September 2025 Book Reviews!
- Christine
- 2 days ago
- 12 min read
It still feels like summer in South Carolina, but football is back and baseball is heading into the post-season, which means it's fall and it's a great time to pick up a book!
One of my favorite things is to sit out on my lanai and cozy up with a blanket and a book for the evening. When the days get shorter and it's harder to be outside late in the evening, it's a great time to grab a book and enjoy.
This month I've got plenty of books that I've read and have written reviews of so you can decide which ones might be for you. And as always, remember that if you don't want to wait for this monthly post, you can always follow me on Goodreads or The Story Graph and see what I'm reading real time!
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Changing Lanes by Claire Yezbak Fadden
Roxy comes home one night to find her long time boyfriend, Sam, has left town. Not only has he left town, but he's left her with a pile of bills and a food truck that he never owned. The only explanation Roxy receives is a note from Sam saying that he's decided Los Angeles is not for him and he's returned to his ex-wife and kids in Tennessee. Roxy is left to pick up the pieces, which means trying to return to her previous career as a limo driver.
But as Roxy soon starts to discover, there may be more to Sam's disappearance than she originally thought. And unfortunately for Roxy, she finds herself in the middle of the same danger Sam might have been running from.
This is a cute mystery that was fun to read. Nothing super compelling or a book that I felt like I couldn't put down, but it was something a little on the lighter side to read. I loved the fact that Roxy was a fifty-something woman willing to show her flaws and still be strong. As a fifty-something woman myself, we don't have enough characters like Roxy in books.
My main critique is that I thought the book was a little too slow paced. With a little tighter editing to make it move a little faster, I think it could be better.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Special Victim Status: The Era Of Woke Journalism by Gregory E. Mantell
This book is exactly what's so wrong with our country today. Let me start out by saying that had I not received a free copy of this book to read and review, it would not have been a book I would have decided to read. The fact that the author uses the word "woke" in the subtitle speaks volumes about the perspective he is bringing to his book. However, I really try to see both sides of things - if nothing else to try and understand where the other side is coming from - and I went into this book with that attitude.
I will also say that I think the media is definitely a contributor to the polarization of this country. There is a lot of sensationalism to try and get viewers/readers. Headlines are written to attract attention and get you to click on a story. There is bias in a lot of news organizations both ways.
But here is my issue with this book. The author is guilty of the same things that he claims the "woke" journalists are doing. First, he really only focuses on the New York Times and The Washington Post in all of his examples of bias. While he mentions a few other news organizations, he doesn't really give any analysis around the news organizations that are known to be bias on the other side (aka Fox News). He talks about how statistics can be manipulated to serve a certain narrative, and then manipulates them himself. And most of the "proof" he gives about bias in the media focuses on the headlines and not the story itself (see my point above about headlines being written to attract attention).
The only thing keeping me from giving this 1 star is that there are glimpses - particularly in the last chapter - of the author admitting that the key is for people to be open to information and get their news either directly from the source and/or from multiple news organizations, so that they have a full and less bias view. However, because the author comes in with a certain bias himself - if you read the book you will see how blatant it is on certain topics - it's hard to write an unbiased book on the topic.
Like the country, readers of this book have found it to be completely split down the middle - I've seen either 1 star or 5 star ratings. Again, that tells me that the book is not written as a neutral look at the media.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Two out of five stars.
How To Break My Heart (Cinnamon Springs, Book 1) by Kat T. Masen
Eva has a crush on her best friend's older brother, Aston, in high school. But when he breaks her heart at a party after a shared kiss, she tries to forget about him and move on.
Now as an adult running her own donut shop in her home town of Cinnamon Springs, her best friend has returned to town and surprised Eva with her engagement. And she asks her to help plan her wedding that will be taking place in just a month. The catch... her best friend has also asked Aston to help Eva, not aware of the history between Eva and Aston.
If you are looking for a good enemies to lovers romance novel, this one will do it for you. Nothing out of the ordinary and it wasn't one of those that I felt like I just couldn't put it down. I just never completely connected with any of the characters, so I was missing the piece where you are really rooting for the couple to end up together - which is really important in these types of books. But written well and a solid read.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
Full Circle (Detective Jane Rieger-Franklin Mystery, Book 2) by Stephen Kronwith
As a young police officer, now Detective Jane Rieger-Franklin was a witness to a hit and run accident. It was her testimony that put the driver of the car behind bars. Now a number of years later as Jane begins investigating a new murder, she realizes that the man committing the murders is the one she put behind bars, and he's now out for revenge.
First, I think the plot of this book is great and well thought out. Lots of twists and turns that keep you guessing until the end. Where I get hung up on this one is the characters, the writing and some of the unnecessary details.
The characters don't seem "real". They almost seem too perfect. They say and do things I don't think many real life people do. It just all seems like a lot of fluff.
The writing can be very clunky at times. I actually see this a lot from authors that are just starting out - the writing is almost too proper at times.
And finally, there are just things included in the book that aren't necessary. There are descriptions of details that we don't need and don't add to the plot. And there are a lot of sex scenes with several of the characters that are just kind of written in a cringey manner. It just doesn't go with the thriller/mystery style book and adds nothing to the plot.
Another book that I think some good editing could improve and would make the book shorter, which would result in having it seem more fast paced with the action.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
We The Animals by Justin Torres
While this book is considered a short novel, it's really a series of short vignettes and doesn't really tell a story from start to finish. Additionally, it is semi-autobiographical and based on the author's life.
The narrator of the story (who is based on the author) is the youngest of three brothers growing up in a family consisting of a Puerto Rican father and white mother living in New York in the 1980s. The parents had their children as teenagers and to say that their relationship is tumultuous and the household is dysfunctional would be an understatement.
Most of the book takes place while the boys are young and each chapter shares a different instance of the chaos in their lives. The last couple of chapters jump ahead to when the narrator is a young adult. Without giving things away, the brothers go from sticking together as they are growing up through all the dysfunction in their family, to the two older brothers turning against their younger brother because he is different than them in almost every way.
This book is difficult to read at times. It's powerful. It's intense. While I felt like the jump in the timeline that I describe above left things feeling a bit disconnected, it's probably best because it kept the book short which is wise for a book of this intensity. This book is #66 on the New York Times list of the "Best 100 Books of the 21st Century". Four out of five stars!
Pronto (Raylan Givens, Book 1) by Elmore Leonard
I don't watch much television and I'm not familiar at all with the series "Justified", but evidently this book is the book that introduces the main character of that show - Raylan Givens.
This is a crime novel that focuses on Harry Arno. Harry is a sports bookie in South Beach who has been skimming some off the top for himself for years. When the "bosses" find out, Arno decides its time to enact his long time plan of moving to a small town in Italy where no one will find him. Trouble is, before he can do that, he murders a man sent by the "bosses" to take him out. That leads to the introduction of Raylan Givens, who is a U.S. Marshal sent in to keep an eye on Arno after he gets out on bail.
I had a hard time with this one because it was really hard to keep track of the "bad guys". There were several of them involved and I found myself confused at times of who was who. I also just felt like the book was really slow paced. I wanted a lot more action in a crime novel. Harry's character was annoying and Raylan's character was made to seem pretty dense at first, but then suddenly was trying to come off like a renegade by the end of the book.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
The Tattered Cover (Secret, Book and Scone Society, Book 8) by Ellery Adams
Nora owns Miracle Springs Bookstore in Miracle Springs, NC. For Halloween, Nora decides to have a holiday-themed author signing event, including hosting Lara Luz. Luz is a psychic medium who has written a memoir. As part of her appearance in the bookstore, Luz plans to do readings for a small group of people after discussing her memoir. But when the power goes out in the bookstore and Luz ends up dead after an apparent heart issue, everyone at the reading becomes a suspect.
This is a sweet and cozy mystery that's fun to read. While it doesn't have any twists or turns (I found it pretty easy to guess "whodunit"), it still kept me interested. It's a little cheesy and pretty unrealistic. The fact that Nora is conveniently in a relationship with the town's sheriff who shares details of the investigation quite freely with Nora and her friends is obviously totally unrealistic, but part of the charm of the story.
Nothing that will knock your socks off, but a solid read if you are into just a good mystery book that is easy to read.
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 October 28, 2025. To pre-order your copy on Amazon, click here: Kindle, audiobook or hardcover.
We Hope You Enjoy Your Stay by Amy Koto
Charlotte is running a bed & breakfast that she inherited from her grandmother after she passed away. When a couple makes a reservation at the last minute and acts strangely during their visit, Charlotte begins to become suspicious. In addition, Charlotte keeps having nightmares about what she saw in the woods behind the B&B years ago as a young girl, and the husband in the strange couple seems familiar to her somehow.
This is a mystery that definitely takes some twists and turns. Some of the things that happen seem quite unrealistic and over the top. That includes the lengths that Charlotte seems to go on her own to solve the mystery. While that is sometimes needed to make a story like this, it seemed a bit too far from time to time.
Solid book. Well written and short which kept things moving nicely. But nothing that I felt like I couldn't put down or would stick with me.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
The Plot Against America by Philp Roth
What if FDR would have lost the 1940 election to Charles Lindbergh instead of winning a third term? This novel looks at what might have happened to the country and to the Jewish-American population if that would have happened.
If you don't know the history of Lindbergh, after his infant son was kidnapped and disappeared, the family moved to Europe to escape all of the attention. When they returned to the U.S. a few years later, people began suspecting that Lindbergh was a Nazi supporter and friend of Hitler.
In this novel, the Roth's are a Jewish family living in Newark, NJ. The book is told from the perspective of young Philip, who is the youngest of two brothers. As WWII is just beginning, Lindbergh runs for President against FDR, mainly on a campaign promise that he will keep the U.S. out of the war. And when he unexpectedly wins and becomes President, the Jewish population in the U.S. suddenly find themselves in an uncertain position in the country.
While this is clearly a work of fiction, it's almost uncanny how many parallels this book has to life in today's political climate. You almost suspect that Roth had a crystal ball when writing this book in 2004 to what the country would be like in 2025. Just substitute the Jewish community for whatever other group is "on the outs" with the current administration.
This should be a must read for anyone - no matter what your political stance - to see what a delicate thing democracy is and how the tables can be turned on any group who isn't in the good graces of those in power. This book is #65 on the New York Times list of "The Best 100 Books of the 21st Century". Four out of five stars!
A Tropical Frontier: Tales Of Old Florida by Tim Robinson
This book takes place on the eastern coast of Florida starting in the early 1800s. It tells of some of the early history of the area as settlers first arrive.
The story starts with the shipwreck of a foreign ship. There is only one survivor - Will - who washes up on shore right where a family has settled on the coast. They take him in and nurse him to health. When Will ends up falling in love with the family's daughter, they start a family tree that lasts for decades throughout the book.
The book covers everything from battles with the Native Americans who try to recover the land in the area stolen from them, to establishing cities in places like Key West and St. Augustine, to the eventual start of the Civil War. All throughout, we keep up with the story of the family and how they are all involved in the settlement of the area.
This book is long. Probably too long, which is why I'm giving it only 3 stars. At the beginning, it's very slow paced and I started to question how long it was going to take me to finish it and whether it was really worth finishing. The book is really several novellas within one long book - almost focusing in on one generation of the family to the next. I do have to say that it picked up quite a bit in the last 25% and I found it to be a quicker pace and more interesting.
I think the writing is very good and I did find myself cheering for the various characters and getting caught up in their lives. I just think this may have been better broken up into a series, so that it would have been more digestible.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Three out of five stars.
So, there you have it for September! I hope you enjoy the cooler fall weather with a great book!
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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