Just Beachy

Title: Just Beachy
Author: Wendy Wax
Published: June 3, 2025 by Berkley
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Blurb: After losing her long-time acting gig on the hit show Murder 101, Sydney Ryan decides she needs a break from Hollywood politics. She heads to Treasure Island, Florida where her grandmother has been visiting and now refuses to leave. Sydney’s plan to lay low for a bit quickly goes awry though, as she is swept up in her grandmother’s now flourishing social life—Grand not only bought a new house in Casas de Flores, she’s also helping her neighbor Myra open a bookstore in Pass-a-Grille. But when someone breaks into Grand’s house repeatedly Sydney realizes her grandmother is keeping something from her.

Determined to ferret out the truth and protect her grandmother, Sydney enlists the help of the Ten Beach Road ladies and Luke, a local police officer who was once her high school crush. While Sydney puts her television crime solving skills to the test, she decides to act on the sizzling chemistry between her and Luke. And as Sydney spends more sunsets toasting to true friends and new romance, she begins to wonder if the sun is setting on her time in Hollywood and if this town could be the dawn of a new chapter.

My Opinion: I went into Just Beachy thinking I was diving back into the warm familiarity of the Ten Beach Road series, full of sunshine, friendship, fixer-uppers. What I got instead was... confusion. Sure, there are throwaway mentions of Pass-a-Grille and a nod to the ladies from the original crew, but this story is all Sydney Ryan. And wow, does her storyline stretch the boundaries of believability.

So, here’s Sydney: she’s been on a wildly successful, award-winning TV show for five years, winning Emmys and Golden Globes. But somehow, she’s broke? Because she spent it all on her dream home and personal maintenance? That math doesn’t math. Then the public supposedly confuses her with her character Cassie, a woman written into rehab, which leads to Sydney’s career collapse and a move to Florida to visit her grandmother and reinvent herself. As one does when they’re trying to reboot their Hollywood acting career. In Pass-a-Grille?

Let’s pause. Los Angeles to Florida as a career jumpstart? That’s not rebooting, that’s relocating to irrelevance. And the notion that people can't tell the difference between an actress and her character? Have we fallen into an alternate reality where basic media literacy no longer exists?

Then there’s the steamy scenes between Sydney and Luke, where I genuinely laughed out loud because they were written like an awkward improv sketch.

This book felt like one long misunderstanding between logic, plotting, and potential. Honestly, I should’ve abandoned ship early on. But instead, I popped in my earbuds, doubled the playback speed, and scrubbed the baseboards just to feel productive while waiting for something to happen that wasn’t as predictable as grandma’s secret and the gray fox.

I’m not saying I’ve broken up with Wendy Wax, but let’s just say we’re on a trial separation.

A Thousand Tiny Stitches

Title: A Thousand Tiny Stitches
Author: Stephanie Claypool
Published: November 12, 2024 by Atmosphere Press
Format: Kindle, Paperback, 313 Pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Blurb: After a hit-and-run driver tragically kills Lily's daughter and son-in-law, she is left with unspeakable grief, custody of her eight-year-old granddaughter Emma, and an impossible wish: to fulfill her daughter’s dream of opening a quilt shop in the old house in their small Western Pennsylvania town.

The house is in shambles, coated with years of grime, but Lily, unable to afford contractors on her late husband’s pension, tackles the job herself. As Emma’s emotional struggles deepen, the old house presents a barrage of increasingly costly obstacles. Worse, when Lily discovers a squatter living on the property, she fears for their safety. Only her unwavering belief that the shop is the best way to build a new life for herself and Emma keeps Lily pushing forward.

But not everyone in town is rooting for Lily’s success, and the line between helper and hinderer isn’t always clear, forcing Lily to make sacrifices she never imagined. She will need to prove it isn’t the patchwork that makes a quilt but the thousands of tiny stitches that bind the layers—and maybe hold a family together.

My Opinion: A Thousand Tiny Stitches opens with heartbreak. Widow Lily loses her daughter and son-in-law in a sudden car accident and is left caring for her eight-year-old granddaughter Emma. Both are quietly drowning in grief, each one afraid to crack the surface for fear of upsetting the other. And so, instead of sitting with their sorrow, they chase a dream: Amanda’s dream of opening a quilt shop in their small town. If they can focus on making something, they won’t have to look at the pieces of their life that shattered.

From there, it becomes less about quilting and more about mending the soul. The shop isn’t just a business; it’s a refuge. Lily’s circle of quilting friends rally around her, armed with comfort and tenderness. Doug, a homeless veteran living in a garage out back, shows up with his own story stitched in trauma and eventually, in kindness. And the café owner’s parents? They become another set of grandparents, helping with Emma as the community begins to form something beautiful and unexpected.

There’s just enough friction to keep things real—betrayal, financial struggles, emotional scars—but Claypool never lets the darkness take over. Instead, the story leans into second chances: love blossoms quietly, broken people find connection, and Lily rediscovers her strength one DIY project at a time. Everyone's navigating a new path, and somehow all those tangled emotions turn into something quietly triumphant.

Will you shed a tear? Yes. But it's also warm and affirming in that small-town-women’s-fiction kind of way. There's laughter tucked into even the saddest chapters, and moments where hope sneaks in through a dusty window. Lily and Emma’s grief doesn't disappear; it’s stitched into their new life softened by the people around them, and that’s what makes this story feel so gently uplifting.

The Day I Died

Title: The Day I Died
Author: Anne Frasier
Published: October 28, 2024 by Belfry Press
Format: Paperback, 294 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Series: Olivia Welles #2

Blurb: Detective Olivia Welles vanished into the shadows, faking her own death to shield the ones she loves. But now the clock is ticking and the danger she thought she'd escaped has come roaring back. Forced out of hiding, Olivia must confront her past, outsmart relentless enemies, and risk it all in a pulse-pounding race to save everything—and everyone—that matters. Hold on tight for this high-stakes, nonstop thrill ride!

My Opinion: Two and a half years after ‘The Night I Died’. Olivia is now working in a bar in the middle of nowhere, thinking she will stay there until her husband and daughter need her. This would be the same husband and daughter who think she has died.

Enter Alasdair “Father Love” Smith, a cult leader so unnervingly charismatic that it’s easy to understand how he amassed followers by the millions. He’s not just a villain in the traditional sense; he’s a reminder that manipulation stems from magnetism. When he targets Olivia, blaming her for the carnage at his compound, which took his wife and children, the stakes take on a sinister tone.

Frasier doesn’t throw her punches early. Instead, she plants quiet, seemingly unremarkable details that bloom into pivotal revelations. Those moments where the mundane becomes meaningful, hit with precision. You’re suddenly questioning everything -- who to trust, what’s real, whether Olivia herself is telling the whole story, and whether she can make it to the end.

But even as the plot becomes more demanding, what stood out most was the novel’s soul. At its core, this is a character-driven story. Horrific things happen, but it’s the people who carry you through. Olivia’s complexity and her fractured strength are compelling. Calliope might be too witty for a three-year-old, but her sass adds the emotional break you need. Will and Finn, each vying for Olivia, offer emotional tension grounded in sincerity. And Griffin... dear sweet Griffin, will quietly break your heart.

Frasier also slips in something unexpected: insight into the anatomy of cults. Not a deep dive, but just enough to make you pause. To wonder. To realize how charisma and planted ideas can shape and warp followers.

I often wonder why more readers aren’t talking about Anne Frasier. Her stories thread together suspense, nuance, and the kind of emotion that lingers. She has a devoted fan base, but her name deserves more recognition on the thriller aisle.

The Case of the Secret Spirit-Half

Title: The Case of the Secret Spirit-Half
Author: Lucy Banks
Published: October 11, 2022 by Chicago Review Press
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
Genre: Cozy Paranormal
Series: Dr Ribero's Agency of the Supernatural #5

Blurb: Kester is a wanted man.

After letting the daemon Hrschni escape, Infinite Enterprises are hunting Kester down, and the rest of Ribero’s supernatural agency swear they’ll never forgive him. But who can he trust, Hrschni or Infinite Enterprises?

While on the run, he reencounters the powerful daemon, who uses his powers to take Kester back and forth in time. As a spectre of the past, Kester must learn the truth about his mother while staying one step ahead of agents on his tail. But when Miss Wellbeloved and Ribero are seized by Infinite Enterprises, Kester uncovers a shocking truth, one that may change the course of the entire supernatural world.

In the last and final instalment of Dr Ribero’s Supernatural Agency, it all comes down to Kester and the secrets of the past.

My Opinion: After three years away from this quirky little gem of a series, I didn’t expect to slip so seamlessly back into its world, but I did, and it felt like I had never been away from this old group of friends who just so happen to deal with the spirit world for a living.

All the familiar faces are here: Hrschni, Ribero, Kester, Miss Wellbeloved, and the full, endearing, often maddening roster of colleagues, roommates, and not-quite-smooth love interests. The story flows in a “then and now” dual-timeline that stitches together the present-day chaos with Gretchen, Kester’s enigmatic mother’s, past, who once walked the halls of the School for Supernatural Further Education.

Through a risky time-travel experiment, Kester is given the chance to see the version of his mother he never knew. A woman who was vibrant, powerful, and deeply entangled in the lives of Ribero and Jennifer Wellbeloved. It’s part revelation, part reckoning, and more than a little heartbreak.

Kester has always been the most unlikely of heroes. A reluctant recruit and the softest in the Agency is now at the center of it all. It’s up to him to piece together what’s been hidden, carry forward what matters, and protect both the living and the spirits. And he rises to it, in the most Kester way possible.

This book doesn’t just wrap up the plot threads, but deepens them, weaving in an unexpected backstory that gives weight to the title and meaning to the journey.

Tone-wise, this falls firmly into what I’d call “cozy paranormal.” No grimdark shadows or graphic encounters, just warm, peculiar people navigating the supernatural with heart, charm, and dry wit. You won’t find blistering romantic tension or haunted house horror, but you will find characters you grow to truly care about.

This series deserves a brighter spotlight. And as finales go, this one hits the perfect notes of touching, funny, and quietly profound in the way only the best genre-crossing novels manage to do.