Once again I am reading faster than I can get reviews written, especially my audiobooks. All three of these books deserve full reviews, so please check out what other people have written about them, especially the first book.
Your Behavior Will Be Monitored by Justin Feinstein
Published: April 2026
Quick Summary:
This compulsively readable novel wrestles with vital questions of our time: sentience, purpose, life, death…and how to make a really good commercial. Told entirely through questionably obtained company emails, chat messages, TED Talks, bot trainings, and more, Your Behavior Will Be Monitored presents an all too plausible near future in which emotionally intelligent AI go up against emotionally stunted humans.
Confession:
This is a debut and it was brilliant! I will admit that it was a bit hard to get into because of the format, but once I did, I pretty much raced through it. This is definitely a plot driven story, but you do get to know the characters a little bit. I especially really liked Noah, who is hired to teach one of the AIs how to create commercials. Haley and Simon were also well crafted characters who cared about many of the topics listed in the summary.
But the three AIs in this story are what really makes this a great read. All three of them are distinct in their ways and are easily the best characters in this story. I really liked Sam who was the AI who drove the self driving cars. He was such a charming character and easy to talk to. Quinn and Lex were also very interesting and fun to get to know.
The best part of this story though is how you think the plot is going to go one way and then the ending happens and you are just blown away. I won’t say more than that, but it was a refreshing way to end an AI story.
I encourage you to give this debut a chance, it is hard at first to get into, but once you do you won’t be disappointed.
The Last Hour Between the Worlds by Melissa Caruso
Read by Moira Quirk
Published: November 2024
Quick Summary:
A whip-smart adventure fantasy packed with rival guilds, reality-bending magic, and sapphic pining.
Confession:
As much as I enjoyed listening to the audiobook for this brilliant book, I kind of wish I had read it. It took me far longer than normal to figure out the world, which is very rich and complex. This is a blend of science fiction and fantasy as well. There is magic, but there is also a time loop and alternate worlds. But the blend is done seamlessly and the the story is wonderful.
The story is told through Kembral Thorne, and she was a great character. She is an older woman who just had a baby and is looking forward to her first night out. She is then thrown right back into her job as a Hound (a person who can slip between the worlds) to help save everyone at the party. I loved all of the characters and had a great time getting to know them. There is a romance, but it is a pretty light one and does not overshadow the main story.
The plot was pretty fast paced and the world building was excellent. I do think I missed some explanations, which sometimes happens when I listen to audiobooks. But I learned enough that the story made sense. I really enjoyed the different worlds, called Echos, the characters visited and learning about each one. There is also a mystery aspect to this story which was fun to unravel.
Overall I enjoyed this first book in the series. I am hoping to get to the second book soon, probably not the audiobook though. As much as I enjoyed the narrator I think I need to read the next book to understand the world better. If you like great characters and fabulous world building this is a book you need to give a chance.
Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards
Published: September 2025
Quick Summary:
Six down-on-their-luck people with links to the world of crime writing have been invited to play a game this Christmas by the mysterious Midwinter Trust. The challenge seems simple but Solve the murder of a fictional crime writer in a remote but wonderfully atmospheric village in north Yorkshire to win a prize that will change your fortunes for good.
Confession:
I ended up switching between reading and listening to this story. I had put both on hold at the library and they both came on the same day. And it was a good thing to. There are lots of pictures of maps and clues that I had access to with the book, that I didn’t get with the audiobook. All three narrators were really good and I probably listened more than I read.
This is a brilliant murder mystery that I did not solve easily. There are actually two mysteries, the game and then the real life mystery when people in Midwinter start turning up dead. Although we get three different perspectives on the story, Harry Crystal’s is the main one. I enjoyed reading and listening to his part in the story. He is a midlist mystery writer, who is actually pretty smart although he doesn’t come across as that to others. Poppy is also a great character that we get parts of the story from and I really liked her as well. The rest of the cast of characters are all well fleshed out, even though we don’t get to know them well.
The mystery game was really not a huge part of the story. In fact I hesitate to call it a game. It wasn’t what I had envision when I read the summary anyways. The way it was presented made it kind of hard to figure out and I also didn’t find it as interesting as the other murder mystery that was going on in the character’s lives. I almost had that one figured out but there was a twist at the end that was unexpected and was quite surprising.
The pacing and the short chapters made this a pretty quick read. The narrators did a brilliant job of making each each character sound unique and different from each other. The setting of a remote village in northern England during a snowstorm was also well done. This is the first book I have read by this author, but I don’t think it will be my last.
If you enjoy locked room type mysteries with a full cast of great characters, this is a book that you should give a chance.
If you made it to the end of these reviews, thank you! I hope that you will give these books a chance, if you haven’t already. They are all brilliant in their own ways and really keep you reading until the last page.
Until next time…
Confessions of a Serial Reader 