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Amazon First Reads – May 2025

When the Amazon First Reads came out at the beginning of May, I wasn’t initially drawn to any of them and didn’t make a selection. I got an email a couple of days ago reminding me about them, however, so I took another look and decided to take advantage of the offer.

For the book, I chose a cozy mystery that sounds like fun. Homemaker, by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare, is about a midlife mother called Prairie Nightingale who gets intrigued when another mom goes missing and begins investigating.

There was a bonus short story, a thriller, which I also downloaded. Death Row by Frieda McFadden is about a woman named Talia Kemper who is on death row for murdering her husband despite having an alibi and no known motive. One day in the visiting area she sees a man who she thinks is her husband and has to convince everyone of what she saw.

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Mini Book Reviews

Not Quite by the Book by Julie Hatcher

Emma Rini is running her parents’ bookstore and slowly building up resentment against her parents, who seem to take her for granted, and her sister, who is focused on her first pregnancy. When her parents announce they are retiring, she impulsively decides to take a six-week vacation to a crumbling manor house where she can get in touch with her inner Emily Dickinson.

Emma obtains mixed results from her experiment, but learns a lot along the way about herself. Besides the expected love interest, there are new friends to be made and breakthroughs to be had with her family. I enjoyed this book quite a bit and appreciated the bookish themes.

How to Stuff Up Christmas by Rosie Blake

Eve has just discovered her fiance is cheating on her and, after booting him out, is looking for a way to avoid the traditional family Christmas celebrations. She decides to take a pottery course in another town and finds a houseboat rental for her and Marmite, her dog. While there, she encounters the handsome local vet Greg, and they strike up a friendship. 

This book has both humor and heart. There are a lot of catastrophes and chaos, along with some misunderstandings, but eventually everything gets sorted out one way or another. It is a fun, lighthearted read.

Secrets of a Shoe Addict by Beth Harbison

This is the sequel to Shoe Addicts Anonymous and follows a group of friends–Tiffany, Loreen, and Abbey–who get themselves into various kinds of trouble during a school trip to Las Vegas. Tiffany is the sister of Sandra, who is one of the main characters in the first book. When all three ladies need to raise money fast, Sandra helps them out with a side hustle that will do the trick.

I enjoyed seeing these women grow closer throughout the story, as well as how they handled the challenges of their new job and their romantic relationships. It was also nice to see Sandra again and watch her attempts at dating. A quick, fun read.

A Shoe Addict’s Christmas by Beth Harbison

This is an adorable take on a Christmas classic. When Noelle gets locked in the department store she works at on a snowy Christmas Eve, she meets her guardian angel. As they clean up the shoes her angel knocked over as she was coming in, she has the chance to revisit several moments of her life and see how they could have gone if she hadn’t let her fears hold her back. Short and sweet, cute holiday story.

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Puzzle Haul & Thomas Kinkade Puzzles

Check out my puzzle haul! A woman from my church is moving and gave me a bunch of puzzles she didn’t want to take with her. Of course, I said I’ll take them all! I’ll do the ones I like and them pass them all to other puzzlers.

The first ones I chose to do were the set of Thomas Kinkade puzzles. They were from Ceaco, and there were 3 of them. I have never done any of his artwork and thought I would give these a try even though they are not my normal style.

I had a pleasant time doing them. The largest one was a bit tricky because there was a lot more sky and also the border has a lot of false fits. I had to mess around with the border a few times to get it right.

Collector’s Cottage – 100 pieces
Stillwater Bridge – 300 pieces
Evening in the Forest – 500 pieces

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Disney Together Time Puzzle

This is the Disney Together Time Puzzle from Ceaco. It is 400 pieces.

I have done this image before, but when I saw it in a local puzzle box in this version, I knew I wanted to try it. Together Time is a type of puzzle that has three different size pieces in one puzzle.

The idea is that a group of people of different ages or abilities can work on a puzzle together. I think it is a good concept, and I would be interested to do a puzzle like this with a child to see how they liked it.

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Found in a Bookshop

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Loveday Cardew’s bookshop has fallen quiet due to the pandemic lockdown. The business is struggling and Loveday and her staff are trying to figure out how to connect with readers in some new way. Out of the blue, they get a letter from a woman named Rosemary, who sends them a check and asks them to pick out some books for her and send one every few days.

This surprising request prompts Loveday to open a book prescription service where people can contact them for book recommendations based on what they need. The customers can share how they are feeling and what they are looking for, and the bookshop staff will pick out some books that can be picked up at the store or mailed or even dropped off to them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a bit on the longer side, which allowed the time to really get to know Loveday and her staff as well as the stories of several of the customers who requested book prescriptions. There were also a ton of book recommendations with descriptions of why the book was being suggested for the particular person or situation, and all of the recommended books are gathered into a list at the end of the book in case you want to look them up.

There are several reflections on the act of reading scattered throughout the novel, and this is my favorite quote from one of them:

In short: you, dear reader, are correct. You are always correct.

Not only in what you imagine, but in what you feel. You are allowed to not-love the novel the rest of the world is raving about; you are allowed to cordially loathe your sister’s favourite author. Reading is not a test. Whether or not you love a book is not a matter for debate; and not something you can be persuaded into.

Books are the magical everyday that is all your own.

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ColorStory

I love rainbow puzzles, and this was a fun one. It’s so satisfying to work a puzzle section by section. I got this one at the puzzle swap and assumed I would do it once and pass it along, but I think I might keep it to do again.

The puzzle is from the ColorStory line, but I couldn’t find a specific title. The brand is Ceaco, and the artist is Lars Stewart. It is 750 pieces.

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A Walk on the Pier

A Walk on the Pier is a 300-piece puzzle from MasterPieces, and the artist is Art Poulin. I got it at the puzzle swap I attended recently.

This was another fun, quick puzzle with large, random-cut pieces. It was fun to do, and I like the image a lot.

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Sunday Promenade

Sunday Promenade is a 300-piece puzzle from Bits and Pieces, and the artist is Mary Ann Vessey.

I got this one for free secondhand and really enjoyed it. It was a nice, quick solve with oversized, random-cut pieces. It really is a charming image. One of the ladies in my puzzle group called it “quaint.”

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Plymouth Undercover

If you are looking for a light read for a trip or just a relaxing weekend afternoon, Plymouth Undercover by Pamela Kelley fits the bill. In this cozy mystery, a mother and daughter inherit a PI agency, Court Street Investigations in Plymouth, MA.

Most of the cases revolve around cheating spouses or workman’s comp fakers, but then they get asked to find a missing woman. Very shortly, the woman turns up dead, and now they are investigating a murder.

I really liked both Emma and her mother Cindy, as well as Mickey, the eighty-year-old part-time employee of the agency. The mystery perhaps came together a bit too quickly at the end, but it was still a fun read from an author I enjoy.