Tag / Jeneva Rose

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Book 2 (of 52) – The Perfect Divorce

The Perfect Divorce – Jeneva Rose

After learning that her husband was having an affair, attorney Sarah Morgan decides it is time to end their marriage.  He, however, has other plans and, considering what he knows about the end of Sarah’s first marriage, the two are in for a fight.  Things get messy when the murder case against Sarah’s first husband, who has already been executed, is re-opened after new evidence shows a potential cover-up by the sheriff’s department and two women connected to her current husband go missing.  Which fighting spouse will keep the upper hand in their battle for custody of their daughter?

The Perfect Divorce, my second foray into Jeneva Rose’s work, came to my attention after being nominated for the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Mystery & Thriller.  It is the second entry in her Perfect series featuring the Sarah Morgan and, I fear, completely spoils the first one.  Aside from that unfortunate outcome, this was a quick and entertaining read, with a completely different vibe from my previous exposure to Rose and her work.  I look forward to revisiting her back catalog in the future.

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2025: The Year In Books

As 2025 comes to a close, my fifth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 66 books, five books more than my previous high set last year and my fifth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-October and surpassed last year’s total in early-December.  I read 25,279 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the third time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only two were non-fiction and, of the remaining 64 novels, only six were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, three paperbacks, 61 e-books and no audiobooks.  I was forced to switch my library card from the Chicago Public Library to my local library, which slowed me down a little but still led to 55 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 71% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 21 authors that I read for the first time this year were:

Coco Mellors Aisling Rawle Stephen Graham Jones
Liz Moore Natalie Sue Kaliane Bradley
Max Brooks Mary Shelley Paul Tremblay
Nathaniel Hawthorne Kelly Bishop Tanya Pearson
Liane Moriarty Benjamin Stevenson Ashley Winstead
Ashley Elston Alison Espach Alice Feeney
Ali Land Lindsay Jamieson Jeneva Rose

Karin Slaughter, Laura Lippman, Kathy Reichs, Lee Goldberg, Stephen King, Emily Henry, Elin Hilderbrand, and Rebecca Forster were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2025, accounting for nearly 35% of my total.

22 of the books I read were released this year, while none were released during the 20th century.  Two came from the 19th century, with the oldest first published in 1818.

Finally, the breakdown by month, which was fairly consistent across the entire year. Continue reading →

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Book 60 (of 52) – Horror Movie

Horror Movie – Paul Tremblay

Nobody is quite sure what to make of the last remaining cast member from a 30-year-old underground, cult horror film that never actually got released as he works to get the Hollywood reboot off the ground.  Recollecting the original shoot, and all of the horrors that went along with it, he starts to once again inhabit the mindset of his character, bad news for all involved.

Much like Jeneva Rose’s Home Is Where the Bodies Are, Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay shows once again that a good way to draw me towards your book is to feature a VHS cassette on the cover.  This story had an interesting premise, but, for me, went off the rails in the third act.  I don’t know if I will want to go back to the Tremblay well any time soon, but we will see.

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Book 21 (of 52) – Home Is Where The Bodies Are

Home Is Where The Bodies Are – Jeneva Rose

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you can certainly be drawn in to a book because of one.  Such is the case with Home Is Where the Bodies Are, the latest from Jeneva Rose about a family that reunites following the death of their mother, bringing decades old secrets back to the surface.

Nominated for a 2024 Goodreads Choice Award for favorite mystery and thriller, the book drew my interest due to its use of a video cassette tape as a cover, standing out from the crowd of nominees.  It was my first experience with the work of Jeneva Rose and I may be on the lookout for more going forward.

And with that, we draw to a close my relationship with the Chicago Public Library.  I’ve saved a lot of money over these past four years and read a lot of books I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.  Time to see if my smaller, local library can fulfill the same at a similar pace.

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Locking Down The Library

Back in the summer of 2021, despite not living in Chicago, I got myself a digital Chicago Public Library card which gave me access to eBooks and audio books that I would never have had otherwise.  In the nearly four years since, I have read, or listened, to hundreds of books, starting with The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss in late July.

Earlier this morning, I received an email that the Chicago Public Library is retiring their eCards program as of May 1st.  Thankfully, I picked up a Frankfort library card last December, so I can move on with (hopefully) minimal interruptions.  It looks like Home Is Where the Bodies Are, by Jeneva Rose, will by my final book.