You want to know how I know the weather started to improve in Kansas City, my children weren’t sick for an eternity and home for school, and I spent time on walks and gardening? I read four books this past month. Because I listen to all of my books, I stick in AirPods usually once a day if I can, and spend 20-30 minutes on a walk or outside gardening, and listening to a book. And this month there were some really good ones!

First up, I finished up….

The Christie Affair: Every story has its secrets.
Every mystery has its motives.
“A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. There’s a joy to it. In retrospect, it’s frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. The way justice feels sweet.”
The greatest mystery wasn’t Agatha Christie’s disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it’s what she discovered.
London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie.
The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?
(Book summaries from Amazon)

I found this book to be so enjoyable. It’s historical fiction, and upon reading a bit more about the Agatha Christie disappearance, certainly seems to be more fictional than historical. That being said, I thought it was a fun and interesting book, with a completely shocking turn that I didn’t see coming at all. The book is narrated in two different points of view: Agatha Christie and Agatha’s husband’s mistress. It was fun and engaging, and an easy book to get through to the end!

The Alice Network: In an enthralling new historical novel from national best-selling author Kate Quinn, two women – a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947 – are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

It’s 1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

It’s 1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.

I half liked this book, and half didn’t. There are two stories that flip back and forth the entire book. The story of Eve during the Great War in 1915, where she is part of network of women spies in France. She works at a restaurant frequented by German soldiers and ferries messages about the war to the allied troops to assist in their battle against the German occupants. The other story, which was not my favorite, was one of a young college girl looking for her cousin Rose who disappeared in France during the Great War. The two main characters stories intertwine as the book goes on, and they find that they truly have more in common than originally thought.

Eve’s story during the Great War is captivating. The writing, the storyline, the heroism are all phenomenal. Charlie’s story, the American college student, was just sort of “meh” for me. I wish I could have read an entire book about Eve. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and would suggest it to a friend if asked. Eve was simply fascinating, and by far makes up for the bratty and entitled story of Charlie.

It Ends With Us: Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up – she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan – her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

Aside from the fact that I hated the names of the two main male characters, this book flew by for me. Lily’s exploration of domestic abuse got into the greyscale of domestic abuse, in my opinion, when the world so often sees it as black and white. I found myself grieving with Lily, falling in love with her, and ultimately cheering for her courage and bravery in a very complicated and difficult decision. It was a super easy ‘read,’ and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The Secret to Southern Charm: After finding out her military husband is missing in action, middle sister Sloane’s world crumbles as her worst nightmare comes true. She can barely climb out of bed, much less summon the strength to be the parent her children deserve.

Her mother, Ansley, provides a much-needed respite as she puts her personal life on hold to help Sloane and her grandchildren wade through their new grief-stricken lives. But between caring for her own aging mother, her daughters, and her grandchildren, Ansley’s private worry is that secrets from her past will come to light.

But when Sloane’s sisters, Caroline and Emerson, remind Sloane that no matter what, she promised her husband she would carry on for their young sons, Sloane finds the support and courage she needs to chase her biggest dreams – and face her deepest fears. Taking a cue from her middle daughter, Ansley takes her own leap of faith and realizes that, after all this time, she might finally be able to have it all.

I read the first of Kristin Woodson Harvey’s Peachtree Bluff series a few months back. I loved the first book, so was excited to read the rest of the series. This second in the series was not as good, in my opinion. I didn’t connect as well with the story, but still loved being escorted back to beautiful Peachtree Bluff and ushered into this family of Ansley and her three daughters. It was a simple and quick read. A perfect beach read, in my opinion. I’ll be reading books three and four, for sure. This series is just happy, easy series.

Previous book reviews:

• The Bullish Case for Bitcoin
• The Girls in the Stilt House
• One Day in December
• Going There
• The Turkey Shack
• The Great Alone
• The Giver of Stars
• Slightly South of Simple
• Bringing Up Bebe
• The Guest List