Tag Archives: 2025 new release

Book Review: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

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Title: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Author: V. E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Publication date: June 10, 2025
Length: 544 pages
Genre: Fantasy/historical
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—
how it ends, and how it starts.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is the vampire book I didn’t know I needed. In this hefty, intricate book, author V. E. Schwab weaves together three characters’ voices and experiences, spanning centuries, to create an epic tale of love, need, hunger, and regret.

We open with Maria, a girl growing up in 16th century Spain, whose only possible future is getting married and having babies. As a young woman, she finds a way to ensure a promising marriage to a viscount, then realizes that her marriage is not the path to freedom that she’d anticipated. After meeting a mysterious, youthful widow with an apothecary shop near her husband’s estate, she’s given the key to a new life.

Charlotte, in 19th century England, is sent to her aunt’s home in London for the Season, mainly to learn how to be a proper, marriageable young woman after being caught kissing her best friend. Charlotte finds the etiquette and corsets equally restrictive, and none of the men she encounters at the endless balls interest her — but the beautiful widow Sabine is intriguing, and their friendship blooms into something much more.

Alice is a modern-day Harvard freshman, attending college in Boston far from her home in Scotland, hoping to reinvent herself after leaving behind painful family secrets. But Alice is still the shy, isolated girl she’s always been, even in her new setting, until she attends a party and decides to be bold — and ends up completely transformed in ways she neither anticipated nor consented to.

Never walk alone at night, they tell you, if you’re a girl.

And it isn’t fair.

Because the night is when the world is quiet.

The night is when the air is clear.

This is a vampire story, and it doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination on the reader’s part to understand how these characters’ stories connect. The beauty lies in seeing it all unfold. Each character’s past is carefully established, pieced out bit by bit in overlapping timelines and alternating chapters. There are elements kept hidden, only revealed as the story progresses, and these work especially well to explain events we may think we understand — but may not have the entire picture of.

Alice may be the most sympathetic of the main characters. She’s given no choice in what happens to her, and her rage and dismay are completely understandable. Of course, we could also consider Maria and Charlotte as not particularly having choices either: They make the decisions that propel them into their new lives — but each is so hemmed in by society’s restrictions that a radical departure is the only way to free themselves.

We may expect Sabine to be the villain of the piece, and she does many villainous things… but she’s not at all one-dimensional. No matter how terrible her later actions are, we never lose some sense of compassion for her. We know her backstory, and know what she’s experienced. There’s a reason (multiple reasons) she becomes who she becomes; we may hate what she does, but we know how she got there.

Without giving away any further plot points, I’ll just point out that the writing in Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is lush and delicious, vivid enough to want to sink into, dreamy and evocative, yet also propulsive. This is a long book, but it never lags. I always wanted to know more, and hated to have to pause when real life pulled me away.

I read the author’s debut adult novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, several years ago, and loved it. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is another beautiful, imaginative story that’s a completely immersive reading experience. I haven’t read any of the author’s young adult novels or series, but I know I need to!

I enjoyed every moment of my reading journey through the world of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and found myself fascinated by the characters, their lives, and their choices. Don’t miss this incredible book!

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.

Audiobook Review: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

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Title: Great Big Beautiful Life
Author: Emily Henry
Narrator: Julia Whelan
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: April 22, 2025
Print length: 432 pages
Audio length: 12 hours, 2 minutes
Genre: Romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years–or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.

Emily Henry’s books are quintessential summer reads, and her newest, Great Big Beautiful Life, is no exception. In fact, this book features an historical element that her books typically do not, and at least for this reader, the result is a richer, deeper experience than I’d originally anticipated.

Margaret Ives, the descendant of the powerful, legendary House of Ives, is the last remaining heir to the Ives media empire, which grew from the success of Margaret’s great-grandfather in exploration and mining. By the time Margaret was born, her family controlled the media, had influence everywhere, and was known for its scandals as much as for their wealth and power. But as we’re told, Margaret disappeared from the public view decades earlier, and no one has heard from her since. Still, the public fascination with the Ives family has never truly faded, and speculation continues to bubble up over what really happened to Margaret and her late husband, the wildly popular singer Cosmo Sinclair (dubbed the “Poor Man’s Elvis”).

When writer Alice Scott follows an anonymous tip and locates Margaret, now in her 80s and living alone on a small island off the coast of Georgia, she submits a book proposal and Margaret agrees to hear her out. But when she arrives at Margaret’s door, she finds another author has been invited as well — Hayden Anderson, whose previous book just won a Pulitzer. Alice is dismayed, but Margaret is quick to inform them that they’re both in the running: She’ll meet with each of them, separately and for equal amounts of time, over the next 30 days, after which they’ll each get a chance to make their pitch, and she’ll choose one of them to write her story. Alice isn’t happy with the set-up, but this could be the opportunity of a lifetime, much too good to walk away from. After signing detailed NDAs, Alice and Hayden are in, and they begin their interviews with Margaret.

As the novel progresses, we get chapters focused on Margaret’s story, where we learn her family’s twisty, hidden past — where they started, how their fortune grew, and the fights, scandals, affairs, and mysteries that plagued them ever since.

Meanwhile, Alice and Hayden go from competitors to something like colleagues — unable to share the details of their interviews (those NDAs!!), but still giving one another encouragement and support through their mutual, bizarre process. As they spend time together, their professional respect turns into friendship and attraction, and while they initially resist, their feelings grow in a way that can’t be ignored.

The structure of Great Big Beautiful Life is a lovely balancing act, bringing interest and forward momentum to both Margaret’s story and the contemporary romance between Alice and Hayden. I must admit, however, that the further I got in the book, the more I wanted to stick with Margaret! She’s a fascinating character with a deeply engrossing family story — if only the book about her life were real, I’d absolutely want to read it!

The romance elements are nicely done, although at some point I lost a bit of patience for the will-they-won’t-they dynamic, as well as the somewhat odd insistence that they not sleep together until after the book proposals are done and Margaret makes her choice… because what this actually means is that they become very heavily sexually involved, but refrain from intercourse. Ummm… from my point of view, this is a very silly distinction. But okay…

Alice’s family life and her challenging relationship with her mother comes into play, as does Hayden’s own family background. They have hurdles to overcome if they want a future together, and meanwhile, while they can’t share the details of what Margaret has revealed to them, each has the feeling that she’s not being entirely honest with them. But why agree to a biography and then lie about key elements?

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by the amazing Julia Whelan — and through her storytelling, the characters and events absolutely shine. She’s an incredibly gifted narrator, and has an uncanny knack for convincing me that I’m listening to individual people, not one person voicing multiple characters. Her depiction of Margaret is especially lovely and powerful.

I really enjoyed Great Big Beautiful Life, and highly recommend it. As I mentioned, I wasn’t quite as invested in Alice and Hayden’s contemporary storyline — it’s a good enough romance, and I enjoyed it, but some of the tension between them felt unnecessary. (However, I did appreciate that the obligatory 3rd act breakup actually made sense and felt like it was based on a realistic, unsolvable problem). For me, Margaret’s story is the true heart and soul of this book, and it’s wonderful. I would happily spend much more time exploring her secrets, her triumphs, and her heartbreaks.

To sum it all up… Great Big Beautiful Life is a wonderful reading and listening experience! Don’t miss it.

Read-alikes:

Great Big Beautiful Life has themes and story arcs that reminded me of a few other terrific books I’ve read — so if this book appeals to you, consider one of these as well:

  • If you like the poor-little-rich-girl aspect of the story, try… The Thirteenth Husband by Greer Macallister: Historical fiction about an heiress with an incredible life full of scandals and excitement.
  • If you like the idea of an elderly woman with a secretive past getting two people to vie to discover the truth, try… Drop Dead by Lily Chu: Lighthearted romance featuring writers competing to discover a famously reclusive woman’s secrets, following clues scattered throughout her outrageously lavish estate.
  • If you like a story about celebrities living in the public eye but hiding secrets, try… The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: The secret stories behind a Hollywood star’s many marriages, finally revealed in the star’s late-in-life interview with a journalist.

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.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025

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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 Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the Second Half of 2025.

All of a sudden it’s summer, and… whoosh!… time is flying by. It’s hard to think about the 2nd half of 2025 already, when I’ve barely kept up with my reading plans from the 1st half.

Here are ten books scheduled for release from July through December that I’m looking forward to:

  • A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna (7/15/2025)
  • The Last Wizards’ Ball (Gunnie Rose, #6) by Charlaine Harris (7/55/2025)
  • Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (8/19/2025)
  • Play Nice by Rachel Harrison (9/9/2025)
  • The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures, #2) by Katherine Rundell (9/11/2025)
  • The Shattering Peace (Old Man’s War, #7) by John Scalzi (9/19/2025)
  • Silver and Lead (October Daye, #19) by Seanan McGuire (9/30/2025)
  • The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow by Kelley Armstrong (10/14/2025)
  • The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (10/14/2025)
  • Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs (10/21/2025)

What upcoming new releases are you most excited for? Please share your TTT links!

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Book Review: The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick

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Title: The Poppy Fields
Author: Nikki Erlick
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: June 17, 2025
Length: 324 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the smash-hit The Measure—a runaway bestseller and a Read with Jenna TODAY Show pick—comes a stunning speculative story of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness, and found friendship.

What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted?

Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.

Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain…and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.

On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.

A high-concept speculative novel about heartache, hope, and human resilience, The Poppy Fields explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person, posing the questions: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go in order to be healed?

If you could sleep away your grief… would you?

In this contemplative novel by Nikki Erlick, author of The Measure (which was fascinating!), scientist Ellis Jones has developed a popular but controversial treatment for grief: After a careful screening process, patients are put into a chemically induced sleep for one to two months, during which they are closely monitored and treated with a blend of hormones and medications to aid the healing process. When they awaken, they find themselves at peace with their loss, having bypassed the agonizing early stages of grief and slept their way through to acceptance.

This sleep comes with a price for about 25% of the patients: Not only do they wake free of the sharp pain of their loss, they also experience “emotional moderation” — they no longer feel any sort of emotional attachment to the person they’ve been mourning. They retain their memories of their lost loved one, but have no feelings for them, one way or another. This may sound terrible, and the odds aren’t especially great, but for the patients who feel that they can’t take one more moment of their suffering, it’s a price they’re willing to pay.

The plot of The Poppy Fields focuses on a group of travelers to Ellis’s institution (which is named — you guessed it! — the Poppy Fields). Stranded in the midwest by flight delays, they decide to drive the remaining distance together. Over the course of their journey, they shared their stories — why they feel the need to go to the Poppy Fields, what the idea of it means to them, what losses they’ve suffered, and what they’re hoping to achieve by sleeping.

Meanwhile, there are hints of trouble: Protesters are starting to appear outside the offices of the foundation that sponsors Poppy Fields, demanding that people “Stop the Sleep”. And within Poppy Fields itself, there’s division, as key staff members push for a for-profit model and facility expansion, while Ellis is committed to keeping their services free and to understanding how to stop the sleep’s side effects.

I think I went into this book with incorrect expectations. Based on the general description, I expected a darker story, with corporate twistiness, evil scientists, and some sort of dramatic revelation about the side effect. Instead, I found a very people-centered story about love, connection, grief and mourning, and how to move on after terrible loss.

Perhaps my early assumptions have a lot to do with my reaction, but I couldn’t help but feel that The Poppy Fields is a bit inconsequential. I believe it’s trying to say something deep about our memories and how we keep pieces of those we lose — but the overall story seems to veer between a road-trip-with-buddies plotline and serious introspection, and it just doesn’t gel well.

The main characters each have interesting backstories, and I enjoyed seeing them form bonds over the course of their days together in the car, although I wasn’t entirely convinced by each of their decisions by the end of the book. A random teen who tags along for part of the journey is rather pointless, and the various stops along the way provide some diverting interludes, but also mainly seem to serve to stretch the story.

As for the science and protest and corporate maneuvering, there’s not much there there. The setup seems to suggest that something dire is afoot, but that’s not actually the case. It all just kind of wraps up without a ton of fanfare.

Overall, there are some interesting ideas in The Poppy Fields, but I found it unconvincing. I think I really would have preferred the version I expected — give me evil scientists carrying out mad experiments in an isolated desert facility any day!

I loved how much there was to think about while reading The Measure, and my sense is that the author was going for something similar in this new book. However, the concept and the controversies didn’t strike me as all that exceptional. The Poppy Fields held my attention and had some solid points and good storytelling behind it, but failed to really grab my imagination. A decent piece of summer entertainment, but not much more than that.

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.

Audiobook Review: The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

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Title: The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Narrator: Dakota Fanning
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: April 8, 2025
Print length: 384 pages
Audio length: 15 hours, 32 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Sisters Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were born just a year apart but could not have been more different. Zoe, blessed with charm and beauty, yearned for fame from the moment she could sing into a hairbrush. Cassie was a musical prodigy who never felt at home in her own skin and preferred the safety of the shadows.

On the brink of adulthood in the early 2000s, destiny intervened, catapulting the sisters into the spotlight as the pop sensation the Griffin Sisters, hitting all the touchstones of early aughts fame—SNL, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine—along the way.

But after a whirlwind year in the public eye, the band abruptly broke up.

Two decades later, Zoe’s a housewife; Cassie’s off the grid. The sisters aren’t speaking, and the real reason for the Griffin Sisters’ breakup is still a mystery. Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, who’s determined to be a star in spite of Zoe’s warnings, is on a quest to learn the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago.

As secrets emerge, all three women must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other—and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again?

Jennifer Weiner’s books can be counted on for memorable characters, intricate relationships, and terrific story arcs. The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits delivers all of these.

In this 2025 novel, we’re transported back to the music scene of the early aughts and the rise of the Griffin Sisters, a band whose one album changed lives. Even twenty years after their sudden breakup, devoted fans still love them, and the use of their music in a popular new Netflix series has brought them back into the spotlight once more.

But who are the Griffin Sisters, and where did they go?

As we learn, Cassie and Zoe Griffin were born Cassie and Zoe Grossberg, the daughters of a young, working class Philadelphia couple. Zoe — full of beauty and sparkle — is a delight from birth, but the surprise pregnancy that brings Cassie along less than a year later is not a welcome development for their parents. Their mother struggles to love Cassie the way she loves Zoe, and Cassie’s differences confuse and frustrate her parents.

Everything changes when a preschool teacher notes Cassie’s uncanny musical ability. Although still basically a toddler, Cassie can play the piano by ear, and has a remarkable singing voice as well — although she’s so silent and withdrawn that she’ll only sing with Zoe. And so it goes: Zoe is pretty and popular, and protects Cassie (when she can) from the crueler comments directed at her by other children. Cassie is large, awkward, unsocial, and doesn’t care about clothes, entertainment, or making friends. Music is her only passion, and eventually, she enrolls in a music school in order to pursue a career as a classical pianist.

But Zoe craves the spotlight and stardom. Her perkiness puts her at center stage, even though her singing voice is passable at best. Her knowledge of music is limited to Britney and Cristina and the Spice Girls. She yearns to be a pop princess — and when her bandmates kick her out right before a Battle of the Bands competition, she begs Cassie to perform with her instead. Cassie has no interest, hates being seen, and just wants to be left alone… but she can’t let her sister down. In their performance, Cassie’s gift shines — her voice is transcendent, and while Zoe is the visual appeal, it’s Cassie’s singing and playing that makes their time on stage magical.

So magical, in fact, that a talent agent rushes to their house the next day and whisks them off to a recording label’s headquarters in New York. In the blink of an eye, the teen sisters are signed to a contract and are being prepped for a cross-country tour of radio stations and small venues. To turn the Griffin Sisters in a hit-machine, they need a songwriter, and Russell D’Angelo enters their lives. In his mid-twenties, Russell has a former band, is a talented guitar player, and a genius for writing songs. He and Cassie immediately click and begin creating together, but Zoe is interested in Russell for entirely different reasons. Once he joins the band, it’s only a matter of time before things get complicated.

We know from the opening pages of The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits — the one chapter told from Russell’s point of view — that something terrible happens to tear the band apart at the height of their success. As the book progresses, chapters focused on the band’s rise are interspersed with chapters set in 2024, through which we see just how differently Zoe and Cassie live twenty years later.

In 2024, two decades past their peak stardom, Zoe is a suburban housewife and mother. Yes, she still gets recognized as Zoe Griffin, but those days are long behind her. Zoe’s 18-year-old daughter Cherry has a musical gift of her own and yearns to pursue her own musical career, but Zoe blocks her at every turn, cautioning her about the cruelty of the music industry toward young women.

Meanwhile, Cassie has fled just about as far as she can go — no one has seen her in these past twenty years. She lives alone in Alaska on private acreage, hiding from the world, venturing out as little as possible, and denying herself anything that would give her pleasure, including music.

It takes a good 75% of the book to unravel the mystery of what happened to the Griffin Sisters and explain how Zoe and Cassie ended up with the lives they have now. Thanks to the author’s skillful development of the characters and their complex relationships, there’s never a dull moment as she weaves together the past and present timelines. By the time we get to the answers, we understand deeply both what happened and why, how each character perceived or misunderstood the key events, and how this affected their lives from that point forward.

I’m sure people will compare this lovely novel to Daisy Jones and The Six (a book that I love) — and yes, there are some similarities: A wildly popular band falling apart after only one album together, with plenty of “where are they now?” speculation. But, while the music industry pressures and excesses may feel familiar at times, the stories are quite different. Here, the beating heart of the story is the relationship between Cassie and Zoe, as well as the shifting, new dynamic that occurs once Zoe’s daughter Cherry makes it her mission to reunite the sisters (and the Sisters).

Cassie and Zoe are both flawed but fascinating characters. I’ll admit that it’s very hard to like Zoe, and she behaves terribly in many, many situations, often causing horrible damage. Still, the author is careful to make sure that readers understand Zoe — and while we may hate much of what she does, we also understand the fears and insecurities that drive her actions.

The audiobook, narrated by Dakota Fanning, is a joy to listen to. While on the lengthy side, it’s so well told that I never felt impatient or frustrated. The narration captures the characters’ personalities very well — they feel distinct and recognizable throughout.

I had only two minor quibbles by the end of the book. First, there a moment — very late in the story — where Zoe raises the issue of whether Cassie might be on the neurodivergent spectrum — and honestly, that felt a bit out of the blue. Yes, Cassie has a great deal of difficulty in social and public settings, but I never had a sense that she might be considered neurodivergent. I felt that if that was the case the author wished to make, there needed to be a lot more breadcrumbs throughout the book to support this.

My other quibble has to do with a plot thread left dangling at the conclusion:

Highlight the black area to reveal text — ONLY if you don’t mind a spoiler: Who is Cherry’s father? Zoe admits that she’s not sure — it could be Russell, but it could also be Tommy, the band’s drummer. As the story wraps up, I expected some sort of resolution, or maybe even just a hint that Zoe and Cherry might reach out to Tommy… but the matter just isn’t addressed again.

This issue is not critical to the overall story, which — big picture — is about Zoe and Cassie and whether they can find their way back to one another — but it still annoyed me at the end not to get an answer to this particular question.

Those small issues aside, I truly enjoyed The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits. I loved the band’s backstory, the dynamics between Cassie and Zoe, each of their personal journeys, and even the “now” parts focused on Cherry’s attempts to break out as a musician.

Jennifer Weiner’s books are always a treat, and The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is no exception. Highly recommended.

Oh… but one last complaint.

I don’t just want to READ about the Griffin Sisters’ songs. I want to hear them!!

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.

Book Review: Never Been Shipped by Alicia Thompson

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Title: Never Been Shipped
Author: Alicia Thompson
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 10, 2025
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

A band reunion may be enough to change two musicians’ tune on love in this electric romance from USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.
 
Micah’s relationship to music is complicated. As teenagers, her band took off after being featured on a popular TV show, but the group barely released their sophomore album before breaking up. Now, over a decade later, the band is reuniting for one more performance on a themed cruise, and Micah is determined to learn from her past mistakes — no losing herself in the music, and no losing her heart along the way. 
 
John misses playing in a band, and mostly he misses Micah, who’d been his best friend until the music stopped. Back then, he didn’t take the lead, either in his guitar parts or while he sat back and watched her date another bandmate. John’s never been one to rock the boat, but he’s faced with another chance now that this cruise has brought music — and Micah — back in his life.
 
Onboard, Micah can’t help but see John with brand new eyes, and John’s feelings only intensify as the discordant band’s tension grows to a breaking point. With five days at sea, there’s a ticking clock on anything that might develop between them, and they’ll have to decide if their relationship is destined to be more than a one-hit wonder.

I’m going to keep this review short, simply because I’m not sure I have all that much to say. This story of second-chance love, set on a cruise ship, skims the surface of former teen bandmates and best friends reuniting after more than a decade without contact, reigniting all the unspoken, unacknowledged feelings from all those years ago.

While I really enjoyed this author’s three previous books (ratings of 4 – 4.5 stars), something about this one just never took off for me. Maybe it was the description of the band’s rise to stardom while the the characters were all teens. Maybe it was the awkward interactions between main characters Micah and John. Maybe it was simply feeling that I didn’t actually get these characters in some fundamental way. In any case, the story simply didn’t ring true for me, and I never got more than a surface sense of involvement.

That said, there are some cute set-pieces, including a shuffleboard tournament on board the cruise ship and the fact that the entire cruise is a fan experience for a once-popular teen show about shapeshifters (which felt very much like a Buffy reference in certain ways). But with the core plotline not truly grabbing me, the book simply didn’t rise above a solid 3-star, “it was okay” rating.

I’ll also note that the sex scenes in this book are very up-close and graphic, and there are a lot of them. Definitely not my preference when I read romance, but your mileage may vary. (This bothered me less in the author’s previous books, where I was more caught up in the plot and characters. Here, it was just one more thing to annoy me.)

Will I read more books by this author? Most likely, yes. Her previous books all had quirky, clever setups that engaged me right from the start. So, I’ll think of Never Been Shipped as a one-off letdown, and will still want to at least consider 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.

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Book Review: What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown

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Title: What Kind of Paradise
Author: Janelle Brown
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: June 3, 2025
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Thriller/historical fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

A teenage girl breaks free from her father’s world of isolation in this exhilarating novel of family, identity, and the power we have to shape our own destinies—from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear

The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.

Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence existence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Thoreau-like utopia.

As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling Internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.

In this sweeping, suspenseful novel from bestselling author Janelle Brown, we see a young woman on a quest to understand how we come to know ourselves. It is a bold and unforgettable story about parents and children; nature and technology; innocence and knowledge; the losses of our past and our dreams for the future.

TL;DR: What if the Unabomber had a daughter?

In this thriller by Janelle Brown, set during the early days of the Silicon Valley internet boom, an increasingly unhinged father steals his young daughter away to live in an isolated cabin in Montana. There, he drills her on philosophy, teaches her to hunt and farm, and conducts evacuation practices through secret tunnels. Above all, he raises her to embrace his own world view:

“Companionship is a crutch. Learning to be alone is the most critical life skill of all — haven’t I taught you that? Because when you rely on other people, for emotional support or intellectual engagement or entertainment or just survival, you are weak. You are vulnerable. Because it means that you will suffer when it’s taken away — and it inevitably will be. You should never rely on anyone.”

From the age of four, Jane’s life is contained within the walls of the cabin and the surrounding forests, and centers on her father. He’s her teacher and protector, and as she grows, he trains her to follow in his footsteps, indoctrinating her on his anti-technology theories, and eventually, involving her in creating his manifesto and in his quest to rid the world of advanced tech, which he sees as dooming the human race.

Jane believes whole-heartedly in her father — for a while. But as she grows up, she has the opportunity to access a TV, and later, the internet (after her father brings her a how-to guide for HTML and instructs her to create a website for his manifesto). As she gains access to the outside world, she begins to wonder whether her faith in her father is flawed, whether his teachings are correct, and whether she’s actually more of a prisoner than someone being protected.

After her father involves her in an act of violence, she flees — but the world outside her cabin is dangerous and baffling, and Jane is forced into difficult situations and hard decisions. Meanwhile, through Jane’s experiences, we see the rise of tech in its glory days, filled with hope and inspiration as well as dire warnings about the destruction of humanity.

What Kind of Paradise is fascinating on both the personal and global levels. Jane herself is an immediately sympathetic character. When she parrots her father’s teachings, we know it’s because that’s all she knows and has been taught. When she takes ill-advised actions, we know that she has no idea what the consequences might be. Due to her extremely sheltered upbringing, she doesn’t see red flags where most others might, and misses essential clues and warnings that could potentially save her from disasters.

The book offers an insightful look into the competing mindsets during the early days of the internet boom. On the one hand, tech gurus speak rapturously about the upcoming changes:

An economic boom due to new technological breakthroughs will enable everyone to join the middle class, so that there are no more working poor. The proliferation of new media will allow truth to disseminate in new ways through new voices bringing an end to widespread ignorance. A rise of liberalism due to a connected global citizenry will usher in the New Enlightenment and the end of fascism and authoritarianism.

On the other hand, we have the doomsday prophecies of Jane’s father, warning that human reliance on machines and computers will spell the end of civilization as we know it:

The world today has lost its mind, and it can all be traced back to the rise of technology. The consequence of the ever-forward march of “progress” has been a society whose citizens are greatly suffering and aren’t even aware of it. The more we continue to replace a life of value with “virtual” life, the less satisfaction we derive from our existence, resulting in a world in which citizens are anesthetized by pharmaceuticals and entertainment living entirely in their heads rather in in a tangible, physical world.

Beyond the philosophical considerations, What Kind of Paradise is a tightly constructed thriller that keeps character-driven perspectives at the heart of the narrative. Yes, a crime is being unraveled, but it’s really Jane’s journey that drives the story and pulls the reader in.

Drawing from the real-life terror of the Unabomber and the ensuing manhunt, What Kind of Paradise has a ripped-from-the-headlines feel, while also expanding the actual story in a compelling direction. What if the bomber didn’t live a life of complete isolation? What if there was a child involved? How would the child of such a person develop and learn? The action and character-driven elements of this story combine to provide a compelling, thoughtful, and high-adrenaline read.

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

Top Ten Tuesday: Top ten books on my TBR list for summer 2025

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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 on My Summer 2025 to-Read List.

It’s impossible to keep up with all the books I have my eyes on! Here are the top 10 I most want to make time for… preferably for reading outdoors, in the sun, with warm breezes and a big iced coffee to go with them!

  • Writing Mr. Wrong by Kelley Armstrong
  • Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
  • Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
  • The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick
  • Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
  • The Last Wizards’ Ball by Charlaine Harris
  • Totally and Completely Fine by Elissa Sussman
  • Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
  • The Fair Folk by Su Bristow

What are you planning to read this summer? Please share your TTT links!

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Book Review: The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison

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Title: The Other Side of Now
Author: Paige Harbison
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: June 3, 2025
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A hilarious and heartfelt novel about how loves and lives are never truly lost, for fans of Rebecca Serle and Taylor Jenkins Reid.

With a leading role on a hit TV show and a relationship with Hollywood’s latest heartthrob, Meg Bryan appears to have everything she ever wanted. But underneath the layers of makeup and hairspray, her happiness is as fake as her stage name, Lana Lord. Following a small breakdown at her thirtieth birthday party, she books an impromptu trip where she knows the grass is greener: Ireland. Specifically, the quaint little village where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamt of moving—a dream that fell apart when an accident claimed Aimee’s life a decade ago.

When Meg arrives, the people in town are so nice, treating her not as a stranger, but a friend. Except for the (extremely hot) bartender giving her the cold shoulder. Meg writes it all off as jetlag until she looks in the mirror. Her hair is no longer bleached within an inch of its life, her skin has a few natural fine lines, and her nose looks like… well, her old nose. Her real nose.

Her phone reveals hundreds of pictures of her life in this little town: with an adorable dog she doesn’t know; with the bartender who might be her (ex?) boyfriend; and at a retail job unrelated to acting. Eventually, she comes to accept that she somehow made a quantum slide into an alternate version of her life. But the most shocking realization of all? In this life, her best friend Aimee is alive and well…but wants nothing to do with Meg.

Despite her bewilderment, Meg is clear-eyed about one thing: this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reconnect with her friend and repair what she broke. She finagles an opportunity to act in the play Aimee is writing and directing and as the project unfolds, Meg realizes that events as she remembers them may not be the only truth, and that an impossible choice looms before her.

What a great surprise! Something about the title and cover of this book caught my eye, and I requested an ARC on a whim, knowing nothing about it. The Other Side of Now turned out to be an engaging, sweet, funny look at friendship and second chances. Sure, there’s some hand-wavey alternate reality business going on, but so long as you’re not looking for concrete explanations, it’s an enjoyable journey into a woman’s incredible chance to fix some of the mistakes she’s made.

Meg Bryan (don’t laugh! She’s had to suffer enough Meg Ryan jokes throughout her life!) is the 30-year-old star (known as Lana Lord) of TV’s smash hit Brilliance (which, frankly, sounds pretty awful). She has stardom, success, and a live-in relationship with the latest Marvel star (and his abs)… and she never has a day where she feels like she can be true to herself. Or eat bread.

At the end of her rope after a miserable birthday party, Meg impetuously books a flight to Ireland, to spend a week in the small town of Avalon — home to the performing arts college she’d once hoped to attend. Way back when, she and her best friend Aimee dreamed of attending Avalon together, but when Aimee didn’t get in, Meg stayed home to attend college in Florida with her. After Aimee’s tragic death a few years later, Meg ran off to LA to forget her past and start over, and never looked back.

But now, arriving in Avalon, Meg suspects something strange is going on. The sweet little rental cottage she’s booked for the week is filled with familiar items, there’s a dog who seems to know her, and when she catches a glimpse of her own reflection, she sees her pre-Hollywood face — pre-cosmetic surgery, pre-hair coloring, pre-severe dieting. It’s who she still thinks of as her true self.

I feel a real sense of fondness for the girl in the mirror. She didn’t deserve to be changed. She didn’t deserve to be whittled into something more palatable for social media. She’s a good person who deserves carbs and sugar and whatever else makes her happy.

Even more disconcerting, when she ventures out to the local pub, a perky woman acts like they’re besties, and the very attractive bartender seems to both care for her and be mad at her. Everyone in the town knows her — but she doesn’t know them.

Eventually, Meg admits to herself that she seems to have landed in an alternate version of her own life, where she did actually attend college in Avalon and then stayed to create a life there. Even more incredible, Aimee is there too, alive and well, married and a mother — but apparently, Meg and Aimee haven’t spoken in years. Something happened, and Megan has no idea what, but she’s desperate to reconnect and try for a second chance with the friend she’s been too devastated to even mourn properly.

The set-up here is quite delicious. Meg remembers her Hollywood life, but when she tries to prove to her Avalon friend Kiera that she’s not who everyone thinks she is, she can’t. Lana Lord doesn’t exist. There’s a show called Brilliance, but someone else is the star. Aimee has lived in Avalon all along, and so has Meg. Meg has a job, a home, and an on-again/off-again love life, and it’s all wonderful… but Meg also knows that she’s somehow been dropped into a life that isn’t really her own. The more attached she becomes to this other version of her reality, the more she wants to stay forever… but she has a sneaking suspicion that it won’t last, and that she’d better make the most of this strange opportunity to be with Aimee once again.

The Other Side of Now has some very funny moments, but it has depth too. Meg seemingly had everything she’d wanted — success and fame — but clearly was terribly unhappy beneath it all. Unresolved and suppressed grief has kept Meg from truly feeling. By landing in this alternate reality, Meg finally has the chance to face her emotions, feel the pain of her loss, and come to terms with how very far she is from feeling happiness or satisfaction in her “real” life.

I enjoyed Meg as a character, and Kiera is a total hoot. Seeing Meg and Aimee work through conflict that neither of them fully understands is quite powerful, and I also loved seeing Meg struggling to figure out life in a town that she’s supposedly lived in for a long time. There are plenty of silly moments, but also quite lovely instances of connection and simple joys.

As I mentioned, this isn’t a sci-fi book, and there’s no firm answer as to the why and how of it all. To enjoy this book, we have to accept the premise and let it flow. I found it really moving, and also very entertaining — and really like Meg’s thoughts on the snippets of memories of a different life that pop up for her unexpectedly:

What if her soul knows? What if all our souls know things? What if that’s what instinct is? What if that really is the explanation for gut feelings, intuition, déjà vu, kismet, and everything else? What if it’s our souls, remembering or knowing the truths of all our other lives?

The Other Side of Now does have romance in it as well, but it’s a subplot that’s more background than foreground. The friendship with Aimee, and the loss and grief from Meg’s real life, are what truly define her experiences and fill the story with depth and emotional impact.

If you’re looking for a fast-moving summer read that’s full of whimsy and friendship, but has a serious side too, definitely consider The Other Side of Now!

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.

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Audiobook Review: One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

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Title: One Golden Summer
Author: Carley Fortune
Narrators: AJ Bridel
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 6, 2025
Print length: 400 pages
Audio length: 11 hours 49 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley (ebook); purchased audiobook
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

A radiant, new escape to the lake from #1 New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune

I never anticipated Charlie Florek.

Good things happen at the lake. That’s what Alice’s grandmother says, and it’s true. Alice spent just one summer at a cottage with Nan when she was seventeen—it’s where she took that photo, the one of three grinning teenagers in a yellow speedboat, the image that changed her life.

Now Alice lives behind a lens. As a photographer, she’s most comfortable on the sidelines, letting other people shine. Lately though, she’s been itching for something more, and when Nan falls and breaks her hip, Alice comes up with a plan for them both: another summer in that magical place, Barry’s Bay. But as soon as they settle in, their peace is disrupted by the roar of a familiar yellow boat, and the man driving it.

Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.

Because Alice sees people—that’s why she is so good at what she does—but she’s never met someone who looks and sees her right back.

Good things happen at the lake.

And in the case of One Golden Summer, beautiful books happen at the lake too.

It’s no surprise that I give this book 5 whole-hearted stars. If you saw my post about can’t-miss summer reads last week, you’ll know that Carley Fortune is an author whose books I encountered for the first time just six months ago. Now, having finished One Golden Summer, I’ve read all four of her novels, and I’ll be waiting on pins and needles for another new book!

In One Golden Summer, we get a sequel, of sorts, to the author’s first novel, Every Summer After, which I absolutely adored. That book was a decades-spanning love story about Percy and Sam, teen loves who spend their adult years apart until a family tragedy brings them back together and they get a second chance to find the happiness they deserve.

Sam’s older brother Charlie is an important secondary character in that book. He’s full of himself, always up for a good time, someone who stirs things up… but who can be counted on when it matters.

In One Golden Summer, main character Alice brings her grandmother Nan to spend the summer at a cabin at Barry’s Bay, and almost immediately encounters Charlie Florek, who’s looking after the cabin for the property owner. Alice quickly realizes that he’s one of the boys she noticed fifteen years earlier while spending the summer at the lake as a teen. As a 35-year-old adult, Charlie is still gorgeous — so stunning that Alice actually says “whoa” the first time she sees him up close. But more than his looks, he’s funny and devilish — yet also kind and thoughtful.

Their tense, combative run-ins quickly morph into friendship, not just between Alice and Charlie, but also between Charlie and Nan. There’s a sweetness to their time together. Alice is determined to embrace the joy and freedom she wasn’t quite brave enough to pursue as a teen, and Charlie is eager to help, teaching her to jet ski, encouraging her to jump from a high rock into the water, applauding when she puts on a slinky dress that’s way outside her comfort zone, and setting up a perfect place for her to sleep under the stars.

There’s a strong attraction between the two, but both are clear that they only want friendship… maybe with some benefits thrown in. But what they say they want and what they actually want end up looking like two very different things.

Without delving too far into plot, I’ll just say that the romance elements are beautifully portrayed, but even more so, it’s the careful building of trust, the deep sense of caring and understanding, and the little joys in daily encounters that make this book sing. There are obstacles, of course, and there’s one of those pesky 3rd act breakups/breakdowns… but there’s a good reason for it, and it feels organic to the story, not something forced into the narrative to create a standard story arc.

One of the delights of Carley Fortune’s books is the evocation of summer. Reading this book made me absolutely ache for a lakeside cabin, boat rides, swimming, and all the joys of a quiet, lazy, summertime escape.

Charlie and Alice are wonderful characters, with depth and edges and complexities, who bring out the best in one another and are also just plain fun. As an added bonus, Sam and Percy show up on and off throughout the story, and it’s lovely to see them again and to see how their lives are turning out.

Once again, the audiobook narrator is AJ Bridel, and she’s amazing at bringing the characters to life, from Alice to Charlie to Nan, and giving them all distinct voices and letting their personalities shine. If you’re an audiobook enthusiast, these audiobooks should not be missed!

My only complaint about One Golden Summer is that I couldn’t stop listening, and finished it in practically record time (or so it felt)! I don’t want to be done with these characters or with the beautiful world of the lake at Barry’s Bay.

If you’re new to Carley Fortune’s books, definitely start with Every Summer After, and just keep in mind that you’ll have a terrific second book about the Florek family to look forward to! You really can’t go wrong with any of this author’s books.

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