Although I was pretty sure I would disagree with the majority of other readers who said that THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah is an excellent book, I can now honestly tell you to believe it. I had read two other books by Hannah and was not impressed, so I doubted that she had it in her to write like this. I was wrong.

This book has been reviewed so much already, it is sufficient to say that it is a piece of historical fiction that highlights the remarkable women of France when the Germans occupied that country during World War II. The story concentrates on two sisters, one based on an actual person, the other based on the lives of many women in France at that time.

So many books have been written about World War II, you may tend to avoid reading more. But this is one you don't want to miss.

THE HALF WIVES is the excellent story of a former Lutheran minister, Henry, his wife Marilyn, his lover Lucy, and his eight-year-old daughter by Lucy, Blue. The entire book is a day in their lives, the anniversary of the birth and death of Henry’s and Marilyn’s child. The predicament they are in is obvious and is seen, chapter by chapter, through the eyes of one of these characters or the other.

That is what makes this book great. Stacia Pelletier presents all the various viewpoints and makes you understand and care about each character, even as they seem to be working against each other.

At the same time, there are problems with the way Pelletier has chosen to present the story. This has downgraded the rating that I give it.

First is the lack of quotation marks. Quotation marks were invented to aid readability. That is, quotation marks make it easier for the reader to understand. It is, therefore, rude of a writer not to use them. Pelletier doesn’t.

Second, as each chapter is written from the viewpoint of one of the characters, Pelletier has chosen second-person presentation. As a former technical writer who used the second person regularly and properly, I do not understand why she uses it in fiction. It put me off.

The entire story leads to what the reader thinks is an inevitable end. I was disappointed when I finally got there. The end leaves the reader to guess. I guess you can write it yourself however you like.

While you will find THE DEARLY BELOVED shelved among many other novels, this one should stand out. It is character-driven, which can be a good sign, but plenty of authors get it wrong. Cara Wall doesn’t.

THE DEARLY BELOVED is about four people, James and Nan, Charles and Lily. James marries Nan, a devoutly religious daughter of a minister. Lily reluctantly marries Charles. James and Charles become ministers and preach together for 40 years. Each of these four people is examined over 50 years.

Character-driven novels always run the risk of becoming boring. That is partly because they often contain little or no plot. This could be said of THE DEARLY BELOVED, but Wall has included in it topics that other novels shy away from such as discussion of faith in God (and lack of it), living with a mentally deficient family member, and good marriages that endure. Her careful analyses and well-written dialogue will keep you engaged.

Don’t believe any fewer-than-four-star reviews of THE WITCH ELM by Tana French. It really deserves five stars for its many layers and thoughtfulness. Maybe they just don’t get it.

Toby has always been a lucky guy. Then two burglars break into his apartment, steal a few things, and beat the living daylights out of him. But he lives. So people say he is, again, lucky.

The worst of Toby’s injuries is to his head. Some readers may not realize that his limp and other physical manifestations are results of his head injury. But Toby's messed-up brain is also controlling his memory and language skills.

Because of all this, Toby is having to deal with a new life. His thoughts are constantly going here, then there, then there. Plus the reader can see signs of PTSD all over the place. But he doesn't look as bad as he is.

So this is the Toby who goes with his girlfriend to live with his dying uncle. While they are there, a skull is found inside the trunk of a tree in the garden, and later the police find more. Toby deals with detectives and gradual revelations from his cousins as they insinuate that he might be guilty of murder. He can't remember.

While all French's novels are very good, both in characterization and plot, THE WITCH ELM is one of her better ones. It is full of intelligent introspection, and it takes you places you don't expect.

You won’t understand the title of DEAR DAUGHTER until nearly the end, and in the end you’ll be left hanging. I haven’t decided how negative to feel about that. Maybe three stars isn’t enough. After all, I did enjoy it until the end.

Jane has been in jail for the past 10 years. She was convicted of her mother’s murder, but she doesn’t think she did it. She doesn’t remember. But she does remember finding the body and hiding in a closet while she heard someone say things.

Because evidence was mishandled in her case, Jane’s lawyer, Noah, gets her out after 10 years. She decides right away that she needs to find out who murdered her mother. So, on the basis of things she overheard while she was in the closet, she travels to a small town in South Dakota. And now Jane has a mystery to solve.

This entire book takes place in about a week. Everyone Jane meets in the small South Dakota town, with one exception, has lived there all their lives. That’s not very realistic, but just go with it. It’s a neat little mystery. I didn’t find it predictable at all, my problem with many other mysteries. So I enjoyed it.

But it left me hanging. I had too many questions in the end.

I can’t speak highly enough of THE RED LOTUS.

?If your preferred genre is thriller but so many books billed as "psychological thriller" don’t do much for you, if you want a literary thriller and one that is intelligent, THE RED LOTUS is for you. This book is a 5-star can’t-put-it-down read, and Chris Bohjalian obviously assumes his readers are smart.

Alexis, an ER doctor, and her boyfriend Austin, who works at the same hospital but on the administrative end, are visiting Vietnam on a bike tour. When Austin takes off for a solo bike ride but does not return by the appointed time, police in Vietnam begin their investigation. Soon thereafter Austin’s body is found, and a thrilling mystery begins.

Even after Alexis returns to the United States, the police captain in Vietnam continues his investigation. But Alexis can’t just sit and wait; she hires a private investigator to look into what happened and why.

Remember as you read this: almost no one is who they seem.

WHITE IVY begins when Ivy is a child. She is Chinese but wants to be white and hang out with the white crowd at school. When she spends one summer in China, at first with rich relatives, she develops a high opinion of herself and a hankering for the rich life. Back in the United States, she dates only white boys. Ivy has a crush on one boy in particular: Gideon.

Ivy and Gideon are pretty much at the center of this story. But so are Ivy and Roux (pronounced Roo), a Romanian who grew up in the neighborhood where she did.

As an adult, Ivy’s desires haven’t changed much. They’ve been amplified. She still wants Gideon and gets him to a point. But something isn’t right. She sees what she wants to see, and Roux is what she settles for when she can’t be with Gideon.

I read WHITE IVY while I was (and still am) quarantined because my husband has COVID-19 and I might have it. I had nothing to do but read. So I read this book more quickly than usual, taking breaks only to sleep. I wonder if I would have enjoyed WHITE IVY otherwise.

I came to detest Ivy. So will you.

Of the five Lisa Jewell novels I have read, I think THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is probably my favorite. Not that it’s a nice story. You could definitely say it is sickening. But it is so absorbing and quite a page turner.

Libby learns that she has inherited a home worth several million dollars. But she also learns, little by little, what went on in that home and who her true family really is.

Libby hears about the rich family—mother, father, son, daughter— who lived there back in the 1980s. And she learns the story about another family who moved into their attic bedrooms— temporarily, they said. But the people upstairs stayed and stayed. Not only did they not leave, the father of the family upstairs, David, took control of the lives of everyone in the house.

So what does this have to do with Libby? Is she the baby left behind? She will discover all this and how she is related to these people.

I read THE PARIS LIBRARY because it is historical fiction, but I thought it would be written for an adult. It seemed, however, to be a lower reading level, closer to what I would have liked when I was in the eighth or ninth grade.

Some chapters of this book are about 1939 Paris; the other chapters are about 1983 Montana. I found both to be boring.

In 1939 Paris is young Odile, who works at the American Library in Paris. This part is boring mainly because it is so, so slow. We hear about every little bit of her life and are left to wonder, when will something happen, for too long.

The Montana chapters are told from the perspective of Lily, a junior-high-school-age girl, who becomes a friend of her next-door neighbor, Odi?e, now an older woman. These chapters, too, are slow and made me wonder, what is their purpose, for too long.

I cannot recommend this book to most adult readers. However, I do recommend it for some teenagers.

I won this book from Atria Books.

If you are a writer or work in the publishing industry, THE PLOT is for you. As far as I can tell, though, this book is not for anyone else. It bored me. I am sure it will bore most people, maybe even writers and those who work in the publishing industry.

Jake has written a highly successful novel that he based on a plot written by one of his students. The student is now dead, and Jake has rewritten the story. Jake did not really steal it from anyone, but he feels that he did. So does someone else who is badgering him online about it. Who is this? That’s what Jake sets out to learn.

I read several good reviews of this book before I decided to read it. I feel cheated. Although most reviews warn that the book has a slow beginning, they also assure the reader that it gets suspenseful, thrilling. Believe me when I tell you that, yes, THE PLOT does have a slow beginning; BUT it continues to drag right up to page 300.

If you can delay your gratification that long, go for it. I don’t know any people who can do that. No one should have to.

Even after page 300, you’re bound to be disappointed. The whole mystery is solved in the end, and I could see it coming long before I got that far.

While many people will feel THE EXILES is a five-star book and while I would have felt the same several years ago, my taste has evolved. I didn’t love it. I liked it, but I don’t have the heart to give it just three stars. It was such a nice, if somewhat predictable, story.

After Evangeline’s father dies, she becomes a governess in early 19th-century London. But after she has an affair with the adult son of the household, she ends up pregnant and in Newgate prison. From there, she is shipped with other prisoners to Australia.

On board, Evangeline meets Hazel, a midwife and herbalist. It is Hazel, not Evangeline, who plays the largest part in this story.

But this book is also about a third female, Mathinna. She is an Aboriginal child, taken on a whim to live among white people.

I read that this is to be made into a TV series. It is sure to make great TV.

THE SNOW CHILD by Eowyn Ivey is simply a retelling of a Russian fairy tale. It doesn’t live up to the many reviews of it that I read. The book is full of unanswered questions.

Right up to the second-from-last page GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn should be rated 5. Every page of the book builds more and more tension. It really is the best kind of book: unputdownable.

But the end: Other reviewers have said that it comes as a surprise. True. But I didn't like it. It is as if Flynn couldn't think of an end to the story so just stopped.

The end should be rewritten.

WHEN SHE WOKE by Hillary Jordan was a pleasant surprise for me. From what I had heard, I had expected a futuristic book about a world where abortion was a crime punishable by turning the criminal’s skin red. Yes, there’s that. But there’s so much more to it. And Jordan’s writing is very good.

You can believe me. This comes from a pro-lifer.

At first, I thought my expectations were accurate. But, although pro-lifers in this book have tunnel vision and are cruel, which might have irritated me, the story has so many twists and turns, I really did enjoy it.

My biggest surprise about WHEN SHE WOKE was that so much happens in a relatively short book. I say “relatively” because most books that have this much action are twice as long as WHEN SHE WOKE.

Too many authors love the way they write so much that they write too much and subject the reader to many paragraphs that can easily be cut without detracting from the story. But Jordan has cut the garbage paragraphs in WHEN SHE WOKE. Don’t skip. Jordan’s writing is concise, and all of it is necessary.

CITY OF WOMEN was a disappointment. The dialog and many of the situations are just plain corny. The story is loaded with convenient coincidences. The woman who helps hide Jews in World War II Berlin is, at the same time, a tramp who can't get enough sex, then pretends to be shocked about others' sexual experiences.

The author said he wanted to put ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. But that's not what this book is. These people are not ordinary; they're unrealistic and ridiculous.