighth book in the series, it is the first one I have read. The story contains a lot of background information, most of which felt as if it were from earlier stories, that continues through most of the book. Much of it felt irrelevant to the story, both while I was reading it and even by the end of the book. Some of the information is repeated multiple times during the first few times and was information I would have rather seen than be told upfront. Some of it was also introduced at awkward times, distracting from the flow of the story. Even many chapte...

Pumpkin Spice by Belle Bailey Marigold can't wait to enter the annual pumpkin pie baking contest, even if it means she will be partnered with a professional chef. However, things get off to rough start when they must first share a vending booth and then determine whose recipe to use for the contest. With the appearance of their rivals, Marigold and Sawyer work doubly hard prove they can make the best pumpkin pie. While this story is cute, it is very short. So short, that it is not even divided into chapters, although there are clear scene breaks. There were also a number of grammatical and typographical errors, as well as inconsistencies in the tense and voice, though not enough to fully detract from the story. Due to it's short length, there was not a lot of room for character development. While I felt there was a little growth and possibly even the beginnings of an attraction, it did not feel like a romance to me. I would have liked to ha...

Down with the Dance by C. T. Walsh Nerdy Austin just wants to survive middle school. Unfortunately, with his popular older brother in his grade and a new principal who has marked him as a troublemaker, surviving is easier said than done. When the Halloween dance is put in jeopardy--more than once--Austin starts to take matters into his own hands to save his school year. I enjoyed this story, finding it perfect for middle grade readers and even found myself laughing at times. However, this book is poorly edited, full of many typographical errors that make it difficult to read. Additionally, there were some scenes that were split between chapters or scene break characters, while other times scenes flowed from one to another when symbols or chapter breaks should have been used. I was also not thrilled with the constant changing of tense and voice, although it did at least make the narrator feel as if he were speaking directly to me. ...

The One Great Gnome by Jeff Dinardo illustrated by Jhon Ortiz When eleven-year-old Sarah is transplanted from New York City to rural Connecticut, she has no idea how she will survive. Never could she have imagined that a garden gnome come to life would lead her to an underground adventure to save the entire gnome race. I listened to the audiobook version of this story and absolutely loved the addition of sound effects to enhance the story. Looking at the printed version, I saw the addition of illustrations with the text as well. I thought these nice additions. However, while my seven-year-old daughter found this story enjoyable, I had a difficult time getting into the story. Although it is geared toward a younger audience, I was frustrated by the overuse of dialogue tags and, at least in the second half of the story, the near absent use of pronouns, leading to names being repeated many times in a short period. An example of thi...

Snowed Inn: The Beginning by Eliza Harwell In 1969, hippie Iris has no idea what she wants to do with her life. So when the opportunity arises to learn how to work an organic farm in rural Virginia, she figures she has nothing to lose. It's been a year since Vern has returned from Vietnam, but he still remembers the trials of war. When his advisor suggests he spend time researching his doctoral thesis in rural Virginia, he welcomes the opportunity. Little do Iris and Vern realize they will find their futures in the woods. This novella is a prequel to Eliza Harwell's Snowed Inn series and tells the story of how the innkeepers, Iris and Vern, met. When I read the blurb, I expected the story to remain in the past, but it not only begins in the present time, but it continues to interrupt the story with flashes back to the present. I would have much preferred a story that was set in the past and stayed there. The story begins with an des...

One for the Hooks by Betty Hechtman Molly has a comfortable life. A middle-aged widow, she works in a local bookstore-slash-yarn shop, is seeing a high-power attorney, and lives alone with several cats and dogs. Until her son moves in with his very pregnant girlfriend. When a horrible, stinky accident causes the death of one of her friends, how could she not try to help. Even if it means working with her ex. I was drawn to this book because of it's crocheting theme and was pleased to see it play such an important role in the story. However, I had a difficult time making it through the book. One of the things that I found irsksome was the narration. I felt the main character was constantly repeating herself. Several characters were introduced multiple times, right into the final chapters, each time as if it were the first. There were also many scenes that were summarized when I would have liked to have seen the action and dialogue instead. Without giving too m...

Death on Tour by Janice Hamrick Texas high school teacher Jocelyn and her cousin Kyla have always been interested in Ancient Egypt, so when presented the opportunity to spend her spring break touring the Great Pyramids, Jocelyn isn't about to say no. She's not even going to let the death of one of her more annoying companions ruin her trip. But, when strange things keep happening to their group, Jocelyn begins to wonder if the trip was really worth it. Unlike most cozy mysteries, this book begins with the murder on page one. For me, this was a definite turn-off. When reading mysteries, I like to have a chance to know my characters before someone dies. I believe it was also possible that I knew the name of the victim before the name of the main character (although I have already returned the book to the library, so I cannot be certain). With such a large cast, I had a very difficult time remembering who was who and sometimes felt I knew everyone else'...