“There are many miles from the business school and basketball court at the University of Southern California to 50 million viewers for the final episode of a TV show called Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck has lived every one of those miles in his own iconoclastic and joyful way.

Frank, funny and open-hearted, You Never Know is an intimate memoir from a beloved actor, the story of a remarkable life and thoroughly accidental career. Journey to the top in Hollywood, learn of his mistakes and his well-earned success. Selleck clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares never-told stories. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from the Dating Game to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose ease on screen connected with audiences worldwide, while redefining the clichés of manhood.

In You Never Know, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of The Rockford Files, who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges. He tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer.

Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm, talent, and self-deprecating humor, this memoir reveals an American icon who reached remarkable heights through authenticity.”

I read Tom’s book last month and didn’t think much of it. That could be because I’m not a memoir person, I’ve only read a handful, but the chapters concerning Magnum were interesting and I found out things I didn’t know.

I give it 7/10

Moving onto Sulari Gentill’s two books. I read her last one, The Woman in the Library and did a video review of it, you can see it here. While I gave the book 8/10 for the story, it was incredibly problematic with all of the insults peppered throughout.

Madeleine d’Leon doesn’t know where Edward came from. He is simply a character in her next book. But as she writes, he becomes all she can think about. His charm, his dark hair, his pen scratching out his latest literary novel…

Edward McGinnity can’t get Madeleine out of his mind—softly smiling, infectiously enthusiastic, and perfectly damaged. She will be the ideal heroine for his next book.

But who is the author and who is the creation? And as the lines start to blur, who is affected when a killer finally takes flesh?

Her runner up novel was a reprint of an old book under the new title. And while the concept was interesting, it was hard to keep up and ended up being a weak and unsatisfying ending. 3/10

Theo has one dream—to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar—and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect.

As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realises that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why.

As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy organisation with far-reaching power. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim.

This book wasn’t much better. While the titles and covers are great, the books are not. An Aussie woman who flees to America to see her brother and then somehow gets involved in some seriously stupid shit and then goes missing for three years allowing her brother, (whose life is fucked up by her actions) and his friend/her love interest, to get into serious shit on her behalf and didn’t use her brain and just followed the gaslighter who threatened her. Oh fuck off!

4/10

For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie – except for forty-eight hours twelve years ago when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in a swift divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.

Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job – at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s 80th birthday party. Kat has figured out a way to tag along to the dazzling Sutherland compound, but neither she nor her mother know about the other surprise guests that weekend- Liam and his father, a serial scammer who has his own sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.

Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. They can’t trust anyone – except each other.

I was all set to read this book and review it and then I got to chapter three and stopped. I was bored shitless and something in me said, nope, can’t do it.

Maybe it’s time for me to let Karen’s books go as I’m so bored with them. Maybe had I stuck it out it would have got better, but I just couldn’t. Maybe at another time, maybe not ever. Maybe it’s because I’m currently writing an adult trilogy and aren’t in the headspace for teen angst.

So I cannot leave a review for myself, but if you are a Karen fan, go forth and devour, but right now, I just can’t. 

Have you guys ever been a fan of an author and got to a point where you just couldn’t read any more of their stories? For whatever reason, you had loved them, and then one by one, they just progressively grew worse, or became less than they were. Became juvenile (yes, I know they are YAs about teens), but I just can’t with the same old, same old, anymore.

This surprised me, as I’ve read each of her books when they came out, but this one, nope, just couldn’t. Let me know what books or authors you gave up on.