Tag Archives: contemporary fiction

Audiobook Review: Eight Ways to Say I Love You by Amanda Elliot

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Title: Eight Ways to Say I Love You
Author: Amanda Elliot
Narrators: Dara Rosenberg & Eli Schiff
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: October 27, 2026
Length: 384 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 18 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley; audiobook via Audible
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A spark of attraction burns brighter each year between childhood friends in this sweeping Hanukkah romance by USA Today bestselling author Amanda Elliot.

This Hanukkah, Shira Levinson is returning home to New Jersey riding the high of achieving major milestones. Though she only just graduated from college, she’s got her dream job and a perfect Los Angeles apartment—an actual miracle in the city of dreams.

Life has not been quite as kind to Leo David. Not only did he fail out of college, he was forced to move in with his estranged dad, who he still hates for cheating on his mom years ago. The only silver lining? Getting to see Shira, his childhood friend (and crush, though he’ll never tell her that) while she’s home for her family’s holiday party.

But that’s just the beginning. Over the next eight years, Shira’s and Leo’s lives spin them in all sorts of directions as they grow and change, taking them places they never imagined going. Sometimes those paths take them farther away from each other, and other times closer together. If they can only time it right, they might uncover a love that burns forever.

It’s fall, the holiday season is racing toward us… and it’s the perfect time for a Hanukkah romance! After really enjoying Amanda Elliot’s 2024 novel, Love You a Latke, I was eager to get my hands (ears) on this new release.. and I’m happy to report that Eight Ways to Say I Love You does not disappoint.

Shira and Leo were best friends, inseparable throughout their childhoods — so close that they were constantly running in and out of one another’s houses, no need to knock. But their time together came to a crashing halt when Leo’s dad cheated and Leo’s mom decided to get a fresh start, moving with Leo from their New Jersey home to be with her family in Michigan. At age 14, both Shira and Leo were devastated and promised to stay in touch — but teen life and high school pressures got in the way, and suddenly, eight years went by with no contact at all.

As the story opens, Shira is twenty-two, working tirelessly toward her goal of a thriving art career. Living in LA, she has an impressive job at a gallery and has also secured representation for her own first exhibit. Shira has devoted her high school and college years to making the right impressions — joining clubs, taking on leadership roles, and checking all the boxes — and it’s paid off. She’s firmly on the road to success.

Not so for Leo. Dropping out of college due to burn-out and lack of funds, he’s been forced to move back in with his dad, with whom he’s barely spoken all these years, still feeling furious about how he destroyed their family. Leo works in a warehouse, plays video games, and has no idea what to do with himself. But when Shira shows up for her annual Hanukkah visit and Leo sees her for the first time in eight years, the old crush comes back to life. As the two friends reconnect, it’s clear that they’re in very different places in their lives… and a major misunderstanding seems like it might put an end to their rekindled friendship before it truly gets a chance.

And yet… over the following years, during each Hanukkah visit, Leo and Shira spend more time together, and slowly work their way back toward friendship, connection, and possibly something more. As their lives and careers and families cycle through ups and downs, we see how Leo and Shira each grow and change, in many ways inspired by one another. Shira is forced to reassess her life and her constant need to perform, and to take stock of what truly matters to her. Leo finds new meaning and purpose, and even manages to start to engage with his father again, realizing that past hurts don’t mean that rebuilding isn’t possible.

Along the way, Shira and Leo’s lives are each informed by their connection to Jewish traditions and community. The sense of Jewish joy is pervasive throughout this lovely story, and feels heartening and wonderful to witness.

I appreciated the challenges of Leo and Shira’s growth over the years. This isn’t an insta-love story. Sure, their happiness at reconnecting after so many years apart is evident right from the start, but it takes years and lots of effort for them to rebuild trust, open up to one another, and start putting aside the assumptions and roadblocks that get in their way. It’s not easy, but they value one another enough to make the effort.

Narrators Dara Rosenberg and Eli Schiff alternate chapters as they voice Shira and Leo, and their voices provide warmth, personality, and emotion. It’s a lovely listen, with humor lightening the mood yet with space for the more serious moments to play out as well.

Eight Ways to Say I Love You feels like a great way to get in the Hanukkah mood! Highly recommended.

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: Fallow by Sarah Anderson

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Title: Fallow
Author: Sarah Anderson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date: September 15, 2026
Length: 336 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Slyly funny and disarmingly tender, Fallow is the story of a young woman who signs up to be the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate, then finds herself caught up in a social experiment of another kind.

Natalie knows one truth: there is no such thing as a good job.

As the clock ticks away at the call center where she logs complaints of workplace harassment, she tries to ignore the increasing pain in her jaw. She has no dental insurance. She has no skills or ambitions. She has student loans. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways workers are not just not getting by, but actually getting hustled.

Then, at the blood bank where she sells her plasma, a mysterious flyer leads her to The Company. Natalie turns out to be the perfect candidate for their pilot program, pitched as an opportunity to help women access greater gender equity. She will be their in-house surrogate, delivering seven babies in ten years and enabling their executives to have motherhood without maternity leave. Finally, she will be adequately—generously—compensated.

For years, her every need is met: stacks of healthy meals in the refrigerator of a luxury condo, fitness coaches and nutritionists, around-the-clock health care. Between deliveries, she takes time off— a fallow period, with no obligations or expectations. For the first time in her life, she is good at her job; for the first time, she feels free.

But just as she’s about to fulfill the terms of her contract, a staffing decision upends everything. Natalie is pulled into an entirely different kind of social experiment, one that raises new questions about her future, her freedom, her purpose, what she can expect from the world, and what she can offer to it.

Woundingly funny and genuinely moving, Sarah Anderson’s Fallow is a tender, alarmingly real vision of a woman balancing on the knife-edge of capitalism as she comes to realize who she wants to be.

From the opening lines of this strange yet utterly absorbing book, it’s clear what Natalie doesn’t want: Work.

When we were little, my sisters’ stuffed animals became astronauts and firefighters and chefs. Mine took vacations and naps and watched TV.

Sure, she’s done her time in afterschool jobs during high school, got a college degree (and all the debt that comes with it), and works full-time at a call center processing workplace harassment complaints. But none of it means anything, and none of it pays the bills. Or comes with dental insurance. A dental emergency that she can’t afford leads her to plasma donation, and at the blood center, she finds a flyer for a job with the Company — which we’re told is one of the most ubiquitous tech companies in the world. (I’m thinking Google, Microsoft, Apple… ) The job posting is vague, but promises to pay well… and yes, there’s dental!

After passing in-depth, intrusive screenings and signing intense NDAs (without reading the fine print), Natalie finally learns what she’s been selected for. She’ll be the Company’s first in-house gestational carrier. No longer will top professional women have to step away from their careers for maternity leave! By providing them with a company-paid surrogate, they can truly have it all — the baby they’ve always wanted, without the career disruption that comes with it. Gender equality at last! Sigh.

And so begins Natalie’s strange new life. Her contract is for seven pregnancies within ten years, with bonuses at various milestones and after each birth, a huge completion bonus at the end of the contract, a very nice salary, luxury accommodations provided by the Company, and all medical and health needs provided. It’s quite the sweet deal for someone who hates work.

I knew that being pregnant meant being tired all the time. But it also meant reason to rest. Being pregnant meant people offering to do things for you. Being pregnant was the perfect excuse, in fact, to not do anything at all.

Yes, there’s quite a bit of monitoring (if her biofeedback ring reports a less-than-ideal night’s sleep, she gets an immediate call from her doctor), tons of rules (playing language lessons in two selected languages to her belly everyday, strict dietary and exercise requirements, no artificial anything), and even performance reviews after each pregnancy.

Natalie also gets a “fallow” period after each delivery — a period of months where she’s free (or freer) of the intense rules, before beginning the preparation for the next pregnancy. She interprets her fallow time as time to cut loose — wild nights out, indulging in junk food, alcohol, random sex, and all the things she must deny herself otherwise. It’s an odd life, but it’s hers, and for once, she doesn’t have to worry about money, or much of anything at all.

But midway through the book, things change in a way that Natalie couldn’t have foreseen, and her cozy life of pampered pregnancies and fallow periods is knocked off course. From here, events occur (no spoilers!) that take Fallow out of the realm of corporate culture into something else entirely. It’s quite a transition, and requires a sharp adjustment for readers right alongside Natalie.

In some ways, Fallow reads as a satire of corporate culture. Breaking down barriers, enabling true workplace equality… by eliminating the need for maternity leave, a workplace protection that took years to enshrine into employment rights. The idea of Natalie writing a self-evaluation after each delivery is absurd, yet fits within the skewering of corporate life and the ladder to success.

At the same time, Fallow is an exploration of finding one’s path amidst the untenable reality of mounting bills, housing and health insecurity, and lack of safety nets. Natalie takes the Company job not just for the life of ease it promises, but also because she really has nothing else on the horizon and can’t imagine any job or career that offers a realistic option for her. She’s quite clear that she doesn’t want to work — but would that change if she actually found meaning or joy in any of the work she might be able to find?

The back half of the book goes in a very different direction, as Natalie finds herself in a situation she didn’t expect. Without going into detail, I’ll just say that it’s weird and jarring, but ends up being a fantastic contrast to the first half of the book, and finally gives Natalie the space to think about what she actually wants. I did wish for a bit more resolution at the end. We get a good idea of what Natalie’s life might look like going forward, but I would have liked an epilogue or at least something a bit more concrete to tie it all together. That’s a minor quibble — overall, I was satisfied with the plot and character development, and my attention never flagged.

I read Fallow in about two days — it’s fast-paced, totally engaging, a lot of fun, and hard to put down. The premise sounds off the wall, but the execution is so good that we readers have no choice but to buy into it and go along for the ride.

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.

First Lines Friday 10/23/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? Here’s how to join in:

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
  • Finally… reveal the book!

It’s been quite a while — over a month — since I last did a FLF post… but this book sounded too bonkers not to share!

Today’s line are from a book released this fall — and I’m just waiting for my library hold to come in:

The problem was that I’d never held a job with dental insurance. The problem was that I didn’t want one. The problem was ancient. The problem was teeth. The problem was urgent. The problem was money. The problem was that I hate to work and I always have.

So what’s the book?

Fallow by Sarah Anderson
Release date: September 15, 2026
324 pages

Synopsis:

Slyly funny and disarmingly tender, Fallow is the story of a young woman who signs up to be the world’s first in-house corporate surrogate, then finds herself caught up in a social experiment of another kind.

Natalie knows one truth: there is no such thing as a good job.

As the clock ticks away at the call center where she logs complaints of workplace harassment, she tries to ignore the increasing pain in her jaw. She has no dental insurance. She has no skills or ambitions. She has student loans. And, minute by minute, she hears the many ways workers are not just not getting by, but actually getting hustled.

Then, at the blood bank where she sells her plasma, a mysterious flyer leads her to The Company. Natalie turns out to be the perfect candidate for their pilot program, pitched as an opportunity to help women access greater gender equity. She will be their in-house surrogate, delivering seven babies in ten years and enabling their executives to have motherhood without maternity leave. Finally, she will be adequately—generously—compensated.

For years, her every need is met: stacks of healthy meals in the refrigerator of a luxury condo, fitness coaches and nutritionists, around-the-clock health care. Between deliveries, she takes time off— a fallow period, with no obligations or expectations. For the first time in her life, she is good at her job; for the first time, she feels free.

But just as she’s about to fulfill the terms of her contract, a staffing decision upends everything. Natalie is pulled into an entirely different kind of social experiment, one that raises new questions about her future, her freedom, her purpose, what she can expect from the world, and what she can offer to it.

Woundingly funny and genuinely moving, Sarah Anderson’s Fallow is a tender, alarmingly real vision of a woman balancing on the knife-edge of capitalism as she comes to realize who she wants to be.



This book was not on my radar at all until I stumbled across a review for it… and the synopsis really caught my attention. I hope it’s as good as it sounds! This book has been described as a dark comedy. Can’t wait to give it a try!

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Short fiction: Warm Bodies by John Marrs

Posted in Book Reviews by

 

Title: Warm Bodies
Author: John Marr
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Publication date: November 1, 2026*
Length: 107 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Kindle First Reads freebie
Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

From the multimillion-copy bestselling author comes a chilling tale about Brenda: they watched her, judged her, and talked. They should have left her alone.

Brenda lives quietly in a picture-perfect English village. She looks after her grandchildren, restores old furniture, and keeps herself to herself. She’s the sort of neighbour people feel comfortable judging.

And judge they do. Because villages notice everything. The shopping. The visitors. The hours kept behind closed doors. And when the local WhatsApp group begins to turn its attention to Brenda, curiosity hardens into suspicion, and gossip becomes a sport.

As scrutiny tightens, Brenda finds herself navigating busybodies, moral crusaders and a community that believes it knows best. What they don’t know is that Brenda has spent a lifetime solving problems discreetly.

Methodically. Permanently.

Well, this was a fun little diversion! Warm Bodies was one of the free options for Kindle First Reads this month. The cover caught my eye, I read the synopsis, and I just had to know more!

In this short(ish) story, Brenda is just trying to take care of her family and mind her own business. In her fifties, she provides a home for her daughter and three grandchildren. They’ve had the good fortune of moving to a sweet little cottage in a lovely village, where the children are safe and attend good schools. Brenda is a doting grandmother, and after years of just barely scraping by, works hard to provide a good life for the people she loves.

What she actually does for work is revealed and, well, it’s not precisely what you’d consider grandmotherly… but it keeps a nice roof over the family’s heads and food on the table, and she does enjoy the challenge of it all.

But the neighbors are not exactly warm and welcoming, and Brenda has declined invitations to join volunteer committees and clubs once too often. The village chat has zoomed in on Brenda, and they’re determined to drive her away. As the gossip mounts, Brenda finds herself at the center of unwanted attention that presents a danger to herself and her family’s well-being… and she really can’t have that.

The writing here is snappy and a bit twisted. The village WhatsApp thread oozes viciousness under a layer of fake concern. Brenda is a marvel, savvy and practical, incredibly loving yet capable of doing whatever needs to be done, and what needs to be done… well, let’s just say, it isn’t pleasant.

Warm Bodies is a small town thriller with a dark sense of humor. Some scenes may be a bit much for squeamish readers. I found it all oodles of fun. Brenda is a terrific character — I wouldn’t want to hang out with her, but it was certainly entertaining (in a totally macabre way) to be inside her head for a while. I’m glad I stumbled across this short read and gave it a try!

*A note on the publication date: November 1, 2026 is listed as the official release date for Warm Bodies, but it’s available now as a First Reads pick for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Audiobook Review: Well Versed (Well Met, #5) by Jen DeLuca

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Title: Well Versed
Series: Well Met, #5
Author: Jen DeLuca
Narrator: Brittany Pressley
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: September 22, 2026
Print length: 352 pages
Audiobook length: 10 hours, 8 minutes
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Purchased (audiobook); e-ARC via NetGalleyRating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

It’s a second chance at first love at the Renaissance Faire, where the search for a new queen shapes a destiny, from USA Today bestselling author Jen DeLuca.

Caitlin Parker was eighteen when she fell out of love with the magic of the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire—the site of her first real heartbreak. But now, twenty-four and unemployed, she finds herself in her childhood bedroom and her childhood lady-in-waiting costume, assisting a rotating cast of substitute queens for the season. The very last person she wants to see is Alexander Wright—the sword-fighting, Shakespeare-spouting young man who won and broke her teenage heart. Yet there he is, older, annoyingly hotter, and back on stage at her Faire.

When Alex broke things off with Caitlin the first time, he thought he was just ending a summer fling. He didn’t realize how much he’d fallen for her until he let her go, and he certainly didn’t know he’d tarnished her memories of her cherished Faire and worse, shattered her view on love and relationships. His need to right that wrong this summer brings them together again and again, and this time, it won’t be so easy to let go of this summer fling.

But as summer winds down, real life is catching up to both of them. Caitlin’s always thought that being an adult with adult responsibilities means leaving whimsy behind. Alex, with a life full of stage combat, songs, and sonnets, doesn’t know how to live any other way. Can they go after their dreams and find a future together where they can still say “huzzah”?

It’s good to get back to the Faire! Four years after the release of Well Traveled, Jen DeLuca’s delightful Renaissance Faire romance series is back, delivering her signature mix of Faire fun and modern-day romantic challenges.

In Well Versed, Caitlin — whom we first met way back in book #1, Well Met, as a 14-year-old volunteering at the Faire — is now all grown up! Time flies for sure. Caitlin is now 24 years old and recently laid off from a tech job, and while she job hunts, has moved back home with her mother April and April’s partner Mitch (whose love story was the focus of book #3, Well Matched). And since it’s the start of summer, that means it’s also time for the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire, organized by Caitlin’s aunt and uncle and the focus for their entire community each summer.

Caitlin used to love the Faire as a teen, when she’d don the costume of a lady-in-waiting, get into character, and wander the faire grounds at the side of her queen. But a heartbreaking end to her first love left her disillusioned and absolutely done with anything related to Faire — she hasn’t been back, and even swore off her love of Shakespeare in order to pursue a career in IT. No more swoony sonnets for her!

The past comes crashing back on opening day of Faire, when her ex Alex strolls back into her life. Two years older than Caitlin, he’d broken up with her after their first romance, telling her to find someone her own age (he was 20, she was 18). She’s never forgiven him, and is furious that he’s back, up on a stage spouting Shakespeare and looking unfairly great. It gets worse, though — when Mitch is injured, Alex steps in to take his place in the Faire’s centerpiece swordfighting exhibition, and that means he’s at her house every day to practice. She can’t get away from the guy!

Meanwhile, the Faire itself is missing its queen — the former queen has officially retired, and each replacement seems to miss the mark. It seems inevitable that a certain jaded someone will finally step up and embrace the role, if only she can recapture some of that earlier joy she used to feel at the Faire each summer.

As Caitlin and Alex spend time together, old wounds are finally given time to heal. Caitlin thinks a summer fling with Alex might be a great way to have fun, as a break from dealing with the pressures waiting at the end of the summer — figuring out jobs, where to live, and what to do with the rest of her life. But as things heat up, Caitlin and Alex’s feelings definitely go beyond a mere fling, leaving them wondering how to balance this new beginning with all the demands of adulting that they feel closing in on them.

As always, the sense of delight at the Renaissance Faire is fully embodied here in Well Versed. The book captures the summer experience, the joy of putting on a costume and embracing a different way of being, and the sense of community as people come together to create something magical.

While it was a bit of an adjustment at first to see Caitlin as an adult (we met her as a young teen!), she’s an interesting main character to spend time with. Caitlin’s struggle to get over past hurts, assert herself differently, fit back in with her hometown, and also figure out her future feel realistic for a young woman in that particular phase of her life. I enjoyed seeing her reconnect with family and friends, especially since they’re all so much a part of the Well Met series’s broader story. How fun to catch up with them all and see how they’re doing!

The love story elements are well done, showing the repairing needed before Caitlin can accept Alex as a friend once again. I appreciated that Caitlin comes to realize that Alex’s intentions were good all those years ago, despite his not-great delivery, and that the time wasn’t right back then for a serious relationship. Of course, being set at a Ren Faire, their reconciliation is full of swoony gestures, and all the swordplay and sonnet deliveries don’t hurt!

I treated myself to a signed paperback, which came with this adorable artwork!

I did wish for a bit more Faire content — we see them at the Faire throughout, of course, but often it’s just a recap of how the day went after a few brief scenes of the day starting. Perhaps the author felt that we didn’t need full-on scenes of Faire life, after the previous four books… but I did! I wanted to spend just a little more time wandering the lanes, hearing about characters and accents and flower crowns and mead, seeing the jousts… all the little touches that make these books so enjoyable.

The inevitable communication issues pop up right near the end, as is typical for so many romances. Thankfully, here the issues are less about misunderstanding one another than that the characters are so in in their own heads that they’re not fully listening to one another… and also, thankfully, it all gets resolved without too much agonizing to wade through.

Brittany Pressley is one of my favorite audiobook narrators, and once again, she does a terrific job with the characters and the Ren Faire dynamics. She lets the various personalities shine through and keeps them all distinct, conveys the humor and whimsy of so many scenes, and captures the dialects (pirate, Scottish warrior, Queen!) of the Faire voices with flair.

Overall, I really enjoyed Well Versed… and as usual, really hope we’ll get more books set in this world! Huzzah!

Interested in this series? Don’t miss the previous books:

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: No Matter What (Hearts of New York, #3) by Cara Bastone

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Title: No Matter What
Series: Hearts of New York, #3
Author: Cara Bastone
Narrator: Alex Finke
Publisher: Dial Press
Publication date: March 3, 2026
Print length: 352 pages
Audio length: 10 hours 39 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Sometimes love sends you back to the drawing board.

After a traumatic accident threatens the foundations of their happy marriage, a couple tries to rebuild and find their way back to each other—and themselves—in this tender, slow-burn romance.

Roz and Vin can’t look each other in the eyes anymore, let alone share a bed. It’s been a year since they survived a life-altering accident, and their marriage hasn’t been the same. But Roz has held out hope that they can fix things, until she discovers Vin has signed a new lease. So she does what any soon-to-be-divorced Manhattanite would do: sign up for a figure-drawing class.

Between Roz’s determined attempts to improve her artistic skills and her adventures with her best friend, Raffi, she can almost ignore Vin’s impending move-out date and his footsteps in their previously unoccupied guest room. But it would all be a lot easier if Vin wasn’t Raffi’s older brother, and if she didn’t still find him incredibly, debilitatingly attractive and kind.

So kind, in fact, that Vin offers to let Roz draw him. What is she supposed to say? It’s probably better than her original plan of finding some random male model online, and she needs all the practice she can get. Plus, that’s sure to make a separation easier, right? Focus on every detail of your estranged spouse’s body while drawing him in the nude? But after the year they’ve spent avoiding each other, it feels good to see and be seen by one another again.

As Roz works to capture the wholeness of the person she fell in love with, will they both be able to draw upon the feelings they buried deep inside to finally heal together?

Cara Bastone excels at portraying people going through difficult times and responding in ways that feel real, and No Matter What is another fine example of her compelling storytelling. What’s more, this book has a quite lovely reversal of a standard romance trope — more on that in a moment!

Quick note first, though: No Matter What appear on Goodreads and elsewhere as #3 in the Hearts of New York series — but if you didn’t see that on the description, it wouldn’t really matter. The series is actually just different stand-alone stories, all set in New York. There’s a teeny bit of cross-over between books, but in No Matter What, you could blink and miss it. My point is — while I’ve enjoyed each of these books, there’s no actual reason to go in a particular order, so if the synopsis for this book appeals to you, there’s no need to worry if you haven’t read the other books.

Onward with the story: No Matter What opens with main character Roz contemplating the end of her marriage. Married for eight years to Vin, the man she expected to spend forever with, Roz comes home one day to find a lease for a new apartment on her kitchen counter. They’ve had the year from hell: Following a devastating accident that left her, Vin, and Vin’s brother (and Roz’s best friend) Raffi with serious injuries and lasting trauma, she and Vin can barely be in the same room together any more, and he’s been sleeping in the guest room ever since Raffi finally recovered enough to move back out on his own. So it shouldn’t be a total surprise that Vin is leaving, but Roz is distraught. Fleeing her apartment, she goes to check out the building he’ll be moving into, and stumbles across a figure drawing class taking place there. Although it’s been many years since she explored her artistic side, Roz picks up pencils and begins to draw.

As the story unfolds, we start to learn more about Roz, Vin, and Raffi, and see the lingering after-effects of the accident. Roz and Vin clearly still love one another, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to move them past the horrible experiences of the past year. But as Roz continues attending the drawing classes, she finds herself looking not just at the models, but at the world around her with fresh eyes — and learning how to see helps her finally start to view Vin’s behavior and their crumbling relationship in new ways.

I could feel the tension and pain between Roz and Vin, and loved how Raffi — a total cinnamon roll character — manages to bring joy to the people he loves, even when things clearly aren’t going well. Roz’s exploration of drawing gives her a way to get out of her own head, and also helps her look at Vin in a different way — including literally, when he offers to model for her when she needs extra practice. Nothing like carefully viewing your nude husband to make you truly see him!

I mentioned early on the inversion of expected tropes. What I’m referring to is the classic 3rd act break-up, which can be maddening when it feels more like a plot device than an organic development in the course of a love story. Here, we get something that feels fresh: a 3rd act reconnection! Roz and Vin are separated by pain and trauma and emotional struggles when we meet them; he’s on the verge of moving out, she’s angry and feels abandoned. No one is happy. Their love story seems to have come to a screeching halt. But over the course of the novel, they finally begin to inch back toward one another, so that the 3rd act becomes a focus on rebuilding from the ashes left behind after the accident, and committing to finding a way to rediscover their love and learn to be together once again. It’s lovely.

On the flip side, these are two people in desperate need of therapy, both as a couple and as individuals who clearly suffer from PTSD. Their communication is absolutely awful — and perhaps it’s especially maddening via audiobook, where the stilted sentences, incomplete thoughts, and awkward pauses are all the more obvious. I had to wonder what their communication style was like before the accident. Were they just so happy then that it didn’t matter that they didn’t know how to express themselves directly? It can be painful to read/listen to their interactions in the first two-thirds or so of the book, and while it’s a huge relief when they finally start to truly talk, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by their inability to have a complete conversation for so long.

My other, quite minor quibble about this book is that the drawing scenes go on a long time. Maybe this will work for readers who are more drawn (pun intended) to artistic pursuits. For me, a little goes a long way, and the descriptions of the class and the drawing styles and lessons felt repetitive after a while.

The narration by Alex Finke is highly engaging, with a great deal of expression in both the sad and funny moments. Certain characters are especially fun to listen to, and the narrator delivers distinct voices, full of personality.

Overall, I enjoyed No Matter What, and look forward to reading more by Cara Bastone, including the next book in the Hearts of New York series, I’ve Got You, scheduled for release in March 2027.

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: Into the Blue by Emma Brodie

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Title: Into the Blue
Author: Emma Brodie
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: April 7, 2026
Length: 448 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

From the award-winning author of Songs in Ursa Major comes an epic, decade-spanning love story that blazes through the worlds of acting and comedy, and charts a connection so powerful it might just break space and time itself.

“The truth is there’s no such thing as a normal life. There’s just the time you get and how you spend it.”

In the summer of 2000, AJ Graves dreams of writing for Saturday Night Live; instead, she’s stuck working in a video rental store, with slim odds of escaping her small Massachusetts town. Then in walks Noah Drew, the enigmatic and intense scion of the Drew acting dynasty, and her life changes forever. Despite wildly different upbringings, the two forge a deep, cosmic bond, first as friends, then as acting partners—until one day, Noah disappears without a word.

Seven years later, in New York City, AJ is shocked to find herself cast in the same intergalactic TV production as Noah, by then a well-known Hollywood heartthrob. As their on-screen characters grow closer every day, the lines between reality and acting begin to blur. Unable to stay away from each other, AJ and Noah are forced to confront the truth of what happened years ago—and the devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together.

Blending unforgettable characters, explosive chemistry and yearning, and profound emotion, Into the Blue is a journey unlike any other—one that asks: What does it mean to diverge from the script to forge your own story?



Into the Blue is a hard book to describe. It’s a story of love and acting, geekiness and intensity and fandoms, commitment and abandonment, and so much more. There are incredibly funny moments, and scenes so raw that I felt as though my heart had been pulled out and stomped on.

At age seventeen, AJ Graves works at a video rental store in her small Berkshires town, obsessed with old movies and classic cult TV, especially the 60s-era improvisational sci-fi series, Astronauticals. A short-lived, one-of-a-kind series, the show centered on a space crew and their adventures, but with scenes completely improvised. One of the actors, Eudora Drew, is local to AJ’s town, and her character Glimmette especially fascinates AJ. When Eudora’s nephew Noah, four years older than AJ and a former classmate of her big brother, walks into the store to start a summer job alongside her, AJ’s hackles are raised. He must clearly be slumming it — he’s a descendant of the Drew acting dynasty, and certainly doesn’t need a minimum wage job to support himself.

As the summer progress, though, AJ and Noah bond over Astronauticals and other movies, and when Noah brings her by the Drew mansion, she meets Eudora — who immediately insists that she’s going to train AJ and Noah. AJ dreams of a comedy writing career, but Eudora demands that she and Noah learn her improv and acting methods, and puts them through a rigorous, intensive program that somehow forges an intense, rare connection between them. As they “play” together all summer, they become highly attuned to one another’s thoughts and feelings, and it goes way beyond acting. And yet, something goes wrong, and one day Noah is just gone, and AJ find herself shut out by Eudora as well. Bereft and heart-broken, she has no choice but to throw herself into finishing school and getting on with her future.

Years later, as AJ works in New York as a writer with an improv/comedy troupe, Noah shows up… but in the intervening years, Noah has become a star with an Oscar nomination and huge movie roles to his credit. His appearance at the improv center has a purpose: He’s slated to be a part of an Astronauticals reboot, to be called Into the Blue… and with it going into production at the time of the writers’ strike, it’ll have a novel approach. While the general story line and premise are layed out, the episodes themselves will be completely improvised. To AJ’s shock, she’s cast in the show as well, and as the production progresses, it becomes clear that she’ll become the major female lead and love interest for Noah’s character.

The intense connection between AJ and Noah sparks back to life — clearly, it had never really died out. Yet AJ is still devastated by his abandonment years earlier and the silence since then, and is unwilling to let him back in. But their bond is so powerful that it can’t be avoided forever, and their relationship burns bright… until certain truths push them apart once again.

It’s hard to discuss this book without giving details away, and that would be a shame. The intensity and power of the connection between AJ and Noah drives the plot forward, and there has to be a very good reason for the estrangements that continue to drive them into separate lives… and there is, but that doesn’t lessen the impact or help AJ or Noah forget what’s between them.

There are lighter moments too — the descriptions of fandoms and cons and obsessions over pop culture are all really well done. I was reminded throughout of Firefly… which was reinforced later in the book when I came across this brief line:

But as Ana, such sounds broke from her as to burn the land and boil the sea.

Powerful moment, and those particular words really drive it home. (IYKYK)

The final section of the book is one of the most evocative, unusual, and emotionally devastating pieces of writing I’ve come across in a long time. Again, I really can’t say why or provide details without diminishing the way this book gets under your skin and into your heart. All I can say is that it blew me away.

I loved the characters, felt their joy and pain, and wanted to stay in their world for as long as possible. Beyond that, the chapters set in the worlds of SNL, improv, and filming Into the Blue are an amazing mix of creative expression, humor, and blazing connection between people who find a way to share inspiration and bring it to life.

One small quibble left me questioning whether to reduce my star rating: This book makes use of one of the break-up tropes I find most maddening — the “I’m breaking up with you for your own good and won’t tell you why” approach — and it makes me crazy every time, especially when the person on the receiving end believes the fake reasons for the break-up when clearly they’re being told a whopping lie. I was pretty mad at the characters over this issue… but at the end of the day, I’m sticking with my 5-star rating, because I simply can’t overlook or downplay how the book as a whole made me feel.

Into the Blue has easily become one of my favorite books of 2026. It made me laugh and cry, and shows so much about love and the power that exists in forging a bond with the person who means the world to you. This book is truly a unique reading experience. Don’t miss it.

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

Book Review: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

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Title: Theo of Golden
Author: Allen Levi
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: October 3, 2026
Length: 399 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers.

Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

Theo of Golden is one of those books that seemed to come out of nowhere… and then turned up everywhere. The book has been on the New York Times bestseller list (combined e-book and print) for 38 weeks as of now, and has been selected by countless book groups (celebrity and otherwise) around the world. A debut novel, this gentle story showcases kindness and caring; it’s easy to see why it’s captured so many hearts.

Theo, who never provides more than his first name, is an 86-year-old man of Portuguese descent who arrives in Golden, Georgia (roughly modeled on Columbus, Georgia) and settles in. He wanders the town, observing the shops, the main street, and the river, exchanging pleasantries and greetings with the random people he encounters. When he stops by The Chalice, a local coffee shop, he’s stunned by the pencil-drawn portraits that line the walls. As he soon learns, a local artist has created these portraits, each one showing the face of a Golden resident. For Theo, the portraits are revelatory: In each, he sees hopes, fears, dreams, pains, and purpose. He admires how beautifully the artist has captured the individuality of these 92 people.

And thus, Theo’s mission is born. Learning the portraits are for sale, he decides to purchase them one by one and gift them (as a “bestowal”, as he comes to think of it) to the people they portray. Via handwritten letters, he reaches out to the various portraits’ subjects, asking them to meet him by the fountain at the center of town, where he gives them their portraits and spends time in conversation, learning who each person is and what their inner lives are like.

As Theo spends time in Golden, he connects with people from all walks of life, and listens with an open heart as they tell him their stories. Through Theo, strangers become friends, and he leaves behind a sense of connection and caring wherever he goes.

Theo of Golden is, first and foremost, a book about kindness. It’s a soft, sweet sort of story, but it’s never sappy or dull. Theo seems like someone we’d all want to know. He doesn’t push or intrude; he offers sincerity and is ready to listen and give his time, and that’s what so many of the people he encounters truly need.

I enjoyed seeing Theo weave connections and leave joy in his wake, and his acts of generosity and kindness truly change lives. The plot may feel a bit meandering at times, but it’s building toward something, and by the end, the various threads and hints all come together.

I have just minor quibbles about this book. First, Theo is a man of wealth, who chooses not to share anything about his business or properties or how he became the person he is. He’s able to use his money to change lives, which is lovely, whether it’s shown by way of covering medical bills or buying special gifts or other acts of generosity. This is all beautiful… but part of me wondered how Theo’s acts and encounters might have turned out if he didn’t have such wealth to pave the way.

My other quibble relates to the ending, where we finally get substantive answers about Theo. It’s wonderful in its own way, but also feels a little out of the blue. I can’t say more, but in some ways, it seems a little too neat and tidy. But maybe that’s just my inner curmudgeon peeking out!

I was charmed by Theo of Golden, and wanted to know more. Here’s an article about the real life coffee shop that was the inspiration for The Chalice! Also, check out this book-related guide to Columbus.

Theo of Golden is a lovely, uplifting read. I don’t often go for books that sound overly sentimental, but something drew me to this novel, and I’m so glad to have read it. The book’s messages about kindness, love, and community are something I think we all could use right about now. Highly recommended.

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 Mother-Daughter Book Club by Susan Patterson and James Patterson

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Title: The Mother-Daughter Book Club
Authors: Susan Patterson & James Patterson
Narrators: Many!
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: April 20, 2026
Print length: 352 pages
Audiobook length: 7 hours 35 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is Susan and James Patterson’s new novel, the follow-up to Things I Wish I Told My Mother—the New York Times bestselling, book club favorite praised novel.

“An entertaining book … As friends talk books, hopes, dreams … and dishy revelations … it’s romantic love—both old and new … that drive[s] the story forward.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
Between their busy lives and their far-flung residences, the Mother-Daughter Book Club—four longtime college friends and their five daughters—more often discuss the books on their nightstands via 2 a.m. texts than in-person meetings. And maybe it’s just as well, after what happened at their last get-together …            
 
So it’s an emotional reunion when they finally gather again, this time on the spectacular shores of Italy’s Lake Como. Sightseeing excursions, reminiscing fueled by “Como-politans,” and a hint of vacation romance all build toward the book club’s trademark “Night of Secrets.”            
 
These friends, and sometime rivals, are close readers—of novels, memoirs, and of each other. But as the years and the distance cast shadows and doubt, confidences and sympathies turn into surprising revelations.  

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is a sun-drenched ode to lifelong friendships and the joy of sharing books… and if that cover doesn’t make you want to run away to a beautiful lake for the rest of the summer, well, I guess you’re not me!

This light book introduces us to four best friends, together since college, and their assorted daughters, now all in their twenties. The friends — an opera singer, a lawyer, a minister, and a fitness instructor — lead very different lives, but share deep bonds that they’ve cherished across the years. A tragic accident at the last gathering of the MDBC (Mother-Daughter Book Club) has kept them apart for three years, but now, they’re reuniting at a gorgeous villa on Lake Como for a weekend filled with good food, sunshine and hiking, book chatter, and their traditional sharing of secrets. The question is — will the secrets bring them closer or drive them all apart once again?

The overall tone is light and cheerful. Even when we learn of painful experiences, the setting and the banter between friends keeps the narrative from getting too dark. There’s always a yoga session or delicious dessert or tarot reading to break the tension.

It’s the relationships that make this book feel so heart-warming. The friends have been through a lot over the years, but they’ve always cared for one another and provided shoulders to cry on and cheerleading through the ups and downs of careers, marriages, and motherhood. The mother-daughter bonds are all flavored in different ways, but convey a closeness that feels special, and the friendship between the daughters likewise shows a foundation of affection and support.

The book made me yearn for an immediate summer vacation where I could indulge in gourmet meals, sinful desserts, and glasses of Prosecco (preferably while staying in a luxurious lakeside villa)… but beyond the escapist fantasy, I also enjoyed the way all of these women, with such different lives, share a love of books. If it doesn’t exist already, someone really should put together a list of every book mentioned in The Mother-Daughter Book Club. There’s something for everyone!

The audiobook is lots of fun, with a different narrator for each of the main characters. They all do a great job bringing these varied personalities to life. Helpfully, every chapter is identified by both character name and relationship status, such as “Mariella, mother of Zoey” or “Merry, daughter of Grace”. It can be tricky at first to keep the names and connections straight (the print edition includes a list of characters, which is handy to have as a reference while listening to the audiobook).

What this book lacks is a true sense of stakes or drama. There are fun moments between characters, great descriptions of scenery and food, and hints of darker secrets… but really, everything just moves along nicely and there’s nothing terribly urgent about it. Yes, there are more serious events and a big reveal (which is telegraphed far in advance) that are emotional for the characters, but the book itself doesn’t go much beneath the surface — possibly because with so many characters to juggle, there’s no time or space to go deeply into any one person’s issues. This is truly a pleasant book, and I liked it… but it doesn’t really rise much above the description of “nice” for me.

If you’re looking for an easy-going summer escape, this might be a good choice. I don’t regret picking this one up, but I can’t exactly call it a page-turner.

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: Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

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Title: Enormous Wings
Author: Laurie Frankel
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date: May 5, 2026
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel, an exuberant and timely new novel

At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas—that would be her three grown children—but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She’s pregnant.

As word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, belly-rubbers and rubber-neckers all descending on Vista View while Pepper struggles to determine her next move. Soon she has some hard decisions to make—and some she’s not allowed to make.

Enormous Wings is an urgent novel about female agency and bodily autonomy, morality and mortality. It’s about what happens when you don’t get to choose anymore. It’s about motherhood and family, sex and love and friendship, and how those bedrocks—even so late in the day—can still change, and then change everything.

The TL;dr synopsis of this book might just be: Pregnant 77-year old! But if you read no further than those few words, you’ll be missing out.

And yes, I’ll admit that it was exactly those click-bait-y words that caught my attention — but once I picked up the book, I realized that I was in for a delightful, nuanced, lovely reading treat, one that’s thoughtful and funny, quirky yet with pathos and urgency too.

Pepper Mills, age 77, reluctantly moves into a senior living community in her Texas town after a minor fender bender results in her adult children taking away her driving license. Pepper is a bright, lively woman, a retired English teacher who’s a stickler for grammar, and a devoted (and truly amazing) grandmother. She has not been, until now, dependent or restricted, and her entry into the world of senior living doesn’t bode well, until she meets the man next door. Moth (short for Timothy) is sweet and charming, and sparks fly almost instantly… something Pepper never expected after this many decades without any sort of romance in her life.

When she starts feeling woozy and nauseated several weeks later, she assumes it’s just part of the whole package of physical symptoms that come with aging — but eventually, a trip to the doctor reveals the shocking, no-way-this-can-be-true diagnosis: She’s pregnant. Aftre testing and more testing, the pregnacy is confirmed over and over again but, her doctor is certain, her aging body definitely is not equipped to sustain a pregnancy, and a miscarriage is expected any day now. Except it never happens.

Instead, Pepper finds herself stuck in the most absurd of situations. Obviously, she can’t possibly have a baby at her age. Except she lives in Texas, where abortion is not an option. And no, she doesn’t meet the definition of the loophole for saving a mother’s life — she doesn’t seem likely to sustain or survive a pregnancy, but she’s not actively dying from it either, so that’s that.

Dr. Blankman leaned forward from his corner. “Your mother is not in immediate danger. She’s not crashing or bleeding out. She’s not even in pain. She seems, in fact, to be having an entirely normal pregnancy.”

“She’s seventy-seven.”

“But apart from that.”

But apart from the eruption, how did you like living in Pompeii?

Pepper and her children plan a trip out of state to get her the care she needs, but she finds herself stuck without even that option once word of her condition is leaked to the media, turning her into an instant celebrity, with mobs of paparazzi parked outside Vista View tracking her every move.

Now, you may feel like the entire premise is ridiculous, but the book provides enough of an explanation (related to Pepper’s medical history) that I was willing to accept it. Is it realistic or medically accurate? Maybe not… but it was enough to satisfy me and let me enjoy the story without feeling the need to nitpick.

Pepper is an absolute gem of a character. I loved her intelligence, her humor, her devotion to friends and family, and her insistence on being treated like a person with agency. She may be older, but that doesn’t mean anyone has the right to infantilize her. The rest of the cast of characters is fantastic too. Moth is lovely as can be, Pepper’s children are interesting and involved and somewhat ornery at times, but totally in their mother’s corner. One of the most wonderful relationships in the book is between Pepper and her 15-year-old granddaughter Lola — their connection is funny and sweet and strong… and I couldn’t help laughing every time Pepper tried to decipher Lola’s emoji-based communications.

Seeing events unfold through Pepper’s perspective allows the narrative to retain her unique tone, which is often a bit sassy and wry, even as her experiences take darker turns. The extreme nature of Pepper’s predicament provides an interesting lens through which to look at the devastating impact of laws that have been enacted since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Enormous Wings centers an outrageous situation — a pregnant 77-year-old! — as a window into the lack of choice and agency facing any woman in a state that’s outlawed abortion access.

The title of the book is a call-out to a short story by Gabriel García Márquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, which Pepper thinks of as she’s confronted both by people seeing her as a miracle and those viewing her as some sort of freak:

People aren’t good at recognizing the hand of God in the aged or unsavory. We like our miracles gold and glowing, not gray, not noisome, not mortal.

I’d never encountered the Márquez story before, but Enormous Wings has made me curious enough to want to check it out.

Enormous Wings takes a hard look at how restrictive laws limit women’s ability to control their own lives, bodies, and futures. By having a woman like Pepper as the main character, the author is able to illustrate the absurdity and cruelty that women (and girls) subject to these laws must live through.

Beyond that, the book also provides some beautiful reflections on life and living, aging and dying, cherishing loved one, and being present through daily challenges and joys. I loved Pepper’s voice and her outlook, and had a wonderful time getting to know the funny, caring people in her life. Highly recommended.

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.