MelanieJoy’s Comments (group member since Apr 26, 2016)

MelanieJoy’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

by Ellery Lloyd

Some women won't be painted out of history . . .

Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx.

Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations.

But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?

A tale of love and madness, obsession and revenge, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby unravels the riddle posed by a Sphinx who refuses to reveal her secrets . . .

I nominate The Island of Lost Secrets by Rebecca Alexander

As Ellie stood on the boat, watching the small island come into view, she wondered what awaited her on shore. What secrets would she uncover in this place?

When Ellie Roberts inherits a cottage on a remote Scilly Isle, she’s shocked. She’s never heard of the previous owner, Patience Ellis, so why did she leave Ellie her legacy?

Overwhelmed with unanswered questions, Ellie travels to the isolated island. Windswept from the boat, salt spray still on her skin, she searches for Patience’s whitewashed cottage, hidden behind overgrown ivy. But when she steps inside, the house feels strangely familiar, and she has a memory of laughing as a child with her beloved mother in the window seat overlooking the sea… The mother she lost when she was only a child.

Determined to find out more, Ellie meets enigmatic local Branok Shore. While at first he seems uninterested, he believes he can help. Charmed by his green eyes, and curious about his past on the island, he and Ellie grow closer, but Ellie knows she needs to understand her own story before she can embrace the future. And when Branok prises open Patience’s dresser, filled with letters from the Second World War, Ellie discovers the shocking secret Patience was forced to hide – and the truth that will change her own life forever.

The letters tell the story of a brutal storm on a dark night in the depths of war, and of an injured soldier who begged Patience for help, and asked her to make an impossible choice…

But the letters don’t hold the answers Ellie so desperately needs. Why did Patience leave her home to her? And how can Ellie have memories of the cottage, when she’s never been there before? When Ellie finally uncovers the truth, will she be strong enough to put the fragments of her life back together?

Great work Carmen!

I added way more in 2023 and 2024 than previous years

I also exceeded my goal and this is the first time I’ve ever met it! So I’m making next years goal just a teensy bit higher…

My spot!!

GOAL: 30 books added before 1 year from date read
Progress: 21/30

1: The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction added dec 2023, complete Jan 2025
2: Kingdom of Ash added 2016, complete Jan 2025
3: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters added sept 2023, complete Jan 2025 (5 STARS)
4: Mere Christianity added 2014, read Feb 2025
5: Beach Read added May 2022, read Feb 2025
6: If the Creek Don't Rise added May 2017, read 2025
7: The Magician’s Daughter added Dec 2023, read Feb 2025
8: The Night Shift added Sept 2023, read Mar 2025
9: The Spectacular added July 2023, complete Mar 2025
10: Weyward added Dec 2023, complete Mar 2025
11: Wonder added 2018, complete Mar 2025
12: Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops added July 2016, complete April 2025
13: The Bird and the Sword added Jan 2017, complete May 2025
14: The Unbound Empire added Jan 2024 I think, read June 2025
15: Mossflower added 2014, read April 2025 (this is sort of bonus because I thought I read it but when I was reading it I realized I had never read this one, so I'd say it counts.
16: The Keeper of Lost Things added Dec 2021, read June 2025
17: Hook: Dead to Rights added 2018 or 2019 (deleted then readded this year because I found it in my kindle) read June 2025
18: The Killings at Badger's Drift added Aug 2016, read July 2025
19: The Inheritance Games added Dec 2023; read July 2025
20: Girl Waits with Gun added Feb 2017, read Aug 2025
21:A Study in Charlotte added May 2020, read Sept 2025
22:
23:
24:

Bonus mentions:
Shelved in 2014: 8 (2 complete!)
Shelved in 2015: 1
Shelved in 2016: 27 (3 complete!)
Shelved in 2017: 37 (3 complete)
Shelved in 2018: 19 (1 complete)
Shelved in 2019: 12

Good Reads TBR at Jan 2025: I believe 338-350ish?
current (June 2025) 307 - (some deleted)

Thanks Angie and Jenny and everyone!! Sorry I was less talkative this round than I wanted to be. Hope everyone had some fun and read some good books!!

sorry jenny i'm 30% through The Woman in the Library And I'm just not reading that fast.,,

It’s gonna be close. It’s interesting but I do have a toddler…

Jenny wrote: "Never mind, I found one, and it is a reread, so I will be able to finish it!!!!!"

yay!

I'm reading a W book but idk if I'll finish it in time.

Nice work Shan!

I'll look for an O book that I feel like reading then!

Thanks Jenny! I'll look at the actual spreadsheet lol

so I get one more book and we're done on the 7th? Hmmm let me see what I can crank out real quick...

Completion Post: 3 books
The Librarian of Burned Books
by: Brianna Labuskes
416 pages
finished: 11/27/2024

Characters: Vivian Childs, Edward, Emmett Hale, Hannah Brecht, Althea James, Senator Taft, President Roosevelt

doesn't fit any of the tasks Jenny mentioned

Clockwork Boys
T. Kingfisher
pages: 230
date finished: 11/30/2024
series: Clocktaur War #1
characters: Slate, Brenner,
fit tasks: genre library doesn't carry much of: steampunk, set in fictional world, or out of my comfort zone

book: Lemon Meringue Pie Murder
author: Joanne Fluke
pages: 348
date finished: 12/5/2024
series: Hannah Swensen Mysteries
characters: Hannah Swensen, Mike, Norman Rhodes, Lisa, Delores, Andrea, Bill, Tracey, Rhonda Sharpe, Jed, Freddy

I'm over my quota for the round but WAY under the previous quotas (one round I did 0 entries) so it should be okay).

The Matchmaker's Gift Lynda Cohen Loigman

Is finding true love a calling or a curse?

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

A young author is invited to an exclusive writer’s retreat that soon descends into a pulse-pounding nightmare. Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn’t dampen her excitement. But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell—they must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate, including Roza’s erratic behavior, Wren’s cruel mind games, and the alleged haunting of the mansion itself. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot. With the clock running out, she must discover the truth—or suffer the same fate.

Fits: icy/wintry setting

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Fits: Jetsetting characters [what's more jetsetting than to and from the White House?!]

Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.

When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.

But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.

I nominate

The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Is finding true love a calling or a curse?

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

Completion Post:
The Watchmaker's Daughter
by: C.J. Archer
302 pages
finished: 11/26/2024
Series: Glass and Steele #1
Characters: Matthew Glass, India Steele, Willie Johnson, Catherine Mason, Leticia Glass, Lord Rycroft, Duke, Cyclops

any chance someone can add my book read to the spreadsheet where it fits best?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
characters: Hannah swensen, ron lasalle, bill, andrea, dolores, max turner, benton woodley, judith woodley, lisa,
pages: 436
date started: 11/12
date finished: 11/22