Book Review: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

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Mad Mabel  by Sally Hepworth  is a domestic thriller about the youngest person convicted of murder in Australia, Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick. Now 81 years old, Elsie is living on Kenny Lane and has been for the past sixty years. When a mother named Roxanne moves into Mabel's neighborhood with her seven year old daughter, an unlikely friendship forms between Elsie and the seven year old child named Persephone. As Elsie's secrets come to light, her world comes crashing down.  Having read quite a few novels by Sally Hepworth, I requested an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Mad Mabel  without reading the synopsis of the story. I was thrilled when NetGalley and St. Martin's Press approved my request. The expected publication date of the book is April 21, 2026. Not knowing anything about the storyline before I started reading Mad Mabel  made the story much more interesting to me as I had no preconceived ideas. The tale was told from Mabel's perspective in alternating timeli...
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Book Review: Good Enough To Eat by Stacey Ballis

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Melanie Hoffman, a former lawyer, has lost half of her body weight and opened Dining By Design, a gourmet take out cafe that specializes in healthy food. She's barely opened the doors when her husband announces that he wants a divorce and is leaving her for another woman . . . one that is double the size of Melanie. Surprised by this, she now faces financial hardships and finds a roommate in the most unlikely person . . . a twenty something woman with pink hair and a quirky personality. On top of that, she starts dating a documentary filmmaker named Nathan. With all the changes, Melanie realizes she still has a lot to learn about life and herself.

Good Enough To Eat by Stacey Ballis can easily be defined as chick lit. I might have mentioned in other reviews that chick lit is not a genre I normally choose for myself. However, one of the book clubs I was in briefly had picked this book as their monthly selection. I decided to read it because I liked the premise of the book. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Honestly, I thought it was just okay and tended to drag a bit.
First thought is that it seems like it might be semi-autobiographical. The every day details and humdrum aren't usually explained in depth like Good Enough To Eat does. As for the actual writing, it seems a bit stilted like it was written in a journal and expanded to make a book. These things are not makings of a gripping book.
For a while, it seemed like all of the publishers were enthralled with books that had to do with bakeries, cafés, or anything that had to do with food because a lot of the books we read in my various book clubs had to do with this topic. And, the majority of them had recipes throughout the book or at the end of the book. I definitely had burn out on these kind of books as well because there were just too many of them!
I gave three stars out of five to Good Enough To Eat even though I didn't particularly care for it. Part of the reason for this score is that I had to give it a better rating than I gave The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross because it had more realistic scenes.

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