This Poison Heart - Kalynn Bayron

Title: This Poison Heart (The Poison Heart #1)
Author: Kalynn Bayron
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 363
Date read: May, 2024

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.

When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage.

When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it ... until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.


Warning: this book ends with a HUGE cliffhanger! And the annoying thing is that it really didn't need to. Kalynn Bayron could easily have paved the way for a sequel without leaving the reader without an ending, but once I had 20 pages left I realized there was NO way they could wrap up everything in such short time :-( So that definitely subtracted a star or two.

But up until then I loved it. I really enjoyed reading how Briseis grew and learned more about herself - even if there were constantly more questions than answers. The answers we did get came organically, and I was eager to learn more. There were lots of twists and turns I hadn't guessed ahead of time, but which worked within the scope of the book.

And I guess that was the problem - there were SO many twists and turns that Ms. Bayron couldn't get everything sorted by the end of the book, and chose to save the answers for the sequel, leaving an - IMO at least - much too open ending.

Opposites Attract - Camilla Isley

Title: Opposites Attract
Author: Camilla Isley
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~6hrs
Date read: May, 2024

Single mom Vivian has been burned by love once before, and her job as a divorce lawyer has presented enough evidence to convince her there are no good men left in New York City.

The worst offender is her new neighbor: Dr. Lucas Keller, a couple’s therapist whose piercing blue eyes and flawless dark hair are just as annoying as his bad temper.

But when Luke starts poaching Vivian’s clients by saving their marriages, she makes it her mission to force him out of the building to save her practice. But it’s Luke who gives her the perfect opportunity when he proposes an unexpected bet.

With their offices at stake, Vivian and Luke play the field of love in a fierce battle of wits that quickly turns hot and personal, especially when Vivian’s daughter gets involved. Now, taking down Luke has become more than business for Vivian. It’s become a pleasure—and soon, Vivian and Luke will realize how pointless it is to fight the laws of attraction.


Really cute story. A bit too run-of-the-mill to deserve 5 stars, but I enjoyed it a lot, and found myself listening to it at every chance I got.

Of course, it's one of those stories where you can guess the outcome from the very first page, and that requires absolutely nothing of the reader - but sometimes, that's just the kind of fluff I'm in the mood for, and I did feel that this delivered quite nicely without being too trite. And for once the third act breakup made sense ... even if I did think Vivian should have been able to guess the explanation without it having to be spelled out.

I loved Teagan, and loved the growing relationship between her and Luke :-)

The end wrapped up things nicely, without being too rushed. There was certain plot point I felt lacked a proper resolution, but there is an exclusive epilogue on the author's web page, which covers that quite nicely :)

The Devil and the Dark Water - Stuart Turton

Title: The Devil and the Dark Water
Author: Stuart Turton
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 576
Date read: May, 2024

It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported from the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam, where he is set to face trial for a crime that no one dares speak of.

But no sooner is the ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. Strange symbols appear on the sails. A figure stalks the decks. Livestock are slaughtered. Passengers are plagued with ominous threats, promising them three unholy miracles. First: an impossible pursuit. Second: an impossible theft.

Then: an impossible murder.

With Pipps imprisoned in the depths of the ship, can his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes solve the mystery before the ship descends into anarchy?


Yet another 4.5 star book by Stuart Turton! So far I've loved everything I've read by him and am really impressed at how effortlessly he switches between settings and atmospheres.

There are a LOT of details to keep straight, and a lot of random asides that suddenly become plot points 3 chapters later, so I'm glad I read it as quickly as I did, as it wouldn't have taken much to forget . As it was, I had to refer back to the passenger list quite frequently during the first half of the book, until I got everybody sorted in my head.

Fortunately, I like detective novels with a lot of details, as it keeps me thinking that I might be able to solve the mystery myself alongside the detective, so I enjoyed all the puzzles and the twists and turns the novel took along the way.