I just love my Amazon Prime membership. It’s money well spent, the gift to yourself that keeps on giving all year long. One of the new features, new to me anyway, is the Kindle First program whereby Amazon offers next month’s new Kindle releases for free. I’ve read some really great books through this program in recent months, including The Things We Wish Were True. Read my review here.

I’m sorry to say, however, that I didn’t enjoy the last two Kindle First books nearly as much. In fact, I didn’t even finish Who We Were Before. While it’s an important story about young parents whose young child dies, I grew frustrated with the back and forth format as well as with the characters. I finished Evelyn, After because I wanted to know what happened not because I liked the main character. In fact, I wanted to wrap my fingers around Evelyn’s neck by book’s end. She’s a whiny, self-absorbed psychopath. The plot offers plenty of suspense, but the ending is anticlimactic. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

Truly, Madly, Guilty is a must-read, Liane Moriarty’s finest in my opinion. She offers intriguing, quirky characters in a complicated series of plots that all intertwined beautifully. I was surprised at every turn and I kept turning the pages until well into the night. It’s a long one, over four hundred pages, which is why Amazon’s Whispersync came in handy, allowing me switch back and forth between reading and listening.

My husband and I listened to Killing Kennedy on our recent trip to Charleston. We had twenty minutes left on audio when we arrived back home. We poured ourselves a glass of wine while we listened, spellbound, to O’Reilly’s account of Kennedy’s last moments on earth. As is the case with most of O’Reilly’s Killing Series, the author/news commentator presents all the facts surrounding the case in an intriguing manner. His accounts of historical events don’t read like non-fiction, rather an intriguing mystery novel. What disturbs me is that we’ll never know what really happened to Kennedy on that November day in 1963. What saddens me is to think of the tragedy this family has suffered. A perfect distraction for a long car ride with your spouse.

Elin Hildebrand wraps up her Winter Street series with a bang. I approve of the way she ties up all the loose strings, a bit predictable at times but appropriate nonetheless. This cozy holiday story offers lots of family drama and love. While Winter Storm is a stand alone novel, do yourself a favor and start at the beginning. Last year’s release, Winter Stroll, ends in a cliff hanger. You won’t want to wait a year, like I was forced to, for the dramatic conclusion.