Stacking the Shelves #14!

Stacking The Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course ebooks! And audiobooks. Don’t forget audiobooks!

Just three ARC’s from NetGalley this week.

NetGalley:

I read so many fantastic reviews for Finlay Donavan is Killing It, that I had to request Finlay Donavan Knocks “Em Dead.

Synopsis: From Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead—the hilarious and heart-pounding follow-up to Finlay Donovan is Killing It.

“A funny and smart, twisty and surprising series.”—Megan Miranda.

Finlay Donovan is—once again—struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she’s dealt with lately is that of her daughter’s pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he’s a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of soccer moms disguised as hit-women, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she’d like.

Meanwhile, Vero’s keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay’s first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes… and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.

With her next book’s deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn’t a noose at the end of it…

I like books where the MC has an intrusive and meddling family!

Synopsis: Claire Ventura is nothing like the poised and perfect heroines she reads about in her favorite romance novels. She’s a quirky, people-pleasing bookworm with a loving yet obliviously intrusive family and a passion for cookie decorating—all rolled into a five-foot-two Filipina American fueled by chamomile tea.

Then she meets Nate, billionaire CEO of a global tech company, the modern-day Prince Charming who sweeps her off her feet. Though he does his best to convince Claire that he’s genuinely head over heels for her, she knows he’ll soon realize she’s more underwhelming Plain Jane than jet-setting socialite. And once he meets her family, if their initial questioning doesn’t scare him off, then their tendency to decide “what’s best for her” certainly will.

Between her whirlwind romance with Nate and her meddlesome family, Claire wishes she had a fairy godmother to guide her. But this is the real world in the twenty-first century, and the only way to get her happily ever after is by grabbing firm hold of what she really wants—and letting her heart be her guide.

I have not read any historical fiction set in Australia in a very long time.

Synopsis: Australia’s leading indigenous storyteller makes his American debut with this immersive and deeply resonant novel, set in the 1960s, that explores the lengths we’ll go to save the people we love—an unforgettable story of one native Australian family and the racist government that threatens to separate them.

Odette Brown has lived her entire life on the fringes of Deane, a small Australian country town. Dark secrets simmer beneath the surface of Deane—secrets that could explain why Odette’s daughter, Lila, left her one-year-old daughter, Sissy, and never came back, or why Sissy has white skin when her family is Aboriginal.

For thirteen years, Odette has quietly raised her granddaughter without drawing notice from welfare authorities who remove fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. But the arrival of a new policeman with cruel eyes and a rigid by-the-book attitude throws the Brown women’s lives off-kilter. It will take all of Odette’s courage and cunning to save Sissy from the authorities, and maybe even lead her to find her daughter.

Bolstered by love, smarts, and the strength of their ancestors, Odette and Sissy are an indomitable force, handling threats to their family and their own identities with grace and ingenuity, while never losing hope for themselves and their future.

In The White Girl, Miles Franklin Award-nominated author Tony Birch illuminates Australia’s devastating post-colonial past—notably the government’s racist policy of separating Indigenous children from their families, known today as the Stolen Generations—and introduces a tight-knit group of charming, inspiring characters who remind us of our shared humanity, and that kindness, hope, and love have no limits.

That’s all I have for this week. Have you read any of these books? What’s on your list to read? Comment below!