May 2024 Book Round Up
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Reading Roundup for May
Holly Jolly Christmas - C.C. Warrens
Targeted age: Adult
Clean: Yes
Christian: Yes
My Rating: 5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A short and sweet novella in the Holly Series before the next larger book, Imperfect Justice. As with all the Holly books, this book deals with crime, murder, and a sexual assault victim. Big warnings there. These may not be suitable for teen girls, I would label these as adult books.
I loved this little Christmas book where we get to meet Marx’s parents. The dynamic between he and his family was a missing piece to the series and it was nice to understand his background more.
Imperfect Justice - C. C. Warrens
Targeted age: Adults
Spice: Talk of sexual assault
Christian: Yes
My Rating: 5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was the book I was excited to get to in the Holly series. I think anyone who reads this series is itching by now to see Holly get justice for the things done to her. Holly has to face Collin, her abusive foster brother (who raped and kidnapped her) in court. He finally has to answer for his crimes…or does he?
I was on the edge of my seat the entire book. The court case was fascinating, and I wasn’t sure where Warrens was going to take the reader. With this being part of a series, you’ll need to read the other Holly books in order to fully understand this book.
Major content warnings here; rape, assault, murder, kidnapping…while none is in graphic detail, it is described through the eyes of the victims and police.
The Italian Ballerina - Kristy Cambron
Targeted age: Adults
Clean: Yes
Christian: Yes
My Rating: 5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have another WWII novel! It’s one of my favorite genres to read.
This is a split time novel, so we have two main storylines but in different eras, but both stories are connected. I will say, this book was hard to keep up with for me. We have two main time periods, but they flip back and forth within a 5 year time period, making it somewhat difficult for my brain (especially when tired) to keep up with. It was easier the further along I read, but at first it was somewhat confusing.
Night Falls on Predicament Avenue - Jaime Jo Wright
Targeted age: Adult
Christian: Yes
My Rating: 5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jaime Jo Write is an auto-buy author for me. That simply means that whenever she releases a new book, I buy it. I don’t even read the back cover, I just click “add to cart”. This is my second favorite book of hers to date!
If you don’t know about JJW, she writes “spooky” stories for Christian audiences, but the spooky always is resolved as something realistic. Her books are always a dual timeline book, so we hear from two different people in two time periods, but they are connected by a story.
This book deals with ghosts, hauntings, and unsolved murders. Our main character suffers from serious anxiety and panic attacks, and we see her walking through that throughout the story. Her sister was murdered 12 years ago, and she’s still processing it. It remains unsolved, adding to her anxiety. A house connects her and another unsolved murder from long ago.
Highly recommend for mystery lovers!
Injustice for All (The Holly Series Spinoff) - C.C. Warrens
Targeted age: Adult
Christian: Yes
Warnings: Sexual assault, murder, etc.
My Rating: 5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is another book in the Holly series, but it’s a spinoff book in between her main books. A series within a series, if you will.
I took a break from the Holly series for a few months because these books are somewhat intense. This is a Christian suspense series, and our main character has been stalked, assaulted, and almost killed by her foster brother. In the last book, he was arrested and charged for his crimes, and Holly is living with the detective who saved her. He’s a father figure to her, and they have an adorable father-daughter relationship (her family is dead, unfortunately). This series is a break from Holly’s point of view, and instead, we get Detective Marx’s POV instead.
I am a big fan of Marx in the series. Maybe it’s because I am a cop’s wife and cop’s daughter, so I’m probably a bit biased in that department. In this book, Marx is tracking down a serial killer that is wreaking havoc around the city. This is a mystery crime-thriller that will take you through many emotions with Marx and Holly to the very last page. I read this book in 3 days and loved every second.
Don’t tell C.C. Warrens, but I might like Marx’s books better than Holly’s 🤫
Content warning:
This book has a main character who in a previous book, was raped and assaulted. We get glimpses as she works through that trauma, but nothing is described in detail. However, this book could be triggering for those who have issues with that topic.
Murder
