Title: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise Author: Colleen Oakley Narrator: Hillary Huber Publisher: Berkley Publication date: March 28, 2023 Print length: 337 pages Audiobook length: 9 hours 59 minutes Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Preferably one where she can continue sitting around in sweatpants and playing video games nineteen hours a day. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited, so when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it.
One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. Never mind that she can still walk fine, finish her daily crossword puzzle, and pour the two fingers of vodka she drinks every afternoon. Bottom line — Louise wants a caretaker even less than Tanner wants to be one.
The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things—weird things. Like, why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? And why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m. insisting that they leave town immediately?
Thus begins the story of a not-to-be-underestimated elderly woman and an aimless young woman who—if they can outrun the mistakes of their past—might just have the greatest adventure of their lives.
If you’re hankering for a road trip adventure with two amazing women, look no further! The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise is funny, sassy, and a total joy ride.
Tanner is aimless and mad at the world. Louise is fed up with people who think they know what’s best for her. Tanner thinks Mrs. Wilt is a weird old lady who lives in a boring house, and Louise thinks Tanner is amazingly useless — who can play video games that many hours a day?
But when circumstances force them to flee in the night (although Tanner doesn’t really know why), the two team up and go on the lam. Their goal? Avoid getting caught, and make it to California before Louise’s past potentially catches up to her and people she cares about. And as the two tear up the miles (in Louise’s vintage Jaguar!), they start to find common ground, and maybe even common purpose.
This book is such a delight! Tanner and Louise are both sharp, tough characters who’ve had their share of disappointments. Put them together, and their initial annoyance and irritation eventually turns into grudging respect, even amusement and eventually real friendship and affection.
Their hijinks on the road are often silly, sometimes risky, but always a ton of fun. The author keeps us guessing — just when we think we’ve figured it all out, some new twist gets thrown in and changes everything.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Hillary Huber, and it was oodles of fun. The narrator gives Louise and Tanner such distinct voices, and I loved their banter so much. In my opinion, audio is the way to go!
This book is just such a delight, and by the end, I was absolutely in love with the characters — especially Louise, who is much more of a kickass hero than you might expect of an 84-year-old woman with a broken hip! The plot is fast-paced, the writing is light and humorous, and the characters are totally charming to spend time with.
If you love Jasmine Guillory, Abby Jimenez and Talia Hibbert, you’ll LOVE Farrah Rochon!
What happens when three women discover, thanks to the live tweeting of a disastrous date, that they’ve all been duped by the same man? They become friends of course!
Samiah Brooks never thought she would be ‘that’ girl. But a live tweet of a horrific date just revealed the painful truth: she’s been catfished by a three-timing jerk of a boyfriend. Suddenly Samiah – along with his two other ‘girlfriends’, London and Taylor – have gone viral online. Now the three new besties are making a pact to spend the next six months investing in themselves. No men, no dating, and no worrying about their relationship status…
For once Samiah is putting herself first, and that includes finally developing the app she’s always dreamed of creating. Which is the exact moment she meets the deliciously sexy, honey-eyed Daniel Collins at work. What are the chances? When it comes to love, there’s no such thing as a coincidence. But is Daniel really boyfriend material or is he maybe just a little too good to be true?
This book (and the trilogy as a whole) had been highly recommended to me, and I finally had a chance to dive in this week… and found it just the positive, friendship-centric romance that I needed.
In The Boyfriend Project, discovering a boyfriend is a cheater and a scammer is a blessing in disguise, as it brings together Samiah, Taylor, and London, three amazing women who have had terrible luck in finding worthy romantic partners. They’re each talented, smart, caring individuals, but somehow, the dating market in Austin seems to lead them nowhere.
After their confrontation with the cheater goes viral, the three connect and bond, and decide to devote the next six months to their own personal goals without the distraction of looking for a man. For Samiah, who has the starring role in this book, it means carving time out of her already busy life to focus on the app she’s dreamed of launching, although she already works around the clock at her demanding but fulfilling tech job.
Complications arise when she meets her company’s newest hire, Daniel, who’s clearly smitten with Samiah. What she doesn’t know — but we readers do — is that Daniel isn’t who he appears to be. Through chapters told from Daniel’s perspective, we learn that he’s a federal agent working undercover to bust a money laundering scheme running through Samiah’s company. He knows better than to get involved while on a case… but there’s no denying the connection the two feel, or their amazing chemisty.
The Boyfriend Project works well as a romance, but it’s also a terrific celebration of women’s friendship and the power it provides. I loved the way Samiah, Taylor, and London come together after their discovery of how they’d all been catfished — no cattiness or blaming, but instant support, empathy, and a shared sense of humor and encouragement. Taylor and London are supporting characters in this book, but I know that they each get their own starring roles in the other books in the trilogy, and I’m so looking forward to spending time with each of them.
I could quibble with a few elements of the book (and, okay, I will), but really these are essentially minor issues:
A little too much time spent on the tech details — I suppose it lends authenticity to Samiah’s work, but I didn’t need quite so much of the specifics.
Ditto for the details of the money laundering scheme. I’m not sure it all made sense, and maybe it’s meant to give substance to Daniel’s work, but this part of the story felt like a detour from the romantic plot (and mood), and I just wasn’t interested in the crime story aspects.
The sex scenes are graphic (per my steam factor ratings), which I can abide even though it’s not my preferred approach… but some of the writing in these scenes was just too cringey.
None of these quibbles stopped me from enjoying the book as a whole, and I still look forward to continuing the series.
Overall, The Boyfriend Project does a great job of keeping friendship at the forefront, even while focusing on the romance and the ups and downs involved with Samiah and Daniels’ story.
Title: Happy Place Author: Emily Henry Publisher: Berkley Publication date: April 25, 2023 Print length: 385 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Purchased
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?
A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
Emily Henry’s books have become must-reads for me, and this deceptively bright-looking book is a total win.
From the eye-wateringly hot pink cover to the title itself, we readers might safely assume that this is a carefree, joyous, lighter-than-air book. Think again! While lovely and full of funny and sweet moments, there is also a great deal of sorrow, heartache, and heartbreak in this novel.
Harriet, Cleo, and Sabrina are the core of a tight-knit friend group, going back to their early college days, when the three very different young women became the best of friends. Over the years, their group expanded to include Parth (now engaged to Sabrina), Wyn (the love of Harriet’s life), and Kimmy (Cleo’s beloved). Even after their college glory years ended, the six stayed together through thick and thin, and no matter the geographical distances between them, they met up each summer at Sabrina’s summer house in Maine for a sun-splashed week of joy, laughter, and crazy adventures.
But now, everything is changing. Sabrina’s father is selling the house, and this will be their final chance for one last week there together. Harriet is shocked upon arrival to find Wyn there — the two broke up five months earlier but haven’t told anyone, and Harriet had understood that he’d stay away. She’s determined to tell the truth, until Sabrina and Parth announce that they’ll be getting married that week, just them and their best friends. How can Harriet and Wyn announce the end of their own seemingly perfect romance and put a downer on Sabrina and Parth’s wedding? They decide to fake it — they’ll pretend to still be together for the sake of the group’s happiness, then go their separate ways again once the week ends.
What could go wrong?
For starters, Harriet and Wyn clearly still love one another. Harriet is hurt and furious — Wyn dumped her over the phone without an explanation — but beneath that, she still loves him deeply. As they spend time together, it becomes clear that their relationship and break-up are much more complicated that we initially understand. There are layers of hurt, of misplaced expectations, and trauma and misguided self-doubt stemming back to their childhoods that get in the way, over and over again.
Beyond the romance, one of the best aspects of this book is the friend group and its changing dynamics. What happens when best friends grow up and grow apart? Can their closeness survive when their separate lives pull them in such different directions?
I loved how thoughtful this book is in its approach to relationships and friendships. It captures the reality of growing up yet wanting to hold on to the best parts of the past, and the challenge of finding new ways to relate as life pulls people in different directions.
The relationship between Harriet and Wyn is lovely and overwhelmingly sad at times. These are two people who love each other deeply, yet face the very real possibility that they just don’t fit together any more. I also felt Harriet’s career and future were handled quite sensitively, in ways that I wouldn’t have expected.
I may be making this sound very serious, but there are also moments of utter silliness and great joy, and the banter between the friends, as well as between Harriet and Wyn, is just so funny and amusing. There’s so much humor here, as well as the deeper emotional impact, making Happy Place a consistently enjoyable and touching experience.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the always outstanding Julia Whelan — and not surprisingly, she absolutely nails the characters’ voices and sets the right emotional tone for each scene.
Title: Advika and the Hollywood Wives Author: Kirthana Ramisetti Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Publication date: April 11, 2023 Length: 384 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
At age 26, Advika Srinivasan considers herself a failed screenwriter. To pay the bills and keep her mind off of the recent death of her twin sister, she’s taken to bartending A-list events, including the 2015 Governors Ball, the official afterparty of the Oscars. There, in a cinematic dream come true, she meets the legendary Julian Zelding—a film producer as handsome as Paul Newman and ten times as powerful—fresh off his fifth best picture win. Despite their 41-year age difference, Advika falls helplessly under his spell, and their evening flirtation ignites into a whirlwind courtship and elopement. Advika is enthralled by Julian’s charm and luxurious lifestyle, but while Julian loves to talk about his famous friends and achievements, he smoothly changes the subject whenever his previous relationships come up. Then, a month into their marriage, Julian’s first wife—the famous actress Evie Lockhart—dies, and a tabloid reports a shocking stipulation in her will. A single film reel and $1,000,000 will be bequeathed to “Julian’s latest child bride” on one condition: Advika must divorce him first.
Shaken out of her love fog and still-simmering grief over the loss of her sister—and uneasy about Julian’s sudden, inexplicable urge to start a family—Advika decides to investigate him through the eyes and experiences of his exes. From reading his first wife’s biography, to listening to his second wife’s confessional albums, to watching his third wife’s Real Housewives-esque reality show, Advika starts to realize how little she knows about her husband. Realizing she rushed into the marriage for all the wrong reasons, Advika uses the info gleaned from the lives of her husband’s exes to concoct a plan to extricate herself from Julian once and for all.
Um.
What did I just read?
Last year, I read author Kirthana Ramisetti’s debut novel, Dava Shastri’s Last Day, and absolutely loved it. Naturally, when I saw she had a new book, I had to grab a copy.
Let’s just say expectations were high. So you can imagine the letdown when I realized that this new book makes no sense.
In Advika and the Hollywood Wives, 26-year-old Advika is mired in grief and loneliness two years after the tragic death of her twin sister Anu, especially once their parents, deep in their own mourning, pack up and move back to India. Advika is left alone in LA, working random bartending jobs to pay the bills and struggling to fulfill her earlier promise as a screenwriter. While tending bar at a post-Oscars party, her life is changed when five-time Oscar-winning producer Julian Zelding approaches her, instantly smitten.
A whirlwind romance, full of luxury gifts and romantic getaways, assuages Advika’s deep need to fill the void in her life, and within months of meeting him, she finds herself agreeing to marry this much older, very wealthy and powerful man.
Doubts creep in — hard and fast — when tabloids blast news about Julian’s first wife, recently deceased, whose will provides a $1 million bequest to Julian’s newest “child bride”, on condition that she divorce him. For Advika, this strange offer ignites a need to learn more about Julian’s three past marriages, and the more she digs, the more convinced she becomes of her need to escape his clutches.
Where to even begin to pick this all apart? Advika goes into the relationship and marriage with her eyes open, except when she’s being willfully ignorant. For example, Julian asks her early on not to Google him, so she doesn’t. Really? There’s no way it makes sense for this smart Millennial* not to do at least a drop of research on the older guy trying to shower her with money.
*For whatever reason — yet another thing that doesn’t make sense to me — the story is set in 2015, rather than now. I was going to describe Advika as Gen Z, but given the year the book is set, that would make her a Millenial. Same issues re technology and Googling apply!
Advika lets herself get totally wrapped up in Julian’s world and blocks out everyone she’s known previously — by her own free will. And as he attempts to control more and more of her life, and she suspects that her actions are probably being monitored by Julian’s household staff, she stays, and stays, and stays.
But really, Advika seems pretty okay with her marriage until the news about the first wife’s will comes out. She may not be in love with Julian, but she’s attracted to him and enjoys their affluent lifestyle. She interprets the first wife’s strange offer as a warning, basically Evie trying to save Advika, but honestly? I assumed that it was Evie’s way of getting a smidge of revenge on her ex by wrecking his newest marriage and exposing him to tabloid gossip. (It turns out that Advika is correct about Evie’s intentions, but that doesn’t mean it’s at all logical for Advika to jump to that conclusion!)
It’s as if Advika’s eyes are opened to the fact that she married a man she doesn’t actually know or love. As she researches his former wives, she uncovers some truths about how controlling he was in all of those relationships… but why does she need this research before making a move? Why, once she realized she was unhappy and wanted out, would she not simply have left? She was never a prisoner. She was never physically prevented from leaving their home. She’s be leaving behind all the money, jewels, and fancy cars, so is it just about the money? But that’s not how Advika’s struggle is presented — her life is depicted as if she’s trapped. IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!
There’s an epilogue with a totally obvious reveal… and that’s about it. Clunky writing, plot points that seem to be building toward much more dramatic revelations, pointless mention of people and items that seem like they could be clues (but end up not mattering), and awkward realizations about how she fails repeatedly to be a good friend — there’s just so much here that doesn’t work. The story tries to build tension around whether Advika is being followed and electronically monitored, and what really happened with Julian’s former wives, but ultimately, it mostly amounts to not much at all.
What a disappointment. This book feels unpolished and half-baked. Any initial sympathy for Advika evaporates quickly, and we’re left following a young woman who can’t make a decision and doesn’t understand the basic give-and-take of real friendship. I read Advika and the Hollywood Wives very quickly, mainly because I kept waiting to see when the big pay-off would appear. (It doesn’t.) So, I guess the most positive thing I can say is that it kept my attention… just not really for great reasons.
Title: Late Bloomers Author: Deepa Varadarajan Publisher: Random House Publication date: May 2, 2023 Length: 368 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
An Indian American family is turned upside down when the parents split up thirty-six years into their arranged marriage in this witty, big-hearted debut.
“Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, Late Bloomers is a charming story about starting over, stumbling, and finding yourself at any age.”–Jennifer Close, author of Marrying the Ketchups
I have a soft spot for underdogs. And late bloomers. You’ve told me a lot of things about yourself, so let me tell you something about me.
After thirty-six years of a dutiful but unhappy arranged marriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn–until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger woman who seems to be smitten with him. Lata is enjoying her newfound independence, but she’s caught off guard when a professor in his early sixties starts to flirt with her.
Meanwhile, Suresh and Lata’s daughter, Priya, thinks her father’s online pursuits are distasteful even as she embarks upon a clandestine affair of her own. And their son, Nikesh, pretends at a seemingly perfect marriage with his law-firm colleague and their young son, but hides the truth of what his relationship really entails. Over the course of three weeks in August, the whole family will uncover one another’s secrets, confront the limits of love and loyalty, and explore life’s second chances.
Charming, funny, and moving, Late Bloomers introduces a delightful new voice in fiction with the story of four individuals trying to understand how to be happy in their own lives–and as a family.
Late Bloomers is the story of an Indian-American family struggling to figure out their paths in life after husband and wife Suresh and Lata get divorced. Their grown children, Priya and Nikesh, don’t particularly understand what’s going on with their parents, but they’re too immersed in their own complicated lives to fully engage or even ask.
Meanwhile, Suresh goes on one disastrous date (via dating website) after another, and Lata is considering going on the first-ever date of her entire life. While Suresh is astonished by all the lies people tell online, Lata is both amazed and intimidated when a nice man starts paying attention to her.
The story is set sometime in the past (iPhones and online dating exist, but people play music on CDs and watch DVDs) — so maybe 15 years or so ago? The lack of specificity actually made me a little nuts early on. Would it have hurt to stick a date on the first page of the first chapter?
Late Bloomers flows pretty quickly, but I never found myself all that engaged. It’s a nice enough story, but the biggest dramatic moment of the book is when an 8-year-old gets upset and runs away from a birthday party, and everyone has to go look for him. (Spoiler: He’s fine.) Chapters are narrated variously by Suresh, Lata, Priya, and Nikesh, and not all of them are equally likable or able to hold a reader’s (i.e., my) attention. Starting the book with a Suresh chapter feels like a mistake — he’s not pleasant to spend time with, and that made me drag my feet a bit about continuing.
Late Bloomers is a pleasant read — not exactly a page-turner, but interesting enough to want to see through. Of all the characters, Lata is the one who’s most endearing and whose future I felt most invested in. There are a few tangential story threads that are a bit weird (like the younger woman who moves into Suresh’s house for a pretty flimsy reason), but whenever the four main characters come together in their various combinations, the story picks up and is much more entertaining.
The novel shows four different people opening their eyes to new ways of being and thinking about their lives, after accepting the status quo for far too long. Whether it’s people in their 50s starting to date again, or their adult children reexamining their own decisions, Late Bloomers focuses on the possibility of personal growth and making big changes, no matter where in life a person is. Overall, the message is positive, although it takes quite a few mistimed conversations, evasions of truth, and heaps of the characters’ self-doubts to get there.
Recommended for when you’re looking for something domestic and on the non-stressful side to read. Save
Title: Off the Map Series: Beck Sisters, #3 Author: Trish Doller Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Publication date: March 7, 2023 Length: 272 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been travelling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.
Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.
Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love – if only they choose it.
Content warning: Loss of a parent, dementia.
Call me late to the party, but I only discovered Trish Doller’s loosely connected contemporary romance series a couple of months ago. After finishing Float Plan, I moved on to The Suite Spot as soon as I could, and here I am, just a few weeks later, to report back on book #3, Off the Map.
In Off the Map, the main character is the best friend of Anna from Float Plan. Carla works as a bartender at a cheesy pirate-themed restaurant in Fort Lauderdale during tourist season, each year saving up as much as possible to fund her true passion in life, world travel. During her time away from the bar, she goes wherever the road takes her, living on beaches or off-roading in her trusty jeep, enjoying flings but never making plans beyond the here and now.
As a child, Carla’s beloved father Biggie used travel as a way to distract his young daughter from her mother’s abandonment. Each summer, as soon as school was out, they’d hit the road for adventure and exploration. Biggie is a larger than life character, an ex-hippie and Vietnam vet who loves his daughter, his friends, and his music — but eight years before the story opens, Biggie was diagnosed with dementia. And his immediate response was to hand Carla the keys to Valentina (the jeep) and demand that she go off on more adventures, not wanting her tied down or forced to witness his decline.
As Off the Map starts, Carla has come to Ireland for Anna and Keane’s wedding. Keane’s brother Eamon is tasked with picking Carla up and driving her from Dublin to the small town where the wedding will take place. But that would be too straightforward! After giving into their mutual attraction and having an extremely enjoyable night together, Carla discovers that Eamon has never pursued his own dreams of travel and adventure, instead maintaining the steady, reliable existence his family seems to expect of him.
With Carla urging him on, Eamon revs up his classic Land Rover and the two set out for the wedding… but with plenty of detours along the way. As they travel, their connection deepens, and by the time they arrive at their destination six days later, it’s clear that this is way more than a fling.
Reading about Carla and Eamon’s escapades is quite fun (although it’s absolutely feeding the fire of my own wanderlust). I personally wouldn’t want to camp wild or go off-roading, but reading this book let me indulge my fantasies of traveling the world without strings or limitations.
The chemistry between the couple is immediate and fiery, but it’s not just hot sex (of which there is plenty; this book gets a steamy rating) — there’s also tenderness, intimacy, and prolonged kissing, just for the sake of kissing. I appreciated how the author depicts the growing trust and connection between the characters. Yes, their sexual connection is instantaneous, but it’s heightened and deepened by their personal and emotional connection.
Carla’s relationship with Biggie is complicated, and becomes the focus of the last quarter or so of the book, as she finally realizes that she needs to return home and be with him, whether or not that’s what he’s instructed her to do. Carla’s time with Biggie is sweetly and sensitively depicted, and I found it very moving.
Being a romance, Off the Map of course has complicating factors that seem to send Carla and Eamon in diametrically opposed directions before bringing them back together. The ending is lovely but bittersweet, and seems very fitting for the characters and their story arcs.
I enjoyed Off the Map very much (although Float Plan is still my favorite of the three books), and hope there will be more set in this world. The characters in the Beck Sisters books are wonderful, and I want more of them!
Title: Said No One Ever Author: Stephanie Eding Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca Publication date: April 4, 2023 Length: 320 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
A peaceful vacation turns into a roller coaster ride of family drama.
Two handsome men with competing agendas cause mix-ups and betrayal.
Sometimes you have to put your foot down to get what you really want in life.
Ellie Reed’s self-esteem can’t take any more of her family’s constant criticism and attempts to control her life. But when she rents an Airbnb on a gorgeous farm in Montana, she encounters a whole new set of family drama and finds herself the caretaker of a barn full of farm animals, caught between two handsome men competing for control of the farm, and the sudden best friend of a spunky elderly widow whose outrageous ideas just might change her destiny…
Spring has sprung.. and what better time is there to enjoy a fish-out-of-water story about a city girl staying on a Montana farm?
In Said No One Ever, Ellie’s life is a mess. Her job as a freelance medical transcriptionist is being phased out, she’s just broken up with her boyfriend of six years (a nice optometrist who’s perfect for Ellie’s family, if not for Ellie), her apartment lease is about to run out, and she has no idea what to do about any of this.
Her overbearing family constantly compares Ellie to her high-achieving older sister, and they have a plan: Ellie should become her sister Avery’s nanny (for three out-of-control littles) and live rent-free in her late grandmother’s house, where she’ll handle fixing it up while getting it ready to sell. Ellie is SO not on board with any of this, but she’s seriously lacking in options.
Needing a break, Ellie books a tiny-house Airbnb rental on a farm in Montana. She looks forward to wide-open spaces, peace and quiet, and some alone time. She gets exactly none of what she expects.
Her host, Marilyn, is picked up by an ambulance within minutes of Ellie’s arrival, before Ellie even gets a chance to meet her. Ellie is left with Marilyn’s hyperactive bulldog Hilda and a barn full of animals — and clearly, the sheep and donkey need care, but Ellie has zero clue what to do. A visit to Marilyn at the rehab/nursing home results in a list of instructions for animal care, plus a budding friendship with the older woman, who is zesty, free-spirited, and full of schemes and dreams.
The arrival of Marilyn’s grandson Warren threatens to derail Ellie’s vacation. Apparently, the family had no idea about Marilyn’s Airbnb plans and is horrified… not to mention that the tiny house Ellie is living in is actually Warren’s, and he’s supposed to be staying there for the next month.
As Ellie settles in, she becomes close to Marilyn, starts to get to know the locals, and has a very grumpy/argumentative dynamic with Warren… which clearly means there are sparks just waiting to fly!
There are plenty of shenanigans, usually caused by Marilyn and her partner-in-crime roommate Belle (the two of them delight in scandalizing the nursing home staff and flirting with the hunky young man from food service) — although some of the misadventures have to do with wandering farm animals as well. Drama is provided through Marilyn’s daughters, two hard-charging businesswomen who have no patience for the farm or their mother’s wishes, and are determined to sell, make a good profit, and move Marilyn to a nursing home closer to them in Spokane.
Now, you might think that an Airbnb guest who’s in town for just a few weeks should have no part in all this farm and family drama… and while that would undoubtedly be the case in real life, in Said No One Ever, that’s clearly not what’s going to happen! Ellie becomes completely wrapped up in the farm and Marilyn’s life, and soon she’s a pivotal player in finding a way to make sure Marilyn gets what she wants.
Although presented as a romance (which it is!), I think my favorite thing about Said No One Ever is the wonderful relationship that develops between Ellie and Marilyn. Ellie still misses her own grandmother, and in Marilyn, she finds an elderly woman to fill some of the empty spaces in her heart. Marilyn’s sense of adventure and spunk are just what Ellie needs, as she involves Ellie in quests and adventures and just plain fun.
The romance in the book is a slow burn. At first, there’s the suggestion that this will be a love triangle story (and that’s certainly what the blurb describes), but that’s actually not the case. Warren is the obvious love interest, and the other guy — the sexy neighbor with smooth come-ons and heavy-handed flirtation — is ruled out almost immediately, especially when his underhanded manipulative side becomes clear.
I really enjoyed Said No One Ever, with only a few very minor quibbles:
The farm antics are cute, but especially in the first third of the book, a bit too much. I didn’t need quite that much time spent on following Ellie as she learns how to feed the animals, clean their stalls, and collect eggs from the henhouse.
Maybe this is just me, but why would a woman staying alone, on a farm, miles from other people, with no expectation of seeing anyone, still put on makeup every day? (Again, maybe this is just me…). A few times, when there’s an unexpected visitor at the farm, Ellie hopes her mascara isn’t smudged. (If I were alone in a tiny house on a farm, I would not be putting on mascara… and probably wouldn’t even bother with a hairbrush!)
This is more a quibble about the trope than about the book — but only in romance novels would an out-of-towner become that enmeshed in the locals’ lives within a week of arriving. But hey, it’s fiction, and I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of a sweet, engaging read.
For those who like to know these things in advance, the steam level here is sweet. No sex scenes, nothing more intimate than kissing and descriptions of feeling attraction.
The writing is lots of fun, full of laughter and snark and quippy dialogue, not to mention the farm craziness that leaves Ellie at wit’s end:
Since arriving in Montana a single woman, her first sort-of-date involved wrangling a rooster and the second came with a garden hose and a runaway donkey. Of course it did. Her life had fallen into absolute bedlam.
That’s not to say that there aren’t more serious themes embedded in the story. I found certain elements especially moving. While Marilyn is funny and upbeat, the struggle she (along with Warren and Ellie) goes through to maintain her independence and to keep control over her own life can be very difficult to read about. While essentially an upbeat book, Said No One Ever still had me on the edge of my seat at certain parts when Marilyn’s future was on the line — which I think says a lot about how emotionally connected I’d come to feel about the characters.
Also, Ellie’s relationship with her parents and sister, while often played for laughs, is quite sad. They don’t see her for who she is or value her choices at all — so much of their interaction with her is about controlling her life, making decisions for her, and trying to convince Ellie that they, not her, know what’s best for her. Hmmm, sounds like a parallel to Marilyn’s life. I see what the author did there!
As you can tell, I really enjoyed this sweet story of love, friendship, and independence, and the gorgeous Montana setting is an absolute treat! I shouldn’t be surprised that I loved the characters and story — I felt the same way after reading the author’s previous novel, The Unplanned Life of Josie Hale. Looks like Stephanie Eding will be going on my authors-to-watch list!
Title: Same Time Next Summer Author: Annabel Monaghan Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Publication date: June 6, 2023 Length: 320 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
The ultimate summer nostalgia read, about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn’t seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.
“An unforgettable love story…Bursting with the magic of first love, it’s everything I want in a summer romance.”–Carley Fortune, author of Every Summer After
Beach Rules: Do take long walks on the sand. Do put an umbrella in every cocktail. Do NOT run into your first love.
Sam’s life is on track. She has the perfect doctor fiancé, Jack (his strict routines are a good thing, really), a great job in Manhattan (unless they fire her), and is about to tour a wedding venue near her family’s Long Island beach house. Everything should go to plan, yet the minute she arrives, Sam senses something is off. Wyatt is here. Her Wyatt. But there’s no reason for a thirty-year-old engaged woman to feel panicked around the guy who broke her heart when she was seventeen. Right?
Yet being back at this beach, hearing notes from Wyatt’s guitar float across the night air from next door as if no time has passed–Sam’s memories come flooding back: the feel of Wyatt’s skin on hers, their nights in the treehouse, and the truth behind their split. Sam remembers who she used to be, and as Wyatt reenters her life their connection is as undeniable as it always was. She will have to make a choice.
I usually wait to read ARCs until right before their release dates, but in this case, waiting was not an option! I absolutely loved Annabel Monaghan’s first adult novel, Nora Goes Off Script, so naturally I had to read her upcoming new release, Same Time Next Summer, just as soon as I had it in my hands. And while the new book didn’t delight me quite as much as the previous one, I still found lots to love.
As the blurb describes, Same Time Next Summer is heavy on nostalgia, capturing the wonder and joy of summers on the beach and first love. Adult Samantha has her teen summer memories safely locked away behind her daily life of routine and safely drawn lives. Teen Sam loved to surf and swim in the ocean; adult Sam sticks to swimming laps in an indoor pool, where distances are precise and predictable. Teen Sam, daughter of artists, loved to create, design, draw — adult Sam works as an HR consultant enforcing carefully worded policies and staring at spreadsheets full of data. Life feels well-ordered and complete, with nicely checked boxes, and all that’s left to do is hammer out the details of her upcoming wedding to her perfect fiancé.
Sam once knew the wild, passionate exuberance of teen love, but now as an adult, her definitions and expectations have changed:
There has never been a moment where I felt like he was a part of me; he is just right next to me, a partner. Love like this is so much more manageable, so much less terrifying. […] This kind of side-by-side love feels like a manageable kind of joy. I now understand that this is what grown-up love is.
When Sam’s parents encourage her to consider having the wedding at the local inn near their beach house on Long Island, she and Jack go for a visit just to please them. Upon arrival, Sam discovers that her teen love Wyatt is staying at his family’s house next door, after more than a decade of silence and separation. With Wyatt so close by, the floodgates open, and soon Sam ends up questioning her feelings, her plans, and essentially, who she truly wants to be.
The author does a wonderful job of evoking the sensations of summer — the feel of the sand, the sound of the waves, the sights and sounds and tastes that make up a perfect beach getaway. The joys of summer love come through clearly as well — teen Sam and Wyatt are so obviously mad for one another, but also best of friends and so good for one another. The writing powerfully captures the tremendous pain of heartbreak and how it can change someone so thoroughly:
Putting a person back together isn’t easy, but if you’re smart about it you can reassemble yourself in a totally different, better way. Turn carefree into careful; bandage up your heart and double check the adhesive.
The reasons for their breakup are slowly revealed (I was certain I’d figured out the answer as of the very first chapter — it was surprising and fun to be proven wrong), and meanwhile, we see Sam’s adult life in light of who she used to be. We know long before Sam does that her current life and future plans are not right for her, but it takes quite a lot for her to open her eyes and figure it all out.
There’s some lovely writing in Same Time Next Summer. Sam does quite a lot of soul-searching, and we get Wyatt’s point of view too. Some reveals are a bit obvious, but still, I enjoyed seeing how the pieces came together. By having both Sam and Wyatt as POV characters, we readers are able to see what they missed, or where their perceptions led them away from one another. It’s quite sad… but a happy ending is pretty much guaranteed (I mean, take a look at the cover! OF COURSE there’s a happy ending). The strength of the story is in seeing how these two characters find their way back to one another.
Same Time Next Summer is a quintessential beach read — highly recommended for days in the sun as the waves crash nearby.
Title: The Suite Spot Series: Beck Sisters, #2 Author: Trish Doller Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Publication date: March 8, 2022 Length: 288 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Trish Doller’s The Suite Spot is a charming romance novel about taking a chance on a new life and a new love.
Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.
On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.
What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.
Content warning: Attempted sexual assault and (off-page) death of a child.
After finishing Float Plan last month, I knew I needed more of the Beck sisters! In this loosely-related follow-up, the sister of Float Plan‘s main character takes center stage. Rachel is a single mom who devotes herself to raising her three-year-old daughter Maisie, since Maisie’s dad is unreliable, to say the least.
When Rachel loses her job after a VIP guest tries to assault her, she’s despondent and desperate. She’s been blacklisted from all the management-level jobs at luxury hotels in the area, and dreads the idea of going back to where she started, doing housekeeping in sleazy motels. When a friend refers her to a brewery and inn looking for a manager — on an island in Ohio! — it seems like Rachel’s best chance for a fresh start.
Of course, nothing is quite as promised — the inn’s charming cottages haven’t actually been built yet, and the inn’s owner, Mason, seems stuck when it comes to moving his plans forward. Mason has a tragic past, but Rachel’s arrival seems like the spark he needs to slowly come back to life.
There’s a lot to love about The Suite Spot. First of all, can I just say that I want to move to Kelley’s Island RIGHT NOW and live in one of the fabulous cottages that Rachel designs and decorates? The setting of the story sound gorgeous — a rustic, small-town vibe with trees, lake, and sky for that back-to-nature feel.
Rachel and Mason are a slow burn. There’s instant attraction, but after the loss he’s suffered, he’s hesitant about spending time around a woman with a small child, afraid of painful memories resurfacing. While they tiptoe around each other initially, Rachel and Mason have an obvious connection, and he cautiously warms to Maisie eventually too. (She’s adorable, naturally.)
There’s quite a bit of time spent on the construction and decorating details, and sure, maybe we could have had a bit less detail on antique shopping and auctions, but I actually didn’t mind — it all plays into my fantasy of running away to live in a lakeside cabin for a month (or forever).
There’s not a ton of drama, which is fine — the story is pleasant and sweet, I liked the romantic elements, and it was heartening to see Rachel’s successes as well as her discovery of new connections and friendships within the island community.
I also liked the body positivity, as Rachel is curvy and beautiful, and despite getting some nasty comments earlier on, she carries herself with confidence, and knows just how attractive Mason finds her.
So, if I liked this book quite a bit (which I did), why only 3.5 stars? The ending drama just… sucked, to put it bluntly. Yes, the romance genre pretty much demands that after the main characters get together and fall beautifully in love, there has to be some sort of crisis — a breakup, a misunderstanding, SOMETHING has to get in the way before they reunite and get to be completely happy.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
HERE COME THE SPOILERS!
In The Suite Spot, the crisis is unbelievable (my eyes practically got stuck after all their rolling), and the resolution comes within about a minute. In a nutshell, Rachel gets a letter stating that her loser ex is demanding joint custody, with a mediation date set for the following month in Florida. Rachel has a major panic attack, and decides on the spot that she and Maisie have to move back to Florida.
She does not consult a lawyer. She does not explore other options. She does not fly to Florida for the mediation and to see what might come of it. She packs up her car and Maisie, says good-bye (tearfully) to Mason (her one true love) and her perfect job, and leaves.
After looking for jobs (all crappy) and apartments (all crappy) back in Florida, she finally gets to the mediation session, where all is resolved within about 10 minutes, and a perfect plan is agreed to by which she and Maisie return to their wonderful lives in Ohio and Maisie’s dad will see her a couple of weeks in the summers, which is really all he wanted in the first place.
END OF SPOILERS
This was all so unnecessary. Yes, the dramatic crisis is a pretty much unavoidable element in contemporary romance fiction, but this story didn’t need it, and it certainly didn’t need this particular set of plot developments. It was all pretty ridiculous, and then got fixed in the blink of an eye anyway, so why bother?
Apart from this late-in-the-book annoyance, I actually really enjoyed The Suite Spot. The characters, relationships (romance and friendships), and setting are all delightful, and the dialogue and interpersonal moments are well-written and sparkling.
Overall, The Suite Spot is worth reading and highly enjoyable, if you can ignore that annoying 10% or so. The next book in this series (Off the Map) has just been released, and it’s a sure bet that I’ll be reading it just as soon as my library hold comes in.
Title: Float Plan Author: Trish Doller Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin Publication date: March 16, 2021 Length: 272 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Critically acclaimed author Trish Doller’s unforgettable and romantic adult debut about setting sail, starting over, and finding yourself…
Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat, intending to complete the voyage alone.
But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.
In Trish Doller’s unforgettable Float Plan, starting over doesn’t mean letting go of your past, it means making room for your future.
I really didn’t know what to expect from Float Plan — I’m so glad I gave it a chance!
I expected a light-hearted book about sailing… but what I got was a story about grief and loss, starting to live again after tragedy, and finding a way to discover joy and hope even in dark times.
Content warning: This book deals significantly with suicide and the impact on those left behind. For readers for whom this might be a triggering topic, I would advise proceeding with caution, if at all.
As Float Plan opens, it’s been 10 months since Anna’s fiancé Ben took his own life. Although he’d been struggling with depression, his suicide was a complete shock, and left Anna bereft, deeply in mourning, and unable to to move forward.
One of Ben’s pet projects had been charting a sailing trip through the Caribbean — a trip that he and Anna never got to take. But when Anna gets a reminder on her phone on the day that their trip should have begun, she impulsively heads back to their sailboat and sets out, determined to follow the course that Ben charted.
However, Anna has limited experience as a sailor and has never sailed solo, and after some near misses (as well as an embarrassingly bad drunken night out in her first port of call), she realizes that maybe she shouldn’t be attempting this journey on her own. Enter Keane, an experienced sailor available to assist in exchange for passage to Puerto Rico. He’s charming, considerate, and an excellent sailor, but has his own sorrows and disappointments to face down.
Together, Anna and Keane set sail, experiencing beautiful high points amidst the islands they visit, as well as dangerously rough seas and emotional low points too. And as expected, their professional agreement leads them to forming a close friendship that eventually becomes something even greater, if only they can allow themselves to feel what they’re feeling.
While some of Anna’s decision’s seem dubious, I could easily believe that a young woman suffering such awful grief would decide to take on a risky adventure that she wasn’t actually prepared for. With Keane there to assist, Anna had the opportunity to stick to her plan, but also get the skills and knowledge she needs to accomplish what she set out to do. This was not the dreaded storyline of a woman needing a strong man to save her; instead, this story showed two people able to support one another through hard times and whose abilities and personalities complemented each other. In some ways, Anna and Keane rescue one another, yet it’s also very much a partnership.
Of course, the armchair tourist appeal is a huge plus! I was both loving the descriptions of the gorgeous seas and islands and hating the fact that I wasn’t along for the ride!
I really enjoyed Anna and Keane’s chemistry, the slow development of their romantic feelings, and the way the author gives Anna time and space to come to terms with Ben’s death. She’s given room to vent her anger and her sorrow, and ultimately to realize that she can and does have a life without Ben in it. She’ll always love him, but she can also have love again without him.
At the start of the book, Anna is 25-years-old and working at a pirate-themed bar in Florida. My only two small complaints are (1) it’s not really clear to me how she was able to afford to literally sail off on the spur of the moment and have the funds to support the journey, and (2) there’s no discussion of what Anna’s plans for her life were prior to Ben’s death. Education? Career goals? Never mentioned.
Other than that, I though Float Plan gave a lovely view of rediscovering hope after suffering a terrible loss. The characters are memorable, and their dynamic was terrific to watch unfold. The next book by the author focuses on Anna’s older sister, and while I don’t know more than that, I liked Float Plan so much that I’m eager to read the next book too!
Bookshelf Fantasies 