Mystery-Suspense Archives - Novel Visits

Favorite Books of September 2023

Susie — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 10:00:37 +0000

When I was teaching, September was my most dreaded month of the year, but now? I LOVE September. The weather is great, nothing is crowded. It’s amazing. I just returned from spending two weeks in Sunriver, Oregon (one of my very favorite places), and it was bliss. Sunny days with long walks and/or long bike rides, plus plenty of reading time. I hope the start of fall has been as nice for you as it has for me, and the three books I’m sharing today might make it even better.

This month’s favorites are all from authors I’ve read and loved in the past and their latest releases set their bars even higher! As always, you can follow me on Instagram @novelvisits, where I most often share books near their release date. (It may be the only place to see my reviews come 2024.)…

The post Favorite Books of September 2023 appeared first on Novel Visits.

Favorite Books of Summer 2023

Susie — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:00:23 +0000

It’s been a minute! Last time I posted was the end of June when I shared that month’s favorites. I fully intended to do the same with my July favorites, but things just got away from me. To be fair, I was in Tahoe at a long overdue family reunion from July 25th – 31st. I never even thought about it until four or five days into August. Oh well! It was a wonderful time. My family has been doing this Tahoe reunion every three years since my kids were little, but with COVID and all, it just hadn’t happened for too long. The wait was worth it!

Just because I wasn’t thinking about sharing great books, does not mean I wasn’t reading great books. It was so hard narrowing down my list that I just decided to include all the books I loved. (One of these I initially rated lower, but it’s stayed with me so much that I’m including it.) And, huge surprise, I have two nonfiction books in this list!

These books are shown in the order I read them. Most were published in July and August, but a few were earlier. They made for some wonderful summer reading and I’m sure you’ll see more than one on my Best Books of 2023. As always, you can follow me on Instagram @novelvisits, where I most often share books near their release date. (It may be the only place to see my reviews come 2024.)…

The post Favorite Books of Summer 2023 appeared first on Novel Visits.

Favorite Books of June 2023

Susie — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 10:00:10 +0000

It’s been a busy spring and summer isn’t looking much slower. By the time this posts, I’ll be arriving in France. It’s a short girls’ trip all centered around a wedding reception one of my friends really wanted to attend. Over the course of our 11 day trip we’ll be in Paris, Bordeaux, and London. Not enough time in any of those places, but still enough time to have plenty of fun! Paris is my favorite city anywhere and it’s been much too long since I’ve been there, so I’m very excited about that. I’ve never been to the Bordeaux area and am looking forward to exploring…especially the wine!

I probably will get almost no reading done on the trip, but that’s okay. I’ve made up for it with five favorite books of June that I’ve already finished. It seems like this month I either really liked a book or I didn’t like it at all. Very little middle ground. Of course, you’re getting the the ones I most highly recommend.

If you’re interested in knowing what my Favorite Books of 2023 (so far) are, you can follow me on Instagram (@novelvisits) where I’ll be posting that stack sometime this week. Now, for this month’s favorite books! I definitely have a little bit of everything here for you today….

The post Favorite Books of June 2023 appeared first on Novel Visits.

Favorite Books of February 2023

Susie — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:00:28 +0000

It might have been cold and miserable for much of this month, but the books have been HOT!🔥 In fact, there were so many February books I loved that this month you’re getting a double shot of favorites, six instead of the usual three. You might notice that two are similar…both mythology retellings, but what can I say? They were equally wonderful! Let’s hope March books are just as good, but that’s a high bar.

As always, for ALL my reviews delivered close to publication, you can follow me on Instagram. And now, in order of publication……

The post Favorite Books of February 2023 appeared first on Novel Visits.

Favorite Books of December 2022

Susie — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 11:00:38 +0000

December tends to be a slower publishing month, so I was a bit worried I’d not have three favorites to share this month. Thanks to a couple books I missed earlier this year, plus an absolutely sensational December book, I’ve got three great book recommendations. In case you missed it, I posted both my Best Books of 2022 and My Favorite Debuts of 2022 last week. They’re both fun lists, but I may be biased.

For ALL my reviews delivered close to publication, you can follow me on Instagram.……

The post Favorite Books of December 2022 appeared first on Novel Visits.

Favorite Books of August 2022

Susie — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 10:00:40 +0000

How’s your summer been? Starting to wind down a bit? Mine has been spent at home much more than usual, but I’ve also been able to enjoy a full gorgeous Pacific Northwest August which I don’t think I’ve done in many years. Being retired has its benefits, including travel in the fall. I have two trips coming up, one in September and finally an international trip in October. Waiting for those, I’ve plowed through quite a few books again this month. Too many have been just okay, so it was easy picking out the three that truly stood out. I hope you might enjoy these, too. As always, for all my reviews, you can follow me on Instagram!

You really couldn’t find three more different books than these! I loved them each for different reasons….

The post Favorite Books of August 2022 appeared first on Novel Visits.

Beach Bag Books 2022

Susie — Tue, 17 May 2022 10:00:14 +0000

It’s looking like this summer might be a huge season for traveling. We’ve all been stuck at home far too often these last couple of years and now with things a little more stable, it’s time to GO! I have vacation fun going on at least half the summer and in October I’ll finally be traveling internationally again with two weeks in Morocco. What are your travel plans for 2022? I’m betting no matter what they are, a little extra reading time will be on the agenda.

Today I’m sharing my Beach Bag Books 2022 guide which features 27 books that will make for great summer reading no mater where you’re headed. This year’s books are broken down into four categories, including three that highlight 2022 books: Smart Suspense, Loving Literary, and Delightfully Different. The final category, Backlist Beauties is made up of books from 2021 which I read after last year’s Beach Bag Books.

I’ll be talking about many of these books and some that you don’t see here on the May 18th episode of Sarah’s Bookshelves Live. Between Sarah and myself, your summer TBR list is going to explode!…

The post Beach Bag Books 2022 appeared first on Novel Visits.

March 2022 Book Reviews

Susie — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 10:00:23 +0000

March isn’t always my favorite month, but this year a couple things really helped. First, getting out of rainy Washington and spending two glorious weeks in sunny, warm Scottsdale. And second, some truly outstanding books. Not every book I read wowed me, but it was a month of three top level, hangover worthy books. Of course, I’m sharing those today, plus three others that also hit a sweet spot in my reading journey. (The others? Let’s just forget about those!)

In order of publication and nothing more, my March 2022 Book Reviews!…

The post March 2022 Book Reviews appeared first on Novel Visits.

Six Favorites from November | Reviews

Susie — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 11:00:03 +0000

Can you believe this long year is almost over? It’s been a tough one for my family, so I’m looking forward to a fresh start with 2022. Enough of that, let’s talk books. Today I’m sharing November books, but as December begins, I’m going to have all the fun end-of-year posts, starting this Thursday with 2021 Underrated Gems.

So, stay tuned or follow me on Instagram @novelvisits to see all my thoughts on 2021 books!

In November I picked up a couple books I’d missed earlier in the year and read some excellent November releases. I hope you can find a couple to enjoy among my six favorites from November….

The post Six Favorites from November | Reviews appeared first on Novel Visits.

October 2021 Audiobook Reviews

Susie — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 10:00:45 +0000

Happy Halloween! I know the little trick-or-treaters in my family are very excited. How about yours? I don’t do the spooky October thing, so the books I listened to were just what happened to come up, and my listening this month was a little slower than usual. I’m not really sure why that was, but I did manage to get in three audiobooks that I truly enjoyed. Perhaps it was in part because they were each so different, filling in space of what I needed in the moment. One was a buzzy thriller, another, a highly lauded novel, and the third an oral history ripe for our times.

No matter what your listening taste one of these audiobooks should work for you and as an added bonus, none are overly long!…

The post October 2021 Audiobook Reviews appeared first on Novel Visits.