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Book Review: Three Sisters by Heater Morris

Three Sisters by Heather Morris

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/08/24/b...

Three Sisters, the last in the Tattooist of Auschwitz series, was published on October 5, 2021, and is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is narrated by Finty Williams, who mimics Morris’ clinical writing style in her narration, keeping it as cold and detached as possible, which once again leaves listeners disconnected from the characters. For a wartime novel based on actual events, this should have been a heart-gripping read. However, Morris’s approach is flat, superficial, and fails to convey the emotional depth required for such a powerful and complex story because she glosses over the horrifying facts, leaving readers and listeners feeling underwhelmed. Furthermore, the way she portrays the sisters as childish, petulant, and sappy, as well as keeping their dialogue immature, doesn’t fit with the traumatic storyline or the grit and heaviness of the atrocities happening. The lack of emotional pull doesn’t make the story resonate with the readers and listeners.

Slovakian sisters Cibi, Magda, and Livi make a promise to their father to always stay together and look after one another. In March 1942, the Nazis come for Magda; however, she’s safe in the hospital. Instead of taking Magda, they insist that Livi must report to the station and work for them. Cibi will not let her go alone. They are the first to be transported by force to Auschwitz-Birkenau, even before the camp is complete, and they receive a four-digit number, which at times keeps them out of the selections, even the gas chambers. The sisters spend two years in the camp, enduring famine, threats, and watching their fellow compatriots get killed for no other reason than being Jewish. Cibi loses her faith and stops praying. Each has moments of despair and guilt. In October 1944, Magda and the rest of her family are captured and end up with her sisters in the camp. Cibi and Livi watch as the SS officers lead her mother and grandfather to the gas chamber. Somehow, the sisters survive another year in hell and manage to escape from the 1945 ‘death march’ and return to their home, only to find it occupied by another family.

They rebuild their lives in a community with other survivors where they reconnect with their uncle. Cibi is the first of her sisters to marry. Livi’s nightmares urge her towards new horizons; she announces to her sister that she will join the movement of young adults going to the new Jewish homeland, Israel. To not break their promise to their father, Magda goes with Livi, and not long after, Cibi, her husband, and their infant join them. As each sister finds a significant other, the theme of survivor’s guilt comes up: feeling guilty if they survived the concentration camps, feeling guilty if they didn’t suffer as much as the other survivor, feeling guilty for witnessing or doing things they didn’t stop, like an all-consuming guilt they carry with them. Morris brings this theme to light, like all others, in a detached, journal-like way. Without the emotional pull, the audience can’t connect with the characters, and this story deserves that connection.

The lack of emotion, the glossing over of horrifying facts, and the way Morris portrays the main characters as immature girls instead of strong, resilient, courageous women is atrocious, which is why this is a 2-star read or listen.



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Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls

One Day by David Nicholls

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/08/19/b...

Nicholl’s book, published June 15, 2010, with the audiobook released on July 13, 2010, is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook narrated by Anna Bentinck delivers the author’s vision of a romance spanning over twenty years between two unlikely characters: Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, with great zeal. She captures the characters’ essences and brings them to life, making the listeners wonder why these two even like each other.

The book starts on July 15, 1988. Emma and Dexter are lying in bed, talking, kissing, and arguing about the future, as this is their graduation night and a one-night stand that goes completely wrong. The two strangers who met at a party to hook up don’t do, but they spend a night together nonetheless, and Dexter is thinking of leaving the moment Emma falls asleep, while she’s nervous thinking he might be ‘the one’.

Nicholl’s goes to great effort to show readers and listeners that Emma is a political activist who wants to change the world around her, that she’s bright and has goals for her future. So, why would he make her think such a daft thing after only a few hours? On the other hand, it is easy for the audience to imagine Dexter walking away without looking back; he’s the wealthy, egocentric playboy who worries too much about what people think of him.

The book continues to give readers and listeners a glimpse of Emma and Dexter’s lives every July 15, year after year. Snapshots, like journal entries, and the more we get to know them, the more we have to wonder what they have in common and why they’re even friends. Dexter is traveling the world, sleeping with random women, while Emma is working on D-grade plays, pining for him, writing ten-page letters, and receiving one-word postcards in return. As for their personalities their not likable individuals, Dexter and alcoholic and drug addict and Emma is whiny, insecure, and loves to feels sorry for herself because her life is always a mess, which she does not much effort to try to fix, the only time she seems happy is when she’s fighting for a cause or when she shove’s her taste for good literature like Dostovyesky down Dexter’s throat.

On July 15, 1994, there’s a moment when Emma stands her ground, and finally, we think her pinning is over when she says, “Dexter, I love you so much, so, so much, and I probably always will, I just don’t like you anymore.” Alas, Nicholl’s finds a way to pull Emma back in and drawing her back to Dexter and year after year we get more of the same glimpses into their lives, until finally he puts us out of the misery and makes them come together as a couple, get married and for what to kill of Emma and make Dexter spiral down back into alcohol and drugs. After twenty years, what a cheap way to end this nonsensical romance. Perhaps Nicholl didn’t know any other way to get himself out of his creation, which should have ended in 1994 when Emma walked away.

Nicholl’s idea of giving the audience a story one day at a time over the years is great in theory, and the structure of making each year a chapter works; however, the unlikable characters and the implausibility of the friendship-romance between them are where he loses credibility. Furthermore, the ending is a rip-off of City of Angels, and Emma and Dexter are not likable enough for readers or listeners to care to have that gut-punch effect Nicholl’s was going for. All in all, this is a 2-star read or listen.



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Book Review: Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/08/18/b...

In Morris’s follow-up novel of the The Tattoosist of Auschwitz she makes it clear that while the story is based on actual events in Cecília Kováčová ‘Cilka Klein’ life, it still a novel of fiction weaving together facts and reportage with experiences of women survivors of the Holocaust and the experiences of women sent to Soviet Gulag system in Siberia at the end of World War II. Morris expresses that her novel does not represent all the facts of Cilka’s life and contains a mix of characters inspired by real-life figures and others completely imagined. It is essential to note that the controversy surrounding her first book continues with this one, as Kováčová’s stepson reported that he found Morris’s telling to be both lurid and titillating, hurtful and appalling to the memory of his stepmother.  

The book is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook, published on October 1, 2019, is narrated by Louise Brealey, who maintains a tone as emotionless as the writing. Morris’s telling of Cilka’s Journey is cold and detached, once again failing to connect her audience to the characters and drawing on the powerful emotions this story should evoke, as her writing style is bereft of emotional depth. It is fact-based, with a journalism-style approach that draws out bullet points, and the atrocities are overlooked through the use of pink-colored glasses, as if addressing a younger audience and trying not to offend.  

In 1942, sixteen-year-old Cecilia Klein is taken by force to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her beauty captivates two high-ranking SS Commandants, who make her their sex slave. Sexually abused repeatedly and forced to work on the death block watching women, even her own mother, before they are brought to the gas chambers, Cilka does all she can to survive in this horrid place. She’s eighteen when the camps are liberated, and although she hopes they’ll understand she did what she did to avoid death and let her go home to Czechoslovakia, they charge her as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and condemn her to a fifteen-year sentence in a prison camp in Siberia. After losing everything and enduring so much, she’s being punished for it and ends up in another place where power is vital for survival. In the new prison, she suffers more sexual abuse and wonders about the point of going on. At times, despair overwhelms her, but there’s a flame inside her helping to keep going.

Cilka’s skills and capacity for languages impress one of the camp’s female doctors, who offers Cilka a job in the hospital. This comes with advantages but may cause jealousy among the other women in her hut. Although Cilka tries to make friends, she doesn’t reveal anything about herself; instead, she carries the shame of what went on in that other place, reliving it in her nightmares. She worries that if others find out what she did there, they would hate her, so she tries to get through each day with the same two choices as before: survival or death. Through it all, she endures, even falls in love with a fellow prisoner, although this storyline is poorly developed and quite unbelievable.
Morris’s attempt at a deeply emotional story about survival, resilience, hope, and an unbroken human spirit in the harshest of times falls far from the mark. There are zero emotions in her writing connecting her readers or listeners to the characters, making it impossible for the audience to understand how someone survived the camps’ brutal conditions, cold, hunger, repeated rapes, and abuse, the terror coursing through her when men invaded the hut night after night, when other inmates issued threats after threats. Where’s the author’s thought-provoking, emotion-gripping account, not a reporter’s telling, of these events? This missing piece is what makes this a 2.5-star read or listen.



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Book Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/08/13/b...

Morris’s debut as an author provides readers with the memoir of Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew forcibly transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in April 1942, and how his perseverance kept him and others alive during the atrocities and horrors surrounding them. The book is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is narrated by Richard Armitage, who does the work great justice. Although, listeners can tell that Morris’ writing style is suited more towards the young adult audience since the Lale’s story is not really comprehensively told, too much seems to be left out, the gruesome scenes are glanced at as if painted at distance without color nothing for the audience to connect with making it hard to feel empathy for the characters, which is shame for such powerful subject.

Lale, a charming young man, manages to survive despite bringing himself to the attention of the SS officers on repeated occasions and in severe ways; one of the officers even comments to Lale once that he must be a cat to get so many reprieves from the death wall. Yet, Lale doesn’t cease his attempts to collect diamonds, rubies, and other jewels, as well as money from the people working in the sorting of prisoners’ clothes, which he barter for food, chocolate, and medicine that he distributes among the camps. His duty as the tattooist gives him a bit more freedom to roam, and so it’s not unusual for him to move from block to block. It’s also as a tattooist that he meets Gita, a young woman whose number he must rebrand, and when he looks at her, he can’t believe it’s in this ugly place that he finally understands what his mother told him a long time ago: when you see her, you’ll know, Lale. And he knew he loved her.

Lale and Gita manage to meet on many occasions thanks to the bribes Lale brings to the SS officer in charge of Gita’s block. Morris portrays how their blossoming love in times of carnage and despair serves as a beacon of hope, an anchor to survival. When the war nears its end and the Russian army frees the camps, they are separated. But neither of them gives up hope, and they find each other again, eventually marry, and have a son.

What is very sad about this book is that the author’s writing style didn’t do the story justice. The detached manner in which she broaches the violence, suffering, and the matter-of-fact statement of ash falling as crematoriums burn lacks emotion. The ones pulling at the reader’s or listener’s heartstrings that connect us to the story. The only genuine emotions was in foreword written by Lale and Gita’s son, here the audience got a sense of familial love, pride, and sadness, he would have perhaps been a better choice in writing his father’s memoir since he showcased who his parents were in the few pages of the foreword better then the author did in over two hundred pages which is why this book only gets 2.5 stars.




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Book Review: Inheritance: The Lost Bride Trilogy by Nora Roberts

Inheritance by Nora Roberts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Review also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/08/10/b...

Book One in this Roberts trilogy is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook, published on November 21, 2023, is narrated by Brittany Presley, with an author’s note delivered by Roberts, providing readers with insights into how she seamlessly blends centuries-old spine-chilling ghost stories with mystery vibes, a touch of fantasy, and contemporary romance, all set in a gothic mansion. This could be a perfect fit for fans of Gothic haunted houses, family curses and secrets, whodunits, low-steam romance, and dual-timeline paranormal fantasy.

Roberts opens the book in 1806, in Maine, introducing Astrid Poole, a bride overwhelmed with happiness as she sits in her gown, glowing in anticipation of her husband’s arrival. However, it’s not Colin who comes in the door. A striking woman in a black dress walks towards her, and before she can defend herself, the knife is plunged deep into her chest, and as she lies dying, the witch takes the gold band from her finger. Colin is here, and she promises to never leave him.

Readers and listeners are then transported to the present day to meet bride-to-be Sonya MacTavish, who is busy with wedding plans but decides to cancel her meeting with the florist to get home early and surprise her fiancé with a home-cooked meal and an evening in. The surprise turns out to be hers when she finds said fiancé in bed with her cousin. Both of them are booted out of her Boston home, and the wedding is called off immediately. Her best friend, Cleo, and her mother come over to offer support, pack up his things, and make sure every trace of him is erased from her home. What Sonya had not expected was his increasingly vindictive behavior in the workplace, which worsened over the weeks, forcing her to resign and start her freelance career in graphic design. Shortly after Sonya has dealt with one upheaval, she receives shocking news that her late father had a twin brother, Colin Poole, who recently passed away, and that she’s the heir to his mansion in Maine. There’s a condition: she must live there for at least three years to fully inherit the property.

Sonya decides to look at this as fresh start, packing up she heads to Maine and instantly falls in love with the Victorian house, as she adjust to her life in this massive mansion and odd occurrences such as cupboard doors opening and closings, bed being made and turned down, clothes being put away, music starting at random, oh Deuce, the lawyer said the house was haunted but she doesn’t believe in ghosts that’s just silly. As time goes on, she must concede and come to agree with Deuce and his son, Trey, that she’s not alone in that house. Sonya lives in a haunted house and is more than happy when her best friend, Cleo, agrees to move in, so they can deal with the nastier occurrences together. Most of the ghostly incidents can be categorized as helpful or pranks; however, some are downright mean and intended to scare Sonya out of the house. She knows those are from the woman in black, not one of the lost brides.

Trey and Sonya’s romance is underdeveloped; it appears Roberts just threw them together one night, sans clothes, and voilà. There is no tension, no pull of attraction, no spice, not even that slow burn progression, zero chemistry happening. Something is obviously missing to make this romance believable. As friends, neighbors, and colleagues, it worked. However, this sudden leap into a relationship makes it difficult for the audience to connect with the couple, as it comes out of nowhere. There’s more spark between Owen, Sonya’s cousin, and Cleo than there’s been between Trey and Sonya since the beginning of the book. It would be more believable if they were to hook up.

Overall, a good start to a Gothic ghost mystery with family secrets and curses; the romance is on shaky grounds and needs fleshing out, which hopefully Roberts will address in book 2. For Book One, it’s a 3-star read or listen.



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Book review: The Clergyman’s Wife: A Pride & Prejudice Novel by Molly Greeley

The Clergyman's Wife: A Pride & Prejudice Novel by Molly Greeley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/07/31/b...

Greeley’s debut novel is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is smoothly narrated by Susie Riddell, who maintains a consistent lyrical tone throughout, effectively matching the author’s writing style.

To avoid spinsterhood, twenty-seven-year-old Charlotte Lucas puts herself in the path of Mr. William Collins after being rejected by her dear friend Lizzie Bennet. Hurt by his pride and vulnerable to flattery, she can easily secure her future without the dependence on the goodwill of her family. Three years later, as his wife and the mother of baby Louisa, Charlotte’s life is one of routine. Her husband, the vicar, parson, and clergyman of Hunsford, lectures her regularly, quoting his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Lady Catherine, herself, is condescending, saying remarks like: Charlotte was neither too lively nor too handsome, therefore, making an adequate wife for William.

Greeley’s characters are authentic to the period, easily immersing readers and listeners in Austen’s world of Pride and Prejudice, as Charlotte often reminds herself that she has chosen the life that seems to be suffocating her. Mr. Collins’ every utterance, fervent fawn over his patroness, his lectures are true to form. Lady Catherine’s rigidness, overbearingness, and her calculated acts of generosity are well executed and genuine. The tenants we meet through Charlotte’s dutiful visits with the parsonage are endearing. Mrs. Fitzgibbon is a natural grandma and a lovely woman who takes great pride in the little she has, yet is happy to share it with her visitors. Old Mr. Travis kind and prideful of his son Robby, of the gardens he tended all his life lights up when he sees baby Louisa, Mr. Robby Travis courteous, with a sense of humor and with whom Charlotte can have easy conversations, and so attentive and delicate with young Miss Collins, and Martha who takes care of Louisa with delight, and young Henry Peters who tends the fields and accept a gift with pride and care. They all drip with genuine authenticity and Austenticity.

The direction of Greeley’s story might disappoint readers or listeners when she opens up Charlotte’s eyes and heart to a new possibility, and yet keeps her trapped in a loveless marriage with only a promise to herself that it will be better for her daughter. Yes, women of that time were likely faced with these earnings and had to consider the question of security versus love when the idea of marriage arose. Still, from Greeley’s point of view, it boils down to this: you’d better marry for love, or resolve yourself to live with your choice in quiet acceptance and find joy in other things. Like what your children. Friends. Sounds hollow and cold.

Pride and Prejudice fans, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, along with a few others, make cameo appearances, which the author kept true to Austen’s standard. Making this a recommended read for all of Austen fans, it’s quick, easy, and entertaining, meriting 3 stars.




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Book review: The Clergyman’s Wife: A Pride & Prejudice Novel by Molly Greeley

The Clergyman's Wife: A Pride & Prejudice Novel by Molly Greeley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/07/31/b...

Greeley’s debut novel is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is smoothly narrated by Susie Riddell, who maintains a consistent lyrical tone throughout, effectively matching the author’s writing style.

To avoid spinsterhood, twenty-seven-year-old Charlotte Lucas puts herself in the path of Mr. William Collins after being rejected by her dear friend Lizzie Bennet. Hurt by his pride and vulnerable to flattery, she can easily secure her future without the dependence on the goodwill of her family. Three years later, as his wife and the mother of baby Louisa, Charlotte’s life is one of routine. Her husband, the vicar, parson, and clergyman of Hunsford, lectures her regularly, quoting his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Lady Catherine, herself, is condescending, saying remarks like: Charlotte was neither too lively nor too handsome, therefore, making an adequate wife for William.

Greeley’s characters are authentic to the period, easily immersing readers and listeners in Austen’s world of Pride and Prejudice, as Charlotte often reminds herself that she has chosen the life that seems to be suffocating her. Mr. Collins’ every utterance, fervent fawn over his patroness, his lectures are true to form. Lady Catherine’s rigidness, overbearingness, and her calculated acts of generosity are well executed and genuine. The tenants we meet through Charlotte’s dutiful visits with the parsonage are endearing. Mrs. Fitzgibbon is a natural grandma and a lovely woman who takes great pride in the little she has, yet is happy to share it with her visitors. Old Mr. Travis kind and prideful of his son Robby, of the gardens he tended all his life lights up when he sees baby Louisa, Mr. Robby Travis courteous, with a sense of humor and with whom Charlotte can have easy conversations, and so attentive and delicate with young Miss Collins, and Martha who takes care of Louisa with delight, and young Henry Peters who tends the fields and accept a gift with pride and care. They all drip with genuine authenticity and Austenticity.

The direction of Greeley’s story might disappoint readers or listeners when she opens up Charlotte’s eyes and heart to a new possibility, and yet keeps her trapped in a loveless marriage with only a promise to herself that it will be better for her daughter. Yes, women of that time were likely faced with these earnings and had to consider the question of security versus love when the idea of marriage arose. Still, from Greeley’s point of view, it boils down to this: you’d better marry for love, or resolve yourself to live with your choice in quiet acceptance and find joy in other things. Like what your children. Friends. Sounds hollow and cold.

Pride and Prejudice fans, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, along with a few others, make cameo appearances, which the author kept true to Austen’s standard. Making this a recommended read for all of Austen fans, it’s quick, easy, and entertaining, meriting 3 stars.




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Book review: The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/07/28/b...

Jenner’s tribute to Jane Austen in her debut novel is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, or audiobook formats as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Richard Armitage, who creates individual voices for each character, flawlessly bringing them to life and showcasing their emotions, or lack thereof, to the listeners. The audiobook is highly recommended.

Jenner’s book is set in the mid-1940s in the rural English village of Chawton, the final home of one of England’s finest novelists, Jane Austen. The setting is ideal for her storyline, as one of the main characters is a descendant of the great authoress and the last heir to the diminishing estate. A patchwork band of villagers and outsiders comes together to form the Jane Austen Society to preserve Austen’s home and legacy. These like minded people from all walks of life: widower Dr. Benjamin Gray, war widow Adeline Lewis Grover, farmer and laborer Adam Berwick, Andrew Forrester solicitor, house girl Evie Stone, Miss Frances Knight last heir of the Austen estate, Hollywood actress Marie Anne “Mimie” Harrison and Yardley Sinclair assistant director of estate at Sotheby’s, all find solace in reading Jane Austen be it Emma, Pride and Prejudice or Mansfield Park Austen words bring them comfort and helps them through their suffering and bitter disappointments.

The pacing of the book is drearily slow; nothing happens, except for the characters sharing their love for Austen’s books and discussing their favorite passages or quotes. Nothing of import or interest occurs. The Society doesn’t form until about forty percent of the book, Miss Frances, the direct heir to Austen joins the Society and then a Hollywood movie star joins the group as does an assitant director of estate from a London auction house and still the story mainly revolves around the daily lives of the characters, their plights and losses after the Great War and World WarII.

What will strike readers and listeners as odd and create a sense of disbelief will be the Society itself. For an organization to preserve Austen’s home and legacy, having no fight in them will be like a gut punch. When Miss Frances’ father passes away and the reading of the will reveals new stipulations in the passing down of the estate to any male heir in the family on the British continent instead of his daughter, everyone is stunned. What’s more, when it’s revealed that Adam is the male heir and could fight the other claim put against the estate, they vote against it, to avoid the villagers gossiping. Jenner went against the sole purpose of having created the Society in the first place. Why? Doing this only widens the gap between her audience and the characters; the entirety of the exchange and decision-making process felt inauthentic.

At this point, prolonging the storyline in the same monotonous tone wasn’t in Jenner’s best interest because readers and listeners had lost some respect for the Society’s fighting to preserve Austen’s legacy without fighting, which didn’t feel genuine anymore. In the end, Jenner wrapped things up nicely; the unrequited lovers found each other, the Society bought back a part of the estate, and somehow, Adam is playing house with a man, and no one in the village is gossiping! Imagine that. Leaving readers and listeners wondering why all the worries Jenner alluded to about announcing his birthright would have caused such a commotion in the village.

For the lack of pacing, a story that went nowhere in particular this book would be dull to be sure, but for lovers of books who found each other in hard times and found strength in the works of Jane Austen without shame of admitting how they could see themselves in this character or that one and quote Austen beautifully is what makes this a 3 star read or listen.




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Book review: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Review also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/07/26/b...

Dan Brown’s book, initially published in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle editions in 2000, became available as an audiobook in April 2024. The audiobook is narrated by Richard Poe, who brings the characters to life brilliantly in this fast-paced, science vs. religion-themed mystery thriller of a treasure hunt.

Brown’s choice of a protagonist easily exceeds most readers’ or listeners’ expectations. Robert Langdon is a realistic character, and Brown maintains a good balance with Langdon’s abilities and shortcomings throughout the book, making him more genuine. And Vittora Vetra and her father, who continually fight the gap between the worlds of science and religion, remain steadfast in their beliefs that the two are not mutually exclusive, making it easy to connect with them as they provide non-stop, thought-provoking messages and themes.

When a top physicist is murdered and his chest branded with the inverted word ‘Illuminati’, the name of an ancient anti-religious cult, Professor Robert Langdon is called in to help. He’s an expert on symbology and religious history. During the investigation, they realize a canister of antimatter has been stolen from the physicist’s lab, and they have twenty-four hours to find the truth and the canister before it explodes. The race begins, and all roads lead to Rome.

Brown’s attention to detail is exquisite when he describes the intricate architecture in and around the Vatican City, immersing readers and listeners within a virtual tour. The connection to numerous Catholic rituals and ceremonies, climaxing with each murder, is enhanced by the historical anecdotes woven into the plot, which add to the countless twists that bring all the threads together, making it a brilliant chase.

However, the downside to Brown’s book is the info dumps. Throughout the book, Brown will drop bombs of information, mostly about symbology, which will sometimes be presented in dialogue that can be tedious. Or, at other times, it will be lengthy paragraphs; either way, this lazy technique is appalling from such an accomplished author.

Action-packed, fast-paced, and engaging characters, along with intricate details throughout, will keep readers turning the page. Info dumps aside, the book merits 3.5 stars.



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Book Review: Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop

Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Review is also available on my site: https://roxannacross.com/2025/07/25/b...

This personal development title is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library through the Libby App. The audiobook is narrated by the author, his Scottish accent adding nuance to the material, somehow making it resonate more deeply with listeners without requiring any emphasis.

In his book, Bishop leads readers and listeners through a series of assertions:
1. I am willing
2. I am wired to win
3. I got this
4. I embrace the uncertainty
5. I am not my thoughts; I am what I do
6. I am relentless
7. I expect nothing and accept everything

Bishop’s tough love approach teaches us to move past our self-imposed limitations and provides us with tools to overcome our negative self-talk.

By asserting ‘I am willing’ as opposed to ‘I will’, we are concretely making a choice to change something today instead of sometime in the unknown future. Admitting our ‘unwillingness’ to continue with a particular situation prompts us to make changes to improve it. Bishop goes on to explain that our brains are wired to win; it is up to us to decide what we want to achieve and aim for it. ‘I got this’ is a great mantra to repeat to ourselves in moments of doubt to boost us back up so we don’t give up on our goals. Humans tend to shy away from the uncertain; Bishop’s philosophy is the opposite. He says to embrace it with open arms. Stop making excuses. No Buts. Step into that darkness and tackle it. Thoughts, negative, positive, bad, good, are just that, thoughts. What’s important to remember is what you do. For example, it’s all well and good to think about exercising, but it’s the doing that counts. Be relentless in your endeavors, never give up, and keep going even if people around you tell you that you are crazy. Here, Bishop uses the example of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a young boy in Austria dreaming of coming to America to be a movie star, and how he would have been perceived by his peers, his parents, and still, how Arnold persevered to accomplish all that he has. Expecting nothing and accepting everything doesn’t mean it’s a life of submission; instead, it means we’re living in the moment. Expecting nothing is embracing our situation as it comes. Accepting everything doesn’t mean we’re okay with it or agree with it; instead, it means we acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. The hidden expectations we carry within are roadblocks we must unpack to discover our reality; otherwise, we will remain trapped in a mirage of a life. Our subconscious is the puppet master that pulls the strings. Bishop tells us we can regain control by owning and taking charge and letting go of our expectations.

Bishop’s advice, delivered in a no-nonsense manner, is simple, realistic, and manageable. He provides quotes from Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Theodore Roosevelt, Napoleon Bonaparte, and others to add punch to his message, stating that we should seize the moment, reminding us that we are not our thoughts, and to take charge of our lives. Nothing in his book is rocket science; it’s just basic logic applied in different ways. The fact that what he preaches is doable is what makes this book a 4-star read or listen.



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