The Running Bibliophile

Such A Clever Girl  by Darby Kane  opens with the friends and family of Xavier Tanner gathered for the reading of his will when his granddaughter, Aubrey (presumed dead for the last fifteen years), suddenly walks through the door. Her unexpected appearance reignites the rumor mill surrounding the mysterious disappearance of her family all those years ago. It also draws a teacher, a  café owner, and a psychologist back together for the first time since that day. What secrets have they been keeping, and how are they connected to the Tanner family disappearance ? Told mainly from the perspective of Stella, Marni, and Hannah, the author slowly weaves a hellacious story of secrets, lies, and things that aren't as they seem. As the reader navigates the story, they're presented with flashbacks and tidbits of information of what happened to the Tanner family that connect these three women together who otherwise wouldn't be connected. Add in an occasional bit of information from t...

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...

When I saw that a television movie for V.C. Andrews' book Heaven (Casteel, #1) was going to be shown on the Lifetime Channel, I decided I needed to reread the book before watching the movie as it had been several years since I read it. All I really remembered was that it was one of my least favorite of her series, and I'd have to say it is still one of my least favorite. It's not that it is poorly written because it is actually written really well. The series just wasn't my cup of tea compared to some of the other series. Things I loved about the book were the family dynamics because there are people who have multiple generations living under one roof. So many families are dysfunctional as well, so this book really brought this issue to life. It also showed how people can be really poor and barely eeking out an existence. What I hope people learned from Heaven (Casteel, #1) is that there are people who have it worse than you do and don't be so quick to judge p...

I am the type of person who will put down a book if it doesn't grab my attention within the first five pages or so, even when it comes to adult novels. The reason for this is that I just don't want to waste my time, or money, on something that isn't any good. And, yes, I'm one of those that has to own their copy. I've just now started borrowing books from the library, especially when it is a book that I am unsure of. That was exactly the case with  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children  by Ransom Riggs . I put off reading it for the longest time because I wasn't convinced I'd enjoy it. I even tried reading a few pages while browsing at my local Barnes & Noble, but it didn't immediately grab my attention, despite having an intriguing premise. Eventually, I saw that my local library branch offered both the eBook version and digital audiobook versions available, so I decided to give the latter a chance. Listening to audiobooks has neve...