Book Review: The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The True Love Experiment
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication date: May 16. 2023
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.

Christina Lauren books can be counted on to deliver zippy dialogue, great chemistry, entertaining characters, and unexpected plot points… and The True Love Experiment exceeds expectations with all of these! In fact, The True Love Experiment might just be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet.

Fizzy Chen is a character we’ve met before — she’s the main character’s zany best friend in The Soulmate Equation. Apparently, fans have been clamoring for more Fizzy ever since the earlier book, and now she gets her own chance to shine!

Fizzy is a very successful romance author in her late 30s, who’s reveled throughout her adulthood in her casual, open-to-anything approach to sex and dating. But as The True Love Experiment opens, she’s realizing that she may finally have just plain run out. She’s never been in love, and (in a very funny scene) she explains to best friend Jess that she may in fact have now dated every single man in San Diego. With these eye-opening revelations, Fizzy hits a major writer’s block — how can she write compelling romance when she’s not sure she actually believes in it anymore?

We also meet Connor, a gorgeous guy (whom Fizzy initially categorizes as romance tropes Hot Millionaire Executive, Hot Brit, and DILF) who’s a completely devoted divorced dad and the producer of environmentally-conscious documentaries. When his boss gives him an ultimatum — produce a money-making new dating show to save the production company, or be out of a job — Connor has to weigh his professional integrity against the reality that if he loses this job, he’ll have to move to LA to find work, which means giving up his role in his daughter’s daily life. Reluctantly, he commits to the dating show concept.

When Fizzy and Connor meet, they initially rub each other the wrong way… but we know that won’t last, because there are instant sparks amidst the bickering and button-pushing. Between them, almost as a dare to see who can come up with the craziest concept, they develop a framework for the new show: Fizzy will be the star, and the show will cast “heroes” who fit into defined romance archtypes — the bad boy, the hot nerd, the cinnamon roll, the one who got away. Fizzy will date each of them, the audience will vote on her true soulmate each week and determine who gets eliminated, and in the end, the audience will select a winner who’ll receive a cash prize. But there’s another twist: Fizzy and all contestants will also take the DNADuo test (see The Soulmate Equation for more info), a genetic screening test that identifies relationship compatability and defines matches on a scale (Base, Silver, Gold, Diamond, etc). At the show’s finale, the DNADuo match results between Fizzy and the finalists will be revealed, and then Fizzy will get to decide who she truly wants to be with.

As you might expect, all does not go according to plan. How is Fizzy supposed to fall in love with one of the show’s heroes when she’s distractingly attracted to Connor? The more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that this isn’t just a matter of physical connection — but falling in love isn’t an option when (among other reasons) it would breach her contract with the show.

Okay, that’s the basic plot outline. What that doesn’t tell you is the insanely great connection between Fizzy and Connor, the absolutely hilarious dialogues that occur throughout the book, Fizzy’s amazingness as a person, and how utterly loving Connor is, as a dad, a friend, and a person who’s mad for Fizzy.

The book is told through both Fizzy and Connor’s POVs, so we know what’s going on inside and out. There’s the obligatory big obstacle that seems to tear the two apart late in the book, and I was very frustrated at first — but getting to hear from both characters why the incident blew up the way it did, how it triggered them and what past issues it brought up, and how internally conflicted they were in the aftermath helped me accept what had happened, even if I disagreed with how both of them behaved in the moment.

The show itself is lots of fun, although I question whether a show like this would be as successful in real life as it is in the story. The show starts with eight heroes and unfolds over just six episodes — is that really enough time to find true love? (OK, I need to admit here that I have never watched a single episode of The Bachelor or other dating shows, so I take anything of this sort with heaps of grains of salt).

I listened the audiobook, which has different narrators for Fizzy and Connor, and they were both wonderful! The downside of listening to the audiobook is not being able to highlight the parts that made me laugh out loud (there were plenty!) and share them here.

The True Love Experiment is so engaging, charming, and funny. I love that the characters are clearly amazing people, and that we get to see them in other roles (parent, aunt, best friend, daughter) to get a view of their lives outside the relationship as well. Fizzy and Connor are each fantastic on their own, and their connection together is not only full of physical chemistry but also based on emotional honesty and empathy.

Overall, The True Love Experiment is a joyful, entertaining read, with plenty of humor but also sincerity and intelligence. Highly recommended!

23Jun2023

Book Review: The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Murder of Mr. Wickham
Author: Claudia Gray
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: May 3, 2022
Length: 386 pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: Purchased

A summer house party turns into a whodunit when Mr. Wickham, one of literature’s most notorious villains, meets a sudden and suspicious end in this mystery featuring Jane Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. The unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham has a very clever concept as its central premise: Not only does it star Jane Austen’s leading characters, but it creates a society that includes all of these characters at once. Whether as distant cousins, visiting guests, acquaintances from travels, or friends of friends, in this mystery novel, the Darcys, Knightleys, Bertrams, Brandons, and Wentworths all end up in close quarters at a country house party… and things do not go well.

When the Knightleys invite their guests for a month at Donwell Abbey, they absolutely do not expect the notorious George Wickham to make an appearance. It’s been over twenty years since Elizabeth and Darcy were married, but they’ve unfortunately had to deal with Wickham’s wicked ways across the years due to his marriage to Elizabeth’s (now deceased) sister Lydia. But it’s not only the Darcys who have such strongly negative feelings toward Wickham — as it turns out, each visiting couple has at least one reason for hating the man.

As is obvious from the title, Wickham ends up dead, and this happy little country house party turns into a miserable situation of forced companionship, as the guests are unable to leave until the investigation is done, but no one is really in the mood to enjoy card games, walks in the garden, or piano recitals.

The two youngest guests, Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney, find themselves intrigued by the mystery, and begin their own secretive (and highly improper) investigation. Will they discover the true murderer… or will their reputations be destroyed first?

The Murder of Mr. Wickham has such an enticing set-up that I was immediately drawn in. The author gives a rough timeline at the start of the book to explain the sequencing of these characters’ primary stories, so while Elizabeth and Darcy have been together for over twenty years, Marianne and Colonel Brandon are more or less newlyweds. It’s such fun to see the initial gathering and see how the author creates connections between the varying characters and their separate worlds.

I’m not generally much of a mystery reader, so perhaps that’s partially why I felt less engaged as the story progressed. The premise and the intermixing of the characters is great fun, but I found myself less interested in the clues and possible motives the longer the story went on. The pacing is uneven as well — there are some entertaining scenes that feel like Austen set-pieces, but because we get sections visiting with each and every one of the couples, there are just far too many points-of-view and marital challenges to keep track of.

I also found it challenging to accept the character depictions here as compared to what their personalities are really “meant” to be. Granted, they’ve all grown up over the years, but Emma doesn’t come across as very Emma-ish to me, and likewise it was hard to reconcile this portrayal of Anne and Captain Wentworth to the characters I know and love from Persuasion. (As for Fanny and Edmund Bertram, while I’ve read Mansfield Park, it never really stuck with me, so I felt like I had no frame of reference for them at all).

Jonathan and Juliet are engaging new characters. Jonathan is neuro-atypical, and I felt that the author portrayed him sensitively and yet also made him someone to really root for, and I liked how his relationship with his parents was depicted too. Juliet is spunky and adventurous, but felt a bit more cookie-cutter to me, not necessarily distinct from similar young, intelligent women placed into Regency romance tales.

I’m glad I gave this Austen-esque mystery a try. It didn’t entirely work for me, but I appreciated the creativity and the joy of seeing older versions of some favorite characters. A second book in the series, The Late Mrs. Willoughby, was just released this spring. I don’t feel a need to read it any time soon, but I could see returning to it at some point down the road when I feel like revisiting this world.

21Jun2023

Book Review: Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Dear Edward
Author: Ann Napolitano
Publisher: The Dial Press
Publication date: January 6, 2020
Length: 340 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased

One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them is a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured vet returning from Afghanistan, a septuagenarian business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. And then, tragically, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.

Edward’s story captures the attention of the nation, but he struggles to find a place for himself in a world without his family. He continues to feel that a piece of him has been left in the sky, forever tied to the plane and all of his fellow passengers. But then he makes an unexpected discovery–one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do find yourself? How do you discover your purpose? What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

After hearing so much about this book, I finally decided to give it a try. And once I started, I simply could not put it down.

Dear Edward is a powerful, sad, emotionally gripping story about unimaginable loss and how to rebuild a life. It’s the story of Edward Adler, who at age 12 is the sole survivor of a terrible plane crash, in which he loses his parents and older brother.

Edward is immediately adopted by his aunt and uncle and brought to live with them in their New Jersey home. He recovers from his physical injuries, but the damage to his heart and mind seems insurmountable. He’s lost everything and everyone, and while surrounded by kindness and support, has to figure out how to live the rest of his life when he’s completely lost and without direction.

It doesn’t help that people around the world have fixated on him as a “miracle boy”. He’s famous, but the attention can feel toxic, and certainly isn’t good for his fragile state. Fortunately, the 12-year-old girl next door, Shay, sees him merely as a boy and a curiosity, and becomes a key to his daily struggle to survive.

In interludes between chapters, we also see the events on the flight that fateful day as, hour by hour, the people onboard move closer to their deaths. We get to know individuals, their hopes, fears, and dreams, and each time these flight scenes come up, the looming disaster feels even more tragic and inevitable.

Without saying too much about the plot itself, I’ll just say that this book is so gripping that I read it pretty much straight through. I had to know what would happen next for Edward, and on top of that, the structure of the book means that we see snippets of the flight throughout, but don’t get to the awful end of it until close to the end of the book. And while we know that the plane will in fact crash, by giving us a close-up connection to so many of the passengers, when the end comes, it hits very hard and feels like a huge blow.

The writing is sensitive and well-structured, and the weaving together of the two main story elements keeps both moving forward with intensity. I came to love Edward as a character, as well as the wonderful people who come into his life at key moments and become central to his survival.

Dear Edward is an absorbing, emotional read with a strong plot and memorable characters. Highly recommended.

17Jun2023

Novella two-fer: The Expert System’s Brother and The Expert System’s Champion by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I recently read a science fiction duology from the gifted mind of Adrian Tchaikovsky, and I’m here to share some thoughts!

The Expert System’s Brother
Length: 167 pages
Published: 2018
Rating:

After an unfortunate accident, Handry is forced to wander a world he doesn’t understand, searching for meaning. He soon discovers that the life he thought he knew is far stranger than he could even possibly imagine.

Can an unlikely saviour provide the answers to the questions he barely comprehends?

In the first book, we meet Handry, a young man who lives in the village of Aro, where people work together, live in harmony, and follow the guidance of the Lawgiver. But those who don’t act as expected and who blow their chances to make amends are cast out through a process called Severance — and once severed, they don’t typically survive long.

When Handry is accidentally partially Severed, he’s forced out into the wilderness, where he learns startling truths about the origins of his world’s scattered villages.

This powerful story demonstrates how history becomes myth after enough time goes by, and how technology itself can take on the role of gods and ghosts for those who have no other context for its wonders.

Fascinating, start to finish!

The Expert System’s Champion
Length: 194 pages
Published: 2021
Rating:

It’s been ten years since Handry was wrenched away from his family and friends, forced to wander a world he no longer understood. But with the help of the Ancients, he has cobbled together a life, of sorts, for himself and his fellow outcasts.

Wandering from village to village, welcoming the folk that the townships abandon, fighting the monsters the villagers cannot—or dare not—his ever-growing band of misfits has become the stuff of legend, a story told by parents to keep unruly children in line.

But there is something new and dangerous in the world, and the beasts of the land are acting against their nature, destroying the towns they once left in peace.

And for the first time in memory, the Ancients have no wisdom to offer…

In this second novella, we’re taken back in history in interludes that provide a different view on the origins of humanity on this hostile planet. Meanwhile, Handry is now the leader of a group of outcasts, and what they encounter tests them physically and mentally.

The System Expert’s Champion introduces new elements to the setting introduced in the first novella, and adds in certain developments that verge on horror (pretty icky!). It’s all fascinating, though, and expands our understanding of both the past and future of human life on this planet.

Read together, these two novellas make an utterly immersive and compelling experience! The world is complex, alien, and dangerous, and while it takes a while to understand what’s happened to the people there and why their lives are the way they are, the answers that do emerge add up to an amazing payoff.

I’m trying to avoid saying too much about the plot or the reasons behind what happens — this is all best experienced fresh and without much information in advance.

What I can say is that Adrian Tchaikovsky is a gifted, creative writer and creator of worlds, and these two novellas are absolutely worth checking out.

16Jun2023

Book Review: Lion’s Legacy by L. C. Rosen

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Lion’s Legacy
Author: L. C. Rosen
Series: Tennessee Russo, #1
Publisher: Union Square Co.
Publication date: May 2, 2023
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Young adult
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher
Rating:

Seventeen-year-old Tennessee Russo’s life is imploding. His boyfriend has been cheating on him, and all his friends know about it. Worse, they expect him to just accept his ex’s new relationship and make nice. So when his father, a famous archaeologist and reality show celebrity whom he hasn’t seen in two years, shows up unexpectedly and offers to take him on an adventure, Tennessee only has a few choices:
1. Stay, mope, regret it forever.
2. Go, try to reconcile with Dad, become his sidekick again.
3. Go, but make it his adventure, and Dad will be the sidekick.
The object of his father’s latest quest, the Rings of the Sacred Band of Thebes, is too enticing to say no to. Finding artifacts related to the troop of ancient Greek soldiers, composed of one-hundred-and-fifty gay couples, means navigating ruins, deciphering ancient mysteries, and maybe meeting a cute boy.

But will his dad let Tennessee do the right thing with the rings if they find them? And what is the right thing? Who does queer history belong to?

Against the backdrop of a sunlit Greek landscape, author L. C. Rosen masterfully weaves together adventure, romance, and magic in a celebration of the power of claiming your queer legacy.

If you read the synopsis above and thought “gay teen Indiana Jones”… you wouldn’t be far off! Lion’s Legacy is full of daring adventures, death-defying traps, and mind-boggling puzzles… all wrapped up in a story about finding community and reclaiming queer history.

Tennessee Russo (who goes by Ten) is the 17-year-old son of a high-profile reality TV star and archaeologist. Each season of the show focuses on Ten’s dad going off on a danger-filled quest to retrieve an ancient artifact. For two of the show’s most successful seasons, Ten accompanied his dad as his sidekick and cameraman, but he walked away from his dad and the show after a heated argument over the fate of the recovered relics.

Now, after a two-year absence, Ten’s dad is back to entice him into one more adventure, but Ten’s really not sure that he trusts his dad or wants to spend time with him. However, the timing is great — after getting cheated on and then dumped by his boyfriend, he’s ready to get away and get immersed in a new quest, and his dad couldn’t have picked a better one: They’re going off in search of the Sacred Band of Thebes.

Legend has it that this band of warriors was composed of 150 pairs of bonded/married gay lovers, who pledged themselves to one another in a sacred ceremony. Some say that the rings the pairs wore — the sacred bands — were more than just symbolic, and that they imparted magical strength and fighting abilities to the men who wore them. Of course, the naysayers say that the warriors were committed as a platonic band of brothers — no gay subtext here! — but Ten is convinced that the Sacred Band of Thebes represents a crucial piece of queer history, and he’s determined to bring it to light.

Author L. C. Rosen (who also writes as Lev AC Rosen, and is the author of such fantastic books as Depth and Lavender House) creates an adventure tale with heart in Lion’s Legacy. The quest itself is lots of fun, full of deadly arrows, rickety plane rides, narrow cliffs, and spurting bursts of fire (plus a very cute local boy to act as translator). But what really makes this book stand out is the emphasis on reclaiming queer history, and how that shared history creates community and connection. The messaging is positive and lovely, and I really enjoyed how deeply Ten thinks about these things and expresses what it all means to him.

There’s also serious consideration given to issues around artifacts and where they belong — whether treasure hunters like Ten’s dad are committing thievery by finding these relics and selling them to the highest bidder… or whether such pieces should go to high-paying museums because they’re the ones most likely to keep them both safeguarded and available to the public, rather than hidden away in someone’s storage room forever. Through Ten, we’re shown the different sides of the issues, and also through Ten, are shown how someone committed to doing the right thing can also come up with creative and meaningful solutions.

Overall, Lion’s Legacy is a terrific adventure story with strong messages and very positive queer representation, and would make a great and very welcome addition to any young adult library shelf. This book is apparently the first in a series, and I look forward to seeing where Ten’s adventures take him next.

Highly recommended.

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15Jun2023

Book Review: The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Matchmaker’s Gift
Author: Lynda Cohen Loigman
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: September 20, 2022
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary/historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley

From Lynda Cohen Loigman, the bestselling author of The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters, comes a heartwarming story of two extraordinary women from two different eras who defy expectations to utilize their unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places in The Matchmaker’s Gift.

Is finding true love a calling or a curse?

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

I’m not always a fan of dual timelines in historical fiction, but in the case of The Matchmaker’s Gift, this approach absolutely works.

In one timeline, we follow the story of Sara Glickman, a woman who emigrates to the United States in 1910 with her family, settling on New York’s Lower East Side. Sara realizes at age 10 that she has an unusual gift — she can “see” when two people are a match. First, she helps her sister find her bashert (soulmate, destined true love, the one that’s meant to be), and soon after, realizes she can see these connections for others as well.

The shadchanim (matchmakers) of the New York Jewish community are outraged — a young, unmarried girl has no business meddling in their business and potentially stealing their customers and their income. Sara swears to her father that she’ll give up matchmaking, but she’s unable to entirely ignore her calling and the good that she brings about.

In the other timeline (in the 1990s), we meet Sara’s granddaughter Abby, an associate in a prestigious divorce law firm who grew up scarred by her own parents’ divorce and is determined to make sure other women have the support her own mother lacked. When Abby learns of her beloved grandmother’s death, she’s grief-stricken — but she’s also inspired by Sara’s journals, which provide meticulous records of all the matches Sara made over the years. She’s also a little freaked out, though, when she starts seeing the same sort of connections that her grandmother once saw.

There’s so much to love about The Matchmaker’s Gift. In Sara’s part of the story, not only do we get to know what a strong and dedicated person she is, but we also get a beautifully written depiction of life in the Jewish community of the Lower East Side in the early 20th century. The characters, the environment, the traditions — all are brought lovingly to life.

Abby’s storyline, while more modern and perhaps less picturesque, still vibrates with a sense of New York in that time period. Abby interacts with characters from various walks of life through her work and through unexpected connections that come about after her grandmother’s passing, and it’s fascinating to see all the various ways that these people intersect and overlap.

I was particularly moved when Abby discovers that Sara came back to her matchmaking vocation in the postwar years of the late 1940s, when rabbis came to her to ask her help with making sure the Jewish people could survive after the devastation of the Holocaust. Sara saw it as her mission to bring together refugees and survivors, and it’s so powerful to read about. In fact, I wish this section of the story was explored in more detail — it’s not central to the plot, more something that’s filled in as a piece of Sara’s history, but it’s really beautiful.

Also very powerful is the information that later on in her life, Sara’s gift occasionally led her to see damaged connections, allowing her recognize an abusive marriage and help the woman escape and start over. Again, I might have liked to see more of this element of Sara’s gift, but the fact that’s it’s included at all made a big impression.

On a funny note, reading this book made me think of the Netflix series Jewish Matchmaking, and in the author’s notes, she mentions having consulted with Aleeza Ben Shalom — who is the host of the Netflix series!

Overall, I found The Matchmaker’s Gift to be very readable, engaging, and touching. Highly recommended!

13Jun2023

Book Review: Ten Thousand Stitches (Regency Faerie Tales, #2) by Olivia Atwater

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Ten Thousand Stitches
Series: Regency Faerie Tales #2
Author: Olivia Atwater
Publisher: Orbit
Publication date: July 19, 2022
Length: 250 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Library

Regency housemaid Euphemia Reeves has acquired a faerie godfather. Unfortunately, he has no idea what he’s doing.

Effie has most inconveniently fallen in love with the dashing Mr Benedict Ashbrooke. There’s only one problem; Effie is a housemaid, and a housemaid cannot marry a gentleman. It seems that Effie is out of luck until she stumbles into the faerie realm of Lord Blackthorn, who is only too eager to help Effie win Mr Ashbrooke’s heart. All he asks in return is that Effie sew ten thousand stitches onto his favourite jacket.

Effie has heard rumours about what happens to those who accept help from faeries, but life as a maid at Hartfield is so awful that she is willing to risk even her immortal soul for a chance at something better. Now, she has one hundred days – and ten thousand stitches – to make Mr Ashbrooke fall in love and propose. . . if Lord Blackthorn doesn’t wreck things by accident, that is. For Effie’s greatest obstacle might well prove to be Lord Blackthorn’s overwhelmingly good intentions.

From the author of HALF A SOUL comes a whimsical fantasy romance with a Cinderella twist. Pick up TEN THOUSAND STITCHES, and dive into another enchanting faerie tale set in Olivia Atwater’s charming, magical version of Regency England!

In Ten Thousand Stitches, we meet hardworking housemaid Euphemia Reeves, who toils day and night to do the bidding of the awful Lady Culver. The work is never-ending and exhausting, and whenever a servant leaves (or is fired), the others simply must pick up the slack. Effie is tired, and she’s angry too — she and her friends below stairs are, at best, viewed as part of the furniture. When Lady Culver learns that a rival now has French maids, she decrees that her own maids must be French too, and promptly gives them all new names. Effie is furious — the servants count for so little that even their names are not their own.

But when Effie meets Benedict, the younger brother of Lord Culver, her world shifts sharply. He initially mistakes her for a lady, and wows her with his brief attention and kindness. Of course, later as she’s serving at a fancy ball, he looks right past her and doesn’t recognize her at all. Effie is sure that this is the man she loves, and she feels in her heart that if only she were a lady, he’d love her too.

Enter Lord Blackthorn. The kind-hearted faerie has become enamored with the idea of English virtue, and has been told that the way to attain English virtue is by helping the helpless and punishing the wicked. Who could be more helpless than downtrodden Effie? Lord Blackthorn offers her a glamour by which she’ll look and sound like a lady, and soon she finds herself moving in polite society, gaining the attention of the upper crust and getting closer and closer to Benedict’s heart.

But the more Effie sees, the more she questions her goals and desires. It also turns out that there’s a hint of magic in her fine sewing — when she sews, she imbues her stitches with her emotions… and given how angry she’s been, soon there’s a plague of anger amongst the servants.

In the world of Ten Thousand Stitches, anger is a good thing, because it leads to action. In fact, what we have here is a labor movement! Thanks to the anger Effie inadvertently spreads, the workers of the household reach the boiling point and then some, and ultimately demand action. It’s quite fun to see organized labor in a fantasy story!

The faerie tale elements work well, and while the outcome is expected, it’s quite a lark to see how we get there. Effie is a terrific main character, and I appreciate the author’s spotlight on class divisions in the world of fairy tale romances. As the author points out in her notes at the end, fairy tales with downtrodden main characters often reveal that the heroine is really a princess or lady in hiding — Cinderella herself is high-born, forced into servitude by cruelty and bad luck. But why are low-born servants treated as invisible and deemed unworthy? Why can’t a housemaid deserve her own happily ever after?

I really enjoyed Ten Thousand Stitches. It’s a bit lighter than Half a Soul, but offers some truly satisfying comeuppance for the nasty folks and great endings for the good guys. It was fun to get a glimpse of a couple of characters from Half a Soul — the books are companion pieces set in the same world, rather than connected stories, so it’s not necessary to read them in a particular order.

For anyone looking for some light fantasy entertainment — with a social conscience — the books of the Regency Faerie Tales are great choices!

I also ended up reading The Latch Key, a novella set in the world of the Regency Faerie Tales that takes place after the events of Half a Soul. This novella provides a backstory for Elias, and is worth checking out. (As far as I can see, The Latch Key is only available by signing up for the author’s newsletter, here.)

10Jun2023

Audiobook Review: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
Author: Colleen Oakley
Narrator: Hillary Huber
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: March 28, 2023
Print length: 337 pages
Audiobook length: 9 hours 59 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it.

One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon. Bottom line — Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one.

The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m. insisting that they leave town immediately?

Thus begins the story of a not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest adventure of their lives.

If you’re hankering for a road trip adventure with two amazing women, look no further! The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise is funny, sassy, and a total joy ride.

Tanner is aimless and mad at the world. Louise is fed up with people who think they know what’s best for her. Tanner thinks Mrs. Wilt is a weird old lady who lives in a boring house, and Louise thinks Tanner is amazingly useless — who can play video games that many hours a day?

But when circumstances force them to flee in the night (although Tanner doesn’t really know why), the two team up and go on the lam. Their goal? Avoid getting caught, and make it to California before Louise’s past potentially catches up to her and people she cares about. And as the two tear up the miles (in Louise’s vintage Jaguar!), they start to find common ground, and maybe even common purpose.

This book is such a delight! Tanner and Louise are both sharp, tough characters who’ve had their share of disappointments. Put them together, and their initial annoyance and irritation eventually turns into grudging respect, even amusement and eventually real friendship and affection.

Their hijinks on the road are often silly, sometimes risky, but always a ton of fun. The author keeps us guessing — just when we think we’ve figured it all out, some new twist gets thrown in and changes everything.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Hillary Huber, and it was oodles of fun. The narrator gives Louise and Tanner such distinct voices, and I loved their banter so much. In my opinion, audio is the way to go!

This book is just such a delight, and by the end, I was absolutely in love with the characters — especially Louise, who is much more of a kickass hero than you might expect of an 84-year-old woman with a broken hip! The plot is fast-paced, the writing is light and humorous, and the characters are totally charming to spend time with.

Highly recommended.

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9Jun2023

Book Review: Wolfsong (Green Creek, #1) by TJ Klune

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Wolfsong
Series: Green Creek
Author: TJ Klune
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: July 4, 2023 (originally published 2016)
Length: 528 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

The Bennett family has a secret.
They’re not just a family, they’re a pack.
Wolfsong is Ox Matheson’s story.

Oxnard Matheson was twelve when his father taught him very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.

Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harboring a secret that would change him forever. The Bennetts are shapeshifters. They can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty, and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he’s known, but he finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack, and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he’s a man – charming, handsome, but haunted – and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

The beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and family.

The Green Creek Series is for adult readers.

Have you ever finished a book and not wanted to start anything else, because you wanted to stay in that fictional world just a while longer?

That’s me and Wolfsong.

While powering through this 500+ page book, dying to see what was next and what was still to come, part of me just didn’t want to finish… because then what? This world, these characters… I think they’ve ruined me for other fiction. At least for now.

First, some basics about the book: We meet the main character, Ox Matheson, at age twelve, and spend quite a bit of time with him as he struggles through his adolescent and teen years, so for the first 30% or so of this book, you might assume this is a coming-of-age YA fantasy. It’s not. Helpfully, the synopsis states that this series is for adult readers. Later in the book, there are two very explicit adult sex scenes, and there are several graphic, gory scenes of violence that are not for young readers. Neither of these aspects are gratuitous in the slightest, but readers should be aware that the statement about adult content is accurate.

Wolfsong was originally published in 2016, and is the first in a 4-book series, now being reissued by Tor Books with beautiful new hardcover editions. After TJ Klune’s bestselling breakthrough with The House in the Cerulean Sea, there’s renewed interest in his earlier works, and I’m so grateful that the Green Creek books will get wider attention now. Wolfsong releases in July and book 2, Ravensong, in August. Books 3 and 4, Heartsong and Brothersong, will be released in 2024.

Where to even begin to describe the beauty and wonder of Wolfsong?

Ox is twelve when his father leaves him and his mother, and the father’s parting shots — that Ox is stupid and will never amount to anything — leave their mark. Ox is a loner, living in a small house in the woods in the tiny town of Green Creek, Oregon. His mother is loving and works hard to create a home for Ox, and he finds connection at the auto shop where his father used to work, where the owner Gordo agrees that he can help out, and where Ox finds a home of sorts with Gordo and his crew.

When Ox is sixteen, his life is upended while walking home along the dirt road one day, when a small boy bursts from the woods and changes everything. Talking a mile a minute, the 10-year-old “tornado”, as Ox thinks of him, clambers up Ox’s large back and brings him home to his family in the old, formerly abandoned house down the lane.

As young Joe Bennett exclaims to his parents and brothers:

You gotta smell him and then tell me why it’s all candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome

Ox is introduced to the magnificent Bennett family, who welcome him with open arms and with a love and affection that he doesn’t quite understand. It’s only later that Ox discovers that the Bennett family is also the Bennett pack — a deeply-rooted, powerful, respected family of werewolves whose territory is Green Creek. Father Thomas is the Alpha, and although Ox doesn’t know why, Thomas sees something in Ox. (I mean, we readers get that Ox is wonderful and loving and “epic and awesome”, but Ox has a hard time believing it about himself).

The entire family loves Ox, but for Joe, Ox is a guardian and friend and brother and place of safety. Over the years, Ox and Joe both grow up, and Ox comes to learn much more about the secrets of Joe’s past and and what his own role is in protecting and nurturing Joe.

There’s so much more to the story, and it just has to be experienced. TJ Klune’s writing is powerful, funny, emotional — often all within the same page or chapter. I noted in my Kindle highlights that at 30% I was laughing hysterically over a particularly awkward, cringey, funny courtship scene… only to be sobbing and feeling like my heart had been ripped out at the 40% mark.

Truly bad things happen, and the writing is so visceral that I could feel Ox’s anger, pain, helplessness, and grief. The storytelling makes the reader FEEL everything, and the highs and lows can be breathtaking and painful.

As is probably obvious, I loved this book so much. The dynamic between Ox and Joe changes over the years, and it’s fascinating to see how their relationship changes at the different phases of their lives.

There was never anyone else for me. Because even if you couldn’t hear me when I called for you, the howl in my heart was always meant for you.

Another element I loved is the pack as a whole, the love and bond between the pack members, the mind to mind connection (PackLoveBrotherSon), the casual physical connection (these wolves always touch and sleep in heaps together, even in human form), and the absolute trust and devotion they share. The bonds are complex and become tangled, but no matter what, they’re also quite beautiful.

Wolfsong is a long, complicated book with love at its core. There is deep pain but also moments of wonder and joy, and the writing is evocative and profoundly affecting. I will be thinking about Wolfsong for a long time to come, and have a feeling that this is a book I’ll continue to pull off my shelf and leaf through for the simple pleasure of revisiting favorite passages and scenes.

My intention had been to wait for the new editions of each book in the series to be released before reading them… but since the original editions are already out there and available, I’m really not sure that I can stand to hold off. I love the world of Green Creek so much, and feel the next book in the series calling (howling?) for me.

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7Jun2023

Book Review: The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Boyfriend Project
Author: Farrah Rochon
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: June 9, 2020
Length: 345 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

If you love Jasmine Guillory, Abby Jimenez and Talia Hibbert, you’ll LOVE Farrah Rochon!

What happens when three women discover , thanks to the live tweeting of a disastrous date, that they’ve all been duped by the same man? They become friends of course!

Samiah Brooks never thought she would be ‘that’ girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she’s been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah – along with his two other ‘girlfriends’, London and Taylor – have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men, no dating, and no worrying about their relationship status…

For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she’s always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy, honey-eyed Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? When it comes to love, there’s no such thing as a coincidence. But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true?

This book (and the trilogy as a whole) had been highly recommended to me, and I finally had a chance to dive in this week… and found it just the positive, friendship-centric romance that I needed.

In The Boyfriend Project, discovering a boyfriend is a cheater and a scammer is a blessing in disguise, as it brings together Samiah, Taylor, and London, three amazing women who have had terrible luck in finding worthy romantic partners. They’re each talented, smart, caring individuals, but somehow, the dating market in Austin seems to lead them nowhere.

After their confrontation with the cheater goes viral, the three connect and bond, and decide to devote the next six months to their own personal goals without the distraction of looking for a man. For Samiah, who has the starring role in this book, it means carving time out of her already busy life to focus on the app she’s dreamed of launching, although she already works around the clock at her demanding but fulfilling tech job.

Complications arise when she meets her company’s newest hire, Daniel, who’s clearly smitten with Samiah. What she doesn’t know — but we readers do — is that Daniel isn’t who he appears to be. Through chapters told from Daniel’s perspective, we learn that he’s a federal agent working undercover to bust a money laundering scheme running through Samiah’s company. He knows better than to get involved while on a case… but there’s no denying the connection the two feel, or their amazing chemisty.

The Boyfriend Project works well as a romance, but it’s also a terrific celebration of women’s friendship and the power it provides. I loved the way Samiah, Taylor, and London come together after their discovery of how they’d all been catfished — no cattiness or blaming, but instant support, empathy, and a shared sense of humor and encouragement. Taylor and London are supporting characters in this book, but I know that they each get their own starring roles in the other books in the trilogy, and I’m so looking forward to spending time with each of them.

I could quibble with a few elements of the book (and, okay, I will), but really these are essentially minor issues:

A little too much time spent on the tech details — I suppose it lends authenticity to Samiah’s work, but I didn’t need quite so much of the specifics.
Ditto for the details of the money laundering scheme. I’m not sure it all made sense, and maybe it’s meant to give substance to Daniel’s work, but this part of the story felt like a detour from the romantic plot (and mood), and I just wasn’t interested in the crime story aspects.
The sex scenes are graphic (per my steam factor ratings), which I can abide even though it’s not my preferred approach… but some of the writing in these scenes was just too cringey.

None of these quibbles stopped me from enjoying the book as a whole, and I still look forward to continuing the series.

Overall, The Boyfriend Project does a great job of keeping friendship at the forefront, even while focusing on the romance and the ups and downs involved with Samiah and Daniels’ story.

Next up in the series: