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: Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum, #22) by Janet Evanovich

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book review tricky twenty two janet evanovich stephanie plum

Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum, #22) by Janet Evanovich opens with Stephanie Plum needing to apprehend Ken "Gobbles" Globovic, who is a fraternity called Zeta at Kiltman College, but he has gone into hiding. On top of that, Doug Linken, who has hired Rangeman to protect him, has been killed. What is the connection between Gobbles and Doug, and how is Stephanie going to solve this mystery?

When I first started reading this installment of the Stephanie Plum book series, I thought I was going to end up disliking Tricky Twenty-Two because of what happened in the beginning of the story. However, I ended up absolutely loving it. The story felt a little different the previous stories, and Stephanie didn't seem quite so inept at her job as a bounty hunter. 

Lula cracked me up with her bedazzling and wearing of flea collars . . . you'll have to read the book to find out why she does this and thinks she's going to be the next Martha Stewart. I think this was one of the first times in several books that she doesn't absolutely get on my last nerve, so that was extremely refreshing. There was no Randy Biggs in this story line, so my worries of him being in every book from now on were for naught . . . yay!

And, Stephanie's mom, Ellen, has had some major character development in this installment. I actually am beginning to like her, which is surprising. I think readers will be just as pleasantly delighted as I was by this character growth. 

The ending of Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum, #22) has gotten my hopes up that Stephanie will finally settle down, get married, and have kids. However, I'm trying not to get too excited by the ending. All in all, it was a great read, even with it not being as fast paced as previous books in the series, and I gave it five out of five stars.

 


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