THE GATHERING (C.J. Tudor) - May 26/24

 Long but entertaining, The Gathering kept me interested throughout (even if I never was able to get a handle on the many, many supporting characters, which did dull the impact of certain events and revelations). *** out of ****

PINES (Blake Crouch) - May 18/24

 I can’t say I was super into this at the beginning, as the book felt a little repetitive and it did get frustrating not knowing what’s going on. But finally Ethan escapes from the town’s clutches and makes a series of thoroughly shocking discoveries and I was riveted. (And it was subsequently easy for me to overlook things that don’t make sense, like why the townspeople behave like lunatics.) ***1/2 out of ****

FUNNY STORY (Emily Henry) - May 14/24

 Not sure how I wound up reading two Emily Henry books so close to each other, but I basically enjoyed this. It's a little too long/overwritten and the one sex scene is absurdly graphic (it just feels out of place within a fluffy, PG romcom), but I really liked the characters and the small-town locale in which the story transpires. *** out of ****

APPLES NEVER FALL (Liane Moriarty) - May 6/24

 I enjoyed this quite a bit; the mystery is interesting and although it took a while for me to tell them apart, the various characters are all quite compelling. I liked, too, that I couldn't possibly have guessed the outcome, but thinking back, the clues are mostly all there. But yikes this book is long. It feels maybe five times longer than necessary, and this was especially apparent in the multiple endings. I got to the end of one chapter, was sure it was the ending, and then chuckled to myself when there turned out to be more chapters to come. Pretty insane. *** out of ****