Bogormen

Title: The Billionaire's Wake-Up-Call Girl
Author: Annika Martin
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages: Audiobook ~9hrs
Date read: September, 2024

When my manager assigns me the task of finding a new wake up call service for our CEO, I think, how hard can this be?

Answer: practically impossible. It turns out that no wake-up call company in the world will take him on as a client. They’ve all had enough of his surly personality.

So in an effort not to lose my job, I secretly start making the calls myself, every day at 4:30 am sharp. OMG yes you read that right—four freaking thirty in the morning.

Confession: I’m not the nicest wake-up-call girl at that hour. Hello! Who wakes up before the roosters are even crowing? Luckily he doesn’t seem to mind my get-your-ass-out-of-bed attitude.


This was the perfect book to keep me company on a 4 hour drive. It had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions and I loved the banter between Lizzie and Theo as well as between Lizzie and Mia.

The romance was super sweet and the third act breakup less contrived than it often is in romance novels. Sasha's (I think that's her name anyways) behavior did subtract the final star though - it just seemed too malicious to be believable ... even within the book's own universe.

I wish we could have heard more about the bakery. I want a follow up that focuses on that!

Funny, cute and sizzling. Grumpy/sunshine and high levels of spice.

Title: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~10hrs
Date read: January, 2023

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and…Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he’s concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn’t know she was looking for....


I would definitely characterize this as "cozy fantasy". Take your stereotypical British fiction and add a magical element, and you've nailed the atmosphere of this book to a tee. And it seems to be a stand-alone novel, which is a pleasant surprise.

It's a comfort read with (mostly) likeable and quirky characters. I loved the kids and felt they actually acted like kids rather than "small grown-ups". There are few surprises to be found here (although not none! There were some twists I hadn't seen coming), but in this type of book, I didn't really expect there to be either. I had guessed the final resolution ahead of time, but not - as it turned out - the twist it took to get there.

I "read" this as an audiobook and managed 10 hours in 5 days.

Title: Moxie
Author: Jennifer Mathieu
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 352
Date read: October, 2022

MOXIE GIRLS FIGHT BACK!

Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with an administration at her high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.

Viv's mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the '90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother's past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She's just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. As Viv forges friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.


The book the movie is "inspired" by... which is a very odd way to put it as it's blatantly the same story (so what's the difference between inspired by and based on??? But I digress). I loved the movie, and I loved the book as well. Very captivating read. I liked that it showed that things weren't necessarily black and white, that nuances exist, and that there's room for growth.

The end frustrated me a bit as certain someones got off far too easily IMHO, but I guess that just makes it more realistic - unfortunately.

Title: Honeymoon for One
Author: Portia MacIntosh
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4/5
# pages:  344
Date read: July, 2021

As a published novelist, Lila Rose has been writing about fictional weddings all her life. But disaster strikes on her own big day when she hears her philandering fiancé, Daniel whispering sweet nothings to someone else.

With her dream day shattered, all Lila wants to do is run and hide, so she decides to fly solo on her own honeymoon.

When Daniel arrives in the resort with his new squeeze, Lila strikes up a ‘showmance’ with hot new movie star, Freddie Bianchi. Freddie is perfect for the part and Lila soon relaxes into her leading lady role.

But as truth starts to merge with fiction, could real love be in the air?


Sweet and funny. Very predictable, but that's par for the course for chick-lits usually, and it was charming enough that I didn't mind. TOTALLY made me want to go to a fancy resort though! So slightly torturous reading it during a lockdown summer vacation :-P

I adored Ali - Lila's best friend - and liked that though she was brazen and impulsive, she obviously knew Lila well enough to know exactly what would be appreciated - even if other people might find it intrusive. This one quote summed up their friendship perfectly for me:
"It speaks volumes about our relationship, that she feels as if she can – and that I’m delighted to have her here."

I didn't quite buy Daniel and Eva's actions - they seemed too self-absorbed to be real - and it bothered me that authors of chick-lits feel like they absolutely must tear the happy couple apart before the end of the book, so they can happily fall into each others' arms again at the very end. Why not just have them stay together? And - y'know - actually TALK about their issues instead of just assuming they're too big to overcome? *sigh* So that subtracted the final star in an otherwise very enjoyable book.

Title: The One
Author: John Marrs
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 416 pages
Date read: August, 2018

How far would you go to find The One?

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner—the one you’re genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…


I was absolutely captivated by this book. Didn't want to put it down, and couldn't stop thinking about it when I had to.

The plot focuses on 5 different people/couples and jumps from one to the next between each chapter - something that would usually really bother me, but which worked very well here, and there was no one story line I was more interested in following than the others. Some of the twists I had guessed ahead of time - others, definitely not!

The resolution of some of the story lines came a bit too easy or had a few too many details glossed over, which is what brought it down that half-star, but as a whole I absolutely loved it!

Title: Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 431
Date read: June, 2017

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. But Calaena is far from loyal to the crown. Keeping up the charade - while pretending to do the king's bidding - will test her skills in an entirely new way. And it certainly isn't the only point of confusion for the young girl. Because though she's made her choice between Dorian and Chaol, the ways of the heart are never simple.


A lot darker than the first one, that's for sure. But in its own way, I think it was better written (fewer instances of "two months went by where this happened"). I had a very hard time putting it down, and turned straight to the third novel in the series.

I thought the relationships seemed more believable in this one - or more fleshed out at least. I'd seen the so-called 'twists' coming a mile off though.

Title: Sword of Deaths (The Scythe Wielder's Secret #2)
Author: Christopher Mannino
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 263
Date read: April 2016

Susan Sarnio made a choice, and will spend the rest of her life as the only female Death. Last year she was bullied and ostracized. Now, to her complete bewilderment, four Deaths vie for her affection. Yet, something is terribly wrong at the College of Deaths. When a ship carrying scythe metal is attacked, many blame the newly-freed Elementals, but Susan knows the Elementals are innocent.

Shadows from the distant past come to light. Dragons circle the horizon, blood spills, and nothing is what it seems. Susan and her friends struggle to stop a war. They search for the fabled First Scythe, hoping to sway the balance, but who is the true enemy?


While the first book in the series was pure genius, this sequel unfortunately couldn't deliver at all. The writing wasn't nearly as tight and often confusing, with lots of needless repetitions (yes, everybody's hot for Susan - we get it already!), and a plot that didn't really take off until about 20 pages before the end, so we're left with a cliffhanger, and resolutions that won't happen until the next book. I was especially frustrated by the lack of follow-up on what happened to Tom. That was such a brilliant idea, but other than a brief comment from Frank, the reader was just left hanging. Hopefully this will be brought up again in the next book.

The first book was obviously the first in a series, but still nicely contained, leaving the reader eager to read the next book, but not terribly frustrated by a ton of loose threads left hanging. A shame Mannino couldn't repeat that excellent bit of writing for the second book.

I still want to read the last book, in the hopes that Mannino will redeem himself. But I'm no longer as excited about it, as I was before reading this one.

Title: Station Eleven
Author: Emily St. John Mandel
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 304
Date read: February 2015

One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.

Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten's arm is a line from Star Trek: "Because survival is insufficient." But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.

Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all.


I'm afraid this book suffered severely from too much hype. It was good, but certainly couldn't live up to my expectation. Mostly I felt like the book couldn't decide which way to go -- was it a story about the "apocalypse" or about the aftermath? Instead it tried to be a little bit of both, meaning that it ended up rich on world-building and low on plot. Even now I'm not sure what the plot was supposed to be... Arthur's life story? Kirsten's life story? How Station Eleven came to be? Eluding the prophet? Getting to the airport? All of the above? None of the above?

It's probably telling that I enjoyed the flashbacks more than the present day events, and as a whole, I found the book well-written, but ultimately too easily forgettable.

The three stars is because the first few chapters and some of the flashbacks had me at the edge of my seat. More of that (=focus on the apocalypse and the early years) and I would probably have LOVED it.

Title: Bird Box
Author: Josh Malerman
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 1.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~8hrs
Date read: January 2015

Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn't look outside anymore. Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.

Just 1.5 stars. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not sure I would even go as far as to say it was okay.

I had a lot of problems with this book. The premise sounded fascinating - somewhat similar to M. Night Shyamalan's movie "The Happening". In retrospect that should have given me pause, as I didn't care much for that movie either. I guess the best thing I can say about the book is that at least it's not that bad.

The book jumps back and forth in time. That doesn't usually bother me, but here it seemed as if the entire book was a prologue, and that the plot itself - you know, the part where all the questions are answered? - didn't even get started until the last 10 minutes... after which it ended without answering any questions whatsoever.

It seemed as if Josh Malerman found an interesting writing prompt ("Imagine that you have to live your life blindfolded") and then just went with it, without putting too much thought into the explanation of WHY the characters had to live their lives blindfolded - not the deeper reason, anyway. I don't mind unanswered questions in books, but I do mind it when the main premise itself is left a mystery.

I 'read' this as an audiobook (narrated by Katharine Mangold - not the best narrator ever, but not the worst either), which may have swayed my opinion slightly to the negative. I might not have gotten as frustrated by it, if I hadn't wasted as much time on it.

Title: Tomorrow, When the War Began
Author: John Marsden
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 285
Date read: December 2011, December 2016

When Ellie and her friends go camping, they have no idea they're leaving their old lives behind forever. Despite a less-than-tragic food shortage and a secret crush or two, everything goes as planned. But a week later, they return home to find their houses empty and their pets starving. Something has gone wrong--horribly wrong. Before long, they realize the country has been invaded, and the entire town has been captured--including their families and all their friends. Ellie and the other survivors face an impossible decision: They can flee for the mountains or surrender. Or they can fight.

I'd actually seen this in the library 10'ish years ago and thought it sounded interesting, but decided against taking it out when I saw that it was part of a series since I didn't know if the books could stand alone or if the series had been finished. However, a friend recommended it to me back in 2005, so I thought I would give it a shot. I liked it well enough, but wasn't blown away by it, so I never picked up the sequels.

Recently another friend started talking about it again. She'd seen the movie and raved about both it and the books, so I figured it was time to give it a second chance. I don't know what changed, but this time I loved it, and will definitely be continuing with the rest of the series.

I think one difference may have been that I read it in Danish last time and English this time. Even the best translator cannot capture the Australian slang in Danish. I felt much more connected to the story and am eager to see what happens next.

We never think war could ever come to our country, and discovering it so suddenly, like the kids here did, must have been a terrible shock. I can't even imagine.