pg13 Reader Reviews

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Review 709: Discontent

Discontent by Beatriz Serrano
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

As I tend towards books about work, mostly fictional, this book piqued my interest. A translated fictional account of Marisa working in an ad agency. I quite enjoyed it.

Marisa spends most of her days avoiding work and watching YouTube videos instead. She has multiple accounts to choose from when commenting and thrives on all the likes and replies. For her paying job she tends to delegate to get the work done.

The book is only from Marisa’s point of view, and is mostly internal dialog, although there are conversations and some descriptions. The format worked for me to have the closeness of the main character. Marisa is having a rough time of it. She has a very hard time facing another day of work and relies a bit too heavily on medications to make it through.

Perhaps one of Marisa’s downfalls is she has very few friends. The one person she befriended at work is now gone. Marisa now skips the therapy sessions and just relies on getting refills for her anxiety. Yet she does need friends.

There is humor in the book, dry and cynical and at moments farcical. Yet the book addresses a very serious problem with meaningless work, isolation and the feeling of being stuck in corporate job with no good alternatives.

Saturday, June 27, 2026

Review 708: When the Day Comes

When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A couple of years ago I won this book from the publisher (not exactly sure how, maybe from a webinar I attended). The publisher prints mainly Christian romance, which is not my preferred genre. However, I gave it a chance as there was some interest in the premise.

Libby is a time traveler of sorts. She lives in dual timelines. The book starts one of her lives in 1774 Williamsburg, Virginia and the other in 1914 London, England, although she grew up in New York city. Each day is lived twice, once per timeline. At the age of 21 she will be able to choose which timeline to live out the rest of her life. Although there is another rule, that if an attempt to change history is made, then she will no longer return to that timeline and her body will die there.

For Libby she loves her life in 1774. Her mama was also a time-crosser who guided her for both lives. Living in the Colonial era is not an easy time to live, especially now that Libby’s father recently passed away. The women are now struggling to keep the printing shop going. However, there is Henry whom Libby loves, although he does not know. There is much more family warmth in this timeline as well.

In the 20th century Libby’s mother is very cold to her, while her only love is from her father, who had remained in New York. They are in London to find a husband for Libby. Many of the nobility are looking for rich wives from America (called American Dollar Princesses) to help support their crumbling estates, which is just what Libby’s mother is looking for, to gain further social status. This is not what Libby wants.

The writing and world building is well written, easily understood. Although why this exists, why these people become time-crossers is just a given. The story did get a bit dramatic at times, but I was pulled along for the story and enjoyed my time with the book. This is a first book in a series.

Friday, June 26, 2026

Review 707: Dreamland

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The book begins with the author explaining his own disturbed sleep and how he wanted to learn more, and hope to stop it.

This lead to investigations into many different aspects of sleep. Some of which being interrupted like himself with sleep walking, or other manifestations, such as eating or cooking entirely while asleep. One of the more extreme cases discussed a man in Canada, Kenneth Parks, entirely asleep, drove to his in-laws house and killed his mother-in-law and thought he’d done the same to his father-in-law. Upon awaking he took himself to the police and confessed, not entirely sure how or why it happened.

The book doesn’t linger on this part of sleep only. It goes into a myriad of topics like difficulty breathing while sleeping (sleep apnea), dreaming, sleeping pills and mattresses and the connection between sleep and sports performance. This is not all, Randall covers many topics all related to sleeping. Since it is a wide breath there is hardly any depth found in the book.

It does cover some ways to improve sleep, and while that was the goal for the author and his own sleep, it isn’t the best book for that information. It just doesn’t go into enough depth. However, it can be helpful to some degree.

I listened to the audiobook, and it is not the best way to read this book. The narrator was one of the stranger ones I’ve encountered, being overenthusiastic at times and doing character voices when someone is quoted. Some of the accents the narrator does aren’t well done either, which did give me a chuckle. For a non-fiction book it was all very odd. Perhaps this narrator is better suited to fictional books. In any case it didn’t detract from the material too much.

Thursday, June 25, 2026

Review 706: Burn Down Master's House

Burn Down Master's House by Clay Cane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the introduction the author states this book will make you uncomfortable and he definitely achieved that. We have four stories that could be four individual short stories. However, they build on each other. The main character in each story changes, but in the last they all come together more fully. The book takes place in the time of slavery in the South in United States with the main characters being enslaved, with a couple of exceptions.

The first story introduces us to Magnolia Row, the plantation, one of the cruelest in the area. After the events in this story the slaves scatter. The characters in all of the stories are all related in some way to Magnolia Row. In the last story the civil war has begun.

Each character finds a way to fight for their freedom, often in brutal way, paying retribution on their masters. But not always. In one story we have Charity Butler who is gains her freedom (for a time) by the laws in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This story in particular is based on true events.
Several other aspects of these stories are historically accurate. It does take some of the more brutal parts of history, but also shows how people persevered and reclaimed their lives. The book overall feels one sided, with very minimal white people being decent. The characters are not very nuanced. However, it does have one black man being just as cruel when becoming a slaveowner himself.

I listened to the audio which is narrated by the author, but did not really enjoy the narration style. It made a difficult book even more difficult to get through. The words were enunciated very deliberately and slowly, with a pause after every word. I had to speed up the narration more than I typically would to find a better reading pace, which helped. If there is any interest in reading this book my suggestion is to avoid the audiobook.

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Review 705: The Vigilante Life of Scott Mckenzie

The Vigilante Life of Scott Mckenzie by Shawn Inmon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the seventh book in the Middle Falls Time Travel series, one of the few series I've continued to follow. While the writing itself isn't particularly strong, with more exposition than anything else, the central premise is compelling enough that I have kept reading them.

The time-travel premise in each book is that the main character dies, often self-inflicted in some way, then is “reset” as the same person to an earlier, pivotal point in their life. The character remembers what happened in their previous life, so they can make changes. This premise is what I find interesting. What would someone do differently if they could change the trajectory of their life?

In this book, Scott McKenzie is a Vietnam veteran wounded both physically. Emotionally he was wounded from early in life, as he grew up in a violent house, until age ten, when his father killed his mother then himself. It took Scott several "lifetimes" to discover his purpose, stopping those who would harm innocent people. This book contains considerably more violence than the previous books in the series, which did not appeal much to me.

Although each novel is a standalone story, characters from earlier books occasionally make appearances. That happens here as well, when Scott eventually meets and befriends the main character from the previous book. Perhaps my memory is not what it used to be, but I barely remembered Scott from that earlier story. Or, maybe he wasn’t mentioned much in that prior book. In any case, I do enjoy the crossovers.

One unexpected bonus with this book was that my husband listened to it with me during a road trip to a family wedding. Since he doesn’t read as much as me, it was nice to find a book he and I both could enjoy, and help make the long drive pass more quickly.

Previously Read Middle Falls Time Travel Series books: