Sheila's Men by Jenna Ashlyn

This novel will have you angry, in tears, and rips your heart and mind to shreds. But then you start to see hope and a new beginning, which makes the main character have you cheering and burning your bra.
10/10 recommend


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SHEILA’S MEN is a dark modern fairy tale that follows the life of Sheila, a naïve romantic living in poverty who blindly marries a man in the hopes of providing a better life for herself and her daughter. Soon after marrying, her husband increasingly subjects her to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. And since he refuses to get a job, Sheila begins working long hours far from home and encounters a seemingly endless onslaught from other manipulative and abusive men. Growing increasingly overworked, distanced from her beloved daughter, and frustrated with the manipulative and abusive men inside and outside her home, Sheila prepares to end her life. If there is a prince charming who understands her worth, he must inspire her to believe in herself soon. (Based on a true story.)

WARNING: Sheila's Men is a fictionalized account of one woman’s real-life struggle to escape abusive relationships and is intended, in part, to help others recognize and escape such relationships. As such, this book necessarily contains language and scenarios related to self-harm, suicide, and abuse (emotional, physical, sexual, and financial) that might be triggering for some audiences. Reader discretion is advised.

Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak

This novel surreptitiously feels like a real story of the United States from 2017-2021 and is a delightful indulgence of golden gossip. I'm going to have to buy the tell-all biography of the first lady.

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A mysterious First Lady. The intrepid journalist writing her biography. And the secret that could destroy them both.

Tired of covering the grating dysfunction of Washington and the increasingly outrageous antics of President Henry Caine, White House correspondent Sofie Morse quits her job and plans to leave politics behind. But when she gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine, asking Sofie to come in for a private meeting with Lara, her curiosity is piqued. Sofie, like the rest of the world, knows little about Lara—only that Lara was born in Soviet Russia, raised in Paris, and worked as a model before moving to America and marrying the notoriously brash future president.

When Lara asks Sofie to write her official biography, and to finally fill in the gaps of her history, Sofie’s curiosity gets the better of her. She begins to spend more and more time in the White House, slowly developing a bond with Lara who, to Sofie’s surprise, is entirely candid about her mysterious past. The First Lady doesn’t hesitate to speak about her beloved father’s work as an undercover KGB officer in Paris—and how he wasn’t the only person in her family working undercover during the Cold War.

As her story unfolds, Sofie can’t help but wonder why Lara Caine is rehashing such sensitive information. Why to her? And why now?

What Might Have Been by Holly Miller

I read this book as if it were a “choose your own path” style and read all the “stay” chapter portions in order first. Then went back and read “go.” Others were confused about the timelines since they didn’t do so, but I liked doing it this way. Stay – I read this portion of the novel in four hours and loved it. Thank you for not going into detail about Lucy’s assault; I understood what had happened to her without being triggered and reliving my own trauma. I appreciated that so very much. Go – This part of the novel tore my heart to shreds and made me cry into a cup of tea for comfort. I absolutely loved this story line. I enjoyed the dichotomy of how our choices in life affect others paths as well and the details that overlapped between “stay” and “go” made me gasp many times.


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The Two Lives of Lydia Bird meets This Time Next Year in a sliding-doors style romance and coming-to-self story about fate, chance, and the choices we make.

What if “meant to be” happened twice?

Lucy is at a crossroads. The same night she quits her thankless job she meets Caleb, a local photographer in her seaside town, and has a run-in with Max—the once love of her life. As Lucy decides the right path forward—finally pursue her dream of becoming a writer, or move to London and revive her career—her choice will change her life in unimaginable ways.

Stay. After a decade of trying to run from her dream, Lucy is finally facing her fears and putting pen to page. With her budding romance with handsome, artistic Caleb, she has more inspiration now than ever. But can Lucy and Caleb open themselves up after their past heartbreaks? And will their different paths take them to the same place?

Go. Lucy can’t believe her luck when a room in her best friend’s London house share opens up and she lands a job at the prestigious Supernova. It gives her the courage to face Max, who’s serendipitous encounter still has her reeling, and ask what really happened almost a decade ago? But does she really want to know, when being together feels like fate?

In concurrent storylines that track what would have happened if Lucy chose to Stay or Go, What Might Have Been is a sweeping story that poses the questions: is it destiny or chance that decides who we are meant to be, and who we are meant to love? And is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Only for You by Barb Curtis

I was so happy to read the second book in this series and get to learn more about Tim and Emily. I loved learning about maple syrup with these characters and wish this festival was real so I can attend. My sweet tooth has been activated and I'm heading to the farmers market for a local supply of goodies. 


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Will a fake relationship between two friends lead to true love?

After having his heart broken on national television, Tim Fraser knows only one way to stop the gossip about his love life-a new girlfriend. The problem is, he's done with romance forever. A fake relationship with his friend and Sapphire Spring's sweetest baker, Emily Holland, seems the perfect solution to getting rid of his newfound fame, but their fleeting fauxmance is stirring up the kinds of feelings Tim has sworn off for good.

Emily has secretly lusted after Tim for years, but pretending her feelings are all for show never factored into her fantasy. Still, her decades-long crush makes it impossible to say no to Tim's proposal. But with each date, the lines between pretend and reality blur, giving Tim and Emily a tantalizing taste of life outside the friend zone . . . if they can find the courage to give real love a chance.

Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

Beautiful Little Fools should be read with Fitzgerald's classic in every literature class! This feminist point of view of the women in Gatsby was far better than the men's!

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On a sultry August day in 1922, Jay Gatsby is shot dead in his West Egg swimming pool. To the police, it appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder/suicide when the body of George Wilson, a local mechanic, is found in the woods nearby.

Then a diamond hairpin is discovered in the bushes by the pool, and three women fall under suspicion. Each holds a key that can unlock the truth to the mysterious life and death of this enigmatic millionaire.

Daisy Buchanan once thought she might marry Gatsby—before her family was torn apart by an unspeakable tragedy that sent her into the arms of the philandering Tom Buchanan.

Jordan Baker, Daisy’s best friend, guards a secret that derailed her promising golf career and threatens to ruin her friendship with Daisy as well.

Catherine McCoy, a suffragette, fights for women’s freedom and independence, and especially for her sister, Myrtle Wilson, who’s trapped in a terrible marriage.

Their stories unfold in the years leading up to that fateful summer of 1922, when all three of their lives are on the brink of unraveling. Each woman is pulled deeper into Jay Gatsby’s romantic obsession, with devastating consequences for all of them.

Jillian Cantor revisits the glittering Jazz Age world of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, retelling this timeless American classic from the women’s perspective. Beautiful Little Fools is a quintessential tale of money and power, marriage and friendship, love and desire, and ultimately the murder of a man tormented by the past and driven by a destructive longing that can never be fulfilled.

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki

I was almost 100 pages in before I had the realization that I was reading about the cereal families. It was fun reading about their sagas and being enlightened on how even the rich and famous have delusions about marriages, relationships, and such.

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Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds. Marjorie had an insatiable drive to live and love and to give more than she got. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar’s treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood’s biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweather Post lived an epic life few could imagine.

Marjorie’s journey began gluing cereal boxes in her father’s barn as a young girl. No one could have predicted that C. W. Post’s Cereal Company would grow into the General Foods empire and reshape the American way of life, with Marjorie as its heiress and leading lady. Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of high-society wife, mother, and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history in the process. Before turning thirty she amassed millions, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. But it was her life-force, advocacy, passion, and adventurous spirit that led to her stunning legacy.

And yet Marjorie’s story, though full of beauty and grandeur, set in the palatial homes she built such as Mar-a-Lago, was equally marked by challenge and tumult. A wife four times over, Marjorie sought her happily-ever-after with the blue-blooded party boy who could not outrun his demons, the charismatic financier whose charm turned to betrayal, the international diplomat with a dark side, and the bon vivant whose shocking secrets would shake Marjorie and all of society. Marjorie did everything on a grand scale, especially when it came to love.

Bestselling and acclaimed author Allison Pataki has crafted an intimate portrait of a larger-than-life woman, a powerful story of one woman falling in love with her own voice and embracing her own power while shaping history in the process.