It’s another month of our challenge: Tackle Your TBR Pile. So go dig through that stack taller than you of books you’ve been meaning to read and start reading away. Since this year is based on your TBR pile, I will not have a recommendations page, but I’m leaving the link here so it’s easier for me to set up NEXT year’s blog posts.
Find recommendations at Reading Challenge Recommendations, Crystal Caudill’s Reading Friends Facebook group, Avid Readers of Christian Fiction, or Inspirational Historical Fiction Index.
Don’t forget to comment at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a book off my prize shelf. *The list of prizes from my shelf can be found here.*
Reading Challenge 2025: Tackle the TBR Pile
If you’re anything like me, you have a TBR pile that is bigger than you can hope to read in a lifetime. This is the year we’re going to try an tackle at least twelve of those books. Head to your shelves and find books that fit each month’s challenge.
This Month: April – Start or Finish a series on your TBR
Next Month: May – Cover in your favorite color
Not Alone
by Liz Bradford
Review by: Crystal Caudill
I’ve long been friends with Liz, but not SO long that I was around for her first few books, and I’ve wanted to read her debut series for a long time. With me finishing deadlines and her picking up writing book six of the series, I knew it was time. While I can tell this is definitely her first published book, I truly enjoyed the story. I’ve always enjoyed stories with action, suspense, and depth, and Liz hits all of that. I especially appreciate how she hits hard topics in her stories. Rebecca Palmer is a single mom who is trying to catch a serial killer who is targeting women like her. While giving anything else away would be spoiling the story, I will say that I appreciate her tackling some of the natural relationship challenges of the story.
I’ve already binge-read books 2 and 3, and plan on starting book 4 this weekend. Each book gets better, both in storyline and writing skills.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Plot Overview:
When single moms are turning up dead, Police Detective Rebecca Palmer will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice.
Detective Rebecca Palmer is hunting a serial killer bent on inflicting a warped sense of Biblical judgment. But, with so few clues, she struggles to catch his trail. The killer’s obsession with murdering single moms grips Rebecca’s heart with profound intensity, since she herself is a single mom. Will she be able to stop him before he takes another mother away from her child?
Jared Johnson fought crime as a detective on the streets of Chicago but has decided to trade the inner city for the simpler life of the south. His brother said Hazel Hill, North Carolina is a great place to live, and Jared is willing to test his brother’s claims. But is the move just another stop as Jared runs from his past, or will Hazel Hill be the place his restless soul can finally settle down?
Purchase Links:
Giveaway
For your chance to win a print copy, comment with what book YOU read for this month. Use the Rafflecopter below for extra entries and to mark that you left a comment. Entries end on the 7th of each month at midnight EST, and the winner will be drawn sometime that week and notified by email. The winner will be announced on the Rafflecopter widget. *Giveaway Policies can be found here.
I would love to enter your contest and read your books in print love the contest & prizes perfect for season and the book I’m reading is MURDER UNDER THE MISTLETOE BY TERRI REED
Enjoy!!
The book I read for April is Her Darkest Secret by Jessica R. Patch. It was amazing! I’m currently reading A Cry in the Dark which covers May, as the cover is purple 🙂 and I’ve been waiting to read Garden Girls since I preordered it! Needed time to read all three though, I don’t like reading series out of order. My review of the book: Jessica Patch is a master of the craft of story telling!! I wish I could write reviews as well as she writes books! This book held me captive as I listened to it from beginning straight through to the end. Every spare moment I had, I immediately went back to it, and stayed up way too late, not wanting to wait to get to the incredible ending. I loved this book so much I’m just waiting for the next one to be delivered to start reading it. The story is well developed and has so many twists and turns, it’s like riding a roller coaster! The characters are well developed, even the side characters have depth, and listening to the mind of a serial killer adds another dimension to the story! As always, Jessica adds a major twist at the end, one I never saw coming, although I did have a good idea who I thought the killer was. Although this book is about a serial killer and dark issues, Jessica does an incredible job of weaving a strong thread of the gospel, having and finding faith, and trusting in God’s plan into the story! All scenes are handled discretely, so you know what happened without all the gory details described. The narrator did an excellent job as well. I highly recommend this book!!
Fantastic! I love Jessica, but haven’t gotten up the nerve to read her thrillers.
They are pretty intense! I started reading Stephen King around 12 years old so I love them. I no longer read anything not Christian. I love the fact that she does incorporate hope and Christian characters into her books! I love yours also 🥰
I actually went with the start of your new series this month, Written in Secret. I really enjoyed it, you kept me guessing as to the who the bad guy was, and I enjoyed the way the characters struggled with admitting the actions they took weren’t always as innocent as they thought they were in the beginning.
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I read With You Always, the first book of the Orphan Train series by Jody Hedlund. I loved it and can’t wait to continue the series.
Yay! Love that you were able to start a new series!
I read “A Heart Most Certain” by Melissa Jagears from her Teaville Moral Society series. I’ve had this series on my bookshelf for years just waiting for me to read it, and I’m so happy I finally did!
Yay!!! I’m so glad that you were able to dive into something that’s been hanging around for a while.
I’m reading A Healing Touch by Suzanne Woods Fisher.
Fun! I’ve not read anything from her.
I read Labor of Love by Marguerite Martin Gray. While it wasn’t a favorite of mine, it wasn’t because of the author’s ability to write. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it!
I’m so glad that you were finally able to read it. And I understand sometimes books just aren’t a good fit even if you enjoy the author.
Okay, so technically not on my TBR pile, but every book I read in April was an ARC except for Specters in the Glass House by Jaime Jo Wright which is a stand alone. So, I am using Northargyle Abbie by Janelle Leonard as it is the only ARC I read that is the start of a series and is Christian fiction. If it doesn’t have to be Christian Fiction, then The Target by Cali Black would work as well I guess.
Both are fine. 🙂 How was Northagyle Abbie? I keep seeing it’s cover around.
I read Hostile Intent, by Lynnette Eason. Last year I read the first 3 books of the Danger Never Sleeps series, without realizing that there was a forth book. Fortunately my local library had a copy. And I highly recommend the entire series!