<![CDATA[LIBRARIAN'S NEXT CHAPTER - Librarian\'s Next Chapter]]>

<![CDATA[LIBRARIAN'S NEXT CHAPTER - Librarian\'s Next Chapter]]>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:26:55 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal]]>Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:42:34 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/ellie-haycock-is-totally-normalI picked up Ellie Haycock is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber because I enjoy reading YA, and it had been selected for Reese’s book club a few months ago. Ellie was born with a congenital condition known as VACTERL, which caused bone malformations, a missing kidney, and other internal complications. She has spent much of her life in and out of the hospital. Since infancy, her mother had blogged about Ellie’s condition, something Ellie resents as she does not want every detail of her medical and personal life documented for the world to see. As a result, she rigidly compartmentalizes her life, but those walls begin to fracture her friendships leaving her struggling to handle the fallout.

I enjoyed this book. The characters felt well defined, and their actions, reactions, and conflicts were entirely believable. The relationships between the teens and their parents also rang true. I would definitely recommend this title for high school libraries.

]]><![CDATA[Main Characters]]>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:28:25 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/main-charactersThe premise of Main Characters by Bobby Palmer immediately drew me in—a love story told by everyone except the two people at its center. At first, I worried it might become a DNF; the characters were introduced at a frenetic pace, and I felt as though I needed a cheat sheet to keep track of the relationships. As the pace settled, however, I found myself increasingly invested.

The protagonists are both broken in different ways. She is determined to rebuild herself and pursue her dreams; he is uncertain, searching, and unsure he will ever feel whole again. Their chemistry is electric. They fall hard and begin building a life together.

As the years pass, friends, passersby, and casual eavesdroppers narrate the vignettes that make up their story, adding texture and context—albeit from an outsider’s perspective. As Clara and Seb come together and drift apart, I couldn’t help but think they might have benefited from that same vantage point. But real life rarely offers such clarity.

The novel ends without truly ending, which feels fitting. Some stories continue long after the reader turns the final page.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

]]><![CDATA[The Color Purple]]>Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:13:57 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/the-color-purpleA little less than a year ago, I read a Substack post by a former student reflecting on The Color Purple by Alice Walker and healing from childhood trauma. I commented that I remembered reading the novel in high school and believed it to be a significant work that deserved wide readership. Later, when I realized it was released after my graduation, I felt a sense of regret - so during a summer visit to an indie bookstore I bought a copy.

Walker’s rich prose transports the reader to the era and setting of the story. I sat in my chair reading Celie’s letters as though they were written to me. Though she sees herself as weak, she is, in my opinion, one of the most resilient characters in literature. What Celie endures would shatter most people, yet she survives, finds love, and claims her place in the world. Walker’s saga carved a niche in my soul and will stay with me for a long time.

]]><![CDATA[The Heir Apparent]]>Sun, 25 Jan 2026 20:01:45 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/the-heir-apparentThe Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage was a river of a read. The action was strong and steady; there were myriad twists and turns, the characters’ reflections changed as you viewed them from various angles, and though constant, it was unpredictable. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Lexi is living a life in self-imposed exile, pursuing her dreams with people she has come to love, when all of that is upended by tragedy, catapulting her back into a forever-altered version of the world she left behind. She must decide how to navigate the various pressures she confronts to decide where she truly belongs. Armitage artfully weaves flashbacks into the story to peel back the layers of Lexi, her family, and friends, guiding the reader through an understanding of the situation's complexity. There were no red herrings, but the lack of information and my own assumptions steered me down the wrong path a few times.
Though there were no in-your-face moments, this book was quietly powerful. I relished the experience of reading it. 5 stars.
Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing the ARC.

]]><![CDATA[Strangers: a memoir of marriage]]>Mon, 19 Jan 2026 02:32:49 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/strangers-a-memoir-of-marriageI was granted an ARC of Belle Burden’s memoir by NetGalley. This title has been receiving significant press, and I was immediately intrigued. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The coverage painted a picture of a woman of immense privilege and generational wealth—would this be another “the wealthy are just like the rest of us” narrative, a poor-little-rich-girl account? Not at all.
Burden opens with the lowest point of her life, then backtracks to trace the genesis of her relationship, leading the reader step by step to the moment her world implodes. In a candid, straightforward style, she paints an intimate portrait of her life and marriage. Her writing is so vivid it feels as though a friend is recounting the story over coffee. I found myself shocked, angered, and puzzled as the account unfolded.
Time passed quickly, and I was so invested that I read the book in a single sitting. Five stars.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.

]]><![CDATA[Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club]]>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 19:03:27 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/saturday-night-at-the-lakeside-supper-clubThis novel by J. Ryan Stradal has been on my bookshelf for awhile. I had few expectations when I began reading. Stradal does paint a vivid picture. I could smell the lake, sense the dim light and wood paneled walls of the supper club. As a kid of parents who took vacations on the roads less traveled, staying in motor lodges and motels often in the. midwest, I related to the setting and was set to enjoy the story.

Mariel and Ned, both heirs to restaurants (though in vastly different realms) are in a period of great unrest in their marriage. When we meet them we are not exactly certain why that is, though by stepping back through time to a horrifying tragedy, we begin to understand. The story then reels back another generation and we are presented with the backstory of Florence, Mariel's mother, which leads us into Mariel's present. Once we are up-to-speed, the story lurches in yet another direction, focusing on Ned and Mariel's daughter and there the last third of the book remains.

I was vested in the story until the last third. I felt as though I was misled by the first part of the book and felt no connection to the latter chapters. I did finish in order to see how it all turned out, but was vaguely dissatisfied.

]]><![CDATA[The Baking Games]]>Tue, 06 Jan 2026 15:04:01 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/the-baking-gamesAfter reading two thrillers, I needed a bit of a palate cleanse, aka lighter fare, and picked up The Baking Games by Rachel Hanna. I was drawn to this title as I enjoy stories told from multiple perspectives and a guilty pleasure of mine is cooking competition shows. The combination of both competition and a Big Brother-esque setting intrigued me.

Savannah, one of our narrators, is a wonderfully complex character. Her mission is singular, but her dreams are big. As the story progresses we see her internal struggle to define herself beyond the narrow box in which she has placed herself. Our other narrator, Rhett, seems to be less complicated, but as events unfold they reveal that he is more than he seems.

The secondary characters are well-defined and add to the plot. Several peripheral characters were also given their due, though their appearance was brief. There were a few twists, but I knew how things would end up. I was interested enough to keep reading and finished this book in less than a day. A fun Rom-Com for a gloomy day. 4 stars

]]><![CDATA[Best Offer Wins]]>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 20:33:00 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/best-offer-winsI picked up Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino because it is Thriller/Horror/Suspense month for my book club and this title has gotten a lot of buzz. The story started out as a standard modern fiction read, so much so that I thought perhaps I had misread the genre in the description. However, much like steeping tea, it slowly began to change. Margo, the main character, began to devolve right before our eyes, dragging us into her obsession. As I read, I wondered if maybe a bit more backstory would have helped us better understand Margo’s motives/trip into the land of the unhinged. Kashino threw us a few gory details, but most of us have a few unpleasant childhood memories and manage life in a fairly typical fashion. Margo departs from the norm to an extent disproportionate to her childhood experience as it is described to us.

Some of the auxiliary characters were well-developed, others appeared to have details thrown in as an afterthought to explain their presence. The story had events that were unexpected, but the ending left me dissatisfied as it was much too neat for the events that took place. The dangling detail as the last sentence seemed to be there as fulfillment of a requirement rather than leaving me thinking. I rate this 3.5 stars.

]]><![CDATA[Before We Were Innocent]]>Wed, 23 Jul 2025 14:41:26 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/before-we-were-innocentA bit of a pause before this title as I was trying to force my way through a different novel. Reading avoidance is a big red flag and after a few weeks of this, I resigned it to the DNF pile and moved on.

I purchased Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman after reading about it on the “Beyond the Bookends” blog and was not disappointed for the most part.

My assessment:

The characters were carved out of various materials, making them not quite fit together yet somehow work as a set.
The narrator jumps between past and present fairly effortlessly, though her voice is understandably colored by the event that transformed her existence.
Ancillary characters were not as well-developed until the latter portion of the story.
A few diabolical twists added to my enjoyment.
I reread the last few paragraphs multiple times and was left a little deflated and puzzled.

All of this said, I read the book in one day as I was intrigued by the plot and invested in the characters. I would give this a solid 3.5 stars.

]]><![CDATA[Julie Chan is Dead]]>Mon, 16 Jun 2025 19:20:06 GMThttps://www.librariansnextchapter.com/librarians-next-chapter/julie-chan-is-deadWow. While I expected this novel to have some darkness after reading the description, I was totally unprepared for the places it went. Julie, an identical twin, receives a bizarre call from her estranged sister Chloe. She decides to visit her sister to find out more about this call, only to arrive at Chloe’s apartment and find her dead on the kitchen floor. In a moment of weakness, Julie assumes Chloe’s identity and takes on her sister’s life to try and find out what occurred. Chloe was a well-known influencer, Julie was a grocery store clerk, so this takes a bit of maneuvering both on social media and in person. It is when Julie (as Chloe) meets her sister’s influencer friends that things begin to take a dark turn. Oh what a twisted little path we are led down. I ended up reading as fast as I could, caught in the sticky fibers of the macabre little web Liann Zhang wove. I will go no further in description so as not to spoil it for anyone else, but recommend that you pick this up if you are into social media and thrillers.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

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