top of page
READ IT AND REAP
Book Reviews and Recommendations

WHAT I'M READING NOW
EATS, SHOOTS, & LEAVES
Lynne Truss
PROMISE ME TOMORROW
Donna Jo Stone
Search
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: A portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship. Madrid, 1957. Under the fascist dictatorship of...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 272 min read
0 views
0 comments
The Socialite by J'Nell Ciesielsky - Review
Book Synopsis: As the daughter of Sir Alfred Whitford, Kat has a certain set of responsibilities. But chasing her wayward sister, Ellie,...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 93 min read
4 views
0 comments
Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb - Review
Book Synopsis: August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for...
Lyra Thompson
Dec 29, 20243 min read
1 view
0 comments
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys....
Lyra Thompson
Oct 24, 20242 min read
1 view
0 comments
The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki - Review
Book Synopsis: Everyone knows Benedict Arnold--the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British--as history's...
Lyra Thompson
Sep 11, 20243 min read
2 views
0 comments
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart - Review
Book Synopsis: Nine-year-old Nicholas Benedict has more problems than most children his age. Not only is he an orphan with an unfortunate...
Lyra Thompson
Jul 25, 20243 min read
3 views
0 comments
Walls by L. M. Elliott - Review
Book Synopsis: Drew is an army brat, a hotshot athlete poised to be his high school’s star pitcher, when he has to move for the sixth...
Lyra Thompson
Jul 16, 20243 min read
3 views
0 comments
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris - Review
Book Synopsis: 2 CHILDREN FOR SALE The scrawled sign, peddling young siblings on a farmhouse porch, captures the desperation sweeping the...
Lyra Thompson
Jun 4, 20243 min read
3 views
0 comments
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Book Synopsis: During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. Mattie...
Lyra Thompson
May 8, 20243 min read
1 view
0 comments
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a...
Lyra Thompson
Apr 25, 20242 min read
3 views
0 comments
(SPOILERS) Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy - Review
Book Synopsis: For Marit Olsen, magic is all about strategy: it flows freely through her blood, but every use leaves behind a deadly,...
Lyra Thompson
Mar 24, 20244 min read
2 views
0 comments
Always Emily by Michaela MacColl - Review
Book Synopsis: Emily and Charlotte Brontë are about as opposite as two sisters can be. Charlotte is practical and cautious; Emily is...
Lyra Thompson
Mar 13, 20243 min read
2 views
0 comments
(SPOILERS) Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys - Review
Book Synopsis: While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 22, 20243 min read
3 views
0 comments
(SPOILERS) All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - Review
Book Synopsis: Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis...
Lyra Thompson
Jan 13, 20243 min read
4 views
0 comments
Annie, Between the States by L. M. Elliott - Review
Book Synopsis: Annie Sinclair's Virginia home is in the battle path of the Civil War. Her brothers, Laurence and Jamie, fight to defend...
Lyra Thompson
Aug 11, 20233 min read
0 views
0 comments
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin - Review
Book Synopsis: August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to...
Lyra Thompson
Aug 9, 20233 min read
1 view
0 comments
(SPOILERS) This Quiet Sky by Joanne Bischof - Review
Book Synopsis: There is nothing extraordinary about Tucker O’Shay’s dreams. Go to college. Become president. Fall in love. And pretend...
Lyra Thompson
Mar 17, 20232 min read
0 views
0 comments
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - Review
Book Synopsis: Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and...
Lyra Thompson
Feb 20, 20232 min read
2 views
0 comments
Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva - Review
Book Synopsis: Charles Dickens should be looking forward to Christmas. But when his latest book, 'Martin Chuzzlewit', is a flop, his...
Lyra Thompson
Dec 16, 20223 min read
3 views
0 comments
Send For Me by Lauren Fox - Review
Book Synopsis: Annelise is a dreamer: imagining her future while working at her parents' popular bakery in Feldenheim, Germany,...
Lyra Thompson
Dec 12, 20224 min read
8 views
0 comments
bottom of page