In The Solarium

  5/5 ⭐ I am not the biggest fan of historical fiction, but there was something about this one that just captivated me into reading it all in one day. Maybe it was the fact that the present-day scenes were more frequent than the flashbacks to the past. Maybe it was the museum and artifact talk that made my little nerd heart happy. I really can't put my finger on what it was. But I was left at the end of this with the biggest satisfied grin on my face. It opens with the scene that changes the life of one of our main characters, Margot, on the night of a party that went horribly wrong. And the friendship that bloomed between her and Josephine, a resistance fighter, in a prison cell during World War II. Back in the present time, Evie is tasked with preparing Josephine's possessions for showcase in an exhibit to honor her life and work as a popular mystery author. Exploring her past raises more questions than answers as Evie, her son, Hugo, and the museum curator Clement search for

5/5 ⭐ It's hard to put into words what I was left feeling after finishing Almond. This was one that I had on my TBR list for a long time before I was given the chance to read it and once I started, I couldn't put it down. As a psychology student, I was vaguely familiar with the condition Yunjae had. It was something we had talked briefly about in my neuropsychology class when we were studying parts of the brain. But that was brief and only talked about it in a clinical sense. Reading Yunjae's thoughts and how he looked at things and how he 'felt' about things was fascinating. At times I laughed at his bluntness and how uninterested he seemed. Other times I cried for how sad he must have been without knowing how to feel. To grieve. I think it does raise the question is it ever a good thing to not feel emotions. To keep a clear head and not be reactive. And after reading this, I think the answer is no. To not feel is to not live. To not experience. And if anything Yun

4/5 ⭐ I was a little nervous when I started it that I wasn't going to like it because some of the dialogue is a bit much but I was pleasantly surprised! The setting was wonderfully designed and you felt like you were there in Las Flores, walking downtown and visiting the cute and quaint places Abby visits in her quest to solve the murder of French-Canadian pastry chef Jean-Louis Bonheur. She is aided by the victim's brother and her former colleagues in the police department to uncover the truth. And the victim's adorable and excitable dog, Sugar. I liked how the book was dotted with recipes for not only baked goodies but other things like doggie treats, chicken wraps and how to treat a bee sting. I wasn't the biggest fan of all the cheeky dialogue between Abby and her best friend Kat. Or when it was used elsewhere. There is an overabundance of nicknames used. It felt over the top and after a while it was annoying. But that was probably the only part I wasn't a fan o