Book Review: There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Uncovered America’s Biggest Catfish by Anna Akbari

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: There is No Ethan: How Three Women Uncovered America’s Biggest Catfish
Author: Anna Akbari
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: June 4, 2024
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Memoir/true crime
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfisher, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them

In 2011 three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this fascinating man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last-minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn’t after money—he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy.

After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame’s stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could have ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catfish’s web, they found other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for “Ethan” to ever stop.

There is No Ethan catalogues Akbari’s experience as both victim and observer. By looking at the bigger picture—a world where technology mediates our relationships; where words and images are easily manipulated; and where truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms—Akbari provides an explanation for why these stories matter.

There Is No Ethan is one of the most fascinating and bizarre true crime stories I’ve ever read… especially because, in point of fact, no actual crime (by legal definitions) ever took place. And yet, the violation of ethical standards and the emotional manipulation perpetrated by “Ethan” are truly shocking.

In this memoir, the author recounts her involvement with Ethan Schuman in the early 2010s. She met Ethan on OKCupid, and they formed an instant rapport. Technology was not quite at the stage of FaceTime and Zoom, so communication via chat threads and emails was pretty par for the course. Anna and Ethan began an intense relationship via digital platforms, sharing detailed thoughts, emotions, and vulnerabilities, both ostensibly equally excited to meet in real life — something delayed repeatedly due to Ethan’s high pressure job. When Ethan cancelled again and again each time they had plans, his excuses escalated to a cancer diagnosis and surgery — and how could Anna be so cruel as to hold that against him? But eventually, the red flags indicating manipulation and emotional abuse were too much to ignore, and Anna walked away.

Soon after, she was contacted by another woman through a mutual acquaintance, someone who has a disturbingly similar tale to tell. And before long, the two of them were able to find yet a third woman who’d been involved with Ethan for over two years. For all three, the patterns were starkly similar: Intense, non-stop messaging, elaborate personal stories, harsh criticisms should they step out of line, and excuse after excuse for never actually meeting.

There Is No Ethan lays out the chronology of these women’s experiences with Ethan in a factual, organized manner, with extensive excerpts from the messages and emails exchanged over the course of their individual relationships with Ethan. As outsiders, we readers may ask how no one became suspicious earlier, but from reading the correspondence, it’s clear that Ethan was a master manipulator, having absolutely no shame when it came to concocting excuses and alibis, even going to far as to create a fake sister to vouch for him when one of the women showed signs of stepping out of line.

And yet… Ethan was never held accountable for his actions beyond having his name and true identity outed. Why? Because as far as the author is able to demonstrate, he committed no crimes. He never extorted money from his victims; there’s no identity theft, financial scam, or sexual coercion involved. But — what he did was clearly, absolutely, cruel and wrong.

SPOILER AHEAD: You can easily find out Ethan’s true identity through a Google search, but if you don’t want to know, this is the time to stop reading this review!

As the book title makes clear, there is no Ethan. Ethan Schuman does not exist. The profile pictures and other photos he provided to his various victims were all photos he took from an old acquaintance’s social media accounts. No Ethan Schuman attended the colleges or graduate schools he claimed to have attended, nor worked for Morgan Stanley or the US government as he claimed.

In fact, Ethan Schuman isn’t even a man. As the author and the women she befriends discover, the person behind the Ethan persona is a woman named Emily Slutsky. At the time of their involvement with Emily, she was a medical student — and is now a practicing physician.

Confronted with her lies, deceit, and cruelties, Emily’s responses to the woman range from anger to justification to claims of carrying out a fiction in order to try on other lives. She remains remarkably indifferent to the harm she caused, and despite vowing to stop, continued to engage with other women under the Ethan persona for years to come.

No consequences ever seemed to have caught up with Emily. While the trio of woman contacted Emily’s family, her medical school, and later employers, nothing happened. The author is adamant that the ethical breach embodied by Emily’s manipulations should disqualify her from holding positions of trust with vulnerable patients — but if you Google Emily, you’ll see that she continues to practice as an ob/gyn.

The author, a sociologist, explores issues around identity in a digital age, which is all quite fascinating. Still, the real hook of this compelling non-fiction tale is the detailed way in which Ethan/Emily’s lies and manipulation are spelled out. Emily’s victims are all highly educated professional women, who, perhaps due to the ongoing challenge of forging real connections in the age of online dating, made themselves vulnerable to a man who seemed to prize intellectual and emotional vulnerability over anything else. It’s easy to see how they’d be sucked in, especially given Emily’s relentless stream of messaging, leaving them more sleep-deprived and wrecked emotionally with each passing day.

More than a decade has passed since the author’s involvement with Ethan, and technology has evolved enough since then that a broken webcam or unwillingness to have a live conversation would not be accepted as valid excuses in the way it was then. Still, There Is No Ethan is certainly a cautionary tale about the unimaginable ways someone with shady morals and a lot of creativity can take advantage, even of someone who thinks they’re alert to all the warning signs and have taken all necessary precautions.

There Is No Ethan is fascinating, horrifying, and utterly absorbing. It also left me rather furious — as far as I can tell, Ethan/Emily has yet to face any real consequences for her actions. Highly recommended.

To read more about this bizarre story:
New York Times book review (2024)
New York Observer article (2014)
New York Post article about Emily Slutsky (2024)

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

3Sep2025

Book Review: Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Writing Mr. Wrong
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: June 24, 2025
Print length: 333 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased

From a New York Times bestselling author, a second-chance rom-com about an author who goes viral when readers discover her book’s hero was inspired by a beloved pro hockey player—and her high school crush.

Debut author Gemma Stanton knows romance readers love a bad boy—and she has the perfect prototype for her novel: Mason Moretti. High school hockey god-turned-pro player, Mason was Gemma’s first crush, but she couldn’t forget the sting of his very public rejection. So, she casts him as a hot-headed Highlander in her spicy new historical romance.

She never expected readers would find out on live TV when a morning show host invites Mason for a surprise on-air reunion . . .

As an aging hockey player with a rep for being ruthless on the ice—and roguish off of it—Mason has an image problem. So, when his meet-cute with Gemma goes viral, Mason proposes they build on the momentum with a few fake dates to boost her book sales—and his sagging profile.

But when the fictional flirting gets a little too real, Mason realizes Gemma actually makes him want to become a better man—someone worthy of her trust and her love.

I adore pretty much everything I’ve read by Kelley Armstrong, but I’ll admit I was surprised when she published her first contemporary romance last year, Finding Mr. Write. Quite a departure from her thrillers, ghost stories, and timeslip adventures! And yet, I shouldn’t have been surprised that the book was terrific. She’s such a gifted writer — there’s no doubt that whatever she writes, in whatever genre, will be well worth reading.

And now, Armstrong is back with a follow-up romance: Writing Mr. Wrong. Once again focused on a romance writer, this book connects with the previous in that the main character is the sister of the other book’s love interest. That said, it’s absolutely not necessary to read these in a particular order. (Just grab whichever you can find!)

In Writing Mr. Wrong, the main character is Gemma Stanton, a debut author in her mid-thirties who has returned to her true passion — writing — after a bitter divorce and too many years of stifling her dreams. When she’s invited on a local talk show to celebrate her book’s release, the host — a former high school classmate — blindsides her by including Mason Moretti, a huge hockey star for the Vancouver Growlers, and Gemma’s high school crush.

The first romance Gemma had written featured the kind of guy she liked—sweet and considerate. When it hadn’t sold, her writing group had talked her into penning what the market seemed to want. An alpha hero. A self-absorbed, egotistical, inconsiderate, talks-with-his-fists asshole. So she’d dipped into her past and pulled up the perfect guy for the role.

To anyone who knows Mason the similarity between him and Gemma’s fictional hero (and asshole) Laird Argyle is glaringly obvious. Gemma is mortified, but Mason does his best to save the situation and spare her embarrassment.

As they talk afterward, Mason is kind, but Gemma is wary. He hurt her badly back in high school, and it’s been almost twenty years since then with no contact. Mason has a suggestion: Why not pretend to date for a bit, with support from their publicists? It’s sure to boost her book sales, capitalize on the gossip from the talk show, and will also help with his own PR, which has taken a hit recently.

With hesitation, Gemma agrees, and Mason promises her a perfect date — which he then plans without consulting her in the slightest. It’s a disaster, to say the least. But when they go off-script for a more spontaneous outing, sparks fly, and some of their easy connection from their teen years starts to come back.

Gemma and Mason clearly have unfinished business and unresolved feelings, and could potentially be great together — but Mason is (as Gemma’s mother describes him) careless. He’s not intentionally or knowingly an asshole, but he makes assumptions and fails to see how his good intentions might backfire if he’s not considering the other person involved. Mason gets a rude awakening when he finally reads Gemma’s book and realizes that he should NOT be flattered by being the inspiration for Laird Argyle — the guy is awful, and Mason is forced to consider how much truth there is in his fictional portrayal.

The latter part of the book focuses on Mason requesting anti-asshole lessons from Gemma — he’ll whisk them away to wherever she wants, to her specifications, where she can work on her next book, he’ll do all the meals and organizing, and in return, she’ll explain to him why his choices don’t always work, and where he could do better. Of course, things don’t always go as planned, but there’s quite a bit of fun to be had in seeing the two of them navigate travel mishaps, bad decisions, and readjustment of expectations.

Gemma and Mason clearly have chemistry, and both are portrayed sympathetically. For all that Mason screws up, he’s not a bad guy — not at all — and needs to learn to overcome the avoidance patterns drilled into him from childhood. His intentions and heart are generally lovely; it’s in the execution that he fails. Meanwhile, Gemma has lots of baggage from both her teen years with Mason and the years with her terrible ex-husband. She too has work to do, in terms of overcoming fears, learning to trust, and making sure not to lose herself for the sake of making someone else love her.

I really enjoyed both characters and their story arcs, and the book overall is a treat. There’s terrific banter, plenty of chemistry, and some lovely set pieces and funny mishaps.

I did wonder about Gemma’s book — to me, it sounds pretty unappealing, but I suppose there are readers who would enjoy such a story. (And it’s heartening to see that as Gemma gets her confidence back, she’s able to stand up for herself with her publisher and transform her second novel into the story that she truly wants to tell.)

Writing Mr. Wrong is a delight — clever, funny, serious when it needs to be, and totally entertaining. I’m not sure when exactly Kelley Armstrong sleeps: Writing Mr. Wrong is one of four novels novels she’s releasing in 2025. All I can say is that I’m grateful that it’ll be a very long time before I run out of her books to read!

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

31Aug2025

Book Review: Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Play Nice
Author: Rachel Harrison
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: September 9, 2025
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Horror
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the USA Today bestselling author.

Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.

After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.

Play Nice is a story of women confronting their demons… literally and figuratively. And just to be clear, while the synopsis and many blurbs refer to this as a haunted house story, this is not actually about a haunted house. No ghosts! However, the house is possessed, and the demon inside it isn’t going anywhere.

Yes, the house scares me. But nothing scares me as much as the idea that I might become one of those tragic, boring would-never people.

Main character Clio is a lot. She’s in her mid-twenties, a highly successful stylist and influencer who revels in her good looks, appeal, and life-of-the-party vibe. She’s highly curated, always down for a good time. Clio’s party lifestyle comes to a screeching halt when her two older sisters call to tell her that Alexandra has died… Alexandra being the mother who was cut out of their lives when Clio was a young child, the abusive, addicted woman who wrote a scandalous book about demons and lost custody completely after endangering the girls one too many times.

Clio’s sisters Leda and Daphne don’t seem particularly affected by news of Alex’s death, but Clio decides that she’s going to the funeral, a woo-woo affair hosted by an occult society in Connecticut. There, she meets with Alex’s sister and is informed that Alex has left the girls their childhood home, which they didn’t even realize she still owned.

The house is a physical disaster, and what’s more, it was the main focus of Alex’s book, which the girls all promised their father they’d never read. Once again, Leda and Daphne want nothing to do with it, but Clio sees the potential for exposure. Home reno and demo reels are huge! She can do a whole series on before and after as she flips the house and makes it gorgeous enough to suit her standards.

Things go sideways almost from the start. The house is, well, kind of gross and dirty. There are mice. And unexplained sounds. But Clio is sure that her plan is worth it. Then she finds a battered old copy of her mother’s book, with handwritten annotations from Alex to Clio. Soon, unwanted memories creep in, presenting very different versions of the events Clio thought she understood. She’s forced to question the main narratives of her life and to wonder: Was Alex really as crazy and abusive as she’s been told all her life? Or could there possibly be a shred of truth in her rantings about demons and possession?

Play Nice goes from creepy to violent to gross-out horror throughout the course of the book, escalating to an incredibly disturbing climax. Meanwhile, the family itself is rocked to its core as old secrets are revealed and certain betrayals and lies come to light.

Clio is hard to like, and is not exactly a reliable narrator. She’s plagued by questionable or repressed memories, and prefers the image of herself that she’s created to any harder looks in the mirror.

I sound bratty and resentful, which is weird, because i swear I’m only one of those things.

She’s used to getting her way, assumes her role as the family favorite is deserved, and causes some of her own problems through her refusal to listen to anyone else.

The sky is blue and cloudless, the sun high and yellow, and the entire world is incapable of telling me no. It makes me feel like a god. Powerful, bored, dangerous.

An underlying theme of Play Nice is the need — craving — for attention. This is clearly what drives Clio’s career and social life. But, as we learn, it’s also vital to the demon.

“… But the demon is real, Clio. You now that now. And it’s dangerous. Its attachment to you is profound.”

Part of me is flattered, because I love attention. We have that in common, the demon and me. I like being the favorite. This part of me feels an allegiance to it. A kinship.

This book has some truly crazy elements, and reading it can be vertigo-inducing, as we slingshot from Clio’s narration to passages from Alex’s book, to scenes of confrontations with her father and sisters that make Clio (and we readers) wonder which version of reality contains the actual truth — if any do.

Play Nice is a disturbing, scary read, leavened by Rachel Harrison’s excellent writing and healthy doses of humor and smart-ass commentary. I’m a big fan of this author’s books, and enjoyed this one, but not as much as some of her others (Such Sharp Teeth, Cackle, Black Sheep) which I consider true favorites.

If you’re open to creepy, icky moments and skin-crawling scary bits, and enjoy reading about highly caustic and dysfunctional families, then Play Nice might be the book for you! Really, I don’t believe you can go wrong with any Rachel Harrison book. I’m already looking forward to whatever she writes next.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

30Aug2025

Book Review: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
Author: Sangu Mandanna
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: July 15, 2025
Print length: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

An enchanting novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches .

Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her magical Guild. Now she ( slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Aunt Jasmine run an inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests’ shenanigans, tries to keep the talking fox in check, and longs for the magical future she lost.

When she learns about an old spellbook that holds the secret to restoring her power, she turns to Luke Larsen, a gorgeous historian who might just be able to help her unlock the book’s mysteries. Luke, who has his own reasons for staying at the inn, never planned on getting involved in the madcap goings-on around him and certainly had no intention of letting certain grumpy innkeepers past his icy walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he not only agrees to help, but also finds himself thawing .

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone… and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.

This tale of found family, witchcraft, and magic hits the sweet spot of being just cozy enough without turning saccharine, and includes enough silliness to make a reader smile even when there’s quite a bit of sadness too.

Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain:

Once, she had been glorious. Once, she had bent the universe to her will.

She wasn’t that person anymore.

Sera’s incredible magical powers were identified when she was ten years old, and for a time in her youth, she was trained directly by Albert Grey, head of the Guild and the most powerful magical person in the country. But at age 15, Sera uses her powers to resurrect her beloved Aunt Jasmine, something strictly forbidden… and in doing so, drains nearly all of her own powers. She abruptly finds herself bereft of her great gifts, and even worse, exiled from the magical community.

As the story picks up fifteen years later, Sera runs the inn that her former family home has been converted into. It’s shabby and quirky, but thanks to a spell cast by Sera in her younger days, it acts as a beacon to anyone needing sanctuary, and is unfindable for those with bad intentions. Along with Sera and Jasmine, the inn has taken on permanent lodgers, including Sera’s young magically-gifted cousin Theo, an older woman named Mathilda who loves to garden, and a noble young man named Nicholas who spends his days working as a knight at the local Medieval Fair, and who embraces his knighthood even during his off-hours.

The inn is also home to Clemmie, a witch trapped in fox form, who originally showed Sera the resurrection spell. Clemmie is waiting for Sera to get her powers back so she can release Clemmie from the curse that turned her into a fox — but there’s little hope of that, since Sera has no access to the magical books that might hold the answer.

When Luke Larsen shows up at the inn with his nine-year-old sister Posy, a bright, eager girl whose parents don’t know what to do with her, as her autism interferes with her understanding that she needs to hide her magic from the non-magical world, Sera welcomes the pair into their mismatched, oddball group. Luke is a magical history scholar, and he offers Sera insights into how she might finally restore her own powers — but there are risks involved. Complicating matters is the growing attraction between Luke and Sera, who each carry a lifetime’s worth of hurt and rejection, and find it hard to open up and trust anyone.

The story provides plenty of ups and downs as Sera pursues the restoration spell, while also navigating threats from the Guild, her found family’s dynamics, and the sense that Luke is always half-way out the door. The magical elements combine nicely with the more personal parts of the story, and the cast of characters is quirky, likable, and immensely entertaining.

As with this author’s previous book, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, much of the book feels fairy-tale-esque in tone. There’s a sense of wonder and delight. I’d say this book is strictly PG-13, except there are some f-bombs, sexy talk, and one sex scene that feel tonally different than the rest of the book; otherwise, this could easily have been a story to share with younger readers.

Sera goes through a lot, and the story does explore the darker side of her loss and depression, as well as the grief she feels over her lost magic and the pain she’s carried since childhood from being rejected by her own parents. Still, while not sugar-coated in any way, these sadder elements are balanced by the book’s overall cheeriness and whimsy, and it’s hard not feel joy while reading about the quirky family that’s formed on its own at the inn.

The ending wraps up the story quite well, although it left me a bit sad. There was nothing wrong with the writing or the ending itself, but it wasn’t the way rose-colored-glasses-me wished it would end. I actually think it made a lot of sense for the author to give the characters this ending, showing that happiness and love come in many different forms, and that life doesn’t have to turn out exactly as you’d hoped in order for you to end up with what you truly want… and yet (without getting into spoilers), I kept hoping for that last little bit of perfection that (let’s be honest) probably would have been a step too far for the story. Silly me…

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is a fast, fanciful read that never lags. The lovable characters, lovely setting, and funny sense of detail (there’s a room at the inn that rains apple blossom tea once per week, as just one minor example) make this a delightful, appealing reading escape.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

29Aug2025

Book Review: Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea, #1) by Rebecca Thorne

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea
Series: Tomes & Tea, #1
Author: Rebecca Thorne
Publisher: Bramble
Publication date: September 15, 2022
Length: 345 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Purchased
Rating:

“You like tea. I like books. Care to open a shop and forget the world exists?”

All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters… all complemented by love and good company. Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen’s private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives isn’t so easy.

But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she’s thoroughly done risking her life for a self-centered queen. Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility–all the better that her girlfriend is on board. Together, they settle in Tawney, a town nestled in the icy tundra of dragon country, and open the shop of their dreams.

What follows is a cozy tale of mishaps, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. In a story brimming with hurt/comfort and quiet fireside conversations, these two women will discover just what they mean to each other… and the world.

Author Rebecca Thorne states clearly in her author’s notes that she was inspired by Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes… and the footprints of that cozy fantasy can be seen all over Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea.

If you’re a fan of the cozy fantasy genre, then prepare for delight — all the genre’s major beats are here: Renovations, baking, steeping tea, lots of books, settling in a new town, finding community… Can’t Spell Treason has them all!

And yet, despite treading familiar ground, this sweet book is still quite lovely to read. It may not be 100% new or different, but the author take the basics of the genre and spins a charming tale of love, magic, and adventure, with characters to care about… even if, most of the time, the stakes are either relatively low or easily overcome.

Reyna is one of the Queensguard, raised from birth to protect the (terrible) Queen at all costs, including sacrificing her own life, if necessary. Kianthe is the Arcandor, the most powerful mage in the land. After a chance meeting at the palace, they’ve fallen in love, but neither has the ability to choose a life together. Or do they?

After one particularly violent incident, Reyna has had enough. All she wants is the life she and Kianthe have been fantasizing about for two years. It doesn’t take much (or any) convincing for Kianthe to agree to run away with Reyna and build a life together, one where they’ll open a tea and book shop and live happily ever after.

It’s easier for Kianthe — she’s the Arcandor and can do whatever she likes. Sure, the other mages aren’t thrilled that she’s not going to live full-time at the Magicary any longer, but she’ll still be available to carry out her duties. Reyna is actually committing treason by leaving the Queen’s service without permission (which would not be given, even if asked; hers is a lifetime post). She knows that eventually, someone may track her down, but for now, she’s determined to pursue happiness with the love of her life.

We get long stretches of Kianthe and Reyna finding an unused barn in a remote town near the border with dragon country, then renovating it, stocking it, and opening up their business, which immediately draws the community together. It’s very sweet, but not exactly full of drama.

Eventually, there’s more action as Kianthe saves the town from a dragon attack and figures out why they’ve been attacking, ultimately committing to a quest on behalf of the dragons (which sets up the plot for the next book). Plus, Reyna is eventually discovered, and must find a way to avoid execution for treason — lots of negotiations ensue.

All in all, this is indeed a cutely cozy fantasy, which kept me entertained despite the overall fluffy nature of the story. The characters are quite fun. Gotta love how Kianthe, most powerful mage in the land, is at her most gleeful when she’s making simply awful puns — it’s actually quite charming:

The mage paused. “Sorry. This is sappy.”

“Is that a tree pun?” Reyna’s tone was bone dry.

“Maybe. But don’t worry, I’ll leaf it at that.”

The story beats, while having a familiar feel, still manage to entertain and introduce plenty of nice little moments along the way.

If you’re looking for a bit of uplifting joy in fantasy form — with tea and a bookshop — this book makes a very nice reading diversion. I enjoyed it enough to want to continue with the series.

Up next:

*Tomes & Tea, #2: A Pirate’s Life for Tea*

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

28Aug2025

Book Review: Watcher in the Woods (Rockton, #4) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Watcher in the Woods
Series: Rockton, #4
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: February 5, 2019
Length: 364 pages
Genre: Thriller/mystery
Source: Library
Rating:

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s latest thriller, the town of Rockton—and her fans—are in for another hair-raising adventure.

The secret town of Rockton has seen some rocky times lately; understandable considering its mix of criminals and victims fleeing society for refuge within its Yukon borders. Casey Duncan, the town’s only detective on a police force of three, has already faced murder, arson and falling in love in less than the year that she’s lived there. Yet even she didn’t think it would be possible for an outsider to find and cause trouble in the town she’s come to call home.

When a US Marshal shows up in town demanding the release of one of the residents, Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Dalton, are skeptical. And yet only hours later, the marshal is shot dead and the only visible suspects are the townspeople and her estranged sister, in town for just the weekend. It’s up to Casey to figure out who murdered the marshal, and why they would kill to keep him quiet.

In the chronology of the Rockton books, Watcher in the Woods picks up the story three days (3! Days!) after the events of This Fallen Prey. Had I realized that ahead of time, I might have just read straight through… but regardless, even after just a couple of weeks, reentering the world of Rockton is like diving straight into a roaring river — rocks and rapids ahead!

If you’ve read my reviews for any of the previous books, you’ll know (a) I’m hooked, and (b) the overall premise of the series… but just in case, here’s my standard quickie recap:

Rockton is a secret hidden town in the Yukon wilderness, a haven for those seeking extreme shelter from dangers in their real lives — or those who’ve committed some sort of wrongdoing and need a place to start over. Rockton, population 200, is filled with an uneasy mix of crime victims and white-collar criminals — although as Sheriff Eric Dalton and Detective Casey Butler come to discover, the town council is willing to defy its own rules for a price and allow more dangerous people to take advantage of Rockton’s protection.

As Watcher in the Woods opens, the town is dealing with the fallout from events in book #3, but in Rockton, there’s never a moment without some new catastrophe on the horizon. A stranger shows up, watching the town, and there’s no way that should be possible. Confronted by Eric and Casey, he states that he’s a US Marshall come to detain one of their residents, who’s actually a dangerous criminal. Eric and Casey are immediately skeptical: How do they know he’s a marshall? Why would he come alone? How can they trust anything this man says?

It becomes moot after the Marshall is shot as they bring him back to town, although now they have new problems on their hands. Is there actually a killer hiding out in Rockton? Can they trust anyone? Who is this dead man, and what fresh problems does his death present?

Meanwhile, Casey has convinced her distant, talented neurosurgeon sister to make a stealth visit to Rockton to perform surgery on one of their residents — the town’s lack of a resident physician is one of their more urgent problems — and her presence in town raises all sorts of other issues, both personal and professional for Casey.

There’s plenty of danger, and some beautifully orchestrated mind games, as Casey once again has to figure out whether people she trusts have betrayed her (and why), whether people she thought she knew are really who they say they are, and what to do to maintain peace and safety in a town that never seems to know a moment of either.

Casey and Eric’s relationship continues to be a treat, and I love how each book gives us more backstory for different Rockton residents as well. Some new characters promise to add even more depth to the community going forward, and the ongoing struggle with the anonymous council that controls the town continues to be fraught, and clearly will be something that Casey and Eric will ultimately have to confront.

There are a lot of balls in the air in the story, but the author is a master juggler. The narrative is complex and full of twists, but it all comes together and the story moves forward quite well. Can’t say more without spoilers!

Obviously, I’m loving this series, and recommend it highly! But start at the beginning, of course.

That’s four books down, three to go… and I can’t wait to dive into book #5!

Next up:

Book #5, Alone in the Wild

Interested in this series? Check out my reviews of the previous books:
City of the Lost (Rockton, #1)
A Darkness Absolute (Rockton, #2)
This Fallen Prey (Rockton, #3)

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

27Aug2025

Book Review: The Compound by Aisling Rawle

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Compound
Author: Aisling Rawle
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: June 24, 2025
Length: 292 pages
Genre: Contemporary/dystopian fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Winner takes all.

Lily—a bored, beautiful twentysomething—wakes up on a remote desert compound alongside nineteen other contestants on a popular reality TV show. To win, she must outlast her housemates while competing in challenges for luxury rewards, such as champagne and lipstick, and communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.

The cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: Why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?

Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends.

Take reality TV — Big Brother, Love Island, even Survivor — then mix in a big dose of dystopian, Hunger Games, do-what-it-takes-to-last vibes… and you might get a smidge of what reading The Compound feels like.

It’s strange right from the start. Lily — beautiful, fit, in her 20s — wakes up in a bedroom in a place known as the compound. One other bed is occupied, by another beautiful young woman. As they rise, they move through the main house, finding clothes — shabby cast-offs, mainly — and odds and ends. They’re familiar with the house’s layout, and know what to look for. The place is a mess — grimy, trash everywhere, and the bathroom and front entryway don’t even have doors.

The compound itself is surrounded by nothing but desert as far as the eye can see, and a barrier of barbed wire and some fencing, none of it seeming all that sturdy, stand between the compound and the wilderness beyond.

As they leave the house and wander the grounds — a large pool, gardens, a pond, an orchard — they find more young women in various stages of waking. Soon, there are ten of them. And then they start talking about waiting for the boys to arrive. (Yes, one of the oddly disturbing elements of this book is that they refer to themselves as “boys” and “girls”, although all are adults.)

We were assessing who was the most beautiful and who might cause trouble. At the same time, we were analyzing what our own place in the group might be. Within minutes of speaking to the girls, I knew that I was one of the most beautiful, and one of the least interesting.

After two days, the boys arrive, straggling in from across the desert. They arrive bruised, battered, and having clearly been through something — but ready to play.

Because, we quickly learn, this is reality TV, and the compound is the setting of one of the most popular competition shows. Ten boys and ten girls are dropped into the compound — the girls, apparently drugged, are left in the house to wake there and begin the game, while the boys must trek across the desert to reach the compound. Once there, they compete via communal tasks to earn basics and more for the house — everything from food items to wood to chairs (of which there are none when the group arrives). The players also have personal tasks that they can perform for more individualized rewards, from beauty basics to (later) luxury items. Personal tasks tends to be odd and embarrassing, with a rule that players can’t tell one another when they’re carrying out a personal task — so if, for example, the task is to insult someone else, they just have to do it, no explanations allowed. They can choose not to, of course, but then they forego the reward, and no one seems willing to let prizes slip by.

One simple, even fun task, and something new would appear. What tedium I would have to go through to get the same things at home: standing on my feet for hours, faking smiles, pretending to have energy and enthusiasm. When I slept, I dreamed of prizes falling from the sky, and all of us standing in the desert with our arms outstretched, waiting for them to reach us.

There are even more rules: To remain in the game, you must wake up with a player of the opposite sex in your bed. If you wake up alone, you’re immediately banished, sent off into the desert (although banished players are apparently picked up and sent back home, not left to wander) and never to be seen again.

The ultimate goal is to be the last person left at the compound. The prize? You get to stay there for as long as you’d like — theoretically forever — and get any reward you can think to ask for (so long as you thank the brand that provides it — sponsorship opportunities are everywhere!). Although, from what we learn, the winner who stayed the longest left after six weeks — so maybe it’s not all that great after all?

I don’t want to give too much away — but there are hints from the beginning that this show (and this book) is a step beyond its real-world reality TV parallels. The contestants live in a state of risk, tedium, and pleasure at first. The house is dirty when they arrive, and the lack of basics — doors and chairs! — is odd in the extreme, especially in contrast to the beautiful pool. But the rewards make clear that any improvement come from doing tasks, the more the better, and the communal tasks must be done by all.

At first, they’re mostly benign, but quickly escalate from the boys and girls having to line each other up according to who’s the best-looking to a challenge where each person has to hold their bedmate’s head under water for sixty seconds. There’s an important reward on the line — and certain contestants are willing to ignore their partners’ discomfort or fear in order to make sure they win.

The book offers lots of commentary on materialism and attractiveness, but we get hints too that something isn’t quite right in this world. Lily, our main character, wonders if any of the boys have fought in the wars already. Mentions of these undefined wars are sprinkled throughout the book — we know nothing further about the why or where of it all, but clearly, there are lives being lost at an alarming rate. The desert surrounding the compound seems beset by random brush fires. And even in their outside lives, we get the sense that getting by is a daily grind — why wouldn’t Lily perform an unpleasant task to gain a gorgeous dress, knowing just how many hours of slogging through her menial job it would take to even come close to affording it?

As the story twists its way forward, the game and the players become crueler and crueler, and yet, there are also friendships, and some bedmates even find love. But having a bedmate is critical to survival in the compound, so can these relationships actually be genuine?

The Compound is a fascinating, absorbing read that’s disturbing on so many levels, yet impossible to look away from. It magnifies all the worst aspects of real-world reality TV, placing them in a scenario in which people’s worst tendencies are not only approved but encouraged. Eventually, those who make it far in the game are allowed to resort to violence, and the game itself metes out shocking punishments for those who disobey the rules. The worst is likely what happens when the late-stage players seem to be getting too comfortable and managing to avoid blatant conflict — the following scenes are probably the most horrifying in the book, and strongly reminded me of scenes in The Hunger Games where the gamemakers lose patience with the pace and force ever greater dangers onto the tributes.

I can truly say that I’ve never read anything quite like The Compound before. It’s easy to see why GMA Book Club chose this one — this would make amazing fodder for a book group discussion.

I recommend The Compound for its twisted take on reality TV, the strangeness of the plot, and the tremendous food for thought.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

26Aug2025

Audiobook Review: Rich Girl Summer by Lily Chu

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Rich Girl Summer
Author: Lily Chu
Narrators: Phillipa Soo & Steven Pasquale
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication date: July 10, 2024
Print length: n/a
Audio length: 10 hours 6 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Audible download
Rating:

Fake heiress. Real secrets. One sizzling summer she’ll never forget.

Event planner Valerie Peng never planned on spending her summer sipping champagne at a lakefront estate, dodging suspicious socialites, or pretending to be anyone’s long-lost daughter. But when a very public, deeply mortifying mishap lands her in hot water—and her career in a hot mess—her uber-wealthy older client makes her an offer she can’t refuse: come to his glamorous summer home and pose as the long-lost daughter he believes his conniving family has hidden from him. In exchange? Time away from her actual life…and the chance to help uncover a long-buried secret.

But Cinderella needs some magic for this big of a makeover. Enter Nico, her client’s maddeningly perfect right-hand man. He’s organized, meticulous, impossible to read, and infuriatingly handsome. But even though he claims this scheme is a capital-M Mistake, Nico’s the only person she can trust to have her back. As they navigate a world of eccentric matriarchs, class divides, and private family feuds, their chemistry is as undeniable as it is ill-timed.

Caught between pretending to belong and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in, Valerie’s summer is about to get far more complicated than she ever planned.

I’m always delighted when a new Lily Chu book drops as an Audible Original. Rich Girl Summer is yet another fun romp, with relatable characters, out-there circumstances, romance, and in this case, lots of summertime, sunshine-y vibes.

Main character Valerie is a talented event planner. She’s created her own company, Ad Astra, which specializes in creating highly curated and personalized celebrations of life. By all accounts, she’s excellent at what she does. When she’s hired to manage the celebration of life for the recently deceased patriarch of the wealthy Badgerton family, Valerie knows this event could really catapult her business to the next level, and is determined that everything go perfectly.

Unfortunately, a less-than-competent assistant and an ill-timed attack of food poisoning lead to disaster. The event goes viral, but not as Valerie had hoped. Her business may be on the brink of utter ruin. And then she’s approached by Roger Badgerton, who’d originally hired her. She expects reprimands and threats, but instead, is shocked by what he says: She’s physically similar to his long-lost teen girlfriend, and he’s learned since his father’s passing that the family paid her off to leave town and cut ties with Roger when she discovered she was pregnant. Roger is furious and heartbroken about his family’s deception, and also desperate to find his daughter, who would be roughly Valerie’s age.

His proposition: Valerie will spend the summer at the family’s lakeside estate, where he’ll introduce her to the family as his long-lost daughter. All she has to do is be there, interact with the family, and hopefully unnerve someone enough to start spilling the beans about the past. It sounds crazy, and Valerie’s first instinct is to refuse — but her business has dried up, she has no prospects, and Roger is promising to promote Ad Astra at the end of the summer and get her back on her feet. What could go wrong?

Sweetening the deal is the fact that Nico, Roger’s personal assistant, will be spending the summer at the estate too. He’s kind, uber-organized, very attractive. Valerie wouldn’t exactly mind spending more time with Nico…

Rich Girl Summer mixes summer breeziness with more personal moments, as both Valerie and Nico have plenty of family dysfunction and baggage to deal with — all while keeping up the charade of Valerie being Roger’s daughter. It’s highly entertaining to see her trying to fit in with the snooty, rich Badgertons, while also playing amateur detective and seeing what clues she can pick up about which of Roger’s siblings might have been involved in the deception all those years ago.

I appreciated seeing Valerie and Nico’s romance unfold. They each have major personal obstacles to overcome in order to move forward with a healthy relationship, and the story convincingly portrays their progress, their attempts to communicate in a healthy way, and ultimately, the way they support one another in dealing with their family issues.

Valerie is upfront about being a people-pleaser right from the start — and it made me want to give her a major wake-up call. Seeing her inability to say no in situations where she absolutely should have is frustrating — but it’s part of her character development arc, and the narrative makes us sympathize with Valerie’s struggle despite wishing she’d show a little more spine early on.

My main quibble with the audiobook is that the Badgerton family is large, with many siblings, spouses, and children, and I felt like I needed a cheat sheet to keep the characters straight. This wouldn’t be a problem if there were a print edition, but Rich Girl Summer is available only as an audiobook for now. It would be nice if Audible offered a family tree as a PDF extra!

Narrators Phillipa Soo and Steven Pasquale are just as terrific as you’d expect! Phillipa Soo has narrated all of Lily Chu’s audiobooks so far, and she’s a delight to listen to.

Rich Girl Summer is currently available only through Audible. Her previous novels were released the same way, and then released in paperback about a year later. As I’ve said in previous reviews of her books, I always look forward to new Lily Chu audiobooks. The Comeback and The Stand-In remain my favorites, but you can’t go wrong with any of them!

Purchase links: Amazon
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

20Aug2025

Book Review: The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Hebrew Teacher
Author: Maya Arad
Translated by: Jessica Cohen
Publisher: New Vessel Press
Publication date: March 19, 2024
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Three Israeli women, their lives altered by immigration to the United States, seek to overcome crises. Ilana is a veteran Hebrew instructor at a Midwestern college who has built her life around her career. When a young Hebrew literature professor joins the faculty, she finds his post-Zionist politics pose a threat to her life’s work. Miriam, whose son left Israel to make his fortune in Silicon Valley, pays an unwanted visit to meet her new grandson and discovers cracks in the family’s perfect façade. Efrat, another Israeli in California, is determined to help her daughter navigate the challenges of middle school, and crosses forbidden lines when she follows her into the minefield of social media. In these three stirring novellas—comedies of manners with an ambitious blend of irony and sensitivity—celebrated Israeli author Maya Arad probes the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront.

The Hebrew Teacher is a collection of three novellas that, taken as a whole, provide insight into experiences of alienation, assimilation, and family generational estrangement. Originally published in Hebrew, this collection’s smooth English translation provides powerful, moving stories with universal themes.

While not normally a fan of short fiction, I was immediately pulled into the characters’ lives in each of these three novellas. Their stories are so relatable that they actually disturbed me quite a bit, as they highlight the ordinary heartbreak that daily life can present.

The first story, The Hebrew Teacher, focuses on Ilana, a woman approaching retirement who has spent her entire career teaching Hebrew at a midwestern university. She reminisces on the early days:

When she’d arrived in ’71, it had been a good time for Hebrew. When she told people she was from Israel, they used to give her admiring looks. […] But now was not a good time for Hebrew.

Ilana faces an alarming drop in her enrollment rates for the new semester, while also dealing with a new professor of Hebrew and Jewish literature — someone with authority over her classes — whose political views put him and Ilana on opposite sides of an academic cold war.

The Hebrew Teacher has a sad energy; we feel for Ilana as an older woman reflecting on the days when both she and her life’s work were once appreciated, forced to realize that she’s been left behind by changing times.

The second story, A Visit (Scenes) is also achingly sad. Miriam arrives in Silicon Valley to visit her son, daughter-in-law, and their toddler. She’s never met her grandson before, and her son and his wife seem distinctly uninterested in welcoming her into their home and lives. Told through vignettes (scenes) over the course of Miriam’s three-week visit, through Miriam’s POV as well as the other two adults’, the story unfolds in short glimpses that convey the utter estrangement Miriam feels as well as the tension within the household. Miriam’s visits with another grandmother and her daughter-in-law add poignancy, as they show the happiness and closeness that have eluded Miriam. For some reason, this story just broke my heart, especially Miriam’s reflections on the closeness of parents and children during the childhood years, and how adult children exclude their parents from their lives.

Make New Friends, the third and final piece in this collection, feels rather difference in focus, but is still disturbing in tone and content. Once again featuring a family of Israeli ex-pats in Silicon Valley, Make New Friends is told through the viewpoint of Efrat, a mother who worries constantly about her 13-year-old daughter’s lack of friends. As Efrat stews over Libby’s social standing, she crosses some major lines on social media, all the while coming to terms with her own long-simmering anxieties about friendship and belonging. The story is well told, and made me very uncomfortable — and then ends pretty abruptly. I expected a more dramatic conclusion; it seems to just stop.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, even though I don’t do particularly well with short fiction and am always left feeling a bit unsatisfied. The stories in The Hebrew Teacher present ordinary people dealing with life’s frustrations and disappointments, with characters who feel well-defined and specific. I appreciated the depiction of the cultural struggles of characters who end up livinge far from their original homes and families, and what this means for their children as well.

The Hebrew Teacher won the 2025 National Jewish Book Award for Hebrew Fiction in Translation. Maya Arad’s newest novel, Happy New Years, was released in the US this month, and I look forward to reading it.

Purchase links: Amazon – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

17Aug2025

Classics Club Spin #41: A change of heart leads me to The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Old Man and the Sea
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Publication date: 1952
Length: 128 pages
Rating:

“A beautiful tale, awash in the seasalt and sweat, bait and beer of the Havana coast. It tells a fundamental human truth: in a volatile world, from our first breath to our last wish, through triumphs and pitfalls both trivial and profound, what sustains us, ultimately, is hope.” —The Guardian

The last of his novels Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the most enduring works of American fiction. The story of a down-on-his-luck Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal—a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream—has been cherished by generations of readers.

Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of adversity and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic. First published in 1952, this hugely popular tale confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Old Man and the Sea is only sort-of my Classics Club spin book…

For the summer spin, my book ended up being My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. And I was happy about it! It sounded charming, it had been on my to-read list for a while, and I’d been thinking about watching the PBS adaptation (The Durrells in Corfu), so starting with the book seemed like a great idea.

And then I read the first 25% or so… and it just wasn’t for me. I enjoyed the anecdotes about the family, but thought I’d tear my hair out if I had to spend any more time contemplating the insects in the garden and the misadventures of a tortoise. I know people love this book — but not me.

Onward. Rather than give up on the latest spin book entirely, I decided to sub in a book from the same decade that had been on my backup list… and that’s how I ended up with The Old Man and the Sea. Is this breaking the Spin rules? Maybe (probably)… but I figured “my challenge, my rules” and decided that I was okay with this outcome.

It feels a little funny to talk about a Hemingway book based on the plot alone, since there’s such a cult of personality built up around the author — even to the extent of annual competitions such as The International Imitation Hemingway Competition, also known as the Bad Hemingway Contest (which Wikipedia warns us not to confuse with the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest).

I’ve only read one Hemingway novel (A Farewell to Arms, which I thought was wonderful) and have little knowledge or experience with his other works. Of course, I was already aware of the general storyline of The Old Man and the Sea, and I believe we even watched a film version way back in my school days, so I knew how the book would end.

And still, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this short novel and thought the writing was pitch-perfect. It’s spare and tense, and captures the feeling of being old, the struggle of man against nature, and the relentlessness of time as the world passes someone by.

In a nutshell, the plot is about the old fisherman Santiago, once considered the greatest of the great, who has had a streak of bad luck and has come back empty-handed from his fishing excursions for over 80 straight days. His faithful companion, a younger boy, has been forced by his family to work on a different boat because Santiago has become unlucky.

Santiago sets out alone to see if his luck will change, and he hooks the biggest fish of his life, then spends three days at sea fighting with his body and spirit to land the fish and bring it back with him.

I found the story quite powerful and engaging, and highlighted passage after passage. As I’ve said, I’m no expert and can’t comment more generally on Hemingway as a writer — but I did love the way he expresses Santiago’s struggles, and the vividness with which he portrays both the old fisherman’s battle and his love for the sea and its creatures.

Here are a few of the lines and passages that stood out for me:

Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle’s heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs.

I wish I could show him what sort of man I am. But then he would see the cramped hand. Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.

“Fish,” the old man said. “Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?”

You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.

And my favorite:

“If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy,” he said aloud. “But since I am not crazy, I do not care.”

I’m really pleased that I made the decision to switch books, and I’m happy to have read The Old Man and the Sea. It’s a short book, but one that held me in its spell from start to finish.

Are you a Hemingway fan? If so, do you have a favorite book to recommend?