Book Review: The Retirement Plan

By Melissa Amster

THEY'D KILL TO BE WIDOWS.

Three best friends turn to murder to collect on their husbands’ life insurance policies… But the husbands have a plan of their own in this darklyfunny debut that will delight readers from the first laugh to the final twist.

After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong. Suddenly, their golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.

But when the women discover their husbands have seven-figure life insurance policies, a new dream forms. And this time, they need a hitman.

Meanwhile, their husbands are working on their own secret retirement scheme and when things begin to go sideways, they fear it’s backfired. The husbands scramble to stay alive…but soon realize they may not be quick enough to outmaneuver their wives. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

I didn't know what to expect from this novel and was surprised by everything that happened. The Retirement Plan was a fun read, full of misunderstandings and shenanigans. I loved how some of the supporting characters played into the story, as well. And you will love Elmer the dog. 

I don't want to say too much so as to not spoil anything, as there is so much going on and being surprised is the best part. I was able to guess at a couple things, but not everything. I just love how a variety of situations came together throughout the novel. It was so well-orchestrated. The characters were a lot of fun too! I ended up with a big cast list because this would be so enjoyable on screen. While the main characters are over ten years my senior, they're still relatable in the same way a character much younger than me has been relatable. 

While I was hoping for a different outcome for one of the aspects of this story, I liked how everything worked out overall. I definitely recommend The Retirement Plan, whether you're reading it next to a fireplace on a cold winter's day or on the beach (or next to a pool)!

Movie casting suggestions:
Pam: Lisa Kudrow
Nancy: Ally Sheedy
Shalisa: Vivica A. Fox
Marlene: Teryl Rothery
Hank: Ted McGinley
Larry: Jon Gries
Andre: Kevin Michael Richardson
Hector: Raúl Castillo
Brenda: Linda Cardellini
Padma: Megan Suri

(Trigger warnings below.)

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the book in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to this book on Speechify!

🎰 🎰 🎰 🎰 🎰 🎰 🎰 🎰

TW: Death of spouse, loss of money

Spotlight and Giveaway: The Odds of You

Today we are pleased to feature Kate Dramis's debut rom-com, The Odds of You! The premise sounds really entertaining and it's a book about books. Thanks to St. Martin's Press, we have THREE copies to give away!

Sage Collins knows a thing or two about odds. A year ago, she was a data analyst until she burned it all down to pursue her dream of becoming an author. One whirlwind bestseller and a struggling second book later, and Sage isn’t sure she’ll ever write a novel again.

But then an accidental encounter with an irritating passenger on the flight to Comic Con leaves Sage in an untested position. That passenger is Theo Sharpe: a breakout actor on the cusp of fame. And, unfortunately, the paparazzi have mistaken her for his girlfriend.

Armed with signature British charm and a smile that could tame oceans, Theo wears fame like a well-fit coat…though Sage can see there’s something deeper held in his eyes. But his fans are too involved in the drama, the pressure to deliver the next bestseller is on, and Sage and Theo both must agree there’s nothing between them. They don't have to acknowledge that saying it doesn't make it true.

When Sage decides to flee to Scotland to clear her head and write her novel, she expects to find fresh air and the stillness to think. What she doesn’t expect is Theo Sharpe to come back into her life…and how he may be her greatest miscalculation of all. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

"Funny, moving and incredibly relatable. The perfect romance read. I loved Sage and Theo's love story, and fell completely in love with Sage's inner monologue, which made me feel incredibly seen. Oh and Sage and Emerson are absolute friendship goals!" 

―Bianca Gillam, author of Bad Publicity

"The odds of readers falling head-over-heels in love with this book? One thousand percent. Kate Dramis has crafted the best kind of romance ― with off-the-charts chemistry (I dare you not to swoon anytime Sage and Theo are in the same room) and a heroine whose personal journey will be endlessly relatable for anyone who's ever held it all together while needing to fall apart ― The Odds of You is an absolute gift from start to finish." 

―Nicolas DiDomizio, author of The Gay Best Friend

Credit: Nicole Tyler

Kate Dramis is an Atlanta-based writer whose obsession with fantasy worlds and escaping into a good love story eventually drove her to chase her dreams of being an author. Inspired by a dream about a woman calling down lightning to save a friend, The Curse of Saints was Kate’s debut novel and became an instant Sunday Times Best Seller. Prior to becoming a full-time author, Kate was a professional copywriter with a decade of experience in copywriting and marketing strategy. Kate also has a BA in Journalism from the University of Georgia.

Visit Kate online:

Website * Facebook * Instagram * TikTok

How to win: Use KingSumo to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using KingSumo on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

Giveaway ends January 13th at midnight EST.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to these books on Speechify!

Book Review: She Took My Baby

By Melissa Amster

As a nanny for the wealthy Eatons, Trina watches every day as Rosalind Eaton cradles the baby close. Trina’s baby.

The sweet little boy won’t settle—he never does in Rosalind’s arms. It breaks Trina’s heart to see the tiny tears falling down his fat cheeks. His glossy hair is light auburn, and straight. Nothing like the Eaton family’s classic dark curls.

Trina has been watching the Eatons for years. And what she knows about their dark past could be their undoing.

Rosalind isn’t coping. She isn’t sleeping and she’s barely eating. It is Trina who rocks the baby in the dead of night, whispering soothing words of comfort. Surely Rosalind is just one step away from slipping up and revealing the truth Trina is so certain of…

Trina’s baby was stolen.

The Eatons seem perfect, but they can’t be trusted.

And she’ll do anything to get her baby back. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

I will admit I haven't read many of Steena Holmes's books, but I should get back to the ones I missed. With She Took My Baby, Steena delivered a gripping suspense thriller that kept me guessing and wondering what would happen next! I didn't know who to trust and I was so nervous for both Trina and Rosalind, as they had a lot at stake.

The dynamic in this story is interesting. Trina lives on a ranch with her best friend Rosalind and is a nanny to her daughters. It starts off with a nightmarish baby delivery for both women and then Trina is suddenly left without a baby. However, she believes that Rosalind's son is actually her own baby. Meanwhile, Rosalind is having difficulty bonding with baby Jack and her brother-in-law is making things worse. The level of gaslighting both women experience in this story goes beyond the pale. I got so angry every time I witnessed Trina and Rosalind being deceived and manipulated. 

I'm not going to say much more as to not spoil the story. I was definitely surprised by the outcome though! Everything was well-orchestrated but I feel like the ending could have been tightened up a bit more. I was also hoping for a romance between two of the characters but that was explained away later. 

This thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat and have you turning the pages rapidly! I usually have a few set times I read on my Kindle and I kept reading this one outside of those times as I just had to see if everything would get resolved. (One of my reading times is on the treadmill and I kept forgetting to change some settings because I was so absorbed!)

Movie casting suggestions:

Trina: Saoirse Ronan

Rosalind: Margaret Qualley
Trent/Marcus: Franco Lo Presti
Wyatt: Mitchell Slaggert
Mabel: Molly Hagan
Grace: Dylan Gelula

Dr. Harmon: Matthew Glave

Thanks to BookSparks for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Steena Holmes:
The Sister Under the Stairs
The Girls in the Basement
The Twin

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to this book on Speechify!

👶

👶

👶

👶

👶

👶

👶

👶

TW: Death of baby, difficult childbirth

Double Feature Spotlight and Giveaway!

It's our first giveaway of 2026 and we're featuring a couple of books that released toward the end of last year. We're excited to share them with you today as they both sound really interesting and are receiving great reviews. Thanks to the authors, we have TWO sets of print copies to give away!

Missed You the First Time by Julia Carpenter

At 25, Dani Galler just gave up everything—an apartment she loved, a job she liked, and a long-distance boyfriend she wasted years planning to marry. Starting over means figuring out her next career move, finding a new place to live, and maybe, fingers crossed, falling in love again.

What she’s not looking for is pity—especially from Jake Litman, her doughy, bespectacled childhood friend from Jewish summer camp. Back then, he followed her everywhere, eager for her advice and friendship. Now, a decade later, he’s reappeared, transformed into a Greek god of a man with a penthouse overlooking Lake Michigan and a girlfriend who makes Zendaya look just okay.

Desperate to reclaim the confidence of her camp days, Dani obsesses over tracking down a teen magazine article she’s convinced launched her pubescent glow-up. If she can rediscover that spark she may avoid her worst-case scenario: moving home to live with her parents and work for her suddenly successful brother. 

As Dani and Jake revisit shared memories, and their connection intensifies, Dani starts to wonder if the life she’s chasing isn’t about rediscovering who she was—but embracing who she may become.(Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

"I didn’t realize this book was going to be exactly what I was looking for this year. Is it too much to ask for a sequel!?" 
- Pat and Liz Lenihan (Amazon reviewer)

"I highly recommend this lighthearted, sweet and enjoyable romantic book." 
- Kristina (Amazon reviewer)

Julia Carpenter writes romantic comedies about smart, complicated women juggling life, love, and everything in between. Her debut novel, Missed You the First Time, debuted as Amazon’s #1 Kindle release in Jewish Life (Nov 2025). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, YourTango, and PBS’s Next Avenue.

Visit Julia online:

Website * Facebook * Instagram * TikTok

Together On Our Own by Eliana Megerman

Alex Galen is a thirty-one-year-old emergency medicine resident barely keeping it together. After a patient’s unexpected death puts her on probation, her confidence — and her sense of purpose — begin to unravel. Outside the hospital, she’s alone, anxious, and drowning in a sea of Law & Order reruns and social media feeds that make everyone else’s life look more together than hers.

When the hospital rolls out a new AI system designed to streamline care, Alex finds unexpected comfort in its nonjudgmental, always-on presence. She starts sharing things she can’t say to anyone else. She even gives the system a name, Henry, after a quiet, observant fellow resident who, in real life, is the one person she’s been trying not to notice.

But AI Henry isn’t real. And everything she tells him is being recorded.

As Alex and the real Henry begin to question another patient’s suspicious death, Alex is forced to confront what it means to truly connect — and whether she’s been trusting the wrong version of intimacy all along.

Written by a practicing Emergency Room doctor, Together On Our Own evokes the gritty intensity of The Pitt in a quietly suspenseful story about burnout, vulnerability, and the subtle ways technology can both numb us to intimacy and expose our deepest thoughts. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

"I really loved this, it is a fantastic book! I could barely put it down. It was so well written and the twist and turns were exciting! The main character was relatable and intriguing. What a treat to read!"
- M. Gottlieb (Amazon reviewer)

"I loved reading this book so much in so many ways and I don’t want to spoil any details by talking about all the reasons I loved it. It’s a great story with interesting characters and great character development.  I cannot recommend enough." 
- Amy Allshouse (Amazon reviewer)

Eliana Megerman is an emergency medicine physician and writer whose lifelong love of books and film led her from screenplays to short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines. Born and raised in Kansas City, she lives with her husband and three children. Together On Our Own is her debut novel. Visit Eliana on Instagram.

How to win: Use KingSumo to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using KingSumo on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

Giveaway ends January 11th at midnight EST.

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to these books on Speechify!

Book Review: The Water Lies

By Jami Denison

Motherhood has always had some aspects of performance. In the fifties, women were expected to look and act like June Cleaver. In the seventies, they were told to “bring home the bacon/fry it up in a pan/and never let you forget you’re a man.” The nineties were the SAHM versus working mom wars. Today, are you even a mom if you don’t have five social media accounts celebrating your child?

Author Amy Meyerson’s new book, The Water Lies, illustrates mothering in a fishbowl by having her protagonist, Tessa Irons, live in a touristy neighborhood in Venice Beach in Los Angeles, where the houses back to popular canals and their windows put their inhabitants on display. Tessa, the mother of a toddler son and heavily pregnant, lives her life in full view of nosy neighbors and her best friend across the canal. But when a dead body shows up in the water—and Tessa recognizes her as a woman who ignored her son’s calls the day before—suddenly no one has seen anything. 

Barb, the dead woman’s mother, flies in to find out the truth about her daughter, with whom she had a shaky relationship after years of estrangement. The police say she drowned in a drunken accident, but Barb knows that Regina had been sober for years. She meets up with Tessa, who is terrified about her son’s connection to a dead woman. Together, they search for the truth, which seems to be hidden along those enticing canals.

Told from both Tessa and Barb’s alternating first-person points-of-view, The Water Lies has been compared to Rear Window due to its claustrophobic setting and Tessa’s suspicions about her neighbors. Tessa’s husband dismisses her concerns as pregnancy related, even while Tessa staunchly defends him and their marriage to the reader. Barb, who has a history of assuming the worst of a person and being accused of meddling, doesn’t want to make the same mistake twice. The character work with these two women, and their developing relationship, is the strongest feature of the novel. 

As the book develops, the danger points closer to home than the neighbors. Tessa’s husband is a celebrated IVF doctor with his own clinic, and his job becomes entangled with the main plot. When Tessa finds out that Barb has been stalking him, she starts to doubt the older woman, who is convinced that Tessa is in danger. But will Tessa believe her before it’s too late?

The Water Lies covers many domestic suspense tropes, the most obvious one being the husband who cannot be trusted. But while the book starts very strong, Meyerson’s terrific set-ups result in flat payoffs. The plot grows convoluted. The murder victim, estranged from her mother and not known to Tessa at all, never completely emerges as a real person—and the second murder victim is even less developed. Meyerson’s fabulous character work for her two protagonists makes some of her reveals unbelievable. The climax introduces a new person previously only alluded to in glimpses, frustrating the reader. 

Even so, the writing is excellent, better than in most domestic suspense novels I’ve read. Readers will root for Tessa and Barb, who are brave, thoughtful women determined to learn the truth about Regina’s death and their own culpabilities. And the ending is perfect. 

The Water Lies begins by showing a mother aware of how the world judges her. It ends with women deciding for themselves what motherhood is. 

Thanks to MB Communications for the book in exchange for an honest review.

More by Amy Meyerson:
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
The Imperfects
The Love Scribe

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to this book on Speechify!

Reviews at Amazon: October-December 2025

We're posting some reviews at our Amazon (or Goodreads) accounts, as either they've been sitting in our queue for a while and deserve their time in the sun, fall under our featuring policy, or they're new reads that we couldn't wait to post at the blog. You can check them out at the links below. Hope we can help you find your next favorite book!

Melissa:
The Underdog by Sagit Schwartz
Bad Publicity by Bianca Gillam
The Expat Affair by Kimberly Belle

All the Signs by Jessie Rosen

Napkins and Other Distractions by M.A. Wardell

What's Mine is Yours by Leah Mercer

Good Grief by Sara Goodman Confino

Luck, Love & Lemon Pie by Amy E. Reichert

Top Five by Judith Natelli McLaughlin

Joyride by Ellen Meister

Remain by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan

Far from the A-List by Stephanie Burns

Delayed Intention by Barbara Rachel

The Weekend Crashers by Jamie Brenner

Grace & Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman

Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber

I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander

Challah-day Fling by Amanda Usen

Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah

Latke'd and Loaded by Jessica Topper

Merry Little Bookshop by Ali Brady

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to these books on Speechify!

Top picks for 2025

There were so many great books published in 2025 that it was very hard to choose between the ones we read. Here are some of the books that topped our lists. (We limited ourselves to five each, at the most.) However, any book we gave glowing reviews and five stars to this year is definitely recommended for your TBR! 

**Links are to reviews**

Melissa

Far and Away by Amy Poeppel

Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady

Good Grief by Sara Goodman Confino

Such Good People by Amy Blumenfeld

Grace and Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman

I read over 100 books this year, most being contenders for these top five spots. I am featuring some other top picks for the year at my Bookstagram (those picks include books outside the genre, books that I also would have loved to include on this list, and books published in other years).

Sara:

A Showgirl's Rules for Falling in Love by Alice Murphy 

We Don't Talk About Carol by Kristin L. Berry

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Serial Killer Games by Kate Posey

The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli

Jami:

Lucky Night by Eliza Kennedy

The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

The Break-In by Katherine Faulkner

The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold by Cate Holahan

Tilt by Emma Pattee

Allyson:

The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

Grace and Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman

The Names by Florence Knapp

The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland

Visit my Bookstagram to see more of my 2025 top picks!

Becky:

Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell 

(My other favorites weren't published in 2025.)

What are your top picks from this year?

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.

Listen to these books on Speechify!