Books are food for my soul! Pull up a beach chair and stick your toes in the sand as the Jersey surf rolls in and out, now open your book and let your imagination take you away.

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Sunday Funday: 8/2/2026

 



Welcome to Sunday Funday! 


Every Sunday is a fun day to read and relax. I will be sharing the book that I am currently reading. So, join in on the Sunday Funday and post a comment about the book that you are currently reading! 

                             
























My PangoBooks Online Bookstore


If you have some free downtime, check out my PangoBooks Online Bookstore! 🕮📚








My Book Nook She Shed























Book Spotlight: Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman

 















Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman
Publisher: Berkley Publishing
Publication Date: June 9, 2026
Format: Paperback - 368 pages
               Audiobook - 11 Hours 2 Minutes
               Kindle - 366 pages
               Nook - 368 pages
ISBN (Paperback): 978-0593953532
ASIN (Audiobook): B0FSN5GGML
ASIN (Kindle): 978-0593953549
BNID (Nook): 978-0593953549
Genre: Thriller



Buy The Book:



Book Description:

In this addictive dual-timeline debut novel, a woman confronts her past at the remote Southern summer camp where the tragic death of her fellow counselor may not have been an accident after all.

Five years ago, Greer left her family’s summer camp in the mountains of Georgia and vowed she’d never return. An idyllic season had turned into a nightmare after a mysterious Phantom began stalking the camp—and ended with Greer’s friend and fellow counselor dead. Losing Steph shattered everything, and Greer’s been fleeing from the grief ever since.

But then Greer’s mother dies, and Greer finds herself back at Dread’s Cove, surrounded by the people she was closest to that intense summer. Two ex-boyfriends—one a childhood sweetheart, the other the guy she's never gotten over—and old friends. Including Margo, Steph's best friend.

Greer and Margo didn’t leave things on the best of terms. But now, Margo needs her. Margo never believed that Steph’s death in that horrific fire was an accident—and she’s on the trail of an explosive secret Steph took to her grave.

Greer has to make a keep the Cove’s secrets and her own or finally face the truth about that summer.





About The Author




Darby Bozeman is a Portland, Oregon native who moved to Georgia for grad school a decade ago and thinks she can now officially call herself Southern. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves acting in community theater, discussing pop culture, and going out to buy coffee even when she could very much make it at home. She lives in Knoxville with her husband, Bryan, and their cat, Claude. Summer's Never Over is her debut novel.
























Saturday, August 1, 2026

Saturday Weekly Book Mail: 7/26-8/1/2026

 











This Week's Book Mail


ARC - Henry Holt Publishing




Book Of The Month























Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox (Book Review)

 











Pretty Dead Things by Kelsey Cox
Publisher: Minotaur Books / St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 7, 2026
Format: Hardcover - 336 pages
               Audiobook - 9 Hours 43 Minutes
               Kindle - 327 pages
               Nook - 336 pages
ISBN (Hardcover): 978-1250378842
ASIN (Audiobook): B0FP48M1Q9
ASIN (Kindle): B0FLYPRSWV
BNID (Nook): 978-1250378859
Genre: Thriller



Buy The Book:


Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I also purchased a hardcover copy of the book from my monthly Book Of The Month (BOTM) subscription.



Book Description:

Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.

2000: Isabelle Whitmore vanishes at Sherman Ranch in Anhalt, Texas, without a trace.

2025: The annual Lone Star Princess Pageant looms, bringing long-standing grudges to the surface. Ingrid fled Anhalt in the wake of her sister Isabelle’s disappearance and has now returned, just in time for a construction crew to start digging up Sherman Ranch; the pageant brings up past traumas that Melanie can't forget; Cat, newly sober, starts to feel threatened in ways that bring back old demons; and Sarah Lynn, who comes from a long line of pageant winners, knows that losing is not an option.

When old resentments and new confrontations reach their boiling point, temperatures drop to deadly degrees as a record-setting storm brings down the state’s power grid. With everyone trapped under one roof, scores will be settled, and more than one person will end up dead.

Some secrets are better left buried.


My Book Review:


In Pretty Dead Things, author Kelsey Cox weaves a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader into a dark storyline that follows a twenty-five-year-old mystery that still haunts the townspeople of a small Texas town.

In 2000, seventeen-year-old Isabelle Whitmore goes missing and is never found. Twenty-five years later in 2025 the town of Anhalt, Texas is preparing for the 50th Annual Lone Star Princess Pageant. Little do the townspeople know that past secrets, petty rivalries, and long-held grudges still live on, especially when on the night of the pageant everyone is trapped in the event hall when a state-wide snowstorm bares down on their town, and the past resurfaces and a murderer still lurks among them.

Pretty Dead Things is a complex and multi-layered tale that is told in alternating first-person narratives by a lot of characters. The reader is taken along for the ride as the characters' stories unfold in alternating past/present timelines that revisit the twenty-five-year-old disappearance of Isabelle Whitmore, and the present confrontations that spark up among the past pageant contestants as they prepare their daughters for the 50th anniversary of the pageant. As their stories unfold, there is a dark intensity with riveting twists and turns that kept me guessing who the murderer is that has lurked in their town for all these years until the very shocking conclusion. 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that while this story is a very twisty thriller that kept me engaged and on my toes, it was really hard to follow because of the alternating character storyline chapters. I found myself writing notes down just to keep up with the past and present timelines, and how they were intertwined throughout the whole story. Nonetheless, I loved the pageant queen theme and all the drama, pettiness and intensity that was a part of the history of that small town pageant.

Pretty Dead Things is an intense thriller that will keep you in suspense until the shocking conclusion!


Rating: 4 Stars





About The Author



Kelsey Cox received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and works from home in the Texas Hill Country. You can often find her writing at Mammen Family Public Library, chasing around her two young daughters, or watching British mysteries with her mom and aunts. On nights when bedtime goes as planned, she enjoys curling up on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, and a book with complicated characters and a killer twist in her lap.