Bogormen

Title: Under Currents
Author: Nora Roberts
Genre: Fiction, Suspense
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook 14.5hrs.
Date read: July, 2019

Zane Bigelow grew up in a beautiful, perfectly kept house in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Strangers―and even Zane’s own aunt across the lake―see his parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, making appearances at their children’s ballet recitals and baseball games. Only Zane and his sister know the truth, until one brutal night finally reveals cracks in the facade, and Zane escapes for college without a thought of looking back...

Years later, Zane returns to his hometown determined to reconnect with the place and people that mean so much to him, despite the painful memories. As he resumes life in the colorful town, he meets a gifted landscape artist named Darby, who is on the run from ghosts of her own.

Together they will have to teach each other what it means to face the past, and stand up for the ones they love.


Alright, I'll state my biases right away - I love Nora Roberts' newer books, and though I can see that they're incredibly formulaic, I just don't care. I can see a book's weaknesses and love it anyway, and this was definitely the case here.

Because this? This was one of the most unputdownable books I've come across in a very long time, and reading it as an audiobook was a HUGE mistake. So big, in fact, that I ended up buying the ebook version as well, because I reached <big spoilerific turning point> right as I arrived somewhere where I couldn't listen to the audiobook any longer, and just HAD to know what happened next RIGHT NOW!!! ... and then relistened to it once I got back to the audiobook, because it was so satisfying that I just had to experience it once again :-D

In the end, I listened to 14.5hrs in 5 days.

I grew to care for all the main characters and really love how Nora Roberts writes little-town communities. Just like in "The Obsession" she ended up describing a place I'd like to live in myself, and though I know nothing about gardening myself, I loved reading about Darby's landscaping business and would DEFINITELY like to book her for my own garden!

The ending was perhaps a bit to quick (I would have liked more of a follow-up, though I do get how the characters getting closure meant they didn't need the follow-up themselves) and a bit too repetitive, and from a purely objective point of view should probably have subtracted a star... but it's a rare thing that I get this obsessed about finishing a book (yet don't want it to end at all!), so 5 stars it is.

Title: Kaninjægeren (Joona Linna #6) (The Rabbit Hunter)
Author: Lars Kepler
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 576
Date read: July 2019

It begins with a nursery rhyme.
Nineteen minutes later you die…

There’s a face at the window.
A stranger wearing a mask stands in the shadow of a garden. He’s watching his first victim through the window. He will kill him slowly, make it last – play him a nursery rhyme – make him pay.

There’s only one person the police can turn to – ex-Detective Joona Linna – but he’s serving time in a high-security prison. So they offer him a chance to secure his freedom: help superintendent Saga Bauer track down the vicious killer known as The Rabbit Hunter, before he strikes again.

Soon another three victims have been murdered and Stockholm is in the grip of terror. Joona Linna must catch a disturbed predator, whose trail of destruction leads back to one horrific night of violence – with consequences more terrifying than anyone could have imagined…


Unfortunately not nearly as good as the other books in this series, and I think it might be time for me to say goodbye to Joona Linna and his friends. The story was still captivating, and made it easy for me to read 576 pages in less than 24 hours, but it had so many minor issues that by themselves would be no problem at all, but put together just served to annoy me.

First and foremost, the plot just seemed extremely far fetched. While I don't particularly doubt the premise, there were just certain aspects that really, really didn't work for me.

Secondly, I've gotten tired of the writing style. I don't mind a lot of really short chapters, but I draw the line when a chapter break might JUST as well have been a line break.

Thirdly, the amount of stuff that goes on between the lines. I keep worrying that I'll miss important plot points, because there are so many things just hinted at, where I have no idea if they turn out to be important or not.

That said, it did have a lot of good things going for it as well. I really loved Rex and his son and was happy that so much page-time was spent on the two of them. I also did like the concept of a spree killer as a plot point, and just wish the motivation and resolution had been better executed.

So 3 stars, and a fond farewell to the series.

Title: Kingdom of Needle and Bone
Author: Mira Grant
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~3hrs
Date read: July 2019, April 2020

It begins with a fever. By the time the spots appear, it’s too late: Morris’s disease is loose on the world, and the bodies of the dead begin to pile high in the streets. When its terrible side consequences for the survivors become clear, something must be done, or the dying will never stop. For Dr. Isabella Gauley, whose niece was the first confirmed victim, the route forward is neither clear nor strictly ethical, but it may be the only way to save a world already in crisis. It may be the only way to atone for her part in everything that’s happened.
She will never be forgiven, not by herself, and not by anyone else. But she can, perhaps, do the right thing.

We live in an age of monsters.


A fascinating book, which I'm sure I'll have to read several times to fully get all aspects of - especially in view of some of the twists revealed near the end which will influence how I read earlier parts. But I really shouldn't expect anything else from Mira Grant by now.

It's a thrilling story, that definitely shines light on the dangers of the anti-vacc movement. It's also really, really short and reads more like a prequel than a full story in its own right (which is the ONLY reason I didn't give it 5 stars - even though I'm pretty sure the prequel-feel was the intention, I still wanted to know more!) and I DEFINITELY want to read the rest of the story now! In many ways it's very similar to many of the shorts in the Newsflesh universe, and while I know they're not related, they very easily could be.

Mira Grant is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite authors. I've yet to meet a book of hers I didn't love.

Reread 2020: A bit too much "on the nose" right now, but that's basically why I felt a need to reread it. It's still amazing.

Title: Rebel (Ghost Mountain Wolf #3)
Author: Audrey Faye
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 320
Date read: July 2019, March 2020, October 2022

A baby alpha who absolutely doesn’t want to upend her pack—and is going to do it anyhow.

Kennedy is a badass and she knows it.

She’s also scared. That she’s too strong. Too fierce. Too much. That her pack won’t be able to hold her, no matter how much she wants to stay.

We’ll just see what her pack has to say about that.


I loved seeing the teenagers get more page-time in this one. Audrey Faye really does have a soft spot for feisty teenagers with big hearts - I think they feature in almost all her series! But it was delightful to see Kennedy find her legs as a strong Baby Alpha and fight for her place in the pack... although definitely not the same way she thought she was doing it. I was thrilled to see her interact with Hayden's mum.

The Ghost Mountain Wolf series is very similar to the Modern Witch series in that it is NOT the plot that matters - it is the characters. They drew me in from the very beginning and I just want to spend as much time with them as at all possible. I hope this turns out to be a very long series indeed :-D

Title: Alpha (Ghost Mountain Wolf #1)
Author: Audrey Faye
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 5/5
# pages: 322
Date read: July 2019, March 2020, August 2021, October 2022, February 2025

A pack broken.
A pup in danger.
A submissive wolf who will fight with her last breath.

Hayden Scott doesn’t know his stroll in the woods is going to start with a backpack full of watermelon and end with him the new alpha of the Ghost Mountain Pack. A very traumatized pack, and those are only the shifters he can see. Too many are missing, hiding in the woods or worse.

His wolf doesn’t care. He has a pack. One with maple-syrup-covered toddlers, a ten-year-old boy who smells like wolf right up until he shifts, and a brave woman with green eyes and serious trust problems who defended her pup with nothing more than a tree branch and sheer guts.

The walk ahead won’t be easy, but he has a list:
-- Burn down the den.
-- Deal with the evil still stalking the woods.
-- Call Mom.


I'd been hesitant to start reading this because while I typically LOVE Audrey Faye's writing, I've never really been a fan of shape shifters.

However, there are exceptions to every rule, and I ought really have known better. I finally picked this up when I needed some light reading for my vacation as Audrey Faye usually delivers that quite nicely. I think it took me about 5 (cell-phone sized) pages to get absolutely positively thoroughly HOOKED! This is her best work since the witches, and in fact it is INCREDIBLY similar to the witches in both atmosphere and character interactions. Granted, this necessarily has some significantly darker moments, but Audrey Faye's amazing gift in writing relationships and human interactions shines through bright and clear from the very beginning.

I laughed out loud on numerous occasions. I cried on at least one. I grew to love the characters. I never wanted the book to end. There were some elements I would have liked elaborated on (e.g. the dominants in the woods), but I trust Audrey Faye's pacing, that we'll get to hear more about them in the later books.

WHY did it take me so long to get started on this series? Of course, the good thing is that this means I now have another two books waiting for me. Excellent!

Title: At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much
Author: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Genre: Crafts, Non-fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: Audiobook ~4hrs
Date read: December 2013

Knitting finally takes its rightful place on the spectrum of personal obsessions, alongside golfing, fishing, and gardening. The tangled life of the knitter is the subject of inspired nuttiness in these 300 tongue-in-cheek meditations from the self-proclaimed yarn harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

As any knitter can attest to, this is an activity fraught with guilt, frustration, over-optimism, sly deception, and compulsion, along with passionate moments of creative enlightenment. To soothe the unraveled knitter's soul, Pearl- McPhee has selected some of her favorite quotes to cast off from, and then, like the standup comic of the knitting world, she rants, raves, and reflects on common experiences that are sure to leave avid knitters in stitches.

Not a book I'd normally go for, but I've become really fond of the "Yarn Harlot"'s writing, so I thought I'd give it a chance. It was funny, and had me laughing out loud on several occasions, but it really is just a bunch of meditations. No plot, no story, no nothing... just some statements and situations to ponder over.

However, it did prove that while I do knit a lot - according to Stephanie's definition, I don't knit too much ;)

This version was read by Stephanie herself, which meant extra charm and a strong Canadian accent :)