Everything I Read in May 2026
1. Dear Debbie
I’m hit or miss with Frieda McFadden books. Some I love and others are not for me. This was a quick and easy read that keep me guessing until the end. Debbie is the perfect housewife. She has dinner on the table each night, keeps herself involved in her daughters’ activities and writes an advice column in the local newspaper. No one would ever suspect she has another side to her. But when her husband begins acting strange, she loses her job and then things begin happening to her daughters, Debbie decides she needs to take things into her own hands. Rating: 8.5
2. It’s Not Her
I was pretty stumped throughout this entire book. LOL A gruesome murder occurs during a family vacation but the details of exactly what happened are a mystery. Usually I can piece it together halfway through but I was just as confused as the characters. Ha! Courtney and her family are vacationing with her brother and his family. Enjoying time at a remote resort where they can all spend quality time together. Except that her brother’s marriage is on the rocks and their kids seem to be stuck in the middle.
But that all changes when Courtney finds her brother and his wife dead in their cabin and their oldest daughter missing. Did the daughter commit this horrific crime? Or was it a random attack? While the authorities try to find answers, Courtney wonders about her own family. Her husband has been acting strange and her nephew has been exhibiting some alarming behavior since the murders. Could it be her own family who committed this atrocity? Or were they targeted? It did drag on during certain chapters but definitely picked up towards the end. I was shocked by the ending! Rating: 8
3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
This book is LONGGGGGGG. That can either be a great thing or a challenge. Ultimately this fell right in the middle for me. There were times that I wanted to speed things up and others that I appreciated the long winded story. The premise of the book is very heavy and I had so many emotions throughout that made me feel exhausted by the end. In a moment of pure desperation to escape an arranged marriage, Addie sells her soul for a lifetime of freedom though everyone she ever meets will forget about her in 24 hours.
She will live forever and never be tethered to a man or a family, but no one will ever know her. After midnight, all memory of her will be erased from everyone she meets. The story spans hundreds of years until the present day when Addie finally meets a man who shockingly remembers her the next day. She doesn’t understand what is different about him until he confides in her that he also sold his soul to the same dark entity in order to find love. The book is intense and emotionally draining but I had to know how it ended. Rating: 7.5
4. The Vacation
I almost quit this halfway through but there were SO many different characters with their own storylines that I had to keep reading in order to find out how it all came together. The ending was ok but overall the book was not a favorite. The story takes place at a hostel in Los Angeles and follows all the different guests staying there as well as the employees. All have various plot lines that do merge together much later in the book but it was too difficult to follow for most of the book. Rating: 5
5. All The Lonely People
I loved this story until the very end. The ending frustrated me so that did knock off some points for my review. LOL Hubert Bird is an elderly gentleman who lives alone and stays to himself. The only person he talks to is his daughter who calls him regularly but other than that, he keeps himself isolated. That is until a single mother and her young daughter move in next door. In a moment of desperation, she asks Hubert to watch her young daughter for an hour while she goes on a job interview.
Hubert begrudgingly agrees hoping this is the last time he will have to interact with his neighbor. With more persistence and determination, the new neighbor continues to engage Hubert, inviting him to social gatherings and trying to include him in the community. Hubert ultimately allows for his world to open to these new strangers despite the pain and loss he has been through all the years leading up to his current life. It’s a bit more emotional than I anticipated and the ending left me bummed but overall I did enjoy the story. Rating: 7.5
6. The Secret Lives of Murderer’s Wives
Another housewife turned vigilante story much like Dear Debbie but set in the 1960’s. And the twist at the end was so good!! Three housewives all connected because of the crimes of their husbands. Beverly, Elise and Margot lived vastly different lives but all found themselves friends when their husbands were all convicted of various murders. They found each other and created a bond that no one else could understand. When the news breaks a string of local killings, all three women decide they are going to help figure out who is terrorizing their community. They were all married to monsters, so they realized that no one understands how a killer thinks better than they do. I love when a book keeps me guessing all the way up until the end!! Rating: 8.5
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