Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Wishes

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Bookish Wishes.

The prompt is: Bookish Wishes (List the top 10 books you’d love to own and include a link to your wishlist so that people can grant your wishes. Make sure you link your wishlist to your mailing address or include the email address associated with your e-reader in the list description so people know how to get the book to you. After you post, jump around the Linky and grant a wish or two if you’d like. Please don’t feel obligated to send anything to anyone!)

I’m not comfortable linking to a wishlist — I’m not asking anyone to send me anything! At most, if someone owns a copy of a book on my list and wants to do a book swap, I’m open to it — but actually buying me something? No, but thanks anyway!

All that being said… consider this an FYI post about books I hope to read! Here are the ten books most recently added to my Amazon wishlist**:

**which I maintain mainly as a reminder to myself to keep an eye out for price drops!

How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle
My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows
Coming Home by Brittney Griner
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz

What are your most wished-for books?

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!

10Jun2024

The Monday Check-In ~ 06/10/2024

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.

Life.

The week zipped by. Nothing too eventful, but I did manage to finally get some travel plans made for later in the summer. Vacation time is still way off, but at least it’s on the calendar!

Reading & blogging.

I’ve reached a point where I’m super frustrated — mostly with myself — because I’m overextended with ARC commitments and find myself without the ability to read on a whim… or at least, to read on a whim without guilt. The ARCs I have pending are all books I’ve been excited to read, and still, they’re taking up too much of my reading time.

Reading by obligation or to meet a schedule has never particularly worked for me. (This is why I tend not to participate in reading challenges). From this point forward, I’m going to try to be much more selective about requesting ARCs — my intention will be to request only the ones I’d read no matter what. As for the ARCs I might be tempted to request because they happen to catch my eye, my goal will be to make note of upcoming releases that look good and add them to my library “for later” list, but not put in any further spur-of-the-moment ARC requests this year.

I need more reading freedom! It makes me cranky to have to plan my books according to the calendar.

What did I read during the last week?

Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland: For all of us who dream about winning the lottery! My review is here.

Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes: A powerful, beautiful novel about family, belonging, responsibility, and tradition. I read this for a book group; our discussion is coming up in another week. Review to follow.

A Turn of the Tide (A Stitch in Time, #3) by Kelley Armstrong: This installment (in an excellent series) is a swashbuckling adventure — pirates included! I also read the companion/follow-up novella, Ghosts & Garlands, which is a sweet holiday-themed treat. My review of A Turn of the Tide is here.

Pop culture & TV:

I’m so glad I decided to go back to Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power! When it originally aired, I watched one episode… and for whatever reason, kind of wandered away and never continued. With the 2nd season about to drop, I thought it was time to give it another try, and finished season 1 on Sunday night. I loved it! Can’t wait for season 2.

Meanwhile, after a lackluster start, season 2 of Interview with the Vampire has really picked up over the last couple of episodes, and I’m hooked.

Of course, what I’m most excited for is the 2nd half of the Bridgerton season… starting in just a few days!

Fresh Catch:

No new books this week.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

I finished a big book (Hula) late Sunday, and haven’t quite decided what to start next. Most likely, once of these:

All three are ARCs for June new releases — two romances, and one other with a pretty dramatic vibe, so I’ll just have to see which suits my mood later today!

Now playing via audiobook:

Kilmeny of the Orchard by L. M. Montgomery: I’m slowly trying to read the various stand-alones by LMM on my TBR list. This is a relatively short audiobook, and so far, the opening chapters have been enough to catch my attention.

Ongoing reads:

My longer-term reading commitments:

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 98%. Our final week! We’ll finish the last chapter on Wednesday this week.
Damn Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45 by Maggie Craig: Over at Outlander Book Club, we’re doing a group read of this non-fiction book, discussing one chapter each Friday. Progress: 22%. Coming up this week: Chapter 6, “The Monstrous Regiment of Women”

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

8Jun2024

Book Review: A Turn of the Tide (A Stitch in Time, #3) by Kelley Armstrong

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Turn of the Tide
Series: A Stitch in Time, #3
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publisher: Kla Fricke Inc
Publication date: October 4, 2022
Length: 270 pages
Genre: Time slip/ghost story
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In Thorne Manor there is one locked door. Behind it lies a portal to the twenty-first century, and nothing is going to stop Miranda Hastings from stepping through. After all, she is a Victorian writer of risqué pirate adventures—traveling to the future would be the greatest adventure of them all.

When Miranda goes through, though, she lands in Georgian England…and in the path of Nicolas Dupuis, a privateer accused of piracy. Sheltered by locals, Nico is repaying their kindness by being their “pirate Robin Hood,” stealing from a corrupt lord and fencing smuggled goods on the village’s behalf.

Miranda embraces Nico’s cause, only to discover there’s more to it than he realizes. Miranda has the second sight, and there are ghosts at play here. The recently deceased former lord is desperate to stop his son from destroying his beloved village. Then there’s the ghost of Nico’s cabin boy, who he thought safe in a neighboring city. Miranda and Nico must solve the mystery of the boy’s death while keeping one step ahead of the hangman.

It may not be the escapade Miranda imagined, but it is about to be the adventure of a lifetime.

A Turn of the Tide is the 3rd book in the A Stitch in Time series, which centers on a “time stitch” located in Thorne Manor on the Yorkshire moors. In each of the previous two books, a woman accidentally travels through the stitch and finds herself in a new world; in the first, Bronwyn travels from the 21st century to the 18th, and in the second, Rosalind does the opposite — a Victorian woman suddenly finding herself trapped in the modern era and unable to get home.

In A Turn of the Tide, Rosalind’s youngest sister Miranda takes center stage. A free-spirited nonconformist who secretly writes pirate adventures under a pen name, Miranda never met a mystery she didn’t want to unravel. When she overhears enough to understand there’s a time passage to be explored in Thorne Manor, she’s eager to try it for herself, dying to learn what life is like 200 years in the future.

Much to Miranda’s surprise, she instead ends up 50 years in the past. She’s traveled to 1790, and immediately encounters a pirate — but he’s not a stranger to her. Miranda has “the sight” and often sees and communicates with ghosts. Over the past few years, Miranda has often seen a sort of echo of this particular pirate, witnessing over and over again his death by ambush on a country road.

Miranda is convinced that this man is not a villain at all, but rather the legendary Robin Hood of the Bay, a pirate known for stealing from the wealthy in order to help the poor and hungry townspeople of York. And once she realizes that this is who she’s encountered, still very much alive, she believes it’s her mission to save him from the death she’s had visions of… whether he wants her interference or not.

A rollicking, swashbuckling adventure ensues, and naturally (or, as the French-speaking Nico would say, naturellement) a romance unfolds as well. Miranda and Nico evade the ambush, but find themselves on the run, pursued by myriad bad guys, and dealing with challenges such as a damaged ship, treasure caves, smuggling tunnels, and even a masquerade ball hosted by their enemy. It’s all quite breathless and dramatic… just as a good pirate story should be!

A Turn of the Tide isn’t quite as emotional as the previous two books — the characters are engaging and have well-drawn personalities, but Miranda’s tale is much less inwardly focused than Bronwyn’s or Rosalind’s.

Beyond the love story, there’s a mystery to solve, as the ghost of the cabin boy haunts Nico’s former ship and clearly died by nefarious means. Miranda and Nico’s goal is to stop the corruption that threatens the locals’ livelihoods, clear Nico’s name and remove the price on his head, and solve the cabin boy’s murder so his soul can move on. It’s all quite fast-paced, full of chases and near-misses and life-or-death scenarios… but given what a spirited romp the story is, it’s clear that all will end well, long before it actually does.

A Turn of the Tide is a very fun read, and as an audiobook, it’s a really enjoyable piece of entertainment. The narrator’s French accent as Nico is pretty awful at times, but after the first few chapters, I got used to it and stopped feeling annoyed.

I’m loving the series as a whole. After each of the three first books, a Christmas-themed companion novella was released — each of which follow up with that books’ main couple while also introducing teeny hints of what’s to come in the next novel.

A Turn of the Tide‘s follow-up novella is Ghosts & Garlands, in which Miranda and Nico spend their first Christmas together in 21st century London. The focus is mainly on their love story and their enjoyment of their ability to slip through time and experience new worlds together… but there’s also a ghost story to solve. It’s warm-hearted and lovely.

Now I have just one book left in the series (unless Kelley Armstrong decides to keep it going!), and I’m looking forward to starting it within the next few weeks.

The A Stitch in Time series is just so good! Highly recommended.

Next in the series:

5Jun2024

Book Review: Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Jackpot Summer
Author: Elyssa Friedland
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 11, 2024
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

After the Jacobson siblings win a life-changing fortune in the lottery, they assume their messy lives will transform into sleek, storybook perfection—but they couldn’t be more wrong in the new laugh-out-loud novel from beloved author Elyssa Friedland.

The four Jacobson children were raised to respect the value of a dollar. Their mother reused tea bags and refused to pay retail; their father taught them to budget before he taught them to ride a bike. And yet, as adults, their financial lives—as well as their personal lives—are in complete disarray.

The siblings reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore home on the market. Packing up their childhood isn’t easy, especially when they’ve all got drama brewing back home. Matthew is miserable at his corporate law job and wishes he had more time with his son; Laura’s marriage is imploding in spectacular fashion; Sophie’s art career is stalled while her boyfriend’s is on the rise; and Noah’s total failure to launch has him doing tech repair for pennies.

So when Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters go in on a ticket. Matthew passes but the ticket is a winner and all hell breaks loose as the infusion of cash causes sibling rivalries and family secrets to resurface. Without their mother, and with their father busy playing pickleball in a Florida retirement village, the once close-knit siblings search for comfort in shiny new toys instead of each other.

It’s not long before the Jacobson’s start to realize that they’ll never feel rich unless they can pull their family back together.

Jackpot Summer is a story about siblings and life choices, with a “careful-what-you-wish-for” message that isn’t exactly subtle. After all, even before chapter 1, we read excerpts from several different newspaper articles about lottery winners, including one that explains how one man went from rolling in money to complete bankruptcy in only a few years. This can’t bode well for the Jacobsons, can it?

As the story opens, the “fantastic foursome” (as their late mother used to call them) have gathered for her unveiling. It’s been a year since her death from cancer, and as they talk together, their father Leo drops a bombshell: He’s selling the family’s beach house on the Jersey shore and moving to a retirement village in Florida, where he can play pickleball to his heart’s content. Instead of gathering at the beach house for the family’s traditional 4th of July celebration, they’ll be gathering to pack up the house and sort through a lifetime’s worth of odds and ends.

Each of the siblings is shaken, while also dealing with the stressors in their own lives. The oldest, Matthew, works alongside his ultra-ambitious wife in a prestigious corporate law office, while delegating the raising of their son to a stream of au pairs and tutors. Laura faces being an empty-nester when her younger daughter leaves for college, forcing her to acknowledge that her marriage seems to have dried up without her actually noticing it. Sophie’s day job as a public school teacher has her cleaning up glitter every day before working on her paintings in a grimy shared art space, getting nowhere while her sculptor boyfriend’s career seems to be taking off. And the youngest, Noah, lives in the beach house, does tech support house calls for the locals, and has no idea what to do with himself, but knows he doesn’t want to have to deal with actually changing anything.

On a whim, the Jacobson siblings — minus Matthew, whose wife expresses that the lottery is “a tax on stupid people” — go in on Powerball tickets… and win. This, of course, uproots all of their lives. First, the dilemma — do the three of them cut Matthew in on the winnings, even though he opted not to go in with them on the tickets? Much family drama stems from this point.

Once the money is in the family’s hands, more problems crop up. Everyone immediately dives into spending their new riches. Laura and husband Doug buy a mansion in a snobby new town, then head off on ultra-luxury vacations (which include couples massages with gold-infused lotions) — none of which does anything to actually improve their marriage. Sophie quits her teaching job, invests in a shiny, beautiful studio to work in, then finds herself utterly blocked when it comes to creativity. And poor Noah mopes about eating junk food and giving away money to anyone who asks — yes, the guy needing money to escape a “diktatership” is probably a scam… but what if it’s not?

Meanwhile, father Leo watches from afar and seems to be waiting for his kids to get their acts together, which it takes them quite a long time to do.

Jackpot Summer has a lot going for it, so let’s focus on the positives first. It’s funny and fast-paced, and while I initially feared that I wouldn’t be able to keep track of the individual characters (note: I hate books that introduce an entire family in one scene!), the fantastic foursome are actually all quite distinct. Chapters focus on one at a time, which gives readers a chance to get to know each one, understand their inner lives, and identify with the problems they face.

The Jacobsons are a Jewish American family, and it was enjoyable to see their rituals, their family traditions, and learn more about their heritage and how it affects their present attitudes. They’re not a particularly religious family, but their Jewishness is seen through pieces of their lives that include the local JCC, temple fundraisers, sitting shiva, and learning to bake their mother’s babka. It’s sweet, and the family scenes convey so much about how the kids were raised and how they ended up growing into the adults we now see.

The dynamics between the siblings is lots of fun too, especially once the rift with Matthew and his wife is resolved. They’re all adults, but their inner goofiness comes out when they’re together, and their group text chat is especially adorable.

A few negatives, though. The book sets us up from the beginning to expect the Jacobsons to squander their winnings, and they mostly do. None end up bankrupt, but they all make questionable choices before — finally, after some obviously very wrong turns — reassessing where true happiness lies and starting to course-correct. Not that we’d expect them all to be perfect, but there’s some clear bone-headedness that goes on longer than I felt necessary.

Matthew and his wife Beth are awful parents, forcing their 13-year-old Austin into one high-pressured activity after another, with no time to be a kid. We’re meant to like Matthew and Beth and eventually their more personable sides come out… but the depiction of the hard-charging corporate lawyers substituting hiring the best help for actually parenting their kid feels clichéd. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and as with other conflicts in this book, takes longer than necessary to resolve.

My final quibble: While the chapters focus on different siblings and so ostensibly are told through the characters’ points of view, there’s some nastiness about describing certain people that reeks of ageism to me:

On stage, a cluster of post-menopausal women dressed in black leotards, fishnets and tap shoes were performing a coordinated song and dance routine. […] His appearance brough the arthritic rendition of “Don’t Tell Mama” to a standstill.

Sorry, but I think it’s awesome that these adult women are tap dancing! What does post-menopausal have to do with it? Why are they, apparently by default, supposed to be arthritic? Ugh, this attitude bothers me so much.

Okay, all that aside, Jackpot Summer is overall a very fast and mostly enjoyable read. The ending feels rushed and the siblings’ various problems and dilemmas get tied up neatly and a bit too easily. Still, I liked it enough to read it in a day and a half. As light summer entertainment, this one deserves a place in the beach bag!

4Jun2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About.

Some of my favorite books are the ones that make me FEEL… good, bad, happy, sad, but never indifferent! (Okay, a certain book that made me mad isn’t actually a favorite — but it absolutely gave me some very strong feelings… of anger.)

Here are my top ten:

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery: Joy, delight, feelings of being totally charmed.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: A sense of wonder and connection.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling: Sorrow… you know why.
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman: Such a mix of emotions! Entertainment, but really getting to experience all the ups and downs of all the various characters.
The Guncle by Steven Rowley: Heart-warming happiness, but with threads of sympathetic sadness too.
The Extraordinaries by T. J. Klune: Hilarity… but also intense embarassment over the characters’ most cringe behavior (which is still intensely funny)
Hunter’s Moon by Dana Stabenow: Grief, no other way to put it.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: Is “swoon” an emotion? Okay, love and sadness and fear and delight, over and over and over.
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer: This is the book that made me so angry that I wanted to throw it across the room. There’s a certain point where I was just NOPE.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness: Grief and sympathy.

*Who knew there were so many emotion scale memes out there???*

What books made you feel all the feelings?

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!

3Jun2024

The Monday Check-In ~ 06/03/2024

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Life.

It may not officially be summer until later this month, but as far as I’m concerned, June 1st is close enough! We had enough sunshine over the weekend for me to get outside both days, despite super blustery winds each afternoon.

In any case, it’s been an uneventful week — work, home, reading, etc etc etc — and that’s okay. Sometimes routine and quiet can be a good vibe.

What did I read during the last week?

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: So much fun! My review is here.

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley: Delightful, funny, and the audiobook is a joy to listen to. My review is here.

Time’s Convert (All Souls, #4) by Deborah Harkness: I’m so glad I finally took the time to return to this outstanding series, especially with a new book coming this summer. My review is here.

Pop culture & TV:

I just wasn’t in much of a TV mood this week, but I ended up deciding to give Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power another try. When season 1 first aired, I watched the first episode, and I don’t even remember why I never ended up continuing. So, back to the beginning I went, and now that I’ve watched the first episode (again) and also the second, I have to say that I’m into it! I’m looking forward to watching the rest of season 1 over the course of the coming week.

Also on Prime Video, I ended up watching the movie American Fiction this weekend. Great performances and so many interesting moments… but the ending kind of threw me, and I have mixed feelings about it as a whole.

Fresh Catch:

I treated myself to one new hardcover this week — this book is a novella set in the world of the Rip Through Time series, which I love.

What will I be reading during the coming week?

Currently in my hands:

Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland: Just getting started, but this seems like a light, fun summer read.

Now playing via audiobook:

A Turn of the Tide (A Stitch in Time, #3) by Kelley Armstrong: Continuing onward with this terrific series.

Ongoing reads:

My longer-term reading commitments:

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read. We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 96%. Two weeks left!
Damn Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45 by Maggie Craig: Over at Outlander Book Club, we’ve started a group read of this non-fiction book, discussing one chapter each Friday. Progress: 17%. Coming up this week: Chapter 5, “Will the Real Jenny Cameron Please Stand Up?”

What will you be reading this week?

So many books, so little time…

2Jun2024

Book Review: Time’s Convert (All Souls, #4) by Deborah Harkness

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Time’s Convert
Series: All Souls
Author: Deborah Harkness
Publisher: Viking
Publication date: September 18, 2018
Length: 436 pages
Genre: Supernatural/contemporary/historical fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, a novel about what it takes to become a vampire.

Set in contemporary Paris and London, and the American colonies during the upheaval and unrest that exploded into the Revolutionary War, a sweeping story that braids together the past and present.

On the battlefields of the American Revolution, Matthew de Clermont meets Marcus MacNeil, a young surgeon from Massachusetts, during a moment of political awakening when it seems that the world is on the brink of a brighter future. When Matthew offers him a chance at immortality and a new life, free from the restraints of his puritanical upbringing, Marcus seizes the opportunity to become a vampire. But his transformation is not an easy one and the ancient traditions and responsibilities of the de Clermont family clash with Marcus’s deeply-held beliefs in liberty, equality, and brotherhood.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities for change, Time’s Convert will delight fans of the All Souls trilogy and all readers of magic, the supernatural, and romance.

I adored the world of Deborah Harkness’s All Souls books back when I first read them, and gobbled up each book in the original trilogy as soon as they were released. At the time of the 3rd book’s publication, it seemed like the story had reached its conclusion. But then, in 2018, the author released a fourth book, Time’s Convert, to continue the story and expand the world of All Souls even further. Naturally, I couldn’t resist, and bought a copy right away… and there it sat on my bookshelf for six years!

With the announcement of a new book in the series coming this summer, I realized it was finally time to dive back in. Fortunately, having recently watched the TV adaptation of A Discovery of Witches, I wasn’t going in cold, which ended up being a very good thing. This is a big, sprawling, complicated fictional world, and without the reminders provided by watching the series, I probably would have been lost.

The framing of Time’s Convert is a human-to-vampire transformation. Phoebe Taylor, the human beloved by Matthew’s son Marcus Whitmore, is ready to be reborn as a vampire in order to truly unite with Marcus and spend eternity with him. Making a vampire is serious business, with many terrible ways it can go wrong, and the de Clermont clan is taking no chances. Under the supervision of elder family members Miriam and Freyja, Phoebe’s rebirth will be carefully controlled and monitored each step of the way.

Unfortunately for Marcus, part of the process means that he cannot see Phoebe again until she is 90 days old as a vampire — infant vampires are too unpredictable and impulsive to make good choices, and Phoebe must actually choose to be with Marcus before they are officially mated. This leaves Marcus with a summer of anxious waiting, and he passes the time with Matthew and Diana, who hope to support him and ease his obsessive revisiting of the old memories that plague him.

Meanwhile, Matthew and Diana are dealing with potential crises of their own. Their toddler twins, Becca and Philip, are something unheard of in their world — a melding of vampire and witch genetics. Both display unusual traits, and raise alarms for others in the family, who worry that their powers, if not placed under tight control, could spell disaster for them all.

The book shifts focus between the three main plotlines: Phoebe’s transformation, Marcus’s history, and Matthew, Diana, and the twins.

Phoebe’s story is fascinating. We’ve never spent this kind of time in the series on the day to day ritual and challenges of vampire infancy and development. Through Phoebe, we learn all sorts of interesting bits and pieces about vampire appetites, food sources, sensitivity to light and sound, and more.

Marcus’s story is truly the heart of Time’s Convert, taking up more space than the other two plotlines. We go back to colonial New England, where we see Marcus’s life as the son of a cruel, domineering father, and what he must do to break free. Eventually, Marcus leaves home to join the revolution, and is present at the battle of Bunker Hill as well as with Washington’s forces in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. He learns about healing and becomes a surgeon, although without the means to get a formal education in medicine. Dying of one of the rampant fevers in a military camp, Marcus is offered the chance for new life by Matthew, and the next phase of his life begins.

We spend the next large chunk of time with Marcus in Paris, where he becomes embroiled with Marat, Danton, and other leaders of the French revolution. Only through the intervention of the de Clermont patriarch is Marcus finally forced to leave Paris before the Terror of the revolution ensnares him. From there, Marcus’s life continues in Edinburgh, New Orleans, and elsewhere, and finally leads him to where we know him in the present day.

As for Diana and Matthew, it’s quite interesting to see them grapple with understanding their children’s powers. They must struggle with raising their children as they wish while also addressing the concerns and even demands of the family’s leader, who wants them controlled no matter what. Also, there’s a very cute griffin!

Time’s Convert is under 500 pages, but it feels much longer. It’s jam-packed with people, places, historical events, and the internal mythology of the series. Many chapters and interludes move quickly, but there’s an overall heaviness to the reading experience — there’s just so much to take in.

The Marcus sections seem to move the slowest, especially before his vampire transformation. Until that point, it’s straight-up historical fiction set during the American revolution, which is fine, but not really what I come to the All Souls books to experience. Once Matthew gets involved, things pick up quite a bit, and the sections set in Paris and New Orleans are much more engaging as well.

Overall, I’m very happy to have returned to the world of All Souls! Part of me wishes I’d taken the time to reread the first three books before reading Time’s Convert — but honestly, who has the time? If I’d waited to do a reread, chances are I never would have gotten to Time’s Convert.

Being familiar with the details of the earlier books in the series is crucial for appreciating Time’s Convert and making sense of the complicated interconnectedness of the details and plot points. As I mentioned, the TV adaptation of the trilogy is a great shortcut — it’s not perfectly faithful to the books, but it’s close enough to provide an immersion back into that world. Another wonderful resource is The World of All Souls, a reference book (also released in 2018) that includes detailed synopses, character information, maps, and more. I kept it handy throughout this past week while reading Time’s Convert.

The next book in the series, The Black Bird Oracle, will be released in July 2024. I’ve already preordered my copy, and can’t wait to get started!

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself—and her family history—in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series.

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past, and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.

1Jun2024

Book Review: The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Guncle Abroad
Author: Steven Rowley
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication date: May 21, 2024
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy via NetGalley (audiobook purchased via Audible)
Rating:

Patrick O’Hara is called back to his guncle duties . . . This time for a big family wedding in Italy.

Patrick O’Hara is back. It’s been five years since his summer as his niece Maisie and nephew Grant’s caretaker after their mother’s passing. The kids are back in Connecticut with their dad, and Patrick has relocated to New York to remain close by and relaunch his dormant acting career. After the run of his second successful sit-com comes to a close, Patrick feels on top of the world . . . professionally. But some things have had to take a back seat. Looking down both barrels at fifty, Patrick is single again after breaking things off with Emory. But at least he has a family to lean on. Until that family needs to again lean on him.

When Patrick’s brother, Greg, announces he’s getting remarried in Italy, Maisie and Grant are not thrilled. Patrick feels drawn to take the two back under his wing. As they travel through Europe on their way to the wedding, Patrick tries his best to help them understand love, much as he once helped them comprehend grief. But when they arrive in Italy, Patrick is overextended managing a groom with cold feet; his sister, Clara, flirting with guests left and right; a growing rivalry with the kids’ charming soon-to-be-launt (lesbian aunt), and two moody young teens trying to adjust to a new normal, all culminating in a disastrous rehearsal dinner.

Can Patrick save the day? Will teaching the kids about love help him repair his own love life? Can the change of scenery help Patrick come to terms with finally growing up?

Gracing the work with his signature blend of humor and heart, Steven Rowley charms with a beloved story about the complicated bonds of family, love, and what it takes to rediscover yourself, even at the ripe age of fifty.

Here’s how I started my review of The Guncle, the book that first introduced us to Patrick O’Hara and his niblings, Maisie and Grant:

After absolutely loving this author’s most recent novel, The Celebrants, I was eager to explore more. The Guncle, released in 2021, charmed me as soon as I saw the cover (I’m easily swayed by great covers!). I’m happy to report that The Guncle delivers in so many ways, and won my heart completely.

One advantage of reading a book a few years after its release is that you barely have to wait at all for a sequel! The Guncle was published in 2021, but I read it earlier this year… and yet — voila! — between that book and The Guncle Abroad, five years have passed! For the characters, in any case.

In The Guncle Abroad, Patrick is a far happier man in many ways, especially in comparison to how we first me him in The Guncle. He’s experienced a career revival, has moved to New York and remained actively involved in his brother’s family’s lives, and (until their recent breakup) had a loving long-term relationship with the wonderful Emory. (And yes, I felt my heart break just a teeny bit upon learning that they’d broken up.)

But as the book opens, Patrick finds himself with a mission. Greg, widowed five years earlier, is getting married to the woman he’s fallen in love with… who happens to be from an insanely wealthy, titled Italian family. (Who knew they still had nobility and titles in Italy? I sure didn’t!) The wedding will be a no-expense-spared affair at Lake Como, and all is delightful — except the kids aren’t happy. Clearly, Greg needs Patrick’s help.

As Greg prepares to meet his fiancée Livia in Italy for wedding prep, Patrick agrees to take the kids for summer. They meet him in London (where he’s wrapping filming on a new movie co-starring Jude Law!), and then accompany Patrick on a European vacation. His goal? Teach them all about love and love languages, so they can maybe find it in their hearts to accept Livia and their dad’s upcoming marriage.

Patrick, Maisie, and Grant are as amazing together as ever… although it is a bit disconcerting to encounter them at ages 14 and 11. Kids grow up so fast! Maisie is hovering between childhood and full-on teen mode, and Grant has outgrown his lisp but not his cuteness. As the trio traverse Paris, Salzburg, and Venice, Patrick does his best to teach them about cherishing people who care about them, accepting gifts with gratitude, and opening their hearts to new people and experiences. It’s an uphill climb for sure. Maisie and Grant still carry their grief for their mother, as does Patrick, and can’t fathom allowing Livia into their lives.

Can grief and gratitude coexist? Could he miss the kids’ mother and also be grateful for his time with Maisie and Grant? Or did the gratitude just make him miss Sara more and wish she was the one on this train with him instead of her sleeping kids? And in helping them these past few years with their grief, had he once again neglected his own?

The Guncle Abroad is as riotously funny as the previous book. Patrick is so incredibly over the top, and honestly, I love him to bits. But silly quips and jokes are not the only things going for this book. There are deeper veins of love, loss, healing, honoring memories, finding hope, and facing hard truths. The European adventure is eye-opening not just for Maisie and Grant, but also for Patrick.

Okay, but we do actually need to pay tribute to just a few of the passages and conversations that cracked me up:

Grant’s game console made a sound like something swirling a drain and he groaned. “Why can’t Dad marry Palmina?”

Speaking of nemeses, a cold child ran down Patrick’s spine. “Palmina’s a lesbian, you know that.”

Grant didn’t seem to view that as disqualifying. “Yeah, but gay marriage is legal now.”

“Children,” Livia said, part greeting, part statement of fact.

“I ask what’s going on, I do, but they don’t give me straight answers.”

“Do they give you gay ones?”

Patrick really is utter perfection — outwardly vain, always needing the spotlight, and with a bon mot for all occasions — but inwardly sensitive and oh-so-amazing as an uncle (guncle) to the pair of children he loves so much.

I listened to the audiobook version of The Guncle Abroad, and as with the previous book, the author is also the narrator. And while some authors are cringe-level awful at narration, the opposite is totally true here. Steven Rowley absolutely nails his characters voices, and his delivery as Patrick is *chef’s kiss* amazing.

My only teensy quibbles with The Guncle Abroad have to do with Livia and her sister Palmina. Livia is something of a blank. We see her in various scenes, but I didn’t feel that I got to know anything about her personality or a deeper sense of how she feels about Greg and the children. Meanwhile, Palmina (referred to by the kids as their new “launt”) immediately sets off Patrick’s alarms as competition for the kids’ affection and admiration — she’s just so effortlessly cool — but the shtick gets old pretty quickly, and I could have done without quite so much Palmina focus.

Still, these factors did not in the slightest keep me from loving this book. The Guncle Abroad is sweet, funny, honest, and constantly entertaining, and Patrick is the best. (Have I said that already? It’s true. He is). The Guncle Abroad has a super satisfying ending… but I still felt sad, because it seems pretty definitively to have wrapped up all storylines, and I’d love to think that there’s another Patrick/Maisie/Grant adventure in our future. Maybe when they’re another five years older?

Having read Steve Rowley’s three most recent books, I can safely say that I’ll read whatever he writes from this point forward. I love his characters, his humor, his pacing, and his way with snappy dialogue. I encourage everyone to check out The Guncle Abroad (read The Guncle first, obviously)… and if you really want a treat, give the audiobook a try.

30May2024

Book Review: The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Rom-Commers
Author: Katherine Center
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: June 11. 2024
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?

Katherine Center books can be counted on to offer amazing women in the lead role, place them in challenging situations, and then give them a chance to shine — always with a sense of humor and a big heart. Here in The Rom-Commers, Emma is an aspiring screenwriter whose early talent never led to a shining career; instead, she turned down a prestigious Hollywood internship to be her father’s full-time caregiver, and works on screenplays in their apartment while teaching writing classes at the local college.

To be clear, Emma doesn’t regret her choice. She loves her dad (who sounds delightful), and knows what she’s doing is the most important thing she could possibly do. But still, she has dreams, and when her ex-boyfriend-slash-agent calls her with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, there’s no way she can give it up. (Well, there is, but her dad and sister won’t let her.)

Emma idolizes screenwriter Charlie Yates, has studied and annotated his scripts, watched ever interview he’s ever given, and knows his film career backward and forward. One thing Emma knows for sure is that Charlie Yates does not do rom-coms. So why is she being offered the chance to ghost-write a rewrite of his new rom-com script?

It turns out that Charlie has written a remake of It Happened One Night — which just happens to be Emma’s favorite movie ever — and his new version is AWFUL. The fact that she’s been picked to rescue the script is an unexpected break, and she’s all in. Until she gets to Charlie’s mansion, where she’ll be working and living, and discovers that agent Luke has hoodwinked them both. Charlie had no idea Emma was coming, has no interest in writing with her, and says a firm, irrevocable no.

After further arm-twisting by Luke, a deal is reached, and Emma does in fact move into Charlie’s guestroom and sets to work on his terrible screenplay. To get him to cooperate at all, she needs him to understand just why it’s so terrible — and he doesn’t see the problem at all. As it turns out, he fundamentally doesn’t believe in romance or love, which is a problem for someone writing a rom-com.

He clearly wanted to win — and settle this once and for all. “But doesn’t love conquer all? Doesn’t love find a way? Shouldn’t some cartoon woodland animals show up and help you find your happily ever ever?”

My eyes flashed. “Don’t use a romance term against me!”

“You’re the one who taught it to me!”

Emma’s mission, beyond rescuing the screenplay, is to get Charlie to experience some of the key staples of romantic movies (like unexpectedly falling on top of someone, or trying a silly new past-time — yes, there is line dancing involved! — or moving in for the perfect rom-com kiss).

Emma and Charlie end up being quite adorable together, but there are definitely hurdles for them to overcome. Charlie’s grumpiness and lack of emotion aren’t just random personality traits — he’s been hurt very badly in a previous relationship, and it makes sense that his belief in the possibility of love would be damaged (if not completely dead). As for Emma, she’s wracked by guilt over her father’s health, the accident that caused his current condition, and finally giving up the main caregiving role and allowing her younger sister to step in.

This is such a fun book! Sure, there were times when I wanted to bop Charlie over the head and tell him to snap out of it, but this book is so deftly written that even when the characters are annoying, they’re annoying for a reason.

“I don’t want to not be there for you.”

“That’s a heck of a double negative.”

The set pieces are really funny (the line dancing scene is amazing), and best of all, Emma and Charlie’s scenes together just sparkle. Their dialogue is quippy and smart and full of word-play, which is totally my jam.

“Emma,” Charlie said. “Please come here. You’re so drunk.”

“I’m not drunk,” I said. “I just drank too much.”

“That’s the literal definition of being drunk.”

Emma and Charlie also resort to googling the most ridiculous or random questions, among them how long it takes to fall in love, how to know when to take someone to the hospital after a bar fight, symptoms of a heart attack in a woman, and what a jazz box is (it’s a line-dancing move, in case you’re wondering). It’s cute and weird and spot-on for a pair of writers.

The Rom-Commers delivers on its title — a delightful blend of romance and comedy, with pathos and sorrow and day-to-day challenges that keep it grounded and real. Katherine Center once again provides a book with terrific lead characters, great chemistry, a plot that makes you feel all the feelings, and a promise of a happy ending to cheer for. Don’t miss it!

28May2024

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books I Was Super Excited to Get My Hands on but Still Haven’t Read.

I know I have a tendency to buy (and even pre-order) books by favorite authors as soon as a new book becomes available, but these book can often end up sitting on my shelf for months (or longer). And sometimes, I’ll stumble across a mention of an older book and feel like I MUST HAVE IT right away… and once again, the book ends up sitting on my shelf for months (or years), just waiting to be read.

Here are ten I was in a hurry to buy… but still haven’t gotten around to reading.

The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
Needful Things by Stephen King
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Gilded by Marissa Meyer
Green Rider by Kristen Britain
Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness**
Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton

**As I was putting together this post, I reminded myself that a 5th book in the All Souls series is coming out this summer, so it’s about time I finally read #4, Time’s Convert… and so as of this week, at long last, I’m doing it!

What books are on your list this week?

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!