Category Archives: Book Reviews

Short fiction: The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman

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Title: The Answer is No
Author: Fredrik Backman
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Publication date: December 1, 2024
Length: 68 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?

Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.

A new story from Fredrik Backman is practically guaranteed to be a joy to read… so does The Answer is No succeed? The answer is yes!

This funny, quirky tale is about a man who wants the world to leave him alone, but the world doesn’t seem to get the message. He’s perfectly happy, until the frying pan incident spirals out of control, bringing visitor after visitor to his door.

It’s a cute, clever story with a simple plot. What makes it a gem is Backman’s writing, of course. Here are a few choice snippets:

Lucas is happy. This is a very provoking thing to the world. Because people aren’t supposed to be happy, they’re only supposed to want to be happy, because how otherwise are you supposed to be able to sell things to them?

Just to be clear: It’s not that Lucas hates other people. He just really enjoys being where other people aren’t. He works well in groups as long as it’s groups of fewer than two people.

“During the night someone left an old frying pan on the ground outside the recycling room!” the first head explains, as if this were the beginning of a detective novel where a dead body’s been found in a lake, and a divorced police officer from the big city who has just returned to her childhood home is drawn into an investigation that forces her to confront her past, but which may or may not also give her the chance to fall in love with a man in a flannel shirt who has a golden retriever and a charming down-to-earth view of life.

Lucas opens the door with the defeated manner of a sausage that dressed itself up as a carrot to avoid being eaten by a bear, only to be found by a rabbit.

The Answer is No is available now as a First Reads pick for Amazon Prime subscribers, and will be released officially as of December 1st. It’s a sweet, cheery treat — and obviously, a must-read for Fredrik Backman fans!

Book Review: The Beach Trap by Ali Brady

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Title: The Beach Trap
Author: Ali Brady
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 14, 2022
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction / romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Two best friends torn apart by a life-altering secret. They have one summer to set the record straight.

When twelve-year-olds Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill meet at Camp Chickawah, they have an instant connection. But everything falls apart when they learn they’re not just best friends—they’re also half-sisters. Confused and betrayed, their friendship instantly crumbles.

Fifteen years later when their father dies suddenly, Kat and Blake discover he’s left them a joint inheritance: the family beach house in Destin, Florida. The two sisters are instantly at odds. Blake, who has recently been demoted from regular nanny to dog nanny, wants to sell the house, while social media influencer Kat is desperate to keep the place where she had so many happy childhood memories.

Kat and Blake reluctantly join forces to renovate the dilapidated house with the understanding that Kat will try to buy Blake out at the end of the summer. The women clash as Blake’s renovation plans conflict with Kat’s creative vision, and each sister finds herself drawn into a summer romance. As the weeks pass, the two women realize the most difficult project they face this summer will be coming to grips with their shared past, and learning how to become sisters.

I’m a sucker for books with a connection to summer camps… and from the opening chapter, when twelve-year-old besties spend a glorious summer at camp together, only to have their friendship end disastrously, I knew The Beach Trap would be a book for me.

When Blake and Kat meet at Camp Chickawah**, they become best friends right away — but when Kat’s father comes to pick her up early due to a death in the family, the girls make a shattering discovery: Kat’s dad is Blake’s dad too. Blake’s mom had been “the other woman”, and while Blake has happy childhood memories of time with her dad, that all ended when her mother died in a tragic accident, and her father never came for her. Rather than bringing the girls closer, the discovery of their half-sister status permanently drives them apart, and Kat refuses to respond to any of the letters Blake sends her in the months following camp.

**If the name Camp Chickawah seems familiar, then perhaps you’ve read the authors’ most recent book, Until Next Summer, in which the camp and its staff members take center stage. (It’s a lot of fun!)

Fifteen years later, their father has died, and his will reveals a startling bequest: He’s left the family’s Florida beach house to both his daughters, to share 50/50.

Blake is a stressed-out nanny for a wealthy family, working long hours to pay for her grandfather’s assisted living facility. Kat is a social media influencer (ugh), making enough to support herself, but not quite at a point where she can count on financial security. Blake assumes they’ll sell the beach house, or Kat can buy her out — but either way, the proceeds will help ensure that she can continue to care for her grandfather. Kat sees the beach house as a reminder of rare happy childhood memories, and wants to keep it — and also, it might make a great home reno project to enhance her feeds and help her nab a coveted corporate sponsorship.

When Blake and Kat meet at the beach house, they’re dismayed to find the place in shambles. The only way to turn it around and make it at all viable for sale is to repair, renovate, and redecorate. Kat has the funds; Blake has the time (since the family she nannies for is spending the summer in France) and the skills, thanks to the years she spent learning at her grandfather’s side. While there’s palpable tension and animosity between the two women, they know neither can move forward without the other’s cooperation, and they work out a deal. They’ll alternate weeks at the house, Blake will handle most of the actual work, and Kat will have final say on all decor decisions.

After achieving a tense détente of sorts, they move forward. As the summer progresses, and they start having to communicate and spend together, tentative connections are rebuilt. They once loved each other — who will they be to one another now?

I really enjoyed seeing Kat and Blake work their way back toward friendship, and more. Both grew up lonely; both grew up hungry for the love and attention of a distant father, who cause each one intense emotional pain in the aftermath of the big revelation years earlier. While having very different backgrounds and upbringings, Kat and Blake connect on a deeper level. It’s lovely seeing them work through the hurt and misunderstandings, and start to realize how much time they both spent blaming one another for things outside of their control.

Each woman also finds romance over the course of the summer, but one thing I really appreciate in this book (and in the other Ali Brady book I’ve read, Until Next Summer) is that romance is secondary to friendship. The romantic relationships and storylines are great, but it’s the friendship and sisterhood between Kat and Blake that drive this book and give it its emotional impact and joy.

Where The Beach Trap falls a little short for me has mainly to do with Kat’s character. Bluntly put, she’s hard to like. First off, having a social media influencer as a main character is an instant turn-off for me. (Side note — I feel like contemporary romances have a higher proportion of influencers as characters than is representative of the demographic in real life…) Kat’s whole shtick for most of the book is summed up by her tagline, “life is a fashion show”. She eventually learns to appreciate the messiness of life and what it means to connect, and revises her philosophy — but it’s a fairly quick turnaround, not entirely believable. I’m glad she ended up in a better place, but her attitude for much of the book is very hard to take.

Overall, however, I liked The Beach Trap a lot. The story moves quickly, the setting is terrific, and I loved the dynamic of these sisters finding a way to salvage the defining pain of their separate lives and find a way forward together.

I’ve now read two books by this author duo, and look forward to more! There’s one more book I haven’t read that’s currently available (The Comeback Summer), and an upcoming new book to be released in 2025 (Battle of the Bookstores). I plan to read them both!

About the authors: Ali Brady is the pen name of writing BFFs Alison Hammer and Bradeigh Godfrey. The Beach Trap is their first book together. Alison lives in Chicago and works as a VP creative director at an advertising agency. She’s the author of You and Me and Us and Little Pieces of Me. Bradeigh lives with her family in Utah, where she works as a physician. She’s the author of the psychological thriller, Imposter.

Book Review: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

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Title: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Scribner
Publication date: June 6, 2023
Print length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China.

According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.

From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.

But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.

How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? A captivating story of women helping each other, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

Lisa See’s books are consistent hits for me, and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is no exception. I was hesitant about getting started, not sure if I was ready to go quite that far back in time. It should not have surprised me that this book was a compelling, excellent reading experience that pulled me in right from the start.

As the book opens, main character Yunxian is an eight-year-old girl, already learning from her mother about how to be a proper wife and fulfill her role as a woman in 15th-century noble Chinese society. When her mother, always referred to as Respectful Lady, dies of infection stemming from her bound feet, Yunxian is sent away to live with her grandparents, who begin training her as a doctor.

As Yunxian matures and then marries, her skills as doctor grow, but she’s limited in her ability to practice by the strict rules surrounding the family’s household, as dictated by society’s norms for the upper class and enforced by the iron rule of Yunxian’s mother-in-law. Her friendship with the midwife Meiling is frowned upon, as midwives are considered practically taboo — they’re necessary, yet because of their dealing with blood, are considered improper for a lady to associate with.

Without delving too deeply into plot, I’ll just say that Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is both an eye-opening exploration of the roles of women in that time and place, and a personal story of one particularly brave and talented woman, the effect she had on those around her, and the struggles with friendship, marriage, and motherhood she endured and overcame. While some of the details of individual encounters and scenes are purely fiction, Yunxian was a real person whose published works on medicine are considered groundbreaking — especially considering that they were written by a woman and focused on treating women, a field male doctors of that time had little interest or experience with.

The book sheds lights on customs that, to modern and Western eyes, seem not only archaic but cruel. In particular, the subject of foot-binding is covered extensively (as in the author’s earlier novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan). Some scenes can be hard to read, and it’s especially heartbreaking to read about a woman binding her own daughters’ feet, and to accept that in that society, it was an expected ritual of girlhood, crucial to being marriageable and viewed as a decent, honorable young woman.

Other elements are fascinating from a more historical/sociological perspective — learning about family structure, the running of a household, and of course, the practice of medicine at that time, especially since many of the basic tenets of Yunxian’s medical practice are still considered important elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The friendship between Yunxian and Meiling is especially moving. It’s not without conflict, as the two women’s very different stations in life lead to barriers that cause resentments and sorrows. Ultimately, though, it’s this relationship that provides one of the core emotional threads of the story.

Friendship is a contract between two hearts. With hearts united, women can laugh and cry, live and die together.

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a beautifully written look into the life of a fascinating woman, while also presenting an immersive reading experience about a time and place that’s so very different from our modern lives. I enjoyed every moment, and simply couldn’t put the book down once I started. Highly recommended — this book should not be missed!

Want to know more? Check out the wonderful resources available on the author’s website: https://lisasee.com/step-inside/traditions-and-culture/#welcome

Book Review: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

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Title: The Teller of Small Fortunes
Author: Julie Leong
Publisher: Ace
Publication date: November 5, 2024
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.

Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells “small” fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…

Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.

Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.

Cozy fantasy is having a moment — and I’m here for it! What’s not to love about tales of friendship and magic, usually with baked goods, cats, and other comfort symbols in the mix?

The Teller of Small Fortunes fits wonderfully into this cozy trend, with its emphasis on being true to those you love, being kind, and looking for good outcomes for as many people as possible.

As the book opens, Tao is a traveling fortune-teller — but as she makes clear, she only tells small fortunes. She provides simple, plain truths to the people who seek her advice; nothing life or death, just small visions of a person’s next steps, something to help them along their way.

We also learn that Tao is on the run. A Shinn (an ethnicity standing in for Chinese-born) in the land of Eshtera (essentially, a Caucasian-dominant kingdom), Tao stands out wherever she goes, and is often eyed with suspicion. When Tao was a child, her mother married an Eshteran nobleman and left Shinara behind. Tao has grown up with wealth and comfort, but never love or acceptance, and as her magical powers became apparent, was about to be forced into servitude in the Guild of mages. She fled before that could happen, and spends her time alone, on the road, always moving from village to village, fearful of the Guild catching up to her.

Tao’s life changes when she meets two travelers she initially takes for highwaymen. Instead, she learns that Mash and Silt are, respectively, a mercenary and a (mostly) reformed thief, searching for Mash’s young daughter who’s been missing for six months. When Tao reads Mash’s fortune, she sees a vision of father and daughter together, which gives Mash a much-needed infusion of hope. The trio decide to journey on together for a little while, and soon, a baker named Kina joins the traveling band.

… [H]er voice rose through the great room like the scent of fresh-baked pie, explaining the various intricacies of Lindisian baking, as the four of them finished a hearty and thoroughly warming supper, awash in the glow of a good day and the hopes of what tomorrow might bring.

Much of the story is about the group’s adventures on the road, as they search for Mash’s daughter, encounter kind and not-so-kind people during their travels, and ultimately, return to the kingdom’s capital where Tao must confront her fate.

The Teller of Small Fortunes is a quick, light read. There are some moments of danger, but the overall vibe is so warm and gentle that we never truly have to fear a bad outcome. The characters are given room to shine and to grow as individuals. Their companionship allows them to understand themselves, reflect, and to find ways to do and be better.

Plenty of small details stand out and add fun and warmth. Kina’s baking is absolutely delicious… but for whatever reason, anything she bakes looks terrible. The ongoing descriptions of her misshapen scones are really funny, but also, hearing about the smells of cinnamon and sugar made me ready to eat anything that comes out of her oven (regardless of how it looks).

Tao’s approach to fortune-telling is also lovely — her approach is gentle and honest, without hocus-pocus or showmanship. She has a gift, uses it to support herself, and helps people whenever she can.

The emphasis on found family and true friendship lends the book a deeper message beyond the fantasy story — while the fantasy elements are nicely established as well. Even the elements that are set up at the start as terrible or fear-inducing or threatening end up being not quite so bad, all in all.

“A troll,” repeated Mash grimly, hefting his mace out of its belt loop. “Did it attack you? Threaten violence; seize your goods?”

“Eh? No, of course not. It’s worse than that,” said the farmer. “It went and philosophized at us!”

The Teller of Small Fortunes has relatively low stakes, but a very big heart. It’s cozy and gentle, through and through, and makes for a sweet read. I was drawn to this book because of its beautiful, colorful cover, but stayed for the warmth of the story itself. If you’re looking for a bookish antidote to stress and gloom, The Teller of Small Fortunes is a great choice.

Audiobook Review: Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

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Title: Every Summer After
Author: Carley Fortune
Narrators: AJ Bridel
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 10, 2022
Print length: 320 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 38 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.

Book friends! I have a new romance author on my must-read list! Thanks to my recent audiobook experience with Every Summer After, I can safely say that I need to read ALL of Carley Fortune’s books.

In Every Summer After — the author’s debut — 30-year-old Persephone (Percy) Fraser is called back to the small town where she once spent ever summer, to attend the funeral of the mother of the boy she thought would always be by her side and in her life.

As a 13-year-old, Percy began spending summers in her family cabin at Barry’s Bay, next door to the Florek family, whose 13-year-old son Sam quickly became her best friend. As the years passed, Percy and Sam moved from friendship into romance, realizing that they’d had the good fortune to fall in with their soulmates at such an early age. While on different paths as their college years approached — Sam moving away for an intense premed program, Percy remaining in Toronto to study writing — they always expected to spend their lives together. Until something went very, very wrong.

Now adults, it’s been 12 years since Percy and Sam last saw one another or even spoke. Something terrible happened all those years ago — but what? As Percy arrives back in Barry’s Bay for the funeral, she’s both fearful and excited at the thought of seeing Sam again. But will he even want to see her? Can old wounds ever heal?

The book takes us back to Percy and Sam’s teen years, as chapters alternate between then and now. The “then” chapters are charming. The author’s depiction of 13-year-old friendship is sparkling and authentic, and as the two teens grow closer and begin to acknowledge deeper feelings, their dialogue, actions, and flirtation feel sweet and real. These chapters gave me The Summer I Turned Pretty vibes — not identical plotwise by any means, but just a really sweet portrait of young love, insecurities, playfulness, and teen conflict and pressure.

Meanwhile, the “now” chapters show how little Percy has gotten over Sam, despite all the years that have passed. She’s built a life and a career that seem fulfilling on the surface, but has never let anyone even close to her heart. Seeing Sam again brings all the old emotions flooding back, and he seems just as drawn to Percy as she is to him. But there are old hurts and secrets still to be unpacked, and Percy is afraid that it’s all much too late.

What can I say? I loved Every Summer After. The descriptions of the summers on the lake are so evocative of the beauty of being young and free and full of joy at everything life has to offer. There are ice cream cones and swimming, pizza parties and movies on DVD… the teen chapters are so full of nostalgia and warmth, and give off such happy vibes, even though we know that, eventually, something is going to ruin it all.

The adult chapters are harder emotionally, because Percy is clearly not okay, and whatever happened — which is only revealed in the book’s final chapters — must have been a doozy. We spend so much time seeing how much Sam and Percy love each other, so there’s a sense of dread as we get closer to the end, realizing that the bad thing, whatever it is, is coming soon.

Unlike many romance novels, the catastrophe between Sam and Percy feels believable. They’re teens, and yes, some of it has to do with poor communications, but those errors and mistaken assumptions and hurt feelings feel realistic for characters at that age. It made me very sad to realize where their relationship was heading, and we know from the start of the book that twelve years go by with no contact… but none of this feels like a contrivance for the sake of romance tropes.

Every Summer After packs an emotional punch, but includes so much joy and hope that the heartbreaking elements don’t weigh it all down. And of course, there’s the requisite HEA, but even knowing it will work out, it’s still a roller coaster until we get there.

The audiobook narration is terrific. I really appreciated how the narrator modulates her voice to reflect Percy’s age. Young Percy really does sound like a young teen, and her delivery, voice, and speech patterns are spot-on. As Percy grows up, summer after summer, her voice changes subtly as well. It’s all just so well done.

I truly enjoyed every moment of listening to Every Summer After, and immediately put myself on the hold list for the author’s other two available novels. Based on Every Summer After, I expect them to be great!

Audiobook Review: Better Than Fiction by Alexa Martin

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Title: Better Than Fiction
Author: Alexa Martin
Narrators: Nicole Lewis
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: November 8, 2022
Print length: 384 pages
Audio length: 8 hours 47 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased (paperback); library (audiobook)
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Love isn’t always by the books in this charming romantic comedy about a bookseller discovering how to be the main character in her story.

As a self-proclaimed book hater and a firm believer that the movie is always better, Drew Young didn’t anticipate inheriting her grandma’s bookstore, the Book Nook. She’s in way over her head even before the shop’s resident book club, comprising seven of the naughtiest old ladies ever, begin to do what they do best–meddle.

Bestselling author Jasper Williams is a hopeless romantic. When he meets Drew at his Book Nook signing event, he becomes determined to show her the beauty of reading. He curates a book bucket list in exchange for her help exploring the local Denver scene for his current manuscript. From river rafting to local restaurants, Drew begins to connect with Jasper in a way she only thought happened in fiction.

When messy family ties jeopardize the future of the Book Nook, Drew is caught between a bookshelf and a hard place. She’s reminded that real life isn’t always big dreams and sweeping romance. But Jasper is the plot twist she never saw coming and he’s writing a happily ever after just for them.

When I first encountered a recommendation for Better Than Fiction a couple of years ago, my initial reaction was “hard pass”. Why would I want to read about a main character who hates books? No thanks.

But then, on a recent visit to the Strand bookstore in New York, I gave into temptation and picked this up:

I knew I was taking a risk with a “blind date with a book”, but it was just so cute! And naturally, once I opened the wrapping and discovered that it was a book I didn’t think I wanted to read, I was hesitant… but that’s the thing about blind dates: Sometimes, you just see it through and hope for the best!

In this case, my blind date was a surprisingly great time! (Not that I’ve really been on blind dates IRL, but we all hear the horror stories). Better Than Fiction was a joyful, fast-paced read, and I enjoyed it way more than I expected to.

Because I tend to read romances as audiobooks, I borrowed the audio version of this one from the library, then used my paperback to bookmark and add sticky notes to places I wanted to remember. Win-win!

Okay, so the book itself: A year after her beloved grandmother Alice’s death, Drew has put her own plans and dreams on hold to keep Alice’s legacy alive. While some of Drew’s happiest memories are of time spent in the Book Nook, it was because of Alice and the time they spent together — not from a love of the books themselves

Drew herself is not a reader — from her perspective, why spend time on made-up stories when the real world has so much beauty in it? Her passion is the outdoors and nature photography, and she was just starting to make a name for herself and build her professional career when Alice’s death derailed all her plans. Drew feels an immense responsibility to make sure the Book Nook thrives, but she’s completely cut herself off from photography and her sources of joy in order to make it happen. On top of all that, she’s still reeling from Alice’s death and suffering grief that hasn’t eased with time — and her estranged father (who’s absolutely the worst) is making everything harder for her.

Luckily, Drew has a best friend, Elsie, in her corner, and unexpectedly reunites and forms a bond with her younger half-sister Daisy, who is nothing like her father (thank goodness). And then there’s the Dirty Birds — a group of seven older women whose book group focuses on romance novels, and who like nothing more than watching over Drew and trying to “fix” her life.

When the Dirty Birds arrange for bestselling romance author Jasper Williams to stop by the Book Nook for a signing, Drew is unimpressed… until he walks in the door and they get a good look at one another. Sparks fly. And while Drew isn’t looking for love or any sort of relationship, she and Jasper hit it off and seem drawn to one another right away. They make a deal: Drew will act as tour guide for Jasper, showing him some of her favorite outdoor destinations around Colorado as background for the new book he’s working on, and he’ll put together a list of books for Drew to read, paired with outings tied to the books, to help convince her that this reading thing is worth her time.

There are complications, of course, mainly related to the fate of the Book Nook and whether Jasper has been completely honest with Drew. Drew also learns that Alice’s intentions for her may have been different than what she originally thought, throwing her life plans into serious disarray.

As expected, there’s a third act major breakup, followed by the traditional grand gesture. Honestly, for once I’d like a contemporary romance that doesn’t follow this trajectory… but we have what we have. I thought the reasons for the breakup were a bit flimsy, and could have been worked out with some straightforward communication. (Poor communications in romance novels is a big peeve for me). Still, the grand gesture moment is charming, and there’s a very nice resolution to it all.

My only other real quibble with the book (and it’s fairly minor) is the reliance on slang like “obvi” and “def” (for definitely) that pops up throughout the book as part of Drew’s first-person narration. It may work better on the page, but in the audiobook, it sounds like a jarring wrong note. (Also, in one scene, she uses the word “cosign” — twice! — to mean agreeing with something, as in “‘She’s not wrong,’ Daisy cosigns…”, and I was not a fan!)

I really enjoyed the Colorado travel aspects of the story, and only wish there had been more of this. (Drew and Jasper go on three significant outings — more would have been even better!). Ditto re the reading list. Drew describes one or two of the books Jasper gives her to read (the first one sounds a lot like Daisy Jones & The Six), but doesn’t actually name them. I would have loved seeing Drew’s Reading List as an extra at the back of the book!

Narrator Nicole Lewis does a terrific job with the audiobook, really bringing Drew’s personality to life — from her innate sparkle to her grief and struggles, it all feels real and genuine.

Overall, I really enjoyed Better Than Fiction, which just goes to show that some blind dates can defy expectations and lead to good things!

A quartet of beautiful books: Slim volumes to enjoy (or give as gifts)

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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve carved out time to savor some of the slim, gift-worthy hardcovers that I’ve treated myself to recently. All are lovely in their own way. Read on for the details… maybe you’ll find an inspiration for the upcoming holiday season!

Note 1: The physical books themselves are all so gorgeous that I’m including a little gallery at the end, to give a sense — beyond the Goodreads-featured covers — of how special they all are.

Note 2: You may notice that I didn’t provide ratings in my write-ups below… that’s because I’d give each and every one 5 glowing stars!

The Imagination Chamber: Cosmic Rays from Lyra’s Universe by Philip Pullman: The Imagination Chamber is a collection of snippets, little bits and pieces of text from the author’s imagination that float through the worlds of His Dark Materials. Some pages contain just a sentence or two; some, a few paragraphs. There’s no overarching story, just a sampling of ideas. 

A daemon is not an animal, of course; a daemon is a person. A real cat, face to face with a daemon in cat form, would not be puzzled for a moment. She would see a human being.

I’ve seen some complaints from reviewers about what this book is not — it’s not a novel, or novella, or a short story. It truly is simple — just an assortment of bursts of imagination from the author’s mind, all of which tie into the series in some way. I can understand the frustration if these reviewers expected something other than what they got. As for me, I understood what to expect, and loved savoring this sampling of beautiful writing and ideas.

In Lyra’s world people got used to knowing that their daemons talked to other people’s daemons, and could perceive dislike, coldness, attraction, sympathy, etc, without their people saying a word, or while they were talking of something entirely different. Later their people might realize that (for example) they had made a lifelong enemy, or that they’d fallen in love.

Recommended for: Fans of the His Dark Materials series.

Details:
Published: 2019
Pages: 87

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke: What a surprising delight! This short, simple story is a fairy tale about a woman who finds true happiness in the forest, among the trees and animals who love her as much as she loves them. It’s odd and lovely, and the book itself is gorgeous, filled with black-and-white illustrations (by Victoria Sawdon) that add to the sense of enchantment.

Recommended for: Readers who enjoy thoughtful fairy tales, beautifully crafted illustrated stories.

Details:
Published: 2024
Pages: 64

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future by Octavia E. Butler: This slim book presents an essay (originally published in 2000) by the late, great Octavia Butler alongside absolutely gorgeous artwork (by Manzel Bowman). It’s short, succinct, and wise, and in relatively few words, conveys the author’s unique outlook.

Apollo 11 reached the moon in July 1969. I had already left home by then, and I believed I was watching humanity leave home. I assumed that we would go on to establish lunar colonies and eventually send people to Mars. We probably will do those things someday but I never imagined that it would take as long as it has. Moral: Wishful thinking is no more help in predicting the future than fear, superstition or depression.

The conclusion is especially powerful:

So why try to predict the future at all if it’s so difficult, so nearly impossible? Because making predictions is one way to give warning when we see ourselves drifting in dangerous directions. Because prediction is a useful way of pointing out safer, wiser, courses. Because, most of all, our tomorrow is the child of our today. Through thought and deed, we exert a great deal of influence over this child, even though we can’t control it absolutely. Best to think about it, though. Best to try to shape it into something good. Best to do that for any child.

Recommended for: Anyone, really — obviously for Butler fans, but more generally, for readers of speculative fiction, and anyone who appreciates smart, sharp writing paired with beautiful artwork.

Details:
Published: 2024
Pages: 56

How To Be Invisible by Kate Bush: A collection of the lyrics of the amazing Kate Bush, curated by the singer/songwriter herself. An introduction by the writer David Mitchell is a deeply personal and highly informative essay on the impact of Kate Bush’s work across the years of her career, and gives context and greater insight into many of her songs.

And if I only could
I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
If I only could

The book itself presents song lyrics, organized thematically into different sections. Some of these I knew and loved; many are new to me, and I enjoyed reading the words even while realizing that without the music, I wasn’t getting the full impact. But that’s okay — the words themselves are amazing to read.

I’d actually bought copies for myself and for my daughter a few years ago, but after a quick initial glance, put in on my shelf until “later”… which is finally now. In a wonderful case of serendipity, the author notes at the end of the Susanna Clarke book credit Kate Bush’s music as inspiration**, and that drove me to return to How To Be Invisible and finally take the time to savor it. (I haven’t read every single page yet — after the intro, I paged through and read lyrics randomly, and plan to keep the book on my reading table, to further explore at a leisurely pace.)

Recommended for: Kate Bush fans, of course, but also those who may only know her work in passing and are open to a deeper dive.

Details:
Published: 2018
Pages: 194

A gallery of images of these amazing books:

**She mentions several of my favorites, including Under Ice:

It’s wonderful
Everywhere
So white
The river has frozen over
Not a soul
On the ice
Only me
Skating fast
I’m speeding past trees leaving
Little lines
In the ice
Cutting out
Little lines
In the ice, splitting
Splitting sound
Silver heels spitting
Spitting snow
There’s something moving under
Under the ice
Moving under ice
Through water
Trying to get out of the cold water
It’s me
Something, someone — help them
It’s meSave

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Book Review: The Art of Leaving: A Memoir by Ayelet Tsabari

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Title: The Art of Leaving: A Memoir
Author: Ayelet Tsabari
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: February 1, 2019
Length: 317 pages
Genre: Memoir
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

An unforgettable memoir about a young woman who tries to outrun loss, but eventually finds a way home.

Ayelet Tsabari was 21 years old the first time she left Tel Aviv with no plans to return. Restless after two turbulent mandatory years in the Israel Defense Forces, Tsabari longed to get away. It was not the never-ending conflict that drove her, but the grief that had shaken the foundations of her home. The loss of Tsabari’s beloved father in years past had left her alienated and exiled within her own large Yemeni family and at odds with her Mizrahi identity. By leaving, she would be free to reinvent herself and to rewrite her own story.

For nearly a decade, Tsabari travelled, through India, Europe, the US and Canada, as though her life might go stagnant without perpetual motion. She moved fast and often because—as in the Intifada—it was safer to keep going than to stand still. Soon the act of leaving—jobs, friends and relationships—came to feel most like home.

But a series of dramatic events forced Tsabari to examine her choices and her feelings of longing and displacement. By periodically returning to Israel, Tsabari began to examine her Jewish-Yemeni background and the Mizrahi identity she had once rejected, as well as unearthing a family history that had been untold for years. What she found resonated deeply with her own immigrant experience and struggles with new motherhood.

Beautifully written, frank and poignant, The Art of Leaving is a courageous coming-of-age story that reflects on identity and belonging and that explores themes of family and home—both inherited and chosen.

I read Ayelet Tsabari’s beautiful first novel, Songs for the Brokenhearted, just a few months ago, and loved it. I haven’t been able to get that book out of my mind, and decided to give the author’s memoir a try as well.

In The Art of Leaving, the author shares moving stories from her life, from the loss of her father when she was just ten years old, through her years of wandering and distance as a young adult, and finally, her reconnecting with her roots, her family origins, and a side of herself that finds peace in staying put.

Leaving is the only thing I know how to do. That seemed to be the one stable thing in my life, the ritual of picking up, throwing out or giving away the little I have, packing and taking off. That was what home had become for me.

After the tragedy of her father’s death, Ayelet seemed to internalize the idea of leaving before being hurt, never truly connecting in relationships, never staying in one place for very long, skimming the surface of her own life. She leaves her family and home in Israel to travel, and spends years away, living on beaches in India and Thailand with whomever she happens to befriend, seeing life through a weed and acid haze, not particularly present or invested in much of anything.

Eventually, she finds a way back to her family, learns more about their shared history than what was known previously, and starts to reinvest in connecting with her Yemenite/Mizrachi heritage — the foods, spices, music, and language of her youth and her family’s past.

Many of the chapters in The Art of Leaving were published as essays elsewhere first; perhaps for that reason, the whole doesn’t necessarily feel cohesive in tone, and the book doesn’t entirely follow a chronological flow. Memories pop up in different times and in different ways; a chapter about life with her newborn daughter may suddenly give way to a story about her parents’ courtship.

I was less interested in the descriptions of her wanderings, the drugs, the beaches, the aimlessness. For me, stories of friendships made and abandoned along the way were much more compelling, and the chapters and scenes set within her family’s homes, showing their traditions and culture, were the best part of the book.

A chapter about cooking with her mother is a stand-out, but throughout the book, I found descriptions of experiences, places, and people that evoked a tangible sense of the author’s life in those moments.

The Art of Leaving is well-written and open-hearted. The author shares her thoughts and feelings on a deep level. I’m glad to have read it, although I have to say that it did not resonate as strongly for me as Songs for the Broken-Hearted (although that may have a lot to do with the fact that I’m a fiction reader through and through, and novels always have the biggest impact on me as a reader).

Readers who enjoy memoirs as a gateway into another person’s life and experiences will find a lot to appreciate in The Art of Leaving.

Novella review: Schemes & Scandals (A Rip Through Time, #3.5) by Kelley Armstrong

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Title: Schemes & Scandals
Series: A Rip Through Time, #3.5
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication date: October 31, 2024
Length: 176 pages
Genre: Historical fiction / mystery
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

It’s Mallory Atkinson’s first Christmas in Scotland. Victorian Scotland, that is. Also, as the twenty-first-century detective learns, Christmas really isn’t a thing in Victorian Scotland. It’s all about Hogmanay. But her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, treats her to an early gift of tickets to the event of the season: a Charles Dickens reading. There, they bump into Lady Inglis—the lovely widow who has sent Gray sexy letters trying to entice him back to her bed.

Lady Inglis introduces Mallory to Dickens—the meeting of a lifetime—but in return she wants their help. She’s being blackmailed. Someone stole letters she wrote to another lover and is threatening to publish them.

Mallory isn’t sure what to make of Lady Inglis, but no woman deserves that, so she insists on taking the case with or without Gray’s help. Growing tension between them soon tells Mallory that Gray is hiding a secret of his own. She has until Hogmanay to uncover the blackmailer…and, hopefully, to put things right with Gray so they can enjoy the holiday together.

Schemes & Scandals is a holiday treat that ties in perfectly with the A Rip Through Time series. In the series, 21st century detective Mallory ends up falling through time into Victorian Edinburgh, where she inhabits the body of a beautiful but nasty housemaid. (Trust me, it makes sense if you read the series from the beginning).

Here, following the 3rd full novel in the series, Mallory is well-established within the Gray household, working as an assistant to undertaker/scientist Duncan Gray, who has a side gig consulting with the police force. Duncan and his sister Isla know the truth about Mallory, and value her modern knowledge of forensics and police procedures as they apply science to Victorian crime scenes.

In Schemes & Scandals, Mallory and Duncan agree to help thwart a blackmailer who threatens a former lover of Duncan’s. The case is clever, and provides plenty of opportunities for Mallory to explore new aspects of Edinburgh society.

As a novella, Schemes & Scandals must fit a full detective story into a condensed amount of pages, and it succeeds admirably. The mystery/crime story is lots of fun — and since this novella is holiday-themed, the mood stays mostly upbeat, without endangering our heroes or involving them in anything too sinister.

The Christmas and Hogmanay elements are nice touches, and the encounter with Charles Dickens is a highlight — especially seeing Mallory’s expectations bumping up against the reality of a sold-out Victorian-era author appearance.

I am treated — if that’s the word — to the most gonzo reading a A Christmas Carol ever.

Schemes & Scandals is a great addition to a terrific series. I suppose someone could pick up this novella as a stand-alone and enjoy it, but they’d be missing a ton of context and character development. My recommendation? Start at the very beginning, with A Rip Through Time. Trust me — you won’t want to stop.

Book Review: So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

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Title: So Thirsty
Author: Rachel Harrison
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: September 10, 2024
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A woman must learn to take life by the throat after a night out leads to irrevocable changes in this juicy, thrilling novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Black Sheep.

Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn’t need a reminder she’s getting older, or that she’s feeling indifferent about her own life.

Her husband surprises her with a birthday weekend getaway—not with him, but with Sloane’s longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi.

Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes and strategic avoidance of issues she’d rather not confront, like her husband’s repeated infidelity. But when they arrive at their rental cottage, it becomes clear Naomi has something else in mind. She wants Sloane to stop letting things happen to her, for Sloane to really live. So Naomi orchestrates a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers, only for it to take a horrifying turn that changes Sloane’s and Naomi’s lives literally forever.

The friends are forced to come to terms with some pretty eternal consequences in this bloody, seductive novel about how it’s never too late to find satisfaction, even though it might taste different than expected.

Rachel Harrison’s books are always a (gruesome) treat, and So Thirsty is an absolute gem. This book lets us know right up front — hey, it’s on the cover! — that this is a vampire story. But the how and why of it all are just so perfectly developed that it’s not at all what you’d expect.

If there is a happy medium between being a resigned, mildly depressed thirty-six-year-old woman with a thankless job and cheating husband, and being an immortal vampire indulging her lust for blood and sex and her desire for love and excitement, it sure would be nice to find it.

We start with Sloane, a woman in her mid-30s, whose life is snug, secure, and unsatisfying. She’s committed to her multi-step daily skin routine, but the signs of aging keep creeping in anyway. Her husband Joel is a cheater, but she chooses not to confront him, preferring to avoid having to actually so something about it. When Joel sends her off on a surprise birthday weekend with her best friend Naomi, she’s startled and a bit disconcerted that he planned this for her… and rightfully suspicious that he has ulterior motives. (Note to cheaters: Don’t forget about that doorbell camera!)

Naomi arrives at their ultra-posh lakeside resort and immediately shakes things up. They’ve been best friends since their teens, but their lives have taken very different directions since then. Naomi works for an up-and-coming rockstar — who is also her boyfriend — and she’s impulsive, glamorous, and impatient with Sloane’s safe (boring) life. This is not the Sloane she once knew, and she wants to force her out of her complacency.

She does so by taking Sloane to a party with strangers they’ve just met. Behind the gates of their remote mansion, the strangers are welcoming and wild. Sloane fears they’ve stumbled into an orgy; Naomi urges her to unwind and let things happen. One of the men in particular seems to have an intense, instant connection to Sloane, but she’s skittish and reluctant to risk the safety of her cocooned life, no matter how much temptation is staring her in the face. However, all choice is soon taken from both Sloane and Naomi, as a terrifying moment leads to their transformation and the start of a new life for both women.

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that Sloane and Naomi become vampires isn’t particularly surprising, given the cover and blurb. What makes this interesting is their response and experiences. The need for blood is described as an intense thirst, and the thirst represents not just the literal requirement for blood as a life-sustaining substance, but all the elements missing from Sloane’s former life — the passion for excitement, taking risks, grabbing all that life has to offer. The thirst is what Sloane will need to both embrace and control if she’s to have any sort of future at all, and to do so, she’ll have to break down the careful barriers she’s put up over the years.

I loved the insights into both Sloane and Naomi as individuals, as well as their shared dynamic. Their bond is threatened to the point of almost breaking, but ultimately it’s their love for one another that keeps them going, even in the worst of moments.

My main quibble with So Thirsty is that the vampires they encounter are introduced as a group, and there isn’t all that much to differentiate one from another. Beyond that, a few seem a bit too stereotypically vampire-y — are they intentionally aping a vampire vibe, or is this just who they are? (And also, I could definitely have done without the orgy… )

Quibbles aside, I thought the complicated relationship between Sloane and Naomi was particularly well done. Their shared history means they know each other better than anyone else, but also leads to possibly unreasonable expectations. They each want the other to pursue better options and live their best lives — but their perspectives on what that might look like aren’t actually in sync.

Does that sound less bloody than what you’d expect in a vampire novel? Never fear! Those looking for classic horror elements won’t be disappointed — yes, there’s introspection and a focus on relationships, but there’s also plenty of blood and gore. Really, lots and lots of blood and gore. Violent incidents are used to startling, scary effect, and there are a few characters met along the way who are simply terrifying.

So Thirsty is a totally absorbing read, and such a blast for readers (like me) who’ve read tons of vampire stories already, and are hungry (thirsty?!) for a new twist. So Thirsty is not quite as great as Such Sharp Teeth or Cackle, but I still enjoyed it immensely. A bloody good read for these creepy days of late October!