Book Review: The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima (Classics Club Spin #38)

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Sound of Waves
Author: Yukio Mishima
Publication date: 1954
Length: 183 pages
Rating:

Set in a remote fishing village in Japan, The Sound of Waves is a timeless story of first love. It tells of Shinji, a young fisherman and Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. Shinji is entranced at the sight of Hatsue in the twilight on the beach and they fall in love. When the villagers’ gossip threatens to divide them, Shinji must risk his life to prove his worth.

I’ve had The Sound of Waves on my Classics Club spin list since I first started participating a couple of years ago, and I was so happy that its number finally came up!

Here’s why: I first read The Sound of Waves eons ago in a World Lit class in high school, and I remember loving it at the time. The main thing I remembered is that the class reading list seemed to consist of tragedy after tragedy. The whole time we were reading The Sound of Waves, I was holding my breath waiting for something terrible to happen… and it never did. Instead, it was a gentle, lovely story about first love, and it even had a happy ending.

I’ve always thought back on that book with warm feelings, and have wondered whether I’d still appreciate it all these years later. I’ve been wanting to reread it, and just needed a little push to do so… which the Classics Club spin provided.

In The Sound of Waves, the story centers on a small island called Uta-Jima, a fishing village that’s self-contained and bound by traditions, seemingly set apart from the larger world. Although it’s set in the post-war years (and was originally published in 1954), it’s easy to forget and imagine that the story is set much, much earlier. Every so often, reminders of the outside world and its modernity appear, and often feel startling. For the daily lives of the villagers, governed by the tides and the fishing seasons, we can easily imagine that nothing has change for centuries.

Shinji, the elder of two boys, is not yet twenty years old, but is responsible for his mother and brother, ever since his father’s death during the war. Shinji is large and strong, a devoted son, and earnest in his commitment to his family, his employer, the gods, and the people of the island. He’s struck by immediate love when he meets Hatsue, daughter of the wealthiest man on the island. Hatsue has lived away from the island for many years, but when she returns, her beauty and her father’s position make her the most sought after girl, especially since her father has declared that he intends to adopt her potential husband into his family.

Shinji and Hatsue’s love is sincere and pure, but when they become fodder for island gossip, Hatsue’s father bans them from seeing one another and forbids Hatsue to even leave the house. But despite the challenges and the odds stacked against them, they remain true to one another… and yes, there’s a happy ending.

The Sound of Waves is quite lovely, especially in its depiction of the natural beauty of the island and the seas. The author paints pictures with his words, showing us the changing seasons, the trees and plants and fish, the wave patterns, the steep hills and beautiful views that make up the setting.

From time to time the dying fire crackled a little. They heard this sound and the whistling of the storm as it swept past the high windows, all mixed with the beating of their hearts. To Shinji it seemed as though this unceasing feeling of intoxication, and the confused booming of the sea outside, and the noise of the storm among the treetops were all beating with nature’s violent rhythm. And as part of his emotion there was the feeling, forever and ever, of pure and holy happiness.

He also brings to life the villagers themselves, through simple dialogue, descriptions of routines and interactions, and quick sketches that show the inner nature of the people we meet. I particularly enjoyed scenes of the diving women, although the scenes on the fishing boats are also action-packed and compelling.

My one complaint, which is probably irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, is that there are a lot of descriptions of breasts! So many varieties, so many details… I could have done without all this, but that’s really my only quibble.

Other than that… The Sound of Waves is a beautifully written novel, and I’m happy that rereading this book proved to me that it is just as good as I’d remembered!

Once again, a very good outcome from a Classics Club spin.

30Aug2024

Book Review: Songs for the Broken-Hearted by Ayelet Tsabari

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Songs for the Broken-Hearted
Author: Ayelet Tsabari
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: September 10, 2024
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A young Yemeni Israeli woman learns of her mother’s secret romance in a dramatic journey through lost family stories, revealing the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter—the debut novel of an award-winning literary voice.

“A gorgeous, gripping novel filled with unforgettable characters.”—Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantika

1950. Thousands of Yemeni Jews have immigrated to the newly founded Israel in search of a better life. In an overcrowded immigrant camp in Rosh Ha’ayin, Yaqub, a shy young man, happens upon Saida, a beautiful girl singing by the river. In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, they fall in love. But they weren’t supposed to; Saida is married and has a child, and a married woman has no place befriending another man.

1995. Thirty-something Zohara, Saida’s daughter, has been living in New York City—a city that feels much less complicated than Israel, where she grew up wishing that her skin was lighter, that her illiterate mother’s Yemeni music was quieter, and that the father who always favored her was alive. She hasn’t looked back since leaving home, rarely in touch with her mother or sister, Lizzie, and missing out on her nephew Yoni’s childhood. But when Lizzie calls to tell her their mother has died, she gets on a plane to Israel with no return ticket.

Soon Zohara finds herself on an unexpected path that leads to shocking truths about her family—including dangers that lurk for impressionable young men and secrets that force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, her heritage, and her own future.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted is a beautiful look into women’s lives, intergenerational misunderstandings and traumas, and the hidden histories of women’s communities and their art. Above all, it’s the story of a woman processing grief over the loss of a mother she never fully knew, learning more about herself through learning about her mother’s life.

It’s 1995, and Zohara is on a break from her doctoral program in New York, vacationing in Thailand, when she’s summoned back home to Israel with the news that her mother Saida has died. The youngest daughter in this Yemeni Israeli family, Zohara has felt disconnected from her homeland and her family, and has never really known her mother in a deep way.

Upon her return, Zohara is confronted by just how much she may have missed, as she begins to learn more about Saida’s role within the family and community, and discovers tapes of her beautiful singing. As Zohara eventually learns, Saida wrote her own songs — and within the world of Yemeni Jewish women, singing is the art form that allows expression, creativity, and emotion, especially important for the immigrant generation who arrived in Israel with limited or no knowledge of Hebrew and were illiterate, as learning was the domain of men.

Through Zohara, we learn more about the history of the Yemeni community within Israel, and as we meet others in her family, we also see the extreme political upheaval of the time. The Oslo accords had only recently been signed, and while Yitzhak Rabin is seen as a hero by some, there’s an increasingly strident and violent opposition building, deeply opposed to the planned concessions of the peace process.

Meanwhile, interspersed with Zohara’s experiences, we have chapters sets in 1950, told from the perspective of Yakub, a young man who meets Saida in the immigrant camp to which they’re assigned upon arrival in Israel from Yemen. Amidst the squalor and deprivations of the camp and the discrimination experienced by the new immigrants, Yakub and Saida find an unexpected connection, as he hears her singing by the river, and they bond over their love of words.

Through Yakub and Saida’s story, as well as the dominant storyline focused on Zohara, we get an inside view of the experience of Yemeni immigrants to Israel, including the horrifying (and real) events surrounding the disappearance of Yemeni children and other children of Jewish immigrants from Arab countries. And yet, there’s also the uplifting elements as we see more of the Yemeni culture, from food to music to family traditions, language, observances, and more.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted is truly a beautiful book, telling a powerful story about family connections and secrets, and showing how grief in its many forms can change the course of individual lives and carry down through generations.

Zohara’s story is affecting, and while it can be frustrating as a reader to see this smart woman make unwise choices, we can easily understand how her loss turns her life upside down and leads her down unexpected paths. Grief also leads to renewed hope, as only through her loss does Zohara come to discover and then immerse herself in the world of women’s songs that was so important to Saida. Through these songs and the community of women who keep them alive, Zohara finds new meaning, learns deeper truths about her mother, and even manages to reignite the passion missing from her academic life.

As Zohara reimmerses herself in family, she also reengages with Israel itself, and is there to witness the upheaval and divisions that culminate in Rabin’s assassination. It’s very heavy, and for readers familiar with that chapter of history, the inevitability of the coming violence can be very painful to experience alongside the characters.

What I loved most about Songs for the Broken-Hearted is the tangible, evocative way the author shares the Yemeni culture. References to specific foods and spices, particular singers and pieces of music — all bring this world to life in a way that feels immersive and immediate.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted is powerful on so many levels, and is an absorbing work of fiction that pulls the reader in right from the start. I loved the cultural aspects as well as the exploration of family bonds, the relationships between mothers and children, and the process of grief and healing.

Highly recommended.

Songs for the Broken-Hearted is author Ayelet Tsabari’s debut novel. She’s previously published a collection of stories (The Best Place on Earth), and a memoir, The Art of Leaving, which I’d especially like to read.

For a taste of Yemeni women’s music, check out the samples below (or search for Yemenite music by Ofra Haza or Gila Beshari, as a starting place — there’s much more available with a bit of looking):

28Aug2024

Book Review: The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Night Guest
Author: Hildur Knútsdóttir
Translated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication date: September 3, 2024
Length: 208 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Hildur Knutsdottir’s The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that’s sure to keep you awake at night.

Iðunn is in yet another doctor’s office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something’s not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven’t revealed any cause.

When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same ― have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps.

Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . .

What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?

This Icelandic horror novel first came to my attention through Mary Robinette Kowal, who apparently met the author, read the book (in Icelandic!), and then asked to translate it once she learned that it wasn’t available yet in English. Thanks to MRK’s involvement, The Night Guest is being published by Tor Nightfire in September — and it’s sure to be a hit with anyone who loves creepy, ambiguous horror stories.

The main character, Iðunn, wakes up exhausted every day. Not just the kind of exhausted that comes from a rough night’s sleep, but with aching muscles and body pains. Everything hurts. But doctor after doctor find nothing wrong with her. She suspect ALS or other frightening diseases, but when her blood work all comes back fine, it’s not a relief. Something is wrong… and no one can tell her what.

Socially, Iðunn is a little awkward, always feeling like an outsider. We learn much more about her background and why her family and social life are the way they are — but I appreciated the way the information unfolds and offers an unexpected twist, so I won’t reveal it here.

Eventually, Iðunn takes even more drastic measures to figure out what’s going on at night and to make it stop. Her efforts to stop it fail in rather spectacular, dramatic ways, and she progresses from waking up sore to waking up bloody and injured — still without knowing why.

Without revealing too much else about the plot, I’ll just say that the tension builds in a way that get more and more disturbing, and as the clues to Iðunn’s nightly experiences pile up, we find ourselves increasingly at a loss to explain it all. Is it psychosis, as one doctor believes? Is it something otherworldly acting upon her? I wasn’t quite sure where I landed on these questions at the end of the book — I like clean answers, and the book doesn’t provide a simple solution. We’re left to sort out what we ourselves think might have happened — which is disturbing, yet very effective.

The storytelling is terrific. What seems straightforward at the start becomes more complicated as we go along. The horror elements creep in when least expected, until it all becomes more explicitly horrifying by the end.

Iðunn is a great example of an unreliable narrator, and we’re left to wonder right alongside her just what the hell is going on. It’s a unique story, and the short length of the book (just over 200 pages) keeps it tight and fast-moving.

The Night Guest becomes more gory and violent by the end; earlier, it leans more toward psychological horror. I’m so glad I got to experience this unusual gem, and recommend for anyone who enjoys questionable lead characters and weird, terrifying premises. If you’re a horror fan, don’t miss this one!

Final note: As an added bonus, the use of technology (especially the fitness tracker) is awesome! Also, I don’t believe I’ve ever read an Icelandic book before, and I loved the setting, the names, and the overall vibe.

25Aug2024

Book Review: It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: It Ends with Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: 2016
Length: 386 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Borrowed
Rating:

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

Well, at least I can say that I’ve read a CoHo book…

I was pretty sure, based on everything I’ve heard, that Colleen Hoover’s books would not be for me. But the movie version of It Ends with Us has been generating so much buzz (negative and positive), and a friend was super excited to lend me this book… so yes, I finally read a Colleen Hoover book, and it went about as well as I’d expected.

Let me just note, right up front, that it is not okay that the synopsis of the book does not make the key point explicit: This book includes scenes of emotional and physical partner abuse and domestic violence. Readers need to know that ahead of time.

I’m not even sure what to say about this book. It’s the story of 23-year-old Lily, living on her own in Boston, who dreams of opening her own flower shop. She meets a gorgeous neurosurgeon on the roof of a building one night, and they start a game of “naked truths”, where they tell each other major secrets that they wouldn’t normally share with anyone. He’s not a relationship guy at all, but one of his naked truths is that he’d be happy to have a one-night stand with her (although he doesn’t phrase it quite that way). She’s looking for love, not sex, so it’s a no… but she’s mighty tempted.

As their paths continue to cross, the attraction grows, and eventually they do fall into a passionate relationship, but there are all sorts of warning signs.

Oh, why am I bothering to recap this book? Here’s what you need to know (spoilers ahead!):

Lily grew up with an abusive father who regularly beat, berated, and raped her mother.
Lily’s never forgotten her first love.
Ryle does a lot of love-bombing, and bursts into violence when he’s angry (although he claims that he blacks out when it happens)
Ryle is physically abusive to Lily, and she eventually leaves him, even though she loves him.

So much of the plot makes no sense. Randomly moving from least offensive to much more offensive… Lily’s flower shop, for one thing — she opens a business in Boston, with no business plan or firm idea of what to do, has a ridiculous description of the aesthetic she’s going for, and yet is instantly, wildly successful.

Ryle’s sister becomes Lily’s best friend and first employee, totally redecorates Lily’s business, and provides whatever Lily needs, whenever she needs. She’s also described as never having had a job in her life, because her husband struck it mega-rich in tech… but really, she’s a grown woman who’s been rich for only a few years and never even had a part-time job?

Lily’s teenaged diaries are written as letters to Ellen DeGeneres. Why? There’s a reason provided, but it’s odd and unnecessary. We learn about her relationship with Atlas through these diaries, which later become something that ignites Ryle’s rage. (Also, the author seems to gloss over the fact that 15-year-old Lily enters into a romantic and sexual relationship with an 18-year-old, I guess because he’s so special and awesome? Just, no.)

After Ryle hits Lily for the first time, she forgives him after warning him that if anything like that every happens again, she’ll dump him. And then they move forward, and all is well and happy and she’s super in love, and they even have a spur-of-the-moment wedding in Las Vegas… but at no point does relationship counseling get mentioned.

We eventually learn about the childhood trauma that’s shaped Ryle, but if his anger is so uncontrollable, how does he function as a neurosurgeon?

Okay, that’s enough rambling. I did not enjoy this book, so why did I give it 2 stars?

If you’d asked me early on, I would have said that 1 star, or maybe 1.5, would be the highest I’d go, and despite how awful I think most of the book is, it was oddly compelling too. My experience reading It Ends with Us was similar to my experience reading Fifty Shades of Grey (yes, I read it…) — I was aware that it was not good, but I also wanted to see where the story went.

I will say that by the end, I could see how the messaging around domestic violence and the exploration of the emotions involved could be important to share. Lily absolutely loves Ryle, and through her first-person narration, we see the inner turmoil she goes through in trying to sort out her love for her husband, dealing with the memories of what she witnessed in her parents’ marriage, and understanding what safety and trust mean for her going forward.

Still, the ending of the book leaves Lily and Ryle in a place that feels unrealistically positive. They’re divorced, but share a child, and their custody arrangements seem courteous… but how does Lily know that she can trust Ryle with their baby? She makes the decision to leave him to end the cycle of violence that she experienced and to create a healthy life for her daughter, but how does that ensure that his anger won’t explode in the future, with Lily, her daughter, or someone else?

Finally, I’ll just mention that the sex scenes earlier in the book, when they’re first falling in love, are unappealingly explicit. There’s one in particular, where he uses a stethoscope to monitor her racing heart rate as she gets more and more into it — I’m sure it’s meant to be hot, but it’s actually just icky.

Clearly, I did not like this book. But I finished it, and it held my attention… so 2 stars seems fair.

And — I hate to even admit this — I’m probably going to read the follow up book (It Starts with Us) too. Maybe some of my complaints will be addressed! Maybe I just need to see if it’s as ridiculous as this one is. Maybe I just can’t help gawking at a train wreck.

23Aug2024

Book Review: The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Wind Knows My Name
Author: Isabel Allende
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: June 6, 2023
Length: 253 pages
Genre: Historical/contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

This powerful and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea weaves together past and present, tracing the ripple effects of war and immigration on one child in Europe in 1938 and another in the United States in 2019.

Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht—the night their family lost everything. Samuel’s mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin.

Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home.

Anita’s case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco’s top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

Spanning time and place, The Wind Knows My Name is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers—and never stop dreaming.

The Wind Knows My Name is a compact but powerful story about lost children, sorrow, and resilience. It’s also quite political, which I didn’t have a problem with, but some may readers may wish to know that the author is very up front in her thoughts on a certain former President and the current, ongoing immigration crisis.

But beyond the politics and the highly charged topics, The Wind Knows My Name is deeply affecting because of the individual characters, their painful childhood experiences, and the way unexpected connections help them forge new paths forward.

The book opens in Vienna, 1938, as the horrors of Kristallnacht unfold. For young Samuel Adler, it’s the night his whole world falls apart. Eventually, to save his life, Samuel’s mother sends him off to England on a train filled with other Jewish children — and while Samuel does go on to live a long and fulfilling life, the early trauma never leaves him.

Later, we meet Leticia, a Salvadoran girl whose father crosses the border into the US with her after their entire family is murdered in the massacre of their small village.

And still later, closer to the present day, we meet Anita — also from El Salvador, cruelly separated from her mother at the border as they seek asylum from extreme danger back home.

As these three people come together, with assistance from Selena, a social worker, and Frank, the ambitious lawyer who finds his true calling in pro bono work helping undocumented children, their complicated pasts offer reflections of commons experiences, even while each has suffered in their own unique and unforgettable way.

At less than 300 pages, The Wind Knows My Name is a fast read, especially as it’s so compelling that it’s difficult to pause and come up for air once you start. Each character’s story is absorbing and tragic, and yet, there are rays of hope in each of their stories as well — even more so as they come together in an unusual but lovely found family.

My main quibble with this book has to do with the storytelling itself. Isabel Allende is a masterful writer and has a beautiful way with words, and she’s highly gifted when it comes to evoking her characters’ inner lives, dreams, and nightmares. However, the writing in this book relies too often on telling rather than showing. Especially in the later chapters, new interludes open with a recitation of what the characters have been doing. We don’t see these events unfold; we hear about them after the fact.

The story itself and what the characters experience is never uninteresting, but there’s a distance because of this narrative approach that left me feeling the emotional impact a little less than I’d expected.

I also felt disappointed that Samuel’s adult life is largely skipped and told in summary after the fact, when we meet up with him again in his 80s. I couldn’t help but feel that there was so much more to see and understand. Given the length of the book, perhaps there wasn’t room to go deeper into the characters’ lives, except in terms of how they all connect, but I wished for more, for Samuel and the others. The Wind Knows My Name might have been more satisfying if it had expanded further on all of the characters and let us go deeper into their worlds.

Overall, however, the events and experiences contained within The Wind Knows My Name are deeply moving, and I came to care deeply about all of its people and the relationships they create and nurture.

Highly recommended.

21Aug2024

Book Review: My Calamity Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: My Calamity Jane
Series: The Lady Janies, #3
Author: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication date: June 2, 2020
Length: 544 pages
Genre: Young adult
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Welcome to 1876 and a rootin’-tootin’ America bursting with gunslingers, outlaws, and garou.

JANE (a genuine hero-eene)

Calamity’s her name, and garou hunting’s her game—when she’s not starring in Wild Bill’s Traveling Show, that is. She reckons that if a girl wants to be a legend, she should just go ahead and be one.

FRANK (*wolf whistle*)
Frank “the Pistol Prince” Butler is the Wild West’s #1 bachelor. He’s also the best sharpshooter on both sides of the Mississippi, but he’s about to meet his match. . . .

ANNIE (get your gun!)
Annie Oakley (yep, that Annie) is lookin’ for a job, not a romance, but she can’t deny there’s something about Frank she likes. Really likes. Still, she’s pretty sure that anything he can do, she can do better.

A HAIRY SITUATION
After a garou hunt goes south and Jane finds a suspicious-like bite on her arm, she turns tail for Deadwood, where there’s been talk of a garou cure. But things ain’t always what they seem—meaning the gang better hightail it after her before they’re a day late and a Jane short.

The Lady Janies books are quickly becoming my go-to cheer-me-up reads… and the 3rd in the series, My Calamity Jane, absolutely hits the spot!

In this cheeky, silly reimagining of Wild West legends, Wild Bill Hickok’s traveling show is highly entertaining, super popular… and a front for a band of garou (werewolf) hunters. Calamity Jane herself is a 17-year-old who’s an ace at performing tricks with a bullwhip, and she’s also devoted to Wild Bill, who gave her a family when she had nowhere else to turn. Bill’s son Frank is Jane’s brother and best friend, and the tight-knit band travels from town to town, putting on great shows and dealing with garous who threaten public safety.

Things take a turn for the terrible when Jane is bitten during an attempt to bring down the garou Alpha, and their lives only get more complicated from there. Between fast-talker Annie Oakley insisting on joining their crew and the persistent attentions of a young woman reporter (who goes incognito as a young man, because writing just ain’t a career path for a woman, doncha know), Jane and the gang have to move and think fast… and their lives get even more dangerous once Jane decides to run off to Deadwood in pursuit of a rumored garou cure.

Ah, this book is fun! Lots of familiar names and places pop up — but if you’re like me, it’s helpful to keep Wikipedia handy too. I never watched the Deadwood TV series (although now I’m tempted!), and had only passing familiarity with most of these real-life people — so looking into their stories was a huge boost while reading My Calamity Jane.

Note: I do have a vague recollection of listening to some of the songs from the musical Annie, Get Your Gun as a child. Does anyone — besides devoted theater kids — still know this show? Parts of it looks really offensive, based on looking at the movie trailer, so I kind of hope not. Anyway, I digress…

The writing in My Calamity Jane, as in the other Lady Janies, is funny, tongue-in-cheek, and quite silly. The narrators pop in to comment throughout, which is always good for a laugh.

“Mama!” Annie turned around, horrified. “He’s near forty years old! He’s ancient”—(at this point, your faithful and likewise ancient narrators die inside)—“and he’s already married.”

The werewolf storyline fits surprisingly well within a Western setting, and the main villain of the piece offers some clever surprises (plus lots of sneering and manipulation). Even the portrayal of henchmen and lackeys is funny.

Jack McCall straightened his spine (although your narrators don’t know how he did it, considering we are pretty sure he was spineless).

The story includes a couple of quirky love stories, as well as shoot-’em-up action sequences and some familiar-sounding rivalry.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy herself. She put on her sweetest smile. “Anything you can do, Mr. Butler,” she said, “I can do better.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can.”

While the page count might seem a little much at the outset, trust me — it moves quickly. Even when we get the sadder moments of learning the characters’ backstories and childhood traumas, we’re never more than a page or two away from an exchange to lighten the mood.

“Oh, no,” gasped Winnie. “Oh, no, no, no. A story like this takes time.”

Frank drew out his pocket watch. “You’ve got, like, two hours.”

Jane snorted. “That’s loads of time. A person could write a whole book in two hours.” (To which we, as the narrators, say no. A person can’t. And now we’re crying a little.)

Plain and simple, My Calamity Jane is a hoot, just like the rest of the books in the series. The Lady Janies all work as stand-alones (or at least, the ones I’ve read so far do). So, if the Wild West isn’t necessarily your thing, but you’re a Jane Eyre fan, start with My Plain Jane, or if you love Tudor history, pick up My Lady Jane. You get the point — pick one that appeals to you, see if you like the approach, and then give the rest a try!

For me, I’m ready to dive into the Mary books!

And I’ll close with the words of Calamity Jane… just because she makes me laugh:

“Frank! Get the lead out! Annie! Get your gun!”

15Aug2024

Book Review: The Thirteenth Husband by Greer Macallister

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Thirteenth Husband
Author: Greer Macallister
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication date: August 6, 2024
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Based on a real woman from history, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets The Haunting of Hill House in this fictional tell-all narrated by the glamorous Aimee Crocker, revealing everything from her mischievous days in German finishing school to dinners with Hawaiian royalty to lavish Astor parties in Manhattan. But behind Aimee’s public notoriety, there’s private pain.

When Aimee is ten years old, as the night dips into the witching hour, the Woman in White appears to her. Minutes later, Aimee’s father is dead—and Aimee inherits a fortune. But the Woman in White never really leaves Aimee, appearing as a sinister specter before every tragedy in her life. Despite Aimee’s wealth, her cross-continental travels, and her increasingly shocking progression through husbands, Aimee is haunted by the unidentifiable Woman’s mysterious motivations.

Tearing through millions of dollars, four continents, and a hearty collection of husbands, real-life heiress Aimee Crocker blazed an unbelievable trail of public scandal, private tragedy, and the kind of strong independent woman the 1880s had never seen. Her life was stranger than fiction and brighter than the stars, and she whirled through her days as if she was being chased by something larger than herself. Greer Macallister brilliantly takes us into her world and spins a tale that you won’t soon forget.

I’d never heard of Aimee Crocker before coming across this new historical novel by talented author Greer Macallister — but I suppose if I’d been around in the 1880s, there’d be no avoiding her. I get the feeling Aimee Crocker was Paris Hilton or Kardashian-level tabloid fodder back in her day. Her every move was analyzed, gossiped over, and fed through the scandal and rumor mill.

Amy (as she was originally named) was the daughter of an extremely wealthy man, and at age 10, upon her father’s death, inherited $10 million — in today’s economy, that would be equivalent to upwards of $275 million.

Amy was never exactly sedate, but in her earlier years, it seemed her mother at least attempted to keep her in line with society expectations. As portrayed in The Thirteenth Husband, Amy marries her first husband after he wins her in a poker game (well, he wins the right to propose to her) — and Amy, always up for adventure, decides to go along with it.

She’s quite the free spirit, as we see over and over again throughout The Thirteenth Husband. Not only does Amy divorce her husband at a time when being a divorcée is considered shameful, she remarries, travels the world, takes and discards lovers, loses custody of her child in an ugly court case, gets tattooed, and embraces Buddhism, spiritualism, and even the occult.

Images of Amy (miscellaneous sources via Google)

The Thirteenth Husband is written as a first-person account of Amy’s life, through her ups and downs and many marriages. Her life is very much influenced by her interactions with a ghostly presence who visits her in her dreams and seems to offer warnings of loss and disaster. These dream visits propel Amy to seek out palm readers, mediums, and other spiritualists throughout her life, as she seeks the key to understanding her purpose and the hidden messages from the Woman in White.

It’s an interesting character study, as well as a look at the life of someone who refuses to play by society’s rules — and the good and bad outcomes that she faces as a result. Of course, it’s her millions that give her the freedom to behave as she does — someone without that huge fortune (and the power it conveys) could never have gotten away with these types of escapades.

She does make very questionable choices about men and marriage, and in fact (or at least, in the fictionalized version of her life), she only truly marries for love once out of all her relationships. (And no, she doesn’t actually have thirteen husbands… but there’s a reason for the book’s title).

I enjoyed The Thirteenth Husband, but it didn’t quick click for me as a flowing narrative. Amy herself is fascinating, of course, but the book feels very episodic. Each episode is interesting, especially when we learn that many of the most sensational events actually occurred in real life (such as a deadly train crash on her first honeymoon and the kidnapping of her daughter during her divorce proceedings). Still, each episode ends and the story moves on, and it can be difficult to see the connections between parts of her life or how they change her over time.

I’m glad to have read The Thirteenth Husband, and appreciated reading the author’s notes on sources and where she embellished versus sticking to the documented history. It’s also fun to learn that Amy herself was an author! During her lifetime, she published both a book of stories (which she refers to as “fantasies”) and a memoir (which has a defiant name that I love).

Moon-Madness and Other Fantasies is free to read/download via Project Gutenberg. (It’s quite short — I read it in one sitting, and was enchanted get a glimpse of Aimee’s imagination)
And I’d Do It Again: Aimee’s memoir, available through the usual new and used book sources. I definitely want to read it! Especially based on this preview of the opening pages:

I’m so glad to have been introduced to this remarkable woman through The Thirteenth Husband!

14Aug2024

Book Review: The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War, #1) by James S. A. Corey

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Mercy of Gods
Series: The Captive’s War, #1
Author: James S. A. Corey
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: August 6, 2024
Length: 433 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end.

The Carryx—part empire, part hive—have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin.

Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them.

They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to survive: learning to understand—and manipulate—the Carryx themselves.

With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers.

Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people.

This is where his story begins.

I’m not sure how an author (or in this case, an author duo) manages to start something new after completing what could easily be considered their magnum opus. Fortunately for readers, James S. A. Corey has done just that, and have published their first novel since the conclusion of The Expanse series. And it’s a doozy.

The Mercy of Gods opens by introducing us to humans on their home world, Anjiin. No one quite knows how humans ended up on this planet**, whose native flora and fauna are not compatible with human biology — but there they are, and have been for thousands of years. As the story opens, another year of scientific achievement is wrapping up with a celebration, and no one is more lauded than rockstar scientist Tonner Freis and his team of researchers.

**I’m sure this is just me going off on a wild goose chase, but could these humans on Anjiin have originally passed through the gate in the Expanse series to a new world? Perhaps this is all happening several thousand years later… just a thought.

Trouble looms when lowly research assistant Dafyd Alkhor catches wind that their team may be acquired and split up by rival labs. That devastating news is quickly overshadowed by a world-changing cataclysm, as Anjiin is attacked and quickly defeated by the invading forces of the Carryx — proving for the first time that humans are not alone in the universe.

The Carryx are vastly superior in technology and firepower, and humans don’t stand a chance. The research team and countless others are rounded up, taken aboard a Carryx ship, and transported back to their world, where the nature of their new lives soon becomes apparent. The Carryx evaluate humans and all other captive species by one metric — how useful are they? If Dafyd and the others want to survive, they have to demonstrate their utility. Species that can’t or won’t live up to this standard are eliminated. There’s no mercy, there’s no kindness — and hope seems pointless. Humans are chattel; Carryx see them as animals, just the same as the many other species they’re penned up with.

As the first in a series, The Mercy of Gods has a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of world building, and this is literally the case as life on Anjiin is established, as is the new world the human captives find themselves in after being captured. It’s a lot to take in, and requires a great deal of concentration, but it’s well worth the effort.

The plot of The Mercy of Gods is complicated, and the authors throw a lot at readers right from the start, with terminology and structures and societal norms introduced without explanation. We can figure it out, eventually, but at least for me, it was a struggle for the first third or so of the book to find a rhythm. (Oddly, once the alien invasion begins, I found the plot and writing easier to follow, and ended up completely immersed.)

Does The Mercy of Gods live up to The Expanse? Well, it’s probably not fair to compare the first book in a series to a series that’s already complete. Still, I have opinions! While I found the plot, the conflicts, and the concepts in The Mercy of Gods fascinating, I didn’t feel the same sort of connection to the characters themselves as I did with the characters of The Expanse. Yes, the characters of The Mercy of Gods are interesting, some more so than others, and the relationships, needs, and motivations of the characters make for compelling conflicts and circumstances. Still, I didn’t feel an emotional connection to these people — but perhaps that will come with the rest of the books in the series, as the story continues to build and deepen.

The synopsis, as well as some asides early in the book, all make clear that Dafyd will be a driving force in whatever is yet to come. He’s referred to as “champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people” — and I haven’t seen that yet, or at least, not more than just the earliest steps toward what’s to come. I’m frustrated to not know more… but also appreciate how well the suspense is built up by the end of The Mercy of Gods. I need the next book!

All in all, The Mercy of Gods is a fantastic read. While initially a bit challenging to get into, it quickly becomes an absorbing, frightening, high stakes story that’s impossible to put down.

13Aug2024

Book Review: Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Haunted Ever After
Series: Boneyard Key, #1
Author: Jen DeLuca
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: August 13, 2024
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

It’s love at first haunting in a seaside town that raises everyone’s spirits from USA Today bestselling author Jen DeLuca.

Small Florida coastal towns often find themselves scrambling for the tourism dollars that the Orlando theme parks leave behind. And within the town limits of Boneyard Key, the residents decided long ago to lean into its ghostliness. Nick Royer, owner of the Hallowed Grounds coffee shop, embraces the ghost tourism that keeps the local economy afloat, as well as his spectral roommate. At least he doesn’t have to run air-conditioning.

Cassie Rutherford possibly overreacted to all her friends getting married and having kids by leaving Orlando and buying a flipped historic cottage in Boneyard Key. Though there’s something unusual with her new home (her laptop won’t charge in any outlets, and the poetry magnets on her fridge definitely didn’t read “WRONG” and “MY HOUSE” when she put them up), she’s charmed by the colorful history surrounding her. And she’s catching a certain vibe from the grumpy coffee shop owner whenever he slips her a free slice of banana bread along with her coffee order.

As Nick takes her on a ghost tour, sharing town gossip that tourists don’t get to hear, and they spend nights side-by-side looking into the former owners of her haunted cottage, their connection solidifies into something very real and enticing. But Cassie’s worried she’s in too deep with this whole (haunted) home ownership thing… and Nick’s afraid to get too close in case Cassie gets scared away for good.

“The Most Haunted Small Town in Florida” — Boneyard Key — is the setting of Jen DeLuca’s first book in a new romance series, where the locals and their residents ghosts seem to live in a friendly sort of coexistence.

When Cassie relocates to Boneyard Key from the Orlando area, it’s for purely practical reasons — rents are out of control and her social group is no longer a fun place for a single, childless woman… so maybe buying an affordable home in a new town (with ocean views!) is just what she needs to reinvigorate herself. The renovated little cottage is adorable, although the electricity is a bit wonky. Luckily, there’s a cute coffee shop with reliable wifi nearby. Added bonus: The owner is hot and makes a mean banana bread.

At first, Cassie is skeptical about the town’s claim to fame and assumes the ghost fixation is all for the sake of tourism, but after some weird experiences in her new house, she’s willing to admit there may be more to it than she realized. And as Cassie learns more about the town history and her house’s former occupants, she comes to understand that she may need to find a way to connect with — and make peace with — the ghost she shares a home with.

Meanwhile, after a bumpy start with Nick, the cafe owner, a very nice little romance seems to be brewing (!) … until his behavior becomes concerning when he visits her house. Is he secretly a sexist ass… or is something else going on?

I love a good ghost story, but I’m not sure that Haunted Ever After really delivers one. Most of the ghosts we meet are perfectly nice, and their presence is more or less on the amusing side. There’s one nasty ghost — the rest are all lovely, and even offer dating advice and company for binge-watching trashy reality shows. As for the nasty ghost, it represents a key plot point that is really obvious to the reader, if not to the characters involved, and gets resolved by the end of the book.

Haunted Ever After is lots of fun, and makes an entertaining bit of fluffy summer diversion. I’m a big fan of the author’s Ren Faire series (Well Met plus three more books), so I had high expectations going into this book. Haunted Ever After is cute, but doesn’t quite live up to the richness of the other series — the characters aren’t as engaging, and the premise itself takes a bit more of a “just roll with it” attitude.

Haunted Ever After is cute, and the romance is sweet. As I mentioned, it’s pretty fluffy — but it’s enjoyable fluff, and made for a nice bit of reading over a few days when I needed something on the light side. It’ll be interested to see where the author goes next with Boneyard Key — I’d imagine that future books will focus on some of the side characters we meet in Haunted Ever After — and while they didn’t especially stand out for me, I’m guessing they’ll be much more interesting once they get leading roles of their own.

Overall, Haunted Ever After is a good choice for a late summer read… or save it and read in October, if you’re in the mood for a non-scary haunted house book!

8Aug2024

Book Review: A Castle in the Air (A Stitch in Time, #4) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Castle in the Air
Series: A Stitch in Time, #4
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Kla Fricke Inc
Publication date: October 31, 2023
Length: 306 pages
Genre: Time slip/ghost story
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Portia Hastings has spent her life rescuing her younger sister from one scrape or another. Now, she has to step through time to do it, following Miranda from the nineteenth century to the eighteenth. Almost immediately, Portia is beset by highwaymen, which might be the most exciting thing to happen to her in a long time, even if she’d never admit it.

When one of the highwaymen is injured, Portia makes the inexcusable mistake of helping him-she is trained as a doctor after all. Her travel companions abandon her, and she’s left at the mercy of a highwayman who demands she continue tending to his compatriot’s wounds.

Portia soon finds herself at a crumbling castle inhabited by the destitute Earl of Ravensford. Benedict Sterling is in desperate need of money, and his solution is a ball, where a wealthy bride will win the title of countess, even if it does come with one thunderously ill-tempered earl.

Portia agrees to a scheme to help Benedict look like a slightly more appealing bridegroom, while she continues to search for Miranda. Then there’s the small matter of the castle, complete with a ghost intent on driving her out. But once Portia sets her mind on something, she’s not going anywhere.

There should be a word for the feeling of being satisfied and happy, yet also experiencing a parallel sense of heartbreak. Because isn’t that all of us at the end of a great book series?

As far as I can tell, A Castle in the Air concludes the 4-book series A Stitch in Time. And I don’t want it to be over! But truly, this has been a terrific reading experience, so I suppose I’ll just have to suck it up and embrace the Seuss motto:

OK, I’m done moping. Let’s talk about A Castle in the Air!

As an introduction, for those unfamiliar with the story so far, the Stitch in Time books comprise a timeslip/romance series, in which a lonely manor house on the Yorkshire moors contains a “stitch” that connects across time. In the first book, we see an unsuspecting 21st century woman cross through the stitch into the Victorian era, with all sorts of romantic and ghostly adventures in store for her.

(And yes, in addition to the timeslip element, these books are also ghost stories! A love story is at the heart of each book, but also… time travel and hauntings!)

The first book also introduces a mystery about a missing woman, Rosalind, who becomes the main character in the second book. Rosalind’s two sisters then take center stage for books three and four.

Which brings us to A Castle in the Air, starring Portia Hastings, the middle sister — unmarried, responsible, and devoted to her profession. She’s a trained physician in everything but title — Victorian women are not permitted to enter medical school, but she’s worked and learned alongside her doctor father all her life, and she’s skilled and knowledgeable in her field. To camouflage herself, she dresses plainly, hides her beauty, and tries to provide care to her patients without attracting too much notice from people who might cause trouble.

As A Castle in the Air opens, Portia’s younger sister Miranda has not returned as scheduled from a time travel quest, and Portia decides to go after her — even though Portia is the only one of the three sisters who’s never crossed through the stitch until this point. She hasn’t even been tempted — her life is just fine without time stitches to complicate things — but worry for Miranda drives her to cross over.

Upon arrival, Portia finds herself one hundred years in her past, and before long, ends up confronted by a pair of highwaymen — who are not quite what they seem. Called upon for her medical skills, she ends up at the falling-to-ruins castle of Ravensford, caring for the earl’s injured brother… and trying not to notice the beautiful eyes of the brusque, moody earl himself.

As you can imagine, underneath the broody exterior there’s a heart of gold, and before long, Portia and Benedict are much more than just reluctant companions. The plot isn’t only about the romance, however: The area is suffering through a terrible drought, dire debts threaten Benedict’s ability to keep his family’s lands intact and protect his tenants, greedy neighboring landowners threaten to swoop in, and a ghostly presence haunts the keep, posing a real threat to Portia’s safety.

Portia and Benedict have terrific chemistry, and the mystery of the ghost is a good one — plus there’s a ball to find Benedict a wealthy wife (yes, really), which is complicated by Portia’s presence, and there’s still the puzzle of the highwaymen to solve.

I loved how the plot ties together so many elements, incorporating Portia’s displacement through time with the adventure story happening in Benedict’s world. It all works very, very well, giving the characters a chance to shine while also keeping the action buzzing along.

As a wrap-up to the series, A Castle in the Air is quite satisfying (although I wish Bronwyn and Rosalind, the leads from books 1 and 2, had made an appearance). It really is bittersweet to finish this book and have no more to look forward to! Still, I’ve enjoyed each and every book in the series, and whole-heartedly recommend them all.

Interested in this series? Check out my reviews of the earlier books: