Book Review: The Innocent Sleep (October Daye, #18) by Seanan McGuire

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Innocent Sleep
Series: October Daye, #18
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW
Publication date: October 24, 2023
Print length: 368 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

For one bright, shining moment, Tybalt, King of Cats, had everything he had ever wanted. He was soon to set his crown aside; he had married the woman he loved; he was going to be a father. After centuries of searching for a family of his own, he had finally found a way to construct the life of his dreams, and was looking forward to a period of peace—or at least as much peace as is ever in the offing for the husband of a hero.

Alas for Tybalt and his domestic aspirations, fate—and Titania—had other ideas. His perfect world had been complete for only a moment when it was ripped away, to be replaced by hers. Titania, Faerie’s Summer Queen, Mother of Illusions and enemy of so many he holds dear, has seized control of the Kingdom, remaking it in her own image. An image which does not include meddlesome shapeshifters getting in her way. Tybalt quickly finds himself banished from her reality, along with the Undersea and the rest of the Court of Cats.

To protect his people and his future, Tybalt must find the woman he loves in a world designed to keep her from him, convince her that he’s not a stranger trying to ruin her life for no apparent reason, and get her to unmake the illusion she’s been firmly enmeshed in. And he’ll have to do it all while she doesn’t know him, and every unrecognizing look is a knife to his heart.

For Tybalt, King of Cats, the happily ever after was just the beginning.

Buckle up! The 18th book in the excellent October Daye fantasy series is unusual, powerful, and a one hell of a ride.

The Innocent Sleep is a big departure from the norms of the series, in two significant ways: 1) It’s releasing only a month and a half after the previous book, Sleep No More, rather than the usual one-year gap between installments, and 2) for the first time in the series, the book’s POV character is not Toby herself, but her husband Tybalt, King of Cats.

As we saw in book #17, Titania has worked her malevolent magic to create a new version of reality — a version where changelings like Toby exist to serve their pureblood families, and those of magical lines that don’t fit Titania’s ideals, such as shapeshifters and other inconveniences, are locked away in skerries or sealed-off courts, dead or non-existent to the rest of Faerie.

For October and Tybalt, this is a problem. Tybalt’s magic allows him to see through illusions quickly, so he knows the truth and that Titania’s world is a lie — but as the King of the local Cait Sidh court, his first duty is keeping his trapped people alive and cared for, an exhausting task leaving him no time to try to rescue Toby.

In Sleep No More, the construct of this false reality leaves Toby and Tybalt separated for much of the book, and here in The Innocent Sleep we get to find out more about what he’s been up to during this forced separation. As we’d expect, he does not take it at all well, and spends much of his time absolutely furious, as well as deathly afraid for his beloved. After receiving dire prophecies from a Seer, Tybalt is forced to do something he’s not at all good at — waiting. The time isn’t right yet for him to intervene, and while everything in him is frantically urging him to rescue Toby NOW, he’s been told in no uncertain terms that doing so will doom them all.

Tybalt’s mind is an interesting place to spend a book. We know he’s madly, passionately in love with Toby — but as a hero of the realm, she’s not a safe or easy person to care for. Through Tybalt’s narrative, we learn just what he experiences every time she goes off to fight or undertake a dangerous quest. It’s fascinating to see this man, who’s a King and defers to no one, show again and again how much he supports Toby’s path in life, even while desperately afraid that one day she’ll meet something or someone she can’t survive.

Tybalt is haughty, is often accused of speaking like someone in a Shakespearean play (which is true), and is fabulously entertaining.

“I am a cat, sir. I always look my very best, even when I don’t, and to so much as imply otherwise is to run the risk of treason.”

I looked back to Simon, summoning every ounce of haughty disdain I could find. I had quite a bit.

That woman can hold a grudge like a cat, and I have very few higher compliments that I can give.

The Innocent Sleep has an interesting problem at its core, which is that the plot itself isn’t moving the overall series story forward. This book covers the same time period and events as the previous one, and it ends at the same point as well. This means that we already know the outcome of the central crisis, which lessens the dramatic impact. On the other hand, it is fascinating to see how Tybalt experiences these events, and to learn more about what he’s been doing all the time he’s off-page in Sleep No More. The author does a great job of weaving the books together whenever Toby and Tybalt are in the same scene, so that the dialogue and stage-direction matches completely — but now we understand how all of this looks and feels to Tybalt, which is really fun.

I truly can’t wait to see what happens next in the series. Alas, I’m afraid we’re now back to waiting a year for a new book!

The Innocent Sleep includes a novella at the end, as is typical for the October Daye series. This one, Doubtless and Secure, is about Dianda and her life as ruler of Saltmist in the Undersea. It’s good, but very long. It’s always interesting to get these side-stories filling in the blanks of other characters’ lives — someday, I’d love to see a whole collection of Toby-verse stories!

3Sep2023

Book Review: Sleep No More (October Daye, #17) by Seanan McGuire

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Sleep No More
Series: October Daye, #17
Author: Seanan McGuire
Publisher: DAW
Publication date: September 5, 2023
Print length: 368 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

October is very happy with her life as the second daughter of her pureblood parents, Amandine and Simon Torquill. Born to be the changeling handmaid to her beloved sister August, she spends her days working in her family’s tower, serving as August’s companion, and waiting for the day when her sister sets up a household of her own. Everything is right in October’s Faerie. Everything is perfect.

Everything is a lie.

October has been pulled from her own reality and thrown into a twisted reinterpretation of Faerie where nothing is as it should be and everything has been distorted to support Titania’s ideals. Bound by the Summer Queen’s magic and thrust into a world turned upside down, October has no way of knowing who she can trust, where she can turn, or even who she really is. As strangers who claim to know her begin to appear and the edges of Titania’s paradise begin to unravel, Toby will have to decide whether she can risk everything she knows based on only their stories of another world.

But first she’ll have to survive this one, as Titania demonstrates why she needed to be banished in the first place—and this time, much more than Toby’s own life is at stake.

Who would think that the 17th book in a fantasy series could still make a reader gasp, cry, and want to beg the author for mercy on behalf of the characters? I suppose it’s not truly a surprise when it comes to the October Daye series — this is a series that delivers heart-stopping plot twists and emotional upheavals consistently (while also having plenty of humor and moments of absolute delight). The author doesn’t let the characters (or the reader) get comfortable for long, and books 16 and 17 in the series are prime examples.

Going back a book for a quick minute, book #16 picks up after our hero Toby (a literal hero of the realm) finally finds true happiness and marries the love of her life. And then her world takes a horrifying turn, devastating things happen, and life as Toby knows it will never be the same.

Without going too far into plot details, the 16th book ends with a terrifying twist that left me practically sobbing on the floor and screaming NOOOOO. So it’s not a surprise when book 17, Sleep No More, picks up the story where it left off, ready to tie my guts into knots once again.

Have I mentioned how much I love these books? Honestly, I do, even though they wreak havoc on my state of calm.

In Sleep No More, October is imprisoned within a false world in which nothing about her former life remains true, and what’s more, she has no idea that the world she now inhabits isn’t where she’s always been. In this world, she lives according to the rules for all changelings (half-human, half-fae) — her purpose is to serve her family, especially her pureblood sister. She’s happy with her lot. She loves her sister August, and knows that she has an important role to fill. So long as she keeps her head down, does what she’s told, and doesn’t offend any purebloods, she’ll have as good a life as an unimportant changeling can aspire to.

But cracks in the façade of a perfect life appear. Toby begins to experience things that don’t make sense, and soon people show up who insist that this isn’t the real world. Even as Toby begins to recognize the elements that don’t add up and starts to discover her own true nature, she clings to the false world where she’s loved and protected. Eventually, though, she can’t deny the truth of the situation, and along with trusted allies, sets out to save the world (again).

For fans of the series, this book is powerful, scary, upsetting… and also a totally compelling read. It should be pretty obvious that the 17th book in a series is not a good place to start, but I’m happy to take this opportunity to once again recommend picking up book #1, Rosemary & Rue!!

In a truly unusual move, the next book in the series, The Innocent Sleep, will be released in October. Two books within two months! These books typically come out once a year, so this is totally exciting. Stay tuned! I’ll be back with thoughts on The Innocent Sleep very, very soon.

*Up next in series: The Innocent Sleep (release date 10/24/2023)*

Side note: At certain points in the story, I kept flashing to a bit of dialogue from the Buffy episode The Wish:

Anyanka: You trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this?
Giles: Because it has to be.

2Sep2023

Book Review: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Love, Theoretically
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 13, 2023
Length: 389 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

Love, Theoretically is author Ali Hazelwood’s third novel… and I think I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns. This book on its own may be fine — but after reading the previous two, I can’t help but feel that Love, Theoretically is just more of the same.

Main character Elsie Hannaway is desperate for a good job in academia — one that allows her to focus on research, earn a steady paycheck, and have the health benefits she so desperately needs she she can afford her insulin supply. Her job as an adjunct professor keeps her finances unstable and her nerves fried, not to mention her reserve of patience absolutely tapped out dealing with the neverending flimsy excuses of slacker undergrads.

Being one of two finalists for a prestigious post at MIT is a dream come true, except one of the members of the selection committee is Jack Smith, the brother of a man she’s been fake-dating as well as someone who’s been ruthless in his criticism of her branch of physics. It seems likely that he’ll torpedo her candidacy, but despite his clear mistrust, he ends up showing her unexpected kindness.

Inevitably, these two supposed enemies are forced to acknowledge their mutual attraction and actual feelings, although there are plenty of barriers to break through before they get there. Elsie has spent her life trying to please everyone, pushing her own needs to the back of the priority line in order to give others what they want from her. She’s never her authentic self (doesn’t even admit to her best friend that she actually hates the art films they watch together), until Jack calls her on her lack of honesty and forces her to be true to herself while she’s around him.

Elsie and Jack have immediate chemistry… and, well, it’s clear from the start where this is going. As in the author’s previous books, the love story is well-established-professional-who’s-maybe-evil vs rising-star-needing-a-break-and-to-break-free-of-internalized-obstacles. (OK, from what I’ve read online, Ali Hazelwood started out writing ReyLo fanfic, and it shows… although I have only the barest of familiarities with that particular ship).

Perhaps I might have appreciated this book more if I hadn’t read the others, but I struggled with a been-there, done-that feeling throughout this particular reading experience. Yes, the particulars of the plot are different, but the overall dynamics are very much aligned.

It didn’t help for me that Jack, while ostensibly empowering Elsie to recognize and express her own desires rather than fit herself to everyone else’s, comes off as domineering and controlling. Further mucking things up for me is that Elsie’s character never actual seemed to make sense — I understood what I was told about her people-pleasing nature, but just didn’t buy it.

Love, Theoretically isn’t a bad read. It goes by quickly and kept my interest. It just didn’t seem to offer much new — so yes, it was fine, but perhaps I’ve just read enough by this author at this point. I don’t think I’ll need to read more of her books, unless she does something completely different and moves away from the love-amongst-scientists theme.

2Sep2023

Book Review: White Bird by R. J. Palacio

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: White Bird
Author: R. J. Palacio
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication date: 2019
Length: 224 pages
Genre: Middle grade
Source: Library
Rating:

Soon to be a major motion picture, starring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson!

Inspired by her blockbuster phenomenon Wonder, R. J. Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with an unforgettable, Sydney Taylor Book Award-winning story of the power of kindness and unrelenting courage in a time of war.

In R. J. Palacio’s bestselling collection of stories Auggie & Me, which expands on characters in Wonder, readers were introduced to Julian’s grandmother, Grandmère. Here, Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with Grandmère’s heartrending story: how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II; how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her savior and best friend.

Sara’s harrowing experience movingly demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives. As Grandmère tells Julian, It always takes courage to be kind, but in those days, such kindness could cost you everything. With poignant symbolism and gorgeous artwork that brings Sara’s story out of the past and cements it firmly in this moment in history, White Bird is sure to captivate anyone who was moved by the book Wonder or the blockbuster movie adaptation and its message.

I’ve never read Wonder (am I the only person left who hasn’t?), and hadn’t heard of White Bird before either, until I went to a movie theater over the weekend and saw a trailer for the film adaptation of White Bird… and just had to know more about it. Luckily, my library had a copy available to borrow immediately, and I read the whole book over the course of a day.

White Bird is a middle-grade graphic novel, with the bulk of the story set in occupied France during the Holocaust. The framing device is a contemporary story about a boy named Julian (who apparently is a character from Wonder). Julian’s grandmother speaks to him about kindness and helping others, and shares her own story with him for the first time.

In the tale within a tale, Sara is a young girl living a charmed life with her parents in a small town in France, where she attends a lovely school, has good friends, and is very happy. The family is Jewish, but doesn’t fear for their own safety at first, even as the Nazis invade France. They live in the free zone, and feel secure knowing that they are French citizens. Even as Jews are restricted in their movements and forced to wear yellow stars, Sara’s parents don’t feel a need to escape, until suddenly it is too late.

At school, Sara sits in her assigned seat beside a boy called by the nickname Torteau in all her classes. Having survived polio, the boy is mocked and treated cruelly by their classmates due to his twisted legs and reliance on crutches. While not actively mean to Torteau, Sara isn’t friendly either — she mostly ignores him, until one day she drops her sketchbook and the boy returns it to her.

When Nazis arrive at school one day and order all the Jewish children to come with them, Sara hides instead, and it’s only a matter of time until she’s discovered — but Torteau finds her first, shows her a secret tunnel out of the school, and brings her to hide in his family’s barn. The boy’s name is actually Julien, and he and his parents become Sara’s protectors for years to come, keeping her hidden, safe, and cared for while the world falls apart around them.

I won’t say more about the plot, but it’s powerful, heartbreaking, and lovely. The graphic novel’s art style is simple but affecting, and mixes in Sara’s sketches and dreams with her day-to-day experiences in a way that lends a magical feel to key scenes.

The author includes a great deal of historical notes at the end that are informative and yet easy to digest, and this section seems like it would be very accessible and helpful for younger readers who are new to reading about the Holocaust.

Themes of love, loyalty, friendship, taking a stand when witnessing wrong-doing, and helping those in need are strongly depicted without being preachy or heavy-handed.

White Bird is a powerful, moving reading experience that actually brought me to tears at certain points — not something I typically expect when I pick up a graphic novel.

I highly recommend this book, and plan to check out the movie version when it’s released. Meanwhile, having finally tasted this author’s storytelling, I hope to read Wonder in the near future as well.

1Sep2023

Book Review: A Scatter of Light by Malinda Lo

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: A Scatter of Light
Author: Malinda Lo
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication date: October 4, 2022
Length: 325 pages
Genre: Young adult fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Award-winning author Malinda Lo returns to the Bay Area with another masterful coming-of-queer-age story, this time set against the backdrop of the first major Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage. And almost sixty years after the end of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Lo’s new novel also offers a glimpse into Lily and Kath’s lives since 1955.

Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friends—one last round of sand and sun before college. But after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria’s parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, artist Joan West. Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother’s gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable—for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to. It’s the kind of summer that changes a life forever.

After absolutely loving Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I was excited to read author Malinda Lo’s next novel, which promises (per the synopsis) a more contemporary story plus more about Lily and Kath, whose love story was so powerful in Telegraph. Sadly, A Scatter of Light lacks the impact of the previous book and felt like quite a let-down.

In A Scatter of Light, main character Aria plans to spend her summer partying with her best friends before starting college at MIT in the fall. When a boy she hooks up with shares nude photos of her online, she’s the one who gets blamed and shamed. Suddenly, her invitations from her friends’ families are revoked, and her parents decide she’ll spend the summer with her grandmother Joan in California.

Aria loves Joan, but she’s resentful at her friends’ betrayal, as well as the fact that her divorced parents — her father a writer, her mother an opera singer who’s mostly absent from Aria’s life — seem to be punishing her for something outside of her control. Joan is an artist and a free-spirit who lives in a lovely, airy cottage in a rural Marin setting, but Aria will have absolutely nothing to do there.

Until… she arrives at Joan’s, and meets Steph, a young woman just a few years older than Aria who does gardening work for Joan. Aria feels an immediate spark around Steph and doesn’t understand why. She’s straight… isn’t she? Running into Steph again soon afterward, she begins meeting some of Steph’s friends, and soon is included in their social circle. Aria ends up spending the summer with this group of lesbians, attending music festivals and the annual Dyke March, and although Steph is in a long-term relationship, it seems clear that Aria’s attraction to her is returned.

Set in 2013, the timeframe has a backdrop of the legalization of gay marriage. For Aria, this means that the possibilities she sees are both new and much more open than they were previously. Ultimately, though, I’m not sure how much this element truly matters. The novel is about Aria, her family dynamics, and her intense crush on Steph — it’s very much about Aria’s internal world, and there’s very little that seems to cross her consciousness that isn’t about herself or her feelings.

I really wanted to love this book, but couldn’t. Aria is selfish in many ways, especially in her pursuit of Steph, who she knows from the outset isn’t available. It’s a positive for Aria that this summer helps her understand who she is, but the cheating element is a huge turn-off, as is the fact that even when there’s a crisis with Joan, Aria can’t seem to shift her focus away from Steph.

It was a little difficult to understand Aria’s interests and passions as well. She’s headed for MIT and her academic passion is astronomy. She spends the summer sorting through her late grandfather’s academic records, including VCR tapes of his astronomy lectures. At the same time, she reconnects with her artistic side, with Joan’s encouragement, and begins painting for the first time in years. There seems to be an attempt to meld her artistic and scientific sides through imagery and thoughts about light, but none of this really gelled for me.

The synopsis and blurbing for this book do it no favors, promising that we’ll see Kath and Lily… which really only happens through information shared by Aria’s mother’s cousin, not by seeing them in person. Yes, it’s a “glimpse”, as stated, but I expected… more? Something else? There seemed little point in including them specifically, rather than addressing the social dynamic via new characters.

All that being said, A Scatter of Light is a fast read that held my attention, but overall, I found too much of the plot — as well as Aria herself — frustrating or troubling.

30Aug2023

Book Review: With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: With the Fire on High
Author: Elizabeth Acevedo
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication date: May 7, 2019
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Young adult fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness.

Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain—and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life—and all the rules everyone expects her to play by—once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

I’m going to stick to a quick take on With the Fire on High: I loved it.

Told with beautifully descriptive language, this first-person story follows Emoni through her senior year of high school. She navigates college essays, caring for her toddler, and thinking about her future while also working part-time to help her abuela pay the bills. Emoni never regrets her daughter Emma, but she does dream of using her astonishing gifts with food to someday have a career as a chef, maybe even open her own restaurant.

Her charter high school adds a culinary arts elective that seems tailor-made for Emoni, even when her more practical side thinks it might make more sense to take an extra study hall instead and really get her grades up. Even once she starts culinary arts, she has doubts — why must she follow the instructor’s detailed recipes when she’s itching to put her own spin on the flavors?

Emoni is a strong, sensitive character who hasn’t had it easy. She’s had to learn responsibility the hard way and embraces her role as a mother, even while sometimes despairing that she’ll ever be able to work, study, and find a way to explore her dreams. She loves her family, her neighborhood, her hometown of Philly, but she’s also still a teen who loves her friends and maybe even is interested in the cute new guy who just transferred to her school.

I loved the writing in this book, and loved Emoni’s openness and vulnerability. She has doubts and worries, but also knows what’s right and where her priorities need to be. She’s loving and generous, and having ended up pregnant as a high school freshman, she’s learned to hold her head up even when the world seems to want to drag her down into shame.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author — it was wonderful. I’ve been hearing great things about this author’s books for years, and now I see why. I will definitely be reading more by Elizabeth Acevedo, and recommend With the Fire on High wholeheartedly!

27Aug2023

Book Review: Sprig Muslin by Georgette Heyer

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Sprig Muslin
Author: Georgette Heyer
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication date: 1956
Length: 298 pages
Genre: Historical fiction/romance
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A dashing man of honor…

En route to propose to his sensible acquaintance Lady Hester, Sir Gareth Ludlow finds young, pretty Amanda wandering unattended and knows it is his duty to bring her back to her family. This turns out to be a challenge as Amanda seems to possess an imagination as intriguing as it is dangerous.

A shocking refusal…

Lady Hester stuns both him and her family when she refuses him. At her age, no one would expect her to turn down such an eligible suitor. But Lady Hester has met the indomitable Amanda. How can the quiet, intelligent Hester hope to compete with such a lively young lady?

After finishing Georgette Heyer’s Cotillion, I felt like my appetite for her books was reignited, and turned to Sprig Muslin, a paperback I’d picked up a few years ago. I’m so happy I did! Sprig Muslin is silly, sweet-natured, fun — and a refreshing contrast to some of Heyer’s more dramatic books about rakes and rogues and dashing men with terrible reputations.

In Sprig Muslin, the two anchors of the story are good-natured, respectable adults who nonetheless find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of shenanigans. Sir Gareth Ludlow, at age 35, is fashionable, well-off, and after losing his fiancée in a tragic accident many years earlier, still single. It’s time for him to take a wife and start producing heirs.

Sir Gareth decides to propose to Lady Hester Theale, a kind, intelligent woman he’s been friends with all his life. Lady Hester, at age 29, is on the shelf and seemingly content with her lot, although she does seem to get bossed around by her overbearing brother and sister-in-law quite a bit. Hester is appalled to learn that Sir Gareth has declared his intentions to her father and is en route to propose to her; although she won’t give a reason, she definitely does not want this proposal.

Sir Gareth’s plans are interrupted when he stops for refreshment along the way and discovers a young girl on the verge of trouble. Amanda, not quite 17, has apparently run away and is determined to remain at large. Clearly belonging to an upper class family, she states that she intends to marry an up-and-coming soldier, and by running away, she intends to force her grandfather to give his consent. Amanda is headstrong and passionate, and Gareth realizes that his duty is to see her safely returned to her family rather than leaving her to make her way unchaperoned and without an actual plan.

There’s a hitch, however: Amanda refuses to name her family, where they live, or even who her soldier fiancé is. She spins story upon story, and while initially thankful that Gareth seems willing to help her, she soon realizes that he’s going to keep her from her schemes, and attempts to get away from him too.

Thus begins a madcap series of escapades, as Amanda creates one fabulous story after another to explain her situation, drawing in Gareth and then others met along the way. Each tale leads to further complications, and before too long even Hester is drawn into Amanda’s web of stories and fake identities.

Sprig Muslin is utterly delightful. As Amanda’s stories get more and more inventive, various bystanders take on roles, and her tales result in all sorts of rescue attempts, misguided escapes, and even a daring kidnap attempt that goes disastrously wrong. It’s all quite ludicrous, and so very, very enjoyable.

As with all Georgette Heyer books, the unusual words and expressions make the reading experience extra entertaining — here are a few from Sprig Muslin that I highlighted:

nodcock (fool or idiot)
marplot (one who ruins a plan through meddling)
bosky (drunk)
daffish (stupid, silly)
spinney (small area of trees and bushes)
gammon (trick)
nonesuch (a person or thing unrivaled or unequaled)
gaby (a foolish person)
elbow-crooker (drinker)
bobbery (a squabble, a noisy disturbance)
humdudgeon (loud complaint or noise)
flat (as in, “A flat, my child, is one who is easily duped”)

And as for phrases, can’t beat:

a fashionable fribble
a real top-of-the-trees, slap up to the echo (top-of-the-trees = someone of high esteem)
chuffy thing to do
in the petticoat line (associating with women of “easy virtue)

While I always enjoy Georgette Heyer’s books, Sprig Muslin may have just become my new favorite. It’s so good-natured, and the sense of fondness for Kitty’s exploits makes this a sweet read. I came away from it really appreciating all the main characters, and had plenty of giggles along the way. If you’re looking for a GH book but aren’t crazy about rakish men being cast as heroes, Sprig Muslin is a great choice!

26Aug2023

Book Review: Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Don’t Forget to Write
Author: Sara Goodman Confino
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Publication date: September 1, 2023
Length: 334 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Prime First Reads (free during August)
Rating:

In 1960, a young woman discovers a freedom she never knew existed in this exhilarating, funny, and emotional novel by the bestselling author of She’s Up to No Good.

When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter’s reputation, it’s Philadelphia’s strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye.

To Marilyn’s surprise, Ada’s not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermès scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She’s sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules…mostly. As the summer unfolds, Ada and Marilyn head for the Jersey shore, where Marilyn helps Ada scope out eligible matches—for anyone but Marilyn, that is.

Because if there’s one thing Marilyn’s learned from Ada, it’s that she doesn’t have to settle. With the school year quickly approaching and her father threatening to disinherit her, Marilyn must make her choice for her future: return to the comfortable life she knows or embrace a risky, unknown path on her own.

What a treat to take a chance on a book I’d never heard of… and end up loving it! I came across Don’t Forget to Write through a promotional email for this month’s free Prime Reading choices. The cover caught my eye, and I once I read the description, I figured… why not?

Set in the summer of 1960, Don’t Forget to Write starts with a bang, as a rebellious 20-year-old — whose father only agreed to send her to college so she could find a husband — decides to make out with the cute son of the rabbi during Saturday morning services… and ends up crashing through a stained glass window with him, mid-kiss, in front of everyone. It’s a scandal — a scandal, I tell you!

While the rabbi and Marilyn’s parents all seem to feel that the only solution is for Marilyn and Daniel to get married, Marilyn has no intention of doing so. She’s grown up seeing her mother’s boredom as a housewife (dinner is often burned because her mother is too busy reading to check on the food), and she’s determined that she will not have that same fate.

Facing parental wrath, Marilyn is forced into the only acceptable alternative: She’ll go spend the summer with her great-aunt Ada, a matchmaker in Philadelphia, with a reputation for strictness and keeping a tight rein on anyone under her control. Upon arrival, Marilyn finds that Ada is a no-nonsense free spirit, and yes, she has very strict rules for Marilyn, but she’s also fierce, outspoken, generous, and a big believer in thinking for oneself.

Before long, the two head for Ada’s home on the island of Avalon on the Jersey Shore, where further adventures await, including glamorous nights out in Atlantic City and sunbathing (with Coppertone!) on the beach while wearing the latest fashionable bikini. Ada is not what Marilyn expected, and under her care, Marilyn starts to bloom into the independent young woman she was meant to be.

Don’t Forget to Write is such an enjoyable read, in so many ways. I loved the depiction of the era — we know the looser vibe of the late 60s is just a little way in the future, but for Marilyn, those freedoms will be too late unless she comes up with her own plans. She’s very much still a hostage to the morals and traditions of the 1950s, when any woman who breaks the mold of wife and mother is judged and scorned.

Avalon is described wonderfully, as is the sense of Atlantic City in its heyday. Ada herself is marvelous — feisty, smart, strong, entrepreneurial, seemingly hard as nails but with quite a loving heart underneath her tough exterior.

The Jewish elements are really engaging as well, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the scenes of scandal in the synagogue! While this takes place before my own time, it definitely mirrors the era in which my parents were young adults, and knowing their stories, I could really relate to some of the scenes and dialogue here.

The relationship between Marilyn and Ada deepens over the course of the book, and is both funny and touching. Marilyn’s growth and the realizations she has about her life and her choices are well-developed, and I really enjoyed seeing her figure out what she wants out of life, what she’s willing to accept, and what she’s prepared to fight for.

The ending may have been a smidge predictable, but that’s okay. Overall, Don’t Forget to Write is an entertaining look at women’s lives in a bygone era, with a terrific mix of nostalgia, summer breezes, and strong characters.

I’m so happy I decided to pick up this book! It’s rare these days that I read something that I know nothing about ahead of time — what fun to just go for it and have it turn out so well!

24Aug2023

Book Review: Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Mika in Real Life
Author: Emiko Jean
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: August 2, 2022
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

One phone call changes everything.

At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki’s life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She’s a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she’s been fired from her latest dead-end job.

Mika is at her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny—the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Penny is determined to forge a relationship with her birth mother, and in turn, Mika longs to be someone Penny is proud of. Faced with her own inadequacies, Mika embellishes a fact about her life. What starts as a tiny white lie slowly snowballs into a fully-fledged fake life, one where Mika is mature, put-together, successful in love and her career.

The details of Mika’s life might be an illusion, but everything she shares with curious, headstrong Penny is real: her hopes, dreams, flaws, and Japanese heritage. The harder-won heart belongs to Thomas Calvin, Penny’s adoptive widower father. What starts as a rocky, contentious relationship slowly blossoms into a friendship and, over time, something more. But can Mika really have it all—love, her daughter, the life she’s always wanted? Or will Mika’s deceptions ultimately catch up to her? In the end, Mika must face the truth—about herself, her family, and her past—and answer the question, just who is Mika in real life?

Perfect for fans of Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, Gayle Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, and Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years, Mika in Real Life is at once a heart-wrenching and uplifting novel that explores the weight of silence, the secrets we keep, and what it means to be a mother.

In this brilliant new novel by from Emiko Jean, the author of the New York Times bestselling young adult novel Tokyo Ever After, comes a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and utterly heartwarming novel about motherhood, daughterhood, and love—how we find it, keep it, and how it always returns.

I loved Emiko Jean’s YA duology Tokyo Ever After and Tokyo Dreaming, and had my eye on this adult novel ever since I first saw it announced. Finally, I had the opportunity to read it… and loved it.

In Mika in Real Life, Mika’s life really is a mess. She lives with her best friend in a house that’s a disaster zone, doesn’t speak to her parents, has lost yet another meaningless job, and has no romantic life to speak of. Mika’s thoughts are haunted by memories and what-ifs. At age 19, she gave a baby daughter up for adoption, and not a day goes by when she doesn’t think of Penny with longing and love.

When Penny contacts Mika out of the blue, Mika is delighted. She’s received annual letters from Penny’s adoptive parents with updates on her life, but nothing prepares her for the joy of connecting with this vibrant teen. As they progress from phone calls and texts to regular FaceTime chats, Penny wants to know more and more about Mika’s life — but Mika feels like more and more of a failure. She just wants to be someone Penny can be proud of, and begins fudging details, only to be thrown into a panic when Penny announces she’s coming to Portland for a visit in two weeks.

A rational response might be to own up to the deception, but instead Mika doubles down. With the help of her friends, she creates a fake life to show Penny, including everything from having her ex pose as her current (and very loving) boyfriend to borrowing an artist’s workspace to stage an opening for what she’s described as her very own gallery. As expected, the lies all blow up in Mika’s face and threaten to permanently ruin her developing relationship with Penny and her father Thomas.

While I cringed throughout this section — because of course it was all going to go wrong! — fortunately, this is not the ultimate storyline of the entire book. Instead, from this point, Mika ends up reexamining her life, her relationships, and how she got to this point. Yes, it’s a terrible moment, but we can understand Mika’s choices and root for her to make amends.

There’s so much more going on this book, and it’s deep and powerful. Without getting into spoiler territory, the more we learn about Mika’s childhood as well as her pregnancy, the more we see how much sorrow and pain Mika carries, and why the choices she’s made feel out of her own control so much of the time. She’s had to cope the best she could, not always well or in a way that’s rational or healthy, but she’s survived, and that’s a lot.

I loved seeing Mika’s bumpy road to connecting with Penny, as well as seeing the lovely friendship she has with her best friend. Mika’s troubled relationship with her own mother is very sad, but well explained. The deeper story about the traumas in Mika’s past and her ongoing struggles is very thoughtful, emotional, and powerful. I also appreciated how sensitively the cultural issues related to the adoption were handled — it’s clear that Penny’s adoptive parents were loving and nurturing, but they also were either unable or unwilling to give her the exposure to her Japanese heritage that teen Penny is hungry for.

Another powerful theme running throughout Mika in Real Life is about mother-daughter relationships, and how the disappointments, deferred dreams, and painful moments of one generation can spill over into the next. Seeing Mika recognize and then attempt to break the cycle of disapproval and living for another person’s dreams is very relatable and emotional.

“How does this end? Mika wondered. Not how she wanted it to. She thought of Caroline dressing Penny in clothes that matched her own. Of Hiromi forcing Mika to take dance lessons. How mothers see their daughters as echos, as do-overs, as younger versions of themselves who might have the life they didn’t or have the same life as they did, but better. But children aren’t second chances, Mika realized with a start. It was unfair for Hiromi to believe her desires should live inside Mika. Children are made to take a parent’s love and pass it along.”

The synopsis describes Mika in Real Life as “laugh-out-loud funny” — and I’d say, no, it isn’t. There are definitely some lighter, funny moments, but this book is much more on the thoughtful, moving side. I’d hate for someone to approach it expecting humor to be dominant and then feel let down. “Heart-wrenching and uplifting” is far more accurate, as are “whip-smart” and “utterly heartwarming”.

I listened to the audiobook, and loved the narrator’s gifted depiction of Mika’s internal life, as well as the well-voiced characters surrounding Mika, especially Penny. The narration also offers the experience of hearing the Japanese words and phrases spoken accurately, which I really appreciated.

Overall, this is a powerful depiction of resilience and love, with memorable characters and a strong, well-developed plot. Highly recommended.

20Aug2023

Book Review: What Would Jane Austen Do? by Linda Corbett

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: What Would Jane Austen Do?
Author: Linda Corbett
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication date: June 16, 2023
Length: 385 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

It’s a truth often acknowledged that when a journalist and Jane Austen fan girl ends up living next door to a cynical but handsome crime writer, romantic sparks will fly!

When Maddy Shaw is told her Dear Jane column has been cancelled she has no choice but to look outside of London’s rental market. That is until she’s left an idyllic country home by the black sheep of the family, long-not-so-lost Cousin Nigel.

But of course there’s a stipulation… and not only is Maddy made chair of the committee for the annual village literary festival, she also has to put up with bestselling crime author –and romance sceptic – Cameron Massey as her new neighbour.

When Maddy challenges Cameron to write romantic fiction, which he claims is so easy to do, sparks fly both on and off the page…

What Would Jane Austen Do? was a spur-of-the-moment read for me, after seeing positive comments about it by another blogger (and once again, I failed to make a note of where I found the recommendation… sorry). (The $2.99 price tag on the Kindle edition didn’t hurt either…)

This contemporary romance has a sweet, upbeat air as it follows a few well-trodden but well-loved tropes: We have a city girl relocating to a small town, quirky neighbors, and grumpy-sunshine dynamics, to name but a few. Add to that a lovable dog, a ramshackle large house in need of repair, a literary festival to organize, and lots of Jane Austen references, and it’s got all the ingredients needed for this particular type of book.

Main character Maddy is successful in her writing career, writing a “Dear Jane” column for a popular magazine in which she provides “agony aunt” advice by channeling Jane Austen — until she’s let go for suspect reasons and has to figure out next steps. Conveniently, she receives word that the black sheep of the family, cousin Nigel (whom no one has heard from in decades) has passed away and left her his house in the countryside, with the stipulation that she must live in it for at least one year, or forfeit rights to it entirely.

With nothing else pending workwise, Maddy figures she’ll move in, clean the please up, then sell in a year and move back to London. She doesn’t count on the beauty of the old house or the community she’s soon pulled into, nor does she expect to learn that Nigel was totally beloved in this small town where he’d resided (unbeknownst to the family) for over twenty years.

At the same time, Maddy discovers that bestselling crime author Cameron Massey (whose real name is Luke) also lives in the same town, which doesn’t exactly thrill her: They’d had a recent on-air spat when they were guests on a radio show focusing on the romance and crime genres, during which Cameron was gruff and condescending. But Maddy starts to see another side of him when he’s foisted upon her as a lodger while his own home is being renovated. Soon, the two bond over his dog Buster as well as the rest of the shenanigans in their small town.

As if Maddy doesn’t have enough on her plate, she also learns that Nigel had been the chair of a local (unsuccessful) literary festival and she’s expected to step into his shoes, and also stumbles across a decades-old mystery about Nigel’s past and how the family misfit ended up so well-off and well-loved.

What Would Jane Austen Do? is a pleasant, engaging read. There are no major surprises here, but it’s still a fun bit of entertainment. Does Maddy chairing the festival make sense? No. Does the mystery about Nigel — with a connection to a formerly famous rock band as well as one of Luke’s bestsellers — really matter or get resolved in a big, “aha!” sort of way? Nope. Does the Big Misunderstanding of Luke and Maddy’s developing romance feel significant or get explained satisfactorily? No again. But all this is okay — the ups and downs are part of the whole, and overall, Maddy’s experiences adapting to small town life and finding a place to belong are sweet and enjoyable enough to make this a nice escapist read.

A final note: The Jane Austen bits don’t actually make all that much of a difference to the story. There are quotes from Austen’s novels at the start of each chapter (which is really fun), and every once in a while Maddy compares her own experiences to those of Austen characters, but the theme is a bit underplayed and ultimately not very central to the plotlines.

Overall, What Would Jane Austen Do? is a fluffy, light book that I read in a day — a great choice for a lazy summer day when you just want to relax and enjoy a comfort read.