April 2026 Book Reviews!
- Christine
- Apr 30
- 20 min read
Happy first day of May everyone! Summer is quickly approaching (although it's felt like summer for awhile here in South Carolina). I'm super excited because we are getting ready to head to Virginia for some wine tasting. We're going to be visiting Charlottesville, VA, which is one of my favorite cities. I have a whole list of wineries that I want to check out - some we've been to before and some are new to us. So be sure to stay tuned to my social media for pictures of the trip!
In the meantime, let's get to the book reviews for the books I read in April. As always, if you don't want to wait for this monthly post and want to see what I'm reading real time, follow me on Goodreads or The Story Graph.
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The Syrian Dandelion by Thaier Alhusain
Shamil left Syria and his family five years ago to train and work as a doctor in the UK. When his father calls him to tell him that his son, Zain, has been arrested, Shamil decides he has to return to Syria and make sure his family is ok. What he finds once he arrives, is the country is in chaos. His son has been supporting the protestors and rebels who want to overthrow the government. His uncle is high up in the Syrian Army and while he claims to want to help Shalim and his family, his motives are questionable. And finally, the terrorists are taking advantage of the rebels uprising.
Shamil knows he must escape the country with his family, but that becomes more difficult as each day passes that he's back in Syria.
Although it was a bit difficult to follow at times because I just don't know enough about Syria and all of the war that has engulfed the country, the author does a great job of making this a story anyone can get involved in and feel emotional about. The characters seem very real and you can feel their emotions, fears and suffering.
This one is action packed and emotional. Very good read!
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Four out of five stars!
Ben Franklin 2026: His Views Of America And The World by Robert L. Merz
In this book, the author examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and the virtues he lived it by, and how those translate into 2026 and the 250th birthday of the U.S. This is not a biography of Franklin, but more an analysis of his beliefs and his beliefs about the country he helped build and create.
First, I'd say that there are a lot of people who should take the lessons of this book to heart. Franklin believed in things like empathy, compromise, taking care of others, science, knowledge, and so many fundamental things that a lot of people have just lost in today's political climate.
While I think the concepts of this book are excellent, I'm only giving it three stars for a couple of reasons. First, the book is very dry and academic. It reads more like a college text book than a book that most people would pick up and read. Because of this, the book just isn't going to have the broad appeal I wish it would. Second, its very repetitive at times. It felt like I was reading the same thing several times over. I think some good editing could have been helpful.
Having said that, the author is a very good and intelligent writer and the subject matter is spot on for today's world.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Freebourne by Salman Shaheen
Dr. Harry Coulson arrives in the town of Freebourne by train, looking to start fresh. He and his ex-wife were in a horrific car crash years before, which caused them to lose their unborn baby. After years of trying to still make their marriage work, Harry discovers his wife was having an affair with his business partner and best friend, Ben.
Harry is working on a new technology - Polaris - that will help people forget the pain of their worst memories. He comes to Freebourne hoping to start his new company and start fresh in a place where no one knows him. Unfortunately, as soon as he gets off the train he discovers the dead body of a woman. It's the first murder in the town in over 100 years, and the dead woman is the daughter of the richest and most influential man in town.
As the deaths start to add up, Harry seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time each time, and finds himself the prime suspect. To clear himself, Harry sets out to find the real killer.
The timeline for this book is the "near future", so some of the technology is definitely a bit futuristic. This actually is a great story with a really good plot twist and ending. But I'm only giving it three stars because it just seemed to not be focused. There was too much going on. The writing was a bit clunky at times. And Harry's character was really just strange and hard to get behind. Great ending, but the rest of the book needed some sharpening.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Murder At The Spirit Lounge (Nora Breen Investigates Book 2) by Jess Kidd
Nora Breen is an ex-nun who is living in Gore-on-Sea. While taking a walk at the sea, she is summoned by the local police detective - Inspector Rideout - to accompany him to investigate a reported robbery at the home of local medium, Doreen Chimes. While investigating, Chimes invites Inspector Rideout to attend the seance she is holding that evening. During the seance, however, Chimes ends up dead after she starts to share a mysterious message. When each person who attended the seance slowly end up getting murdered, Breen and Inspector Rideout need to figure out who is committing the murders before Rideout becomes one of the victims.
This is book two in the series, but it can be read as a stand alone. I didn't read the first book and had no problem with the story. I think this is a fun mystery, but the pace is just a bit too slow. It just felt like there was a bit too much fluff in the story. Nora Breen's character is super fun and a bit quirky. The possible love triangle piece just didn't really fit though and didn't add anything to the story.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
This book will be published June 16, 2026. To pre-order your copy on Amazon, click here: Kindle, audiobook or hardcover.
The Misinformation Machine: How Fraud, AI And Greed Are Corrupting Science by James Lawrence Powell
In this book, the author examines how misinformation is spread and how the spread of that misinformation effects science. This books specifically looks at scientific research, but the discussions in the book could be extrapolated to any type of misinformation.
I think most people understand how much misinformation is out there and is spread through social media and other sources. This book takes things a step further and discusses how the whole process around the publication of scientific information has corrupted the system. Not only does it cover social media and the spread of information that way, but how the pressure that educational and other institutions put on scientists and researchers to publish has also escalated the problem. The author uses examples such as the misinformation that was spread during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as other examples throughout the course of scientific research.
This book is very well written. It packs a lot of information in a pretty short book, so its very dense. It also is very technical and the subject matter is so focused that it likely will not appeal to a lot of people. However, I found it very enlightening and it made me wish more people educated themselves better on where they get their information and how they get it.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Four out of five stars!
Hollywood vs. Nazis: How The Movie Studios Took On Nazis Infiltrating Los Angeles by Michael Benson
In this book, the author takes us back to 1930s Los Angeles in between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII. As Hitler begins his rise in Germany and the Nazi party continues to gain traction there, Hitler also sets his sites on the rest of the world, including the United States. That leads to Germans living in the U.S. trying to spread the same anti-Jewish sentiment here that is being spouted in Germany and across Europe.
Leon Lewis is a Jewish lawyer living in Los Angeles who creates his own group of spies to infiltrate the Nazi and anti-Jewish movement on the west coast and stop their plans. While the title of the book implies that most of the people in this book will be people associated with Hollywood, that's actually not the case. While they do play a role in this part of history, the vast majority of Lewis' spy network are just normal people.
I really enjoyed the style of writing the author has. Sometimes non-fiction books can be very dry. This one had more of a movie screenplay feel to it. The downside of the book is that there are a lot of different people and a lot of activity that the author tries to cover in a fairly short book. While I think the author did a great job, I did find it hard at times to keep track of everyone.
This is a piece of U.S. history that often doesn't get covered or talked about enough. This is a great approachable read for anyone interested in learning more about the time before our entry into WWII and the attempts Germany made to keep the U.S. out of the war by blaming the Jewish community for everything.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Four out of five stars!
Deadly Declarations (The Indie Retirement Mystery, Book 1) by Landis Wade
Craig Travail has recently lost his wife and is struggling at the big law firm he works at in Charlotte. After losing his latest trial, he gets called into the head of the firm's office and is told he is no longer needed. Travail had already planned on moving into a cottage at a retirement home, but losing his job and his career in law has him feeling lost.
However, as soon as he moves into "The Indie", Travail finds himself meeting some pretty interesting characters, as well as being pulled into a mystery and legal dispute about the will of another resident of The Indie - Matthew Collins. Collins had recently died and mysteriously left everything to fellow resident Sue Ellen Parker, inside of his granddaughter. That includes not only his money, but the manuscript to the book Collins was writing which seems to contradict his last book which posited that the idea of an alternate Declaration of Independence - the Mec Dec - was real.
I thought the author did a great job of integrating real history in with this fictional mystery. I also really enjoyed the characters. They are funny and lively. I think the book was a little bit slow in pace and could have benefitted from some tightening of the plot. This is the first book in a series and I think, overall, the series has a lot of potential.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can't Forget by Reyna Grande
This is a collection of essays by Reyna Grande that cover various aspects of her life and experiences as an immigrant. Grande came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was a little girl after her parents moved here to escape the violence and poverty in their hometown in Mexico. The essays cover everything from the pain of her losing her Spanish as she learned English, to her disconnection with her mother, to trying to figure out how to raise her children in an interracial home, to working to break the cycle of abuse. At the end of the book, she also covers her journey into her midlife, including menopause and other health issues.
This is a beautifully written book that will give you a new perspective on those that have immigrated to the U.S. from another country. It's raw and honest. It's a short book that is definitely worth the read.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Four out of five stars!
This book will be published May 12, 2026. To pre-order this book on Amazon, click here: Kindle, audiobook or hardcover.
The Trial of Donald H. Rumsfeld by William Cooper
This is a book of fiction based on facts in history surrounding Donald Rumsfeld and the role that he and others played in their decision to invade Iraq on the basis of them stating that Iraq had WMDs. As many know, the actual Donald Rumsfeld served in government throughout his career including two stints as Secretary of Defense. The second stint was during President George W. Bush's term, and the time in history after 9/11 when the U.S. decided to invade Iraq and take down Saddam Hussein.
In this fictional take on the rest of the story, President Bush resigns from office due to his struggles with alcoholism, and Dick Cheney becomes President and names Rumsfeld as his VP. A short time later, Cheney dies of a heart attack while in office and Rumsfeld becomes President. Rumsfeld later loses his re-election bid in a landslide to Barack Obama, and retires to New Mexico with his wife. However, his past decisions while Secretary of Defense and VP/President come back to haunt him in 2018, when now President Trump decides that he will allow the international courts to extradite Rumsfeld - despite him being a former President - and put him on trial for war crimes.
I am a bit of a politics junky, so this book was so interesting to me. In addition, the parallels between some of the things happening today and things Rumsfeld and Cheney did in this book (and in real life) are eye opening. In fact, if I didn't know better I would have thought that this book was written after the U.S. recently decided to invade Iran (which is, of course, impossible) because it's almost a repeat of history.
If you are into recent American history and/or politics, this is a book for you! It's extremely well written and the intertwining of fact and fiction is extremely clever. And the surprise ending that reveals who the "narrator" is throughout the book is fantastic! Highly recommend this one!
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Four out of five stars!
Trust by Hernan Diaz
This book tells the story of a couple - Andrew and Mildred Bevel - who lived in NYC and made a fortune in the 1920s (including during The Great Depression) through investing. The story is structured in four parts. The first part is a novel written about the Bevel's (who are called the Raskin's in the novel). The second part is an unfinished autobiography written by Andrew Bevel to share the truth about the life of him and his wife, and rebuke what was written about them in the novel shared in the first part. The third is a memoir written by the woman that Bevel hired to ghost write his autobiography about her time with Bevel. And the third are excerpts from the diary Mildred Bevel kept as she was coming to the end of her life, which reveal the real truth about the Bevel's.
First and foremost, this book is very well written. The author is definitely an excellent writer. However, this book is really confusing and was difficult for me to get into. Even with reading the summary of the book before starting it, I really didn't understand the concept going in. And it wasn't until I got to part three of the book that I started to fully grasp the structure. And while I thought the last part and the reveal was probably the best part, I just didn't find the story super interesting.
This book is #50 on the New York Times list of "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". Three out of five stars.
A Place Called Hope by Morgan Greene
Lucas Caldwell lives in a small town called Hope with his mother and younger brother, but all he dreams of is getting out of there and finding a better life. His mother is an addict who can't stay clean long enough to hold a job, so it's Lucas who has to take care of himself and his younger brother. It seems like his life is never going to get better, until he discovers a secret that his grandfather - Lucky - has been keeping his whole life. It turns out that Lucky pulled off a robbery back in the 1960s of a very famous painting that is worth a lot of money. Unfortunately, the robbery went wrong and Lucky's best friend ended up in jail and his best friend's wife ended up dead. And while Lucky got away with the robbery, he had to hide the painting and all of the evidence in a storage shed.
When Lucky takes a fall in the nursing home he's living in, he says some things to Lucas right before he dies that lead Lucas to figuring out about the painting. Lucas knows getting the painting and selling it could change life for him and his little brother. But what will getting the painting cost him?
This is really a good story with lots of plot twists that are done very well. However, the story of what happens is told several different times from the perspective of various characters. While I understand what the author was trying to accomplish by doing that, it made the book much longer than it needed to be and slowed down the pace of the story. I think if the author would have eliminated at least some of the other perspectives and edited this down a bit, I probably would have given this four stars, as the premise of the story itself is very good.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi
Moon is an out of work actress and a recovering alcoholic. Her daughter, Stevie, is working at a fast food restaurant after deciding not to leave her mother and go to college at NYU. The two of them are currently living in their pool house so that Moon can rent out the main house to short-term renters to help pay the mortgage. When Moon's former t.v. husband and past lover dies by suicide, Moon's former t.v. son (Adam) comes to L.A. for the funeral. Stevie has had a crush on Adam forever. As the three of them reconnect and begin living together again in the main house, what each of them wants in life and how to get there also collide.
This is one of those books where I honestly struggled to come up with a rating. Part of me thought that it was slow with no real plot and a bit over the top in a lot of respects. But part of me really got involved with the characters and felt compelled to read their story and see where it went.
The writing is very good. I can see why a lot of people who have read her previous work were excited to read this. It's a book that will stick with you, but from my own personal perspective, I'm just not sure that I liked it enough to give it more than three stars.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
This book will be published on June 9, 2026. To pre-order your copy on Amazon, click here: Kindle, audiobook or hardcover.
Resurrection Militia by James C. Landers
When a federal judge is found dead, it initially looks like a hunting accident. However, local police quickly realize that the evidence is not adding up and the judge appears to have been murdered by professionals. As an elite team from various government agencies begin investigating, they realize that several murders might have really been assassinations orchestrated by an extremist militia. The assassinations are all part of a plan for the militia to force the government to revise the 10th Amendment. Will they succeed? And who is behind it all?
I really loved the plot and the potential of this book. However, it was just much too long. Just way too much detail and technical detail made the pace of the book much too slow and difficult to read. If you can slug through this one, the story is good, but it's a slug.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Clawed And Dangerous (Mrs. Murphy Book 34) by Rita Mae Brown
Harry and her best friend Susan live in Crozet, Virginia. They are planning a haunted house fundraiser on Halloween for a local animal rescue organization. But when they find a local man murdered, followed by two women who no one can identify, Harry and her friends (including her pets) get caught up in trying to solve the murder mystery.
This is book number 34 in the series. I haven't read any of the other books, so I don't know if it's the same, but I found the author to be a little hard to take in this book. She made the mystery include some pretty controversial topics (homelessness, drug addiction, immigration) and slanted the book with what I'm guessing are her political views on the topics. If I'm going to pick up a short and simple murder mystery, I don't want to have someone's politics come into it. I found the tone she used quite out of touch and demeaning honestly.
I also just found the writing - and particularly the dialogue - to be quite immature. There was a lot of conversation around planning this fundraiser instead of focusing on the murder mystery. There is dialogue between the pets, which is fine, but it seemed totally irrelevant to the story.
The book is short and easy to read, but other than that, just wasn't great in my opinion.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Two out of five stars.
Edgar And The Boreal Crown by Kyle Wellwood
Edgar is a former professional hockey player who now spends his time running his healthy food truck and coaching his daughter's (Shannon) hockey team. When a player who used to play on the boy's team starts playing on the girl's team of their arch rivals, controversy ensues after a team member takes a hard hit. At the same time, the Prime Minister of Canada is working to craft misinformation that benefits himself as he tries to hide his own secrets. And finally, now that Shannon is turning 16, Edgar realizes he needs to share the secret about who she really is with her.
The author of this book is a former NHL hockey player. This is his debut novel, and while his writing needs some polishing, it's a great attempt at a first book. If you are expecting to read a book that's just about hockey, you'll be disappointed. While there is definitely hockey talk, that's not the main point of the book. The book covers heavy and controversial topics. The author is definitely trying to get across some lessons through the book.
As far as the writing, the author needs to be a little less mechanical so that the story flows more. He needs to learn to weave in the messages he's trying to get across. There were several instances where he had the characters basically give mini-speeches trying to cover a point, and they were awkward as that's not the way things work in real life. However, the thought and structure of the story was good and interesting. Lots of potential here!
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
The Brunette (Grace Harper Book 1) by Danielle Kinderknecht
A medical examiner is on vacation and walking her dog in the woods next to the house she is renting, when her dog (who is a retired cadaver sniffing police dog) makes a terrifying discovery. Bodies of several women - all with brunette hair - are buried in the woods. Grace Harper and her fellow detectives are assigned to the case. As they struggle with finding the serial killer, more women - including the medical examiner who discovered the bodies - go missing. Will they solve the mystery and stop the killer in time?
The basis of this murder mystery is good, but nothing extraordinary. And while the author tried to make it unclear which of two characters were the killer until the end, it was fairly easy to figure out which direction things were going early in the book. A few more twists and turns would have kept things a little more interesting.
The piece of constructive criticism I have is that the writing was good, but almost too good. I've said this in reviews of other books - especially from indie authors - that the writing is so grammatically correct, that it sounds mechanical and stiff. Especially when it comes to dialogue, people don't speak like that, so the dialogue feels robotic. The writing needs to flow more and to feel more natural.
Short and easy mystery to read, but didn't make me want to read another one in the series.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Yeong-hye and her husband are living a normal life. While her husband always found her to be a bit off and not very affectionate, things take a turn for the worse after Yeong-hye starts having strange dreams that lead her to deciding she can no longer eat meat. As the dreams worsen and her aversion to meat starts to escalate and affect her overall behavior, her husband becomes more and more concerned. When an intervention by the rest of her family leads to a total mental breakdown and a suicide attempt, Yeong-hye finds herself spiraling.
This book is told in three parts from three perspectives as we follow Yeong-hye on her journey. Part one is told from the perspective of her husband and covers the beginning of her meat aversion through her initial mental breakdown. Part two is told from the perspective of her brother-in-law after Yeong-hye is released from treatment and living on her own, and covers his unhealthy obsession with her. Part three is told from the perspective of her sister after Yeong-hye is again hospitalized and spirals further out of control with her eating disorder and her psychosis.
This book can best be described as weird and haunting. It's not easy to read. It's graphic from several perspectives and covers topics that some will find hard to read. But, it's written brilliantly and is the kind of book that will stick with you for awhile. Not a book if you are looking for a light beach read for sure, but definitely worth the time if you are looking for something deeper that's a short read. This book is #49 on the New York Times list of "The Best 100 Books of the 21st Century". Four out of five stars!
The Silent Appeal (The Appeal, Book 2) by Janice Hallett
The Fairway Players are an amateur drama group. They are currently putting on Agatha Christie's "The Hollow" as their next production, which is being directed by Kevin and produced by his wife Sarah-Jane. When Sarah-Jane's sister, Nicky-Rose, mysteriously appears back in town after leaving Barbados (where she's been living the last several years running her cruise entertainment company), questions start arising about why she left and what secrets she is trying to keep. And as several of the other members of the cast clearly have secrets they are trying to keep as well, it all leads up to a murder on opening night.
This book is quite quirky, but fun. It's not written as a narrative, but rather the story is told through e-mails and text messages between the cast of characters. I found it a little challenging to understand what was going on at first based on the style of writing, but once I figured it out, I really enjoyed it. The book is a bit long and a bit of a slow burn to the actual murder (which doesn't happen until the very end of the book), but it's an easy read and a fun one.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Four out of five stars!
This book will be published August 25, 2026. To pre-order your copy on Amazon, click here: Kindle, audiobook or hardcover.
I hope you found a book to add to your summer reading list! Happy reading!
What books do you recommend I read next? Let me know! Did you check out any of these books? I'd love to hear what you think! Comment below or e-mail me at tips2livebywriter@gmail.com.
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