Carries Book Reviews

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Title: The Unraveling

Author:  Vi Keeland

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Publication Date: July 9, 2024

Page Count:  300

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

This chilling, sizzling, and addictive thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Vi Keeland follows a New York psychiatrist’s dark descent into dangerous obsession.

This isn’t a love story.

It’s a story about obsession.

After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall feels painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. How is he doing so well while her life is in shambles?

But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet, Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.

The Unraveling by Vi Keeland is a psychological thriller novel. The story in The Unraveling is one that does switch from the present timeline to the past with more of the story coming in the present as the book goes on. One thing I would also mention is the author is known for romance with this being her first thriller and there is some erotic content that sort of crosses over to a dark romance feel in a few parts.

Meredith McCall was once a very successful psychiatrist in New York City where she was married to a pro-hockey player, Connor. When Connor was injured their marriage got rocky and one night the police are at the door instead of Connor, you see he was involved in an accident and died on the scene.

After that night Meredith’s life unraveled as she dealt with the aftermath of what happened which spiraled into losing her practice for a year. Now that Meredith is back on the job though she finds herself unable to say no to taking on a new patient who has ties to her past regardless of it breaking every rule.

The Unraveling by Vi Keeland for me kind of felt like one of those books that in order to enjoy it you should probably suspend some disbelief as the story goes on. After questioning the main character I just went with the flow and did find the pages turning faster as the twists and turns began to come along and I did find them entertaining and addictive which I enjoy in a psychological thriller. Overall I’d give this one three and a half stars and would give the author another try in this genre.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty-six languages and have appeared on bestseller lists in the US, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria Israel and Hungary. Three of her short stories have been turned into films by Passionflix, and two of her books are currently optioned for movies. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six.

Stop by and meet Vi in her private reader group on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/groups/ViKeelandFanGroup/

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Well this week is probably the closest I’ve come to falling off the wagon in quite a long while so a bit longer of a post this week. Thankfully I did stay within my goal and have continued my over a year now of restraint but I do have eight shiny new titles to add to my ever towering TBR with the theme being mostly cozy continuations this week!

As always clicking the covers will take you to the book on Amazon!**

New additions from Netgalley June 30th  – July 7th

A mother must fight for her daughter’s life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic.

Clem gets a call that is every mother’s worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital after a hiking trip with her friends on the remote Orkney Islands that met a horrifying end, leaving her boyfriend dead and her best friend missing. When Erin wakes, she doesn’t recognize her mother. And she doesn’t answer to her name, but insists she is someone named Nyx.

Clem travels the site of her daughter’s accident, determined to find out what happened to her. The answer may lie in a dark secret in the history of the Orkneys: a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Clem begins to wonder if Erin’s strange behavior is a symptom of a broken mind, or the effects of an ancient curse?

Sometimes it takes working with the dead to start living.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex’s baby. She’s also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that’s the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client’s soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why. 

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy’s soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.

Gossip Girl meets Happy Death Day in this YA horror novel following high school outcast and anonymous social media gossip Ruby, who comes face-to-face with her own ghost dressed in a blood-splattered prom dress. With less than a week until the dance, Ruby must unmask her killer—or die trying.

Ruby is a scholarship senior at elite Oleander High School with a chip on her shoulder and an attitude to match—which she puts to good use as the infamous local anonymous gossip blogger ReputationKiller. When she’s outed as the voice behind the account, the entire town turns against her.

But after she’s scared witless by a vision of her own ghost dressed in a blood-splattered prom dress, she is faced with an awful truth. Someone out there doesn’t just hate her—they want her dead.

With less than a week until the prom, Ruby starts investigating. Turns out Oleander Bay isn’t the picture-perfect resort town it appears to be. With so many secrets, scandals, and people hell-bent on covering them up at all costs, the murderer could be anyone. Can Ruby beat the clock counting down to prom—and her death—and survive the night?

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza is the fourth book in Mindy Quigley’s delectable Deep Dish Mystery series, set in a Wisconsin pizzeria.

Pizza chef Delilah O’Leary and her kitty companion, Butterball, get into the holiday spirit as Geneva Bay, Wisconsin hosts the nation’s premier snow sculpting championship. The annual event transforms the charming resort town into a wonderland of snow castles, ice rinks, and cozy cups of cocoa.

On the eve of the festival though, a too-good-to-be-true Chrismukkah catering gig brings some frosty tidings and heralds an unexpected visit from Delilah’s high-intensity older sister. Suddenly it seems that the holidays may not be the hap-happiest season of all. And when one of the town’s snowy sculptures reveals a chilling surprise, murder threatens to put the celebrations—and Delilah’s crew—on ice for good.

Despite her best efforts, gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister finds herself confounded by a case of murder this Christmas in the latest installment of this delightful culinary B&B mystery series!

Ever since Thanksgiving, when an engagement ring in a velvet box—and no gift tag—was left behind, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn’t labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was the cat Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all . .

It’s beginning to look a lot like New Year’s in this creative and witty mystery featuring a unique heroine who’s married to the real-life Santa Claus and living in the North Pole. Santaland is scrambling to keep its secrets hidden from a trio of unexpected guests, but before the New Year’s Eve ball drops, the countdown is on for April Claus to catch a killer…

April Claus is looking forward to relaxing with her hubby, Nick (aka THE Santa Claus), in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. But just after Santa departs for his deliveries, an elf pulls into Santaland with three people he found lost in the frozen wilderness. The survivors of a scientific expedition are injured, but their presence endangers the future of Santaland. So, while the strangers recuperate at the infirmary, April convinces Christmastown to pull off its grandest, most impossible, most magical feat yet . . . pretend to be normal!

Posing as a touristy, albeit Christmas-centric, arctic town, the elves cover their ears, snowmen take a vow of silence, and the reindeer keep their hooves on the ground. But as New Year’s Eve draws closer, hiding their true selves becomes harder to do, especially when one of the uninvited guests dies under highly suspicious circumstances. With a murderer in their midst, April sets out to find the uncorked culprit before any auld acquaintances should be forgot . . . or worse.

The latest novel in a crafting cozy series featuring talented sleuthing seamstress Abbey Chandler, the members of a small-town California sewing studio—and murder.

Abbey’s life in Hideaway Grove is comfortable, and she’s grateful for her small sewing studio in the back room of her aunt’s bakery, but she’s feeling stuck. Her plan to expand her custom tote bag business by selling to a chain of gift shops has hit a snag. Making enough totes to distribute to all the stores requires large-scale production—which requires money Abbey doesn’t have. To make ends meet, she takes a part-time job at the town’s bustling Visitor Center . . .

Abbey is soon sorting items with her co-workers for the Visitor Center’s annual Lost and Found Day when unclaimed items are displayed and offered for sale. Thanks to tourism, there’s enough to fill a huge stockroom. But something is amiss. Eleanor Franklin, devoted to all things Hideaway Grove, hasn’t shown up for work—and when Abbey discovers her whereabouts, it isn’t pretty . . .

Eleanor is dead inside a clothing bin, dressmaker shears impaled in her chest—shears the sheriff reports are engraved with Abbey’s name. Under suspicion, Abbey will have to launch her own investigation. But who would want to kill thoughtful Eleanor, a model resident always so full of good advice about how to uphold Hideaway Grove’s high standards? As it turns out, not everyone appreciated Eleanor’s advice . . .

Now Abbey will have to cut through a tattered trail of greed, theft, and revenge to sew up the case before a killer cramps her style—for good . . .

New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon continues her enchanting Kitchen Witch Mystery series featuring everyone’s favorite, spellbinding kitchen witch Mia Malone.

In a triumph for Mia’s catering business and cooking school, Mia’s Morsels is chosen to host a fall festival event in their Idaho mountain town—which means managing a bunch of stage moms and their social-media obsessed daughters as they get ready for the big beauty contest. There’s a lot riding on the results of the Harvest Moon Festival—it’s where the local coven leader is chosen for the following year.

But after one contestant is found in a compromising position with a judge, and another drops out when her mother is killed in a freak hiking accident, the coven suspects magical meddling. With a week to go before the coronation of the new queen, Mia must draw on her sleuthing powers to find out what’s going on—and whether this competition has gotten a little too cutthroat . . .

For the Night
Cara Dee
Publication date: July 18th 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance

Mistress Penelope Darling has spent the past ten years cherishing the Mclean House community she once founded with her closest friends. All of them gay men, most of them l viewing her as a bossy little sister to be reckoned with. She’s also been in a loving relationship with her girlfriend—or so she thought.

After finding out her sub cheated on her, Penelope gets rid of everything. Her home, all the knickknacks, every picture…the girlfriend, of course. Her new plan is to never, ever be in a relationship again. She’s going to be a for-the-night Domme. Good for casual fun and friendship. That’s it.

Enter Nora Lilja. A new member. A ballsy young woman. A primal brat. A breath of fresh air with an angel on one shoulder and an irresistible devil on the other.

Penelope surrounds herself with friends and distractions. It’s a big month, with parties and events to plan. A cute newbie won’t break her resolve. Even when that girl turns out to be very, very persuasive, going so far as to claim she doesn’t want Penelope for the night.

She wants a shot at forever.

Add to Goodreads / Pre-order

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To celebrate the release of 𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, the next installment in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 by Cara Dee, she’s offering an exclusive preorder on her webstore. Order direct from the author between July 6th-8th and receive the book on July 9th. That’s over a week before the release on Amazon on July 18th!

Author Bio:

I’m often awkwardly silent or, if the topic interests me, a chronic rambler. In other words, I can discuss writing forever and ever. Fiction, in particular. The love story—while a huge draw and constantly present—is secondary for me, because there’s so much more to writing romance fiction than just making two (or more) people fall in love and have hot sex.

There’s a world to build, characters to develop, interests to create, and a topic or two to research thoroughly.

Every book is a challenge for me, an opportunity to learn something new, and a puzzle to piece together. I want my characters to come to life, and the only way I know to do that is to give them substance—passions, history, goals, quirks, and strong opinions—and to let them evolve.

I want my men and women to be relatable. That means allowing room for everyday problems and, for lack of a better word, flaws. My characters will never be perfect.

…this was supposed to be about me, not my writing.

I’m a writey person who loves to write. Always wanderlusting, twitterpating, kinking, cooking, baking, and geeking. There’s time for hockey and family, too. But mostly, I just love to write.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook Page / Facebook Group / Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter / Bookbub

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**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Title: Made for You

Author:  Jenna Satterthwaite

Publisher: MIRA 

Publication Date: July 2, 2024

Page Count:  402

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

Hi. My name is Julia. I’m a Synth. And I’m here to find love…

Synthetic woman Julia Walden was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee.

Fast-forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia’s life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point—and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is…if Julia truly is a person.

Told via dual timelines, Jenna Satterthwaite’s twist-filled debut deftly explores the exhilarating point where artificial intelligence, reality TV, and bone-chilling murder mystery meet.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon /  BookShop.org / Harlequin  / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / Apple Books 

Excerpt:

THEN

“Can you hear me?” A male face peers into mine. Midthirties, glasses, expressive eyebrows. Andy. Kind.

“Yes,” I say. There’s an overwhelming barrage of hot sensation, then click, it all evens out—light, sound, the air on my skin—settling like embers, then cooling.

I breathe in, feel my chest balloon, breathe out. Lift my hands to face level and flex my fingers, mapping how the smooth pale skin with its smattering of freckles shifts and ripples over my knuckle ridges.

I’m sitting. Dressed in what seems to be an evening gown. I register how tight the skirt is around my thighs. How beautifully the blue sequins catch in the ice-white light from above. Palms down, I skim the fabric, tickling the pads of my fingers as the sequins catch, lift, fall. It’s like wearing a party. I like it.

“Do you know who you are?” says Andy.

I look up and feel myself smile. He’s in baggy jeans, a gray T-shirt with a buffalo plaid shirt open over top and a pen hooked on the breast pocket. A dark five-o’clock shadow travels down his neck. His look screams sleepless nights.

“Of course,” I say. Everything is simply there, no effort, natural as breathing. “I’m Julia Walden.”

“Do you know where you are? What year it is?”

“We’re in LA. It’s January 2022 and Biden is President.” I tilt my head. “We’re in the middle of a pandemic.”

“Do you know what’s about to happen?”

I register, out of the corner of my eye, a boom mic operator to our deep left, but keep my attention on Andy.

“I’m about to compete on The Proposal.”

“God,” breathes Andy, putting a fist to his chest like my answers are slaying him. “You—you’re—” He crooks a finger at his lips.

“Here?” I suggest with a light laugh. Now I’m rubbing my arms, the rough skin at my elbows, allowing my hands to touch my own face, then wander up to my hair, long and loose. I fish it around my shoulder. It’s a fiery, sun-gleam red. I love it. I love everything about being Julia Walden.

“Real,” says Andy when he’s recovered his speech. “Working. Amazing. I kind of want to hug you?”

“You don’t have to ask.” I stand in my high heels, taller than Andy by nearly a head. His glasses collide with my shoulder as applause bursts around us. After a second, he hooks my hands in his and pulls back, eyes moist.

“Wow, Julia. Just wow.”

I scan our surroundings as flashes pop. We’re in a warehouse. To the right, large machines quietly rest. I note hydraulics, robotic arms, big sheets of pale, rubbery material. Skin, I realize, and my own skin seems to respond, tiny goose bumps racing up my arms.

It’s not a bad feeling, exactly. Just…unpleasant, like touching something wet that you thought would be dry.

To my left, a film crew makes a crescent shape. One hefty man shoulders an equally hefty camera, trained on me. I know without being told they’re here from The Proposal.

It’s a little strange to be having this intimate moment with Andy while everyone watches. Then again…that’s about to be my life. Fully on camera.

Andy claps his hands. “So. Ready to meet Josh?”

“I was born ready,” I say with a laugh. My eyes flicker up to the answering sound of laughter from the film crew. But while I did mean to be funny, I also mean it.

Andy pulls out a cell phone. “This is yours. Let’s break it in.” He leans into me and we smile for our first selfie.

“Should we post it to Insta?” he says. “Your handle just went live—we had to wait until the other contestants’ phones were taken away. Oh, and we can’t mention you’re on The Proposal yet—” But I reach for the phone.

“I got it.” My fingers navigate the screen easily. Also, wow— how does @TheRealJuliaWalden already have close to a million followers…and counting? I caption the picture the journey be-gins!!!, noting the tug of resistance within me as I put the phone down. I guess part of me wanted to watch the reactions roll in. Immediately I wall up this thought. I’m not here for everyone. Just one man.

Andy has pulled out a blue pen while I’ve been messing with the phone, and is nervously gnawing on the clicker end. Weirdly, I want to reassure him, It’ll be okay. You’ll see.

“Julia!” the producer calls out. “Could you introduce your-self? For our viewers?”

I look at the camera’s cold eye across the distance and imagine that I’m looking into the face of a friend who can’t wait to see me. I smile.

“Sure! I’m a Synth. My name is Julia. And I’m here to find love.”

Excerpted from Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite © 2024 by Jenna Satterthwaite used with permission by MIRA/HarperCollins.

Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite is a science fiction thriller novel. The story in Made for You is one that is told in a dual timeline in about a year and half ago in the past and in the present time. It’s also narrated by a synth (synthetic human) character.

Julia Walden was designed and created for one reason, to win the heart of Josh LaSala. Josh has been cast as the latest lead on the reality television program The Proposal (The Bachelor) and among the women vying for Josh’s heart will be Julia, a synthetic human.

Fifteen months after the show aired Julia is now married to Josh and has given birth to their child when Josh leaves on a weekend trip and he doesn’t return. The local small town Indiana sheriff already didn’t trust Julia in his jurisdiction and now is sure she has murdered him on his watch despite Julia’s do no harm programming.

Made for You is a debut novel from author Jenna Satterthwaite and well worth taking a chance on reading. I was completely hooked on this scifi thriller from the opening pages with my love for reality tv pulling me in and then mixing that with a unique murder mystery to keep the pages turning. Having an AI synthetic leading the narrative certainly gave a new twist to unreliable narrators and then there were plenty of twists and turns one would expect along the way to really keep one guessing. Definitely an author to look out for again in the future.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

About the author:

Born in the Midwest, Jenna Satterthwaite grew up in Spain, lived briefly in France, and is now happily settled in Chicago with her husband and three kids. Jenna studied classical guitar, English Lit and French, and once upon a time was a singer-songwriter in folk band Thornfield. She loves sushi, reading in her natural habitat (aka her bed), and women taking back their power. Made For You is her debut novel.

Author Website / X  / Facebook  / Instagram  / Goodreads

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Title: Under the Summer Sky

Author:  Debbie Macomber

Publisher: MIRA

Publication Date: July 2, 2024

Page Count:  362

My rating: 3 1/2 stars

About the book:

Love finds you when you least expect it…

Marriage Wanted

Weddings were Savannah Charles’s business and she was an expert on marital bliss, but she’d given little thought to her own day of joy. Until divorce attorney Dash Davenport offered a proposal that would benefit them both. Dash claimed he’d never be convinced “I do” could last forever. So when he asked Savannah Charles to marry him, it was out of mutual necessity—not love. Yet he never expected to marry Savannah—the most passionate woman he’d ever tried not to love…

First Comes Marriage

When Zach Thomas merged his business with the Hartman family firm, that was the only Hartman-Thomas merger he wanted. But Janine Hartman’s grandfather had other ideas—ones belonging to a different place, a different time, when marriages were arranged by families. “It would be a perfect match,” he insisted. “You two suit each other.” Zach and Janine didn’t agree. In fact, they agreed on only one thing—that Gramps was a stubborn, meddling old man. But…what if he was right?

First thing I will mention about Under the Summer Sky by Debbie Macomber is that this is not one singular story but two novella length romance stories which are roughly the same length and combined into the one book. Both stories in Under the Summer Sky have different couples on their way to marriage which ties them together while being very different plots.

First we have Marriage Wanted where we meet Savannah Charles who makes a living out of helping others find their way to the alter. Savannah has a new client excited for her wedding but finds the client’s brother, Dash Davenport, is completely against the wedding so Savannah does everything she can to show Dash that marriage is as magical as she believes it to be.

Next in First Comes Marriage Janine Hartman is thrown for a loop when her grandfather introduces her to Zach Thomas. Zach has been preparing to merge his business with Janine’s grandfather’s but her grandfather has his eye on a different merger and suggests to the couple that they marry. Well, Janine of course is completely against an arranged marriage even if it worked for her grandfather back in the day but the more time she spends with Zach planning against her grandfather the closer they become.

Debbie Macomber is an author I’ve read many times before so I will admit to picking this one up without paying attention it being more than one story. Being split into two I was left with my usual novella feel of wanting more to each to get to know the characters better when the story ends so quickly. Pushing that to the side though I’d say I enjoyed Marriage Wanted a bit more than First Comes Marriage with I think the arranged marriage idea just making feel a bit dated or something. Overall I’d give both combined stories three and a half stars having enjoyed them but preferring the authors longer full length novels.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:
Debbie Macomber is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of today’s most popular writers with more than 200 million copies of her books in print worldwide. In her novels, Macomber brings to life compelling relationships that embrace family and enduring friendships, uplifting her readers with stories of connection and hope. Macomber’s novels have spent over 1,000 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Fifteen of these novels hit the number one spot.

In 2023, Macomber’s all-new hardcover publication includes Must Love Flowers (July). In addition to fiction, Macomber has also published three bestselling cookbooks, three adult coloring books, numerous inspirational and nonfiction works, and two acclaimed children’s books.

Celebrated as “the official storyteller of Christmas”, Macomber’s annual Christmas books are beloved and six have been crafted into original Hallmark Channel movies. Macomber is also the author of the bestselling Cedar Cove Series which the Hallmark Channel chose as the basis for its first dramatic scripted television series. Debuting in 2013, Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove was a ratings favorite for three seasons.

She serves on the Guideposts National Advisory Cabinet, is a YFC National Ambassador, and is World Vision’s international spokesperson for their Knit for Kids charity initiative. A devoted grandmother, Debbie and Wayne live in Port Orchard, Washington, the town which inspired the Cedar Cove series.