Title: A Longer Fall Series: Gunnie Rose, #2 Author: Charlaine Harris Publisher: Saga Press Publication date: January 14, 2020 Length: 291 pages Genre: Fantasy / speculative fiction Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris returns with the second of the Gunnie Rose series, in which Lizbeth is hired onto a new crew, transporting a crate into Dixie, the self-exiled southeast territory of the former United States. What the crate contains is something so powerful, that forces from across three territories want to possess it.
In this second thrilling installment of the Gunnie Rose series, Lizbeth Rose is hired onto a new crew for a seemingly easy protection job, transporting a crate into Dixie, just about the last part of the former United States of America she wants to visit. But what seemed like a straight-forward job turns into a massacre as the crate is stolen. Up against a wall in Dixie, where social norms have stepped back into the last century, Lizbeth has to go undercover with an old friend to retrieve the crate as what’s inside can spark a rebellion, if she can get it back in time.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and Midnight, Texas trilogy) is at her best here, building the world of this alternate history of the United States, where magic is an acknowledged but despised power.
In the Gunnie Rose books, author Charlaine Harris has created an alternate version of the United States… in which the United States no longer exists. In this world, FDR was assassinated prior to being inaugurated as President, and in the aftermath, the US has split into separate countries. Main character Lizbeth Rose lives in Texoma, more or less where our current Texas is, and the US South is now the country of Dixie, where racism, sexism, and xenophobia are the norms — a place where Lizbeth has no interest in going, until she’s hired on for a job that will take her there.
Lizbeth is a “gunnie”, a gifted shooter whose sharp reflexes and dead-eye aim make her a valued member of any gun crew, typically hired for escort and protection work. After her last crew ended up dead (see book one in the series, An Easy Death), she’s found work with a new set of gunnies, and takes an eastbound train to bring cargo into Dixie.
Nothing goes as planned, naturally. The train rail is sabotaged, the gun crew is attacked, and the cargo is stolen. Lizbeth finds herself stranded in Dixie, until her former colleague and lover Eli shows up, also in pursuit of the same cargo. Eli is a “grigori” — a wizard of the Holy Russian Empire (formerly California and Oregon), a land ruled by the Tsar and protected by the highly skilled magicians who support him. Eli’s arrival shows that Lizbeth’s cargo is much more precious than she realized, and the two of them must work together to retrieve it, get it to its intended destination, and hopefully make it out of Dixie with their lives.
The world of Gunnie Rose
Once again, I truly enjoyed the world-building. Lizbeth herself is a Western-style gunslinger, but here, she’s thrust into a world that expects her to wear a dress and hose, defer to men, and be altogether proper and ladylike. The contrast is delicious, and it’s such fun to see Lizbeth’s discomfort and rebellion at these ridiculous sexist restrictions.
Meanwhile, Lizbeth and Eli have terrific chemistry, and it’s a delight to see them back together. Their work and their families destine them to have very different lives, but for the space of this adventure, they’re reunited and fully cognizant of the love and passion they share. They also make for great partners, having each other’s backs and getting one another out of impossibly dangerous situations.
Dixie is full of despicable racists, and the overall mission and the missing cargo relate to an attempt to kick off a rebellion and put an end to oppression. The cargo itself is a total MacGuffin — it’s a bit nonsensical, but as a plot catalyst, it keeps the action going full steam ahead and makes for some exciting sequences. Not all the events make a ton of sense, but there is a certain satisfaction in seeing awful characters get exactly what they deserve.
The 20th century setting (mid to late 1930s, it would seem) can be a bit jarring. The story often feels like an old-timey Western, and something about the description of Dixie made me expect the women to be wearing huge dresses a la Scarlett O’Hara — I had to remind myself from time to time that these people live in an era of cars, indoor plumbing, electricity, and refrigerators. The contrasts make this series extra fun, like seeing our own history, but in a funhouse mirror.
I love Lizbeth as a character, and I love seeing new aspects of her personality and intelligence as the story progresses. I can’t wait to see where the story goes next! There are currently four published works in the series, with a fifth scheduled for release in fall of 2023. I’m definitely planning to continue, and hope to start #3 just as soon as the library’s copy becomes available.
Title: Advika and the Hollywood Wives Author: Kirthana Ramisetti Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Publication date: April 11, 2023 Length: 384 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
At age 26, Advika Srinivasan considers herself a failed screenwriter. To pay the bills and keep her mind off of the recent death of her twin sister, she’s taken to bartending A-list events, including the 2015 Governors Ball, the official afterparty of the Oscars. There, in a cinematic dream come true, she meets the legendary Julian Zelding—a film producer as handsome as Paul Newman and ten times as powerful—fresh off his fifth best picture win. Despite their 41-year age difference, Advika falls helplessly under his spell, and their evening flirtation ignites into a whirlwind courtship and elopement. Advika is enthralled by Julian’s charm and luxurious lifestyle, but while Julian loves to talk about his famous friends and achievements, he smoothly changes the subject whenever his previous relationships come up. Then, a month into their marriage, Julian’s first wife—the famous actress Evie Lockhart—dies, and a tabloid reports a shocking stipulation in her will. A single film reel and $1,000,000 will be bequeathed to “Julian’s latest child bride” on one condition: Advika must divorce him first.
Shaken out of her love fog and still-simmering grief over the loss of her sister—and uneasy about Julian’s sudden, inexplicable urge to start a family—Advika decides to investigate him through the eyes and experiences of his exes. From reading his first wife’s biography, to listening to his second wife’s confessional albums, to watching his third wife’s Real Housewives-esque reality show, Advika starts to realize how little she knows about her husband. Realizing she rushed into the marriage for all the wrong reasons, Advika uses the info gleaned from the lives of her husband’s exes to concoct a plan to extricate herself from Julian once and for all.
Um.
What did I just read?
Last year, I read author Kirthana Ramisetti’s debut novel, Dava Shastri’s Last Day, and absolutely loved it. Naturally, when I saw she had a new book, I had to grab a copy.
Let’s just say expectations were high. So you can imagine the letdown when I realized that this new book makes no sense.
In Advika and the Hollywood Wives, 26-year-old Advika is mired in grief and loneliness two years after the tragic death of her twin sister Anu, especially once their parents, deep in their own mourning, pack up and move back to India. Advika is left alone in LA, working random bartending jobs to pay the bills and struggling to fulfill her earlier promise as a screenwriter. While tending bar at a post-Oscars party, her life is changed when five-time Oscar-winning producer Julian Zelding approaches her, instantly smitten.
A whirlwind romance, full of luxury gifts and romantic getaways, assuages Advika’s deep need to fill the void in her life, and within months of meeting him, she finds herself agreeing to marry this much older, very wealthy and powerful man.
Doubts creep in — hard and fast — when tabloids blast news about Julian’s first wife, recently deceased, whose will provides a $1 million bequest to Julian’s newest “child bride”, on condition that she divorce him. For Advika, this strange offer ignites a need to learn more about Julian’s three past marriages, and the more she digs, the more convinced she becomes of her need to escape his clutches.
Where to even begin to pick this all apart? Advika goes into the relationship and marriage with her eyes open, except when she’s being willfully ignorant. For example, Julian asks her early on not to Google him, so she doesn’t. Really? There’s no way it makes sense for this smart Millennial* not to do at least a drop of research on the older guy trying to shower her with money.
*For whatever reason — yet another thing that doesn’t make sense to me — the story is set in 2015, rather than now. I was going to describe Advika as Gen Z, but given the year the book is set, that would make her a Millenial. Same issues re technology and Googling apply!
Advika lets herself get totally wrapped up in Julian’s world and blocks out everyone she’s known previously — by her own free will. And as he attempts to control more and more of her life, and she suspects that her actions are probably being monitored by Julian’s household staff, she stays, and stays, and stays.
But really, Advika seems pretty okay with her marriage until the news about the first wife’s will comes out. She may not be in love with Julian, but she’s attracted to him and enjoys their affluent lifestyle. She interprets the first wife’s strange offer as a warning, basically Evie trying to save Advika, but honestly? I assumed that it was Evie’s way of getting a smidge of revenge on her ex by wrecking his newest marriage and exposing him to tabloid gossip. (It turns out that Advika is correct about Evie’s intentions, but that doesn’t mean it’s at all logical for Advika to jump to that conclusion!)
It’s as if Advika’s eyes are opened to the fact that she married a man she doesn’t actually know or love. As she researches his former wives, she uncovers some truths about how controlling he was in all of those relationships… but why does she need this research before making a move? Why, once she realized she was unhappy and wanted out, would she not simply have left? She was never a prisoner. She was never physically prevented from leaving their home. She’s be leaving behind all the money, jewels, and fancy cars, so is it just about the money? But that’s not how Advika’s struggle is presented — her life is depicted as if she’s trapped. IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!
There’s an epilogue with a totally obvious reveal… and that’s about it. Clunky writing, plot points that seem to be building toward much more dramatic revelations, pointless mention of people and items that seem like they could be clues (but end up not mattering), and awkward realizations about how she fails repeatedly to be a good friend — there’s just so much here that doesn’t work. The story tries to build tension around whether Advika is being followed and electronically monitored, and what really happened with Julian’s former wives, but ultimately, it mostly amounts to not much at all.
What a disappointment. This book feels unpolished and half-baked. Any initial sympathy for Advika evaporates quickly, and we’re left following a young woman who can’t make a decision and doesn’t understand the basic give-and-take of real friendship. I read Advika and the Hollywood Wives very quickly, mainly because I kept waiting to see when the big pay-off would appear. (It doesn’t.) So, I guess the most positive thing I can say is that it kept my attention… just not really for great reasons.
Title: Imogen, Obviously Author: Becky Albertalli Publisher: Balzer + Bray Publication date: May 2, 2023 Length: 432 pages Genre: YA fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
With humor and insight, #1 New York Times bestseller Becky Albertalli explores the nuances of sexuality, identity, and friendship.
Imogen Scott may be hopelessly heterosexual, but she’s got the World’s Greatest Ally title locked down.
She’s never missed a Pride Alliance meeting. She knows more about queer media discourse than her very queer little sister. She even has two queer best friends. There’s Gretchen, a fellow high school senior, who helps keep Imogen’s biases in check. And then there’s Lili—newly out and newly thriving with a cool new squad of queer college friends.
Imogen’s thrilled for Lili. Any ally would be. And now that she’s finally visiting Lili on campus, she’s bringing her ally A game. Any support Lili needs, Imogen’s all in.
Even if that means bending the truth, just a little.
Like when Lili drops a tiny queer bombshell: she’s told all her college friends that Imogen and Lili used to date. And none of them know that Imogen is a raging hetero—not even Lili’s best friend, Tessa.
Of course, the more time Imogen spends with chaotic, freckle-faced Tessa, the more she starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with. . .
Imogen, Obviously explores issues of friendship, allyship, and identity with all the humor and compassion you’d expect from a book by Becky Albertalli.
Imogen, a high school senior, has already decided to attend Blackwell College next year. It’s only a half-hour drive from home, but visiting her best friend Lili — a freshman — on campus for a weekend feels like entering another world. Here, Lili is out and proud, and has a super cool group of queer friends who welcome Imogen with open arms.
The one small problem is that Lili, trying to fit in earlier in the year, told the tiny fib that she and Imogen are exes, rather than lifelong best friends. Imogen has always been clear in her straight identity, as well as being the most devoted ally possible — so while she’s not entirely comfortable faking a queer identity for the weekend, she’s willing to go along for Lili’s sake.
As Imogen spends more time with Tessa, Lili’s dorm neighbor, she feels a thrill that she can’t quite pin down. It’s just the excitement of finding her place with this new group and feeling like she’ll fit in when she starts college in the fall… or so she tells herself. But what if it’s more? What if she’s not as solidly straight as she’s always believed?
I really enjoyed this zippy, sparkly book. Imogen is a thoughtful, kind, aware young woman who’s so cautious about causing offense that she holds back when it comes to considering her own truth. It doesn’t help that her other close friend, Gretchen, seems to want to keep Imogen boxed in as she identifies her, rather than allowing Imogen to question. (When a Pride Alliance meeting topic turns to movie crushes and Imogen names an actress, Gretchen scolds her for appropriation — it’s really harsh, and no wonder Imogen questions every feeling she has, wondering if she really feels what she feels or if she’s subconsciously just trying to fit in.)
Like, there has to be a chance I talked myself into this, right?
Gretchen’s lectures and Imogen’s commitment to being respectful and a great ally seem to have really done a number on Imogen. She’s been told (again, by Gretchen — ugh) how she always tries to be a people-pleaser, and maybe what’s she going through now is just one more example of trying to be everything to everybody.
Is that what’s happening? People saw me as queer for a week, and it stuck?
Imogen is a very sympathetic character, and I loved how positively and diversely her new circle of friends is portrayed. Thankfully, she still has Lili and her supportive family, who are there to see her through her soul-searching and struggles.
Ultimately, this is an upbeat book filled to the brim with positive messages. I love how it captures the excitement and nervousness of the transition from high school to college, and how the start of college can provide the opportunity to recreate oneself and find a new place to belong.
In the author’s note, Becky Albertalli talks about her own journey of self-discovery and coming out. It’s clear that Imogen’s story mirrors the author’s in many ways, which makes this book even more personal and touching.
Imogen, Obviously is funny, engaging, sweet, and thoughtful. Highly recommended.
Title: Late Bloomers Author: Deepa Varadarajan Publisher: Random House Publication date: May 2, 2023 Length: 368 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
An Indian American family is turned upside down when the parents split up thirty-six years into their arranged marriage in this witty, big-hearted debut.
“Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, Late Bloomers is a charming story about starting over, stumbling, and finding yourself at any age.”–Jennifer Close, author of Marrying the Ketchups
I have a soft spot for underdogs. And late bloomers. You’ve told me a lot of things about yourself, so let me tell you something about me.
After thirty-six years of a dutiful but unhappy arranged marriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn–until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger woman who seems to be smitten with him. Lata is enjoying her newfound independence, but she’s caught off guard when a professor in his early sixties starts to flirt with her.
Meanwhile, Suresh and Lata’s daughter, Priya, thinks her father’s online pursuits are distasteful even as she embarks upon a clandestine affair of her own. And their son, Nikesh, pretends at a seemingly perfect marriage with his law-firm colleague and their young son, but hides the truth of what his relationship really entails. Over the course of three weeks in August, the whole family will uncover one another’s secrets, confront the limits of love and loyalty, and explore life’s second chances.
Charming, funny, and moving, Late Bloomers introduces a delightful new voice in fiction with the story of four individuals trying to understand how to be happy in their own lives–and as a family.
Late Bloomers is the story of an Indian-American family struggling to figure out their paths in life after husband and wife Suresh and Lata get divorced. Their grown children, Priya and Nikesh, don’t particularly understand what’s going on with their parents, but they’re too immersed in their own complicated lives to fully engage or even ask.
Meanwhile, Suresh goes on one disastrous date (via dating website) after another, and Lata is considering going on the first-ever date of her entire life. While Suresh is astonished by all the lies people tell online, Lata is both amazed and intimidated when a nice man starts paying attention to her.
The story is set sometime in the past (iPhones and online dating exist, but people play music on CDs and watch DVDs) — so maybe 15 years or so ago? The lack of specificity actually made me a little nuts early on. Would it have hurt to stick a date on the first page of the first chapter?
Late Bloomers flows pretty quickly, but I never found myself all that engaged. It’s a nice enough story, but the biggest dramatic moment of the book is when an 8-year-old gets upset and runs away from a birthday party, and everyone has to go look for him. (Spoiler: He’s fine.) Chapters are narrated variously by Suresh, Lata, Priya, and Nikesh, and not all of them are equally likable or able to hold a reader’s (i.e., my) attention. Starting the book with a Suresh chapter feels like a mistake — he’s not pleasant to spend time with, and that made me drag my feet a bit about continuing.
Late Bloomers is a pleasant read — not exactly a page-turner, but interesting enough to want to see through. Of all the characters, Lata is the one who’s most endearing and whose future I felt most invested in. There are a few tangential story threads that are a bit weird (like the younger woman who moves into Suresh’s house for a pretty flimsy reason), but whenever the four main characters come together in their various combinations, the story picks up and is much more entertaining.
The novel shows four different people opening their eyes to new ways of being and thinking about their lives, after accepting the status quo for far too long. Whether it’s people in their 50s starting to date again, or their adult children reexamining their own decisions, Late Bloomers focuses on the possibility of personal growth and making big changes, no matter where in life a person is. Overall, the message is positive, although it takes quite a few mistimed conversations, evasions of truth, and heaps of the characters’ self-doubts to get there.
Recommended for when you’re looking for something domestic and on the non-stressful side to read. Save
Title: Off the Map Series: Beck Sisters, #3 Author: Trish Doller Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Publication date: March 7, 2023 Length: 272 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been travelling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.
Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.
Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love – if only they choose it.
Content warning: Loss of a parent, dementia.
Call me late to the party, but I only discovered Trish Doller’s loosely connected contemporary romance series a couple of months ago. After finishing Float Plan, I moved on to The Suite Spot as soon as I could, and here I am, just a few weeks later, to report back on book #3, Off the Map.
In Off the Map, the main character is the best friend of Anna from Float Plan. Carla works as a bartender at a cheesy pirate-themed restaurant in Fort Lauderdale during tourist season, each year saving up as much as possible to fund her true passion in life, world travel. During her time away from the bar, she goes wherever the road takes her, living on beaches or off-roading in her trusty jeep, enjoying flings but never making plans beyond the here and now.
As a child, Carla’s beloved father Biggie used travel as a way to distract his young daughter from her mother’s abandonment. Each summer, as soon as school was out, they’d hit the road for adventure and exploration. Biggie is a larger than life character, an ex-hippie and Vietnam vet who loves his daughter, his friends, and his music — but eight years before the story opens, Biggie was diagnosed with dementia. And his immediate response was to hand Carla the keys to Valentina (the jeep) and demand that she go off on more adventures, not wanting her tied down or forced to witness his decline.
As Off the Map starts, Carla has come to Ireland for Anna and Keane’s wedding. Keane’s brother Eamon is tasked with picking Carla up and driving her from Dublin to the small town where the wedding will take place. But that would be too straightforward! After giving into their mutual attraction and having an extremely enjoyable night together, Carla discovers that Eamon has never pursued his own dreams of travel and adventure, instead maintaining the steady, reliable existence his family seems to expect of him.
With Carla urging him on, Eamon revs up his classic Land Rover and the two set out for the wedding… but with plenty of detours along the way. As they travel, their connection deepens, and by the time they arrive at their destination six days later, it’s clear that this is way more than a fling.
Reading about Carla and Eamon’s escapades is quite fun (although it’s absolutely feeding the fire of my own wanderlust). I personally wouldn’t want to camp wild or go off-roading, but reading this book let me indulge my fantasies of traveling the world without strings or limitations.
The chemistry between the couple is immediate and fiery, but it’s not just hot sex (of which there is plenty; this book gets a steamy rating) — there’s also tenderness, intimacy, and prolonged kissing, just for the sake of kissing. I appreciated how the author depicts the growing trust and connection between the characters. Yes, their sexual connection is instantaneous, but it’s heightened and deepened by their personal and emotional connection.
Carla’s relationship with Biggie is complicated, and becomes the focus of the last quarter or so of the book, as she finally realizes that she needs to return home and be with him, whether or not that’s what he’s instructed her to do. Carla’s time with Biggie is sweetly and sensitively depicted, and I found it very moving.
Being a romance, Off the Map of course has complicating factors that seem to send Carla and Eamon in diametrically opposed directions before bringing them back together. The ending is lovely but bittersweet, and seems very fitting for the characters and their story arcs.
I enjoyed Off the Map very much (although Float Plan is still my favorite of the three books), and hope there will be more set in this world. The characters in the Beck Sisters books are wonderful, and I want more of them!
Title: In the Lives of Puppets Author: TJ Klune Publisher: Tor Books Publication date: April 25, 2023 Length: 432 pages Genre: Science fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots–fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio-a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Author TJ Klune invites you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.
It absolutely pains me to give a TJ Klune book anything less than 5 stars… but alas, In the Lives of Puppets just didn’t hit the mark for me. This makes me sad! I’ve loved so many of the author’s books, but this tale of robots and found family — which is also a Pinocchio retelling — left me oddly uninvested.
In the Lives of Puppets is the story of a family of oddball robots and machines, living in an isolated forest grove, raising a human child named Victor. As the story gets underway, Victor is now 21, and spends his days in the company of his two best friends, a Roomba-type vacuum robot named Rambo and a medical care robot named Nurse Ratched, who seems to delight in heartless provision of medical treatments (except when she engages her Empathy Protocols and offers a soothing “there, there” to her potential patient).
The trio also live with Gio (Giovanni), an older android who loves inventing, creating, listening to jazz music, and enjoying peaceful family time. Everything changes when Victor discovers a broken down android in the Scrap Yards that seems to still have a little power left in it. Once Victor repairs Hap, hidden secrets come to life, and soon the family’s entire existence is in peril.
In the Lives of Puppets is part exploration of love, family, and what it means to be a “real” human, and part road trip/adventure/quest. By the midpoint of the book, Victor and friends are off on a journey to the City of Electric Dreams to rescue Gio and, hopefully, restore him to his true self.
The writing can be very funny, especially Rambo and Nurse Ratched’s lines. These are probably my favorite parts of the book.
“Are we lost?” Rambo asked nervously.
“Of course not,” Nurse Ratched said. “I know exactly where we are.”
“Oh. Where are we?”
“In the forest.”
“Whew,” Rambo said. “I was worried for a moment that we were lost. Since we’re not, I will instead focus on the fact that we’re in the middle of the woods at night by ourselves. Do big animals like to eat vacuums?”
“I am sure they do,” Nurse Ratched said.
“Oh no,” Rambo whispered. “But I’m a vacuum.”
As the for story threads about emotions and connection and humanity… I was left largely unmoved, and the quest elements mostly failed to hold my interest.
I have to admit, overall this book was a letdown. As I mentioned, I usually adore this author’s work, and can’t really understand why In the Lives of Puppets just did not click for me. In any case, I’ll still be tuning in for whatever he writes next, and meanwhile will look to read some of his backlist titles too.
Title: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking Author: T. Kingfisher Publisher: Argyll Productions Publication date: July 21, 2020 Length: 308 pages Genre: Fantasy Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…
What fun!
I’d had my eye on this book for a while now, and finally decided to dive in. This sweet fantasy story delivers an unlikely teen heroine, suspenseful action sequences, unusual magical powers, and some very bad cookies.
Mona works in her aunt’s bakery and is perfectly content with her life, using her magical powers (which she considers pretty minor) to encourage her bread to rise and her pastries to turn out perfectly. Occasionally, she entertains bakery customers by making her gingerbread men perform, but that’s about all she can do. Or so she thinks…
When a dastardly plot to eliminate wizards and usurp the ruling duchess’s throne comes to light, it’s up to Mona and a street urchin named Spindle to save the day. And since Mona’s magic is “just” related to bread, she has to figure out how on earth that ability could possibly be useful. The bad cookies are only the start.
I’ve yet to be disappointed by a T. Kingfisher book, and while A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is vastly different from the author’s horror books (which I also love), her signature humor and clever dialogue are fully present here.
The plot is so entertaining, and Mona is a terrific lead character. I loved how her minor talent for working with dough ends up being just what a besieged city needs. Not giving anything away here… but it’s amazing!
This book is a total treat, and I loved every bit of it. And now, I’m dying to pick up more of the author’s fantasy stories (probably Minor Mage next). If you’re looking for a fun fantasy adventure (with plenty of baked goods), check out A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Magic!
Title: The Glass Hotel Author: Emily St. John Mandel Publisher: Knopf Publication date: March 24, 2020 Length: 302 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Purchased Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby’s glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients’ accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.
Once again, I find myself practically speechless after finishing a book by Emily St. John Mandel. Earlier this year, I was transfixed by the beauty of Sea of Tranquility. That book, however, was published after The Glass Hotel, and as I learned while reading Sea of Tranquility, there is a certain amount of cross-over between the two books. Naturally, I had to see what The Glass Hotel was all about.
As in her other books, the author weaves together seemingly disparate story threads and characters to create an intricate, interconnected whole. As the synopsis explains, the basic framework of the novel involves a vastly wealthy man whose fortune is built on a Ponzi scheme and his relationship with a woman whom he meets at the bar of a remote luxury hotel. As Vincent and Jonathan’s lives come together, we also see snippets of their pasts, as well as scenes involving other people caught up in their orbit. Some connections are clear, such as their various family members, but others are connected by circumstances, coincidences, random encounters, and chance overlaps at particular times and places.
The writing is gorgeous, sharp, and evocative. A recurring theme throughout centers on worlds within worlds. Vincent thinks of her years with Jonathan as her life in the “kingdom of money”. Jonathan, imprisoned for the remainder of his life, imagines what he calls his counterlife, a life that he inhabits in his mind that lets him experience the other ways his life might have gone, had he only gone different places or taken different actions.
At one point, a friend of Vincent’s tells her:
I was trying to figure out why my life felt more or less the same in Singapore as it did in London, and that’s when I realized that money is its own country.”
A man who loses everything due to the Ponzi, now living a nomadic RV life at a time when he and his wife thought they’d be comfortably retired, contemplates that:
… they were citizens of a shadow country that in his previous life he’d only dimly perceived… He’d seen the shadow country, its outskirts and signs, he’d just never thought he’d have anything to do with it.
Another man who goes from hopeless addiction to triumph in a music career shares:
“I stepped through the looking glass into a strange new world where people actually listened to my music.” […] The condition of having landed in an unimaginable life was something he thought she might know something about.
As in Sea of Tranquility, the connections and overlapping lives are what make this book so fascinating, as do the intriguing characters and the sense of inevitability about the events and their outcomes.
I simply can’t say enough good things about The Glass Hotel. Now that I’ve read it, I feel an urgent need to re-read Sea of Tranquility (even though I just read it a few months ago).
I truly loved this book, and simply couldn’t put it down once I started.
This was originally going to be a book review post dedicated to my newest Classics Club Spin book… but then I got carried away! Not only did I read the book, but I also watched the movie and TV mini-series versions as well. Read on for my thoughts on all three (or, for the tl;dr version, jump right to the end!)
Let’s start where all such things should start — the book:
Title: Picnic at Hanging Rock Author: Joan Lindsay Publication date: 1967 Length: 204 pages Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
It was a cloudless summer day in the year 1900. Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of the secluded volcanic outcropping. Farther, higher, until at last they disappeared. They never returned. . . .
Mysterious and subtly erotic, Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling landmark of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides as a masterpiece of intrigue.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is my most recent Classics Club Spin book. This is a book I’ve had my eye on for some time, so I was delighted when its number came up!
This 20th century Australian classic centers around the Appleyard College for Young Ladies, run by headmistress Mrs. Appleyard, a stiff and proper Englishwoman who enjoys the income afforded her by providing a fine finishing school education for the daughters of Australian society’s affluent families.
As the story opens, it’s Valentine’s Day, 1900, and the young women of Appleyard are setting out on a picnic, chaperoned by two teachers. It’s a hot day, and their destination lies hours away by horse-drawn carriage. After the excitement of receiving Valentine’s cards, emotions are running high. The girls are eager for adventure, yet must always remember the expectation that they behave like proper young ladies.
After a picnic at the foot of the towering Hanging Rock, as it’s almost time for the return journey, a few girls beg permission to take a short walk along the stream… and never return. Hours pass; finally, one of the party returns in terror, but with no explanation of what’s actually happened. No sign can be found of the three missing girls, and what’s more, it’s discovered that one of the teachers has also vanished. As night approaches, there’s no choice but to return to the school.
An intense manhunt follows, and while one girl is eventually found — but again, with no memories of what happened to her or the others — there’s no luck in finding the others. Rumors and intrigue spread; the incident becomes known as the College Mystery. Months pass, and the ripples of that fateful day spread and touch more and more people — and the enigmatic Mrs. Appleyard seems to slowly fall apart as well.
The writing in Picnic at Hanging Rock is lush and vivid. The depiction of Hanging Rock is stark, and the author carefully describes not just the rock formations themselves, but all the flora and fauna of the area as well. The contrast between the proper, buttoned-up, virginal girls and the wildness of their environment is vivid — while providing a simulated British boarding school environment, the school cannot help but also expose the girls to the dangerous, venomous, and treacherous landscapes all around them.
This book is quite famous for not actually answering the questions it raises. This isn’t a whodunnit with a big reveal at the end. We don’t know, and never find out, what truly happened to the missing girls. There’s another large question at the end that also doesn’t get answered. People appear in the story, and then fade from it, with the author pointing out at various points that this is where so-and-so’s role ends, and we hear no more from them.
A modern-day reader used to fast-paced thrillers and explosive plot twists might find this book slow, but I actually loved it. The mood builds slowly yet inexorably. There’s intrigue and dread, yet we also gets views of love and passion, disappointments and escapes, jealousies and fears. There’s an insidious sense of doom — from the day of the picnic, everything begins going downhill, even when the connections aren’t obvious.
There’s much debate about what happened to the girls. Were they attacked, murdered, kidnapped? Simply lost, perhaps fallen down a cliff? Were supernatural elements at play? An unpublished final chapter holds the key to the author’s original explanation, but even after reading about it, I think I’m happier with the book not providing answers to the mysteries.
I’m glad to have read Picnic at Hanging Rock. It’s a tautly-written, fairly short novel that contains great writing and creates an eerie, aching mood. Highly recommended.
Next up, the first filmed version of Picnic at Hanging Rock:
Right after finishing the book, I watched the 1975 film by director Peter Weir, which is considered a movie masterpiece. At the time of its release, Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote:
HORROR need not always be a long-fanged gentleman in evening clothes or a dismembered corpse or a doctor who keeps a brain in his gold fish bowl. It may be a warm sunny day. the innocence of girlhood and hints of unexplored sexuality that combine to produce a euphoria so intense it becomes transporting, a state beyond life or death. Such horror is unspeakable not because it is gruesome but because it remains outside the realm of things that can be easily defined or explained in conventional ways.
Read full review, here, and an opinion piece written in 2017, here.
The movie delivers on the mood of the book, from start to finish. It’s cinematic in scope and has a dreamlike quality, often focusing in on the girls’ faces, showing their beauty and their overpowering emotions. Emotion rules everything — the girls’ romantic passion while reading Valentine cards, the devotion of a younger girl to an older, the delight of peeling off gloves and shoes as soon as civilizing forces are left behind, and for the young men encountered at the picnic, the obsessive dreams that follow a mere glimpse of a girl of startling beauty.
We also clearly see the downside of these emotional states, as various group scenes turn hysterical or threatening, when heightened emotions turn the girls (or in another instance, local townsfolk) into menacing mobs.
The film captures the book’s contrasts between the British-style manners and rules of the school and the untamable nature of the Australian bush, with gorgeous shots of the girls in white dresses disappearing between stones or coming in contact with insects and lizards. There were times in the book where I couldn’t quite connect the physical descriptions of the landscape with an image in my mind, so seeing the settings in the movie was very powerful.
The movie is just as ambiguous as the book. There’s no attempt to provide answers or tie things up neatly. The point of the movie is the feelings it evokes.
Finally, my 2nd viewing experience — the 2018 mini-series, currently streaming on Prime Video.
This six-episode TV mini-series stars Natalie Dormer as the domineering headmistress Mrs. Appleyard. Based on the key art alone, it’s clear that this version is going for a very different vibe.
According to the Variety review:
Joan Lindsay’s much-acclaimed 1967 Australian novel “Picnic At Hanging Rock” has already resulted in one stunning adaptation — Peter Weir’s 1975 film of the same name — so a second attempt, this time a television series, may already feel unnecessary. But it doesn’t take long for writers Beatrix Christian and Alice Addison to make the case for their own 2018 “Picnic,” a darker, more mysterious, and extended version that manages to feel updated for our time while still keeping the original 1900 setting.
In “Picnic At Hanging Rock,” the central mystery is laid out immediately: Four young women — three students and their teacher — suddenly vanish on Valentine’s Day, 1900, while on a school picnic at, well, Hanging Rock. The base premise is familiar to fans of crime series, but this is no ordinary drama; it’s eerie and haunting. It’s less dreamy (a quality frequently ascribed to the film) and more of a nightmare that you’ll be eager to dive into.
(For an additional critical take on this mini-series, check out the New York Times review, here.)
Over the course of six episodes, the bones of the plot of Picnic at Hanging Rock remain intact, but the mini-series expands just about every element, creating backstories for many characters, envisioning heaps more romantic entanglements, and showing scenes of events at the Rock that are eerie and perhaps even intriguing, but that don’t ultimately add a whole lot to the story.
The key change, of course, is the character of Mrs. Appleyard. It’s evident early on that she is not what she seems. Rather than an older widowed Englishwoman focused on the profitability of turning out refined young women, here, she’s a scheming con artist posing as a wealthy, respectable woman — but we’re treated to her hidden Cockney accent early on, and through flashbacks, learn much more of her character.
The girls in her care are sympathetic, much more diverse than in the 1975 movie, and more explicitly curious about their own sexuality as well as the eroticism of the untamed world beyond the confines of the school. The cruelty and abuse are much more explicit here as well, and certain subplots and side characters are completely extraneous, either there as deliberate sensationalism or as plot padding.
The middle few episodes sag, and I had to restrain myself from fast-forwarding, but by the end, I did want to see the wrap-up and how it all plays out. The mini-series keeps some (but not all) of the ambiguity of the source material, but the heavy focus on Mrs. Appleyard makes many of the other elements fade into the background, and some of the romantic entanglements seem to serve no purpose other than distraction.
I suppose I’m glad to have watched the mini-series — to satisfy my curiosity and for the sake of completion — but I would have been perfectly fine without it too.
But don’t let me talk you out of checking it out! Here’s the trailer — see if it piques your interest:
Back to the Classics Club Spin:
Yes, I ventured far afield, not just reading my chosen book, but watching two different adaptations as well. And to wrap it all up, I’ll simply say:
THE BOOK: Haunting, eerie, ambiguous, beautiful
THE 1975 MOVIE: Dreamlike and artistic, maybe not suited to 21st century moviegoer tastes, but as an older film, it’s lovely to see. Even when the plot gets lost amidst the gorgeous cinematography, the spell of the movie makes it worthwhile.
THE 2018 MINI-SERIES: OK if you like this sort of thing. It’s all a bit of a muddle, dreamy in parts and then crossing over into a campier gothic feel. (Maybe I’m alone in this reaction — has anyone else seen it?)
The biggest takeaway: Picnic at Hanging Rock is definitely worth reading, and I’m so glad I did.
Title: Said No One Ever Author: Stephanie Eding Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca Publication date: April 4, 2023 Length: 320 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
A peaceful vacation turns into a roller coaster ride of family drama.
Two handsome men with competing agendas cause mix-ups and betrayal.
Sometimes you have to put your foot down to get what you really want in life.
Ellie Reed’s self-esteem can’t take any more of her family’s constant criticism and attempts to control her life. But when she rents an Airbnb on a gorgeous farm in Montana, she encounters a whole new set of family drama and finds herself the caretaker of a barn full of farm animals, caught between two handsome men competing for control of the farm, and the sudden best friend of a spunky elderly widow whose outrageous ideas just might change her destiny…
Spring has sprung.. and what better time is there to enjoy a fish-out-of-water story about a city girl staying on a Montana farm?
In Said No One Ever, Ellie’s life is a mess. Her job as a freelance medical transcriptionist is being phased out, she’s just broken up with her boyfriend of six years (a nice optometrist who’s perfect for Ellie’s family, if not for Ellie), her apartment lease is about to run out, and she has no idea what to do about any of this.
Her overbearing family constantly compares Ellie to her high-achieving older sister, and they have a plan: Ellie should become her sister Avery’s nanny (for three out-of-control littles) and live rent-free in her late grandmother’s house, where she’ll handle fixing it up while getting it ready to sell. Ellie is SO not on board with any of this, but she’s seriously lacking in options.
Needing a break, Ellie books a tiny-house Airbnb rental on a farm in Montana. She looks forward to wide-open spaces, peace and quiet, and some alone time. She gets exactly none of what she expects.
Her host, Marilyn, is picked up by an ambulance within minutes of Ellie’s arrival, before Ellie even gets a chance to meet her. Ellie is left with Marilyn’s hyperactive bulldog Hilda and a barn full of animals — and clearly, the sheep and donkey need care, but Ellie has zero clue what to do. A visit to Marilyn at the rehab/nursing home results in a list of instructions for animal care, plus a budding friendship with the older woman, who is zesty, free-spirited, and full of schemes and dreams.
The arrival of Marilyn’s grandson Warren threatens to derail Ellie’s vacation. Apparently, the family had no idea about Marilyn’s Airbnb plans and is horrified… not to mention that the tiny house Ellie is living in is actually Warren’s, and he’s supposed to be staying there for the next month.
As Ellie settles in, she becomes close to Marilyn, starts to get to know the locals, and has a very grumpy/argumentative dynamic with Warren… which clearly means there are sparks just waiting to fly!
There are plenty of shenanigans, usually caused by Marilyn and her partner-in-crime roommate Belle (the two of them delight in scandalizing the nursing home staff and flirting with the hunky young man from food service) — although some of the misadventures have to do with wandering farm animals as well. Drama is provided through Marilyn’s daughters, two hard-charging businesswomen who have no patience for the farm or their mother’s wishes, and are determined to sell, make a good profit, and move Marilyn to a nursing home closer to them in Spokane.
Now, you might think that an Airbnb guest who’s in town for just a few weeks should have no part in all this farm and family drama… and while that would undoubtedly be the case in real life, in Said No One Ever, that’s clearly not what’s going to happen! Ellie becomes completely wrapped up in the farm and Marilyn’s life, and soon she’s a pivotal player in finding a way to make sure Marilyn gets what she wants.
Although presented as a romance (which it is!), I think my favorite thing about Said No One Ever is the wonderful relationship that develops between Ellie and Marilyn. Ellie still misses her own grandmother, and in Marilyn, she finds an elderly woman to fill some of the empty spaces in her heart. Marilyn’s sense of adventure and spunk are just what Ellie needs, as she involves Ellie in quests and adventures and just plain fun.
The romance in the book is a slow burn. At first, there’s the suggestion that this will be a love triangle story (and that’s certainly what the blurb describes), but that’s actually not the case. Warren is the obvious love interest, and the other guy — the sexy neighbor with smooth come-ons and heavy-handed flirtation — is ruled out almost immediately, especially when his underhanded manipulative side becomes clear.
I really enjoyed Said No One Ever, with only a few very minor quibbles:
The farm antics are cute, but especially in the first third of the book, a bit too much. I didn’t need quite that much time spent on following Ellie as she learns how to feed the animals, clean their stalls, and collect eggs from the henhouse.
Maybe this is just me, but why would a woman staying alone, on a farm, miles from other people, with no expectation of seeing anyone, still put on makeup every day? (Again, maybe this is just me…). A few times, when there’s an unexpected visitor at the farm, Ellie hopes her mascara isn’t smudged. (If I were alone in a tiny house on a farm, I would not be putting on mascara… and probably wouldn’t even bother with a hairbrush!)
This is more a quibble about the trope than about the book — but only in romance novels would an out-of-towner become that enmeshed in the locals’ lives within a week of arriving. But hey, it’s fiction, and I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of a sweet, engaging read.
For those who like to know these things in advance, the steam level here is sweet. No sex scenes, nothing more intimate than kissing and descriptions of feeling attraction.
The writing is lots of fun, full of laughter and snark and quippy dialogue, not to mention the farm craziness that leaves Ellie at wit’s end:
Since arriving in Montana a single woman, her first sort-of-date involved wrangling a rooster and the second came with a garden hose and a runaway donkey. Of course it did. Her life had fallen into absolute bedlam.
That’s not to say that there aren’t more serious themes embedded in the story. I found certain elements especially moving. While Marilyn is funny and upbeat, the struggle she (along with Warren and Ellie) goes through to maintain her independence and to keep control over her own life can be very difficult to read about. While essentially an upbeat book, Said No One Ever still had me on the edge of my seat at certain parts when Marilyn’s future was on the line — which I think says a lot about how emotionally connected I’d come to feel about the characters.
Also, Ellie’s relationship with her parents and sister, while often played for laughs, is quite sad. They don’t see her for who she is or value her choices at all — so much of their interaction with her is about controlling her life, making decisions for her, and trying to convince Ellie that they, not her, know what’s best for her. Hmmm, sounds like a parallel to Marilyn’s life. I see what the author did there!
As you can tell, I really enjoyed this sweet story of love, friendship, and independence, and the gorgeous Montana setting is an absolute treat! I shouldn’t be surprised that I loved the characters and story — I felt the same way after reading the author’s previous novel, The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale. Looks like Stephanie Eding will be going on my authors-to-watch list!
Bookshelf Fantasies 