Travel reading wrap-up: A batch of mini-reviews for end of summer 2023

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Why is it that returning from vacation leaves me happy, peaceful, and not in the mood to write book reviews? After a week in Hawaii, I’m still feeling mellow and relaxed, and not quite ready to return to real life craziness.

I read quite a bit — on the plane, by the pool, on the beach — and thought I’d share my quick takes on my vacation books. Here’s a look at what I read this past week — speculative fiction, a book that made me laugh, relatable moments, and a DNF. Read on if you want to know more!

The Measure by Nikki Erlick: My book group’s pick for September. The Measure is speculative fiction in which everyone in the world receives a box containing a string — and the length of the string correlates to the length of each person’s life. Through the characters’ experiences, we see the impact of learning that they’re “short-stringers” or “long-stringers”, and also see how this knowledge becomes politicized and used as yet another way to treat people as “other”. The most powerful part for me was seeing how the characters react to the knowledge of their length of life, and how this knowledge creates connections and changes the decisions that characters may make. Great food for thought — if you received a box, would you open it? Would you want to know?

This book is totally absorbing and a fascinating read.

Rating:

The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center: I’ve loved this author’s more recent books, and was happy to stumble across her debut novel (from 2007), about a woman who gets dumped by her fiancé the day before she gives birth to their child. Jenny’s experiences with labor, delivery, and caring for a newborn are depicted more realistically than I remember ever seeing before in fiction — it’s all so relatable, and made me wish I’d had this book as a new mom myself, back when I was sure that everyone else had figured out the secret to success and I was the only one who was a total disaster. The story is told with humor, and I really loved Jenny, her friends, and her mother, and thoroughly enjoyed despising her loser of an ex. This is a quick read — and now I want to continue my way through Katherine Center’s backlist books.

Rating:

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto: This might just be the most fun I’ve had between the pages of a book this year! Funny, silly, and full of heart, this murder romp starring a nosy, interfering 60-year-old Chinese widow with too much time on her hands is pure joy, start to finish. Vera is hilarious, and I love that this book is much more about found family than it is about the actual murder. I enjoyed this author’s Aunties books… but loved Vera’s story even more.

Rating:

Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman: After seeing a few rave reviews, I just had to check out this romance set in the Jewish community of London in the 1830s. Not only is it a romance, but it’s also a gender-flipped Cinderella retelling — and it’s quite possible that there’s just too much going on here for it all to work.

I think I would have liked this story as historical fiction. The description of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish communities’ efforts to ensure their place in London society and achieve some sort of security could be fascinating, and these aspects are what I enjoyed reading about.

Unfortunately, the romance tropes sank this book for me. Much too much about quickening pulses and unexpected tingles and admiration of manly chests. I just could not stick with it, and DNFd at 30%.

Note: Based on Goodreads comments, people seem to LOVE this book. Maybe I’ll convince myself to give it another try at some point…

Rating: DNF

Apart from that one DNF, I really enjoyed my vacation reading this time around! I have more travel coming up next month… so now it’s time to start planning my next set of vacation books!

Save

26Sep2023

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2023 TBR List

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. I wasn’t particularly into this week’s topic (Secondary/Minor Characters Who Deserve Their Own Book), but since I missed TTT last week, I decided to go ahead and do that topic instead!

My list this week is is Books on My Fall 2023 To-read List. My list includes combination of upcoming new releases, books I already own but haven’t read yet, and one on my library hold list.

My top 10 for fall are:

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary
The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn
Heartsong by TJ Klune
The Beginning of Everything by Jackie Fraser
The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub

What books are you most excited for this fall? Do we have any in common?

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

Save

29Oct2022

Silly romance two-fer: A pair of mini-reviews

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

While traveling for a few days this past week, I read two romances that were very silly — one silly but entertaining, and one silly and annoying. Which is which? Read on…

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto: This is the silly and entertaining one! Four Aunties and a Wedding, the follow-up to Dial A for Aunties, continues the hilariously ridiculous adventures of Meddy, a wedding photographer, and the four aunties who dominate her Chinese-Indonesian family. In this sequel, Meddy is finally about to marry the man of her dreams, but when she overhears her own wedding photographer plotting a murder and realizes that there’s going to be a mafia hit on her big day, she and the aunties spring into action to foil the evil plans. Shenanigans ensue — kidnappings, spontaneous Tai Chi, komodo dragon fascinators, and marijuana-laced cocktails, to name but a few of the outrageous obstacles that interfere with Meddy’s dream destination wedding.

This is a light, fast read, and I enjoyed it overall, but did find myself getting annoyed eventually by just how over-the-top the plot became, how the aunties and Meddy jumped to one false conclusion after another, and how these ridiculous circumstances completely ruined the wedding day. Fortunately, Meddy’s groom is far more understanding and loving and, well, just plain perfect than any ordinary man might be, so the couple gets their happy ending… and so what if zipties, druggings, and assassination attempts get in the way?

Rating:

Definitely Not Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebos: Obviously, that leaves this book as the silly and annoying one! This Austen-inspired romance centers on a 39-year-old single mother whose business is failing. In desperation, she makes the obvious choice — to go to England and participate in what she thinks will be a documentary about Regency life, but turns out to be (drumroll, please…) a Regency-themed reality dating show. The prize is marriage to a wealthy British hottie (and $100,000), and Chloe is determined to win. To get to the prize, though, she must live in total Regency style, meaning chamber pots, no technology, food-based cosmetics, and constant chaperonage. This book was published in 2012, and feels a lot like an Austenland retread — and also feels pretty dated, in terms of attitudes toward relationships and female competition.

The plot really doesn’t make sense, the Regency affectations are applied inconsistently and weirdly (for example, the woman playing the role of Chloe’s chaperone is very pregnant, and has agreed to give birth Regency-style… WHY?). There are slapsticky misadventures, mistaken identity, and plain old nonsensical decisions. I finished the book, and I suppose it held my attention enough to make me want to see how it turned out, but I can’t say I recommend this one.

Rating:

And there you have it! Fun romance, not-so-fun super annoying romance… and now I’d better switch up my reading for a bit and tackle something with a bit more there there.

Save

2Oct2022

Travel reading wrap-up (fall 2022): A batch of mini-reviews — all sorts of love!

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I’m back from a one-week trip, which was fabulous… and while I read quite a bit, I don’t have energy just yet to write full-length reviews. So… here’s a quick look at what I read while I was away. Lots of love stories — some dramatic, one that’s utterly silly, and one charmer that includes love, friendship, and pure delight. Read on if you want to know more!

Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory: A steamy story of workplace romance, set amidst the wineries of Napa Valley. Margot Noble, co-owner of a family winery, has a one-night stand with a hot guy she meets at a bar, only to discover the next day that he’s her new employee. The book explores the intense connection and chemistry between Margot and Luke, but also delves into family dynamics, career frustrations and expectations, and issues around honesty and self-awareness. The romance is steamy but also sweet, and I loved the dynamics between Margot and Luke.

Rating:

Heading Over the Hill by Judy Leigh: I’ve been seeing other bloggers’ rave reviews for Judy Leigh’s books for quite a while now, and finally had the chance to experience one for myself! Pure delight — this is the story of Dawnie and Billy, a married couple in their early seventies, who decide to move to a new town and focus on starting over again, just the two of them. Between his Harley and her colorful wigs, they’re a shock to their conservative neighbors, but soon end up making a huge, positive impact on everyone they encounter. The story is engaging, funny, but also quite heartfelt — there are elements that explores the characters’ sorrows as well as joys, and at one point, it even brought me to tears. Overall, I loved it — and I just wish I had a Dawnie in my life!!

Rating:

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto: After having this paperback on my shelf for about a year, I finally picked it up — and I have to say, this is quintessential vacation reading! Super silly, not at all intellectually challenging, and just oodles of fun. When Meddy and her meddlesome aunties get involved in an over-the-top Chinese-Indonesian wedding, they also find themselves dealing with an inconvenient corpse, stolen jewels, and the reappearance of Meddy’s college boyfriend — her one true love and the one who got away. The escapades here are preposterous and outrageously unbelievable… but so much fun to read and laugh over! I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series, Four Aunties and a Wedding.

Rating:

Where We End & Begin by Jane Igharo: This is the most dramatic and serious of my batch of vacation books — the story of Dunni and Obinna, high school sweethearts with an intense bond who were cruelly separated by their families, as they reunite at a friends’ wedding in Nigeria twelve years later. With alternating timelines showing their present reconnection and the traumatic events of their past, the book gives us a deep understanding of how these two characters ended up where they are. I loved the exploration of the class differences in their society and how their families’ histories influenced how they were treated, as well as the insights into their individual decision-making and struggles. There are some truly painful revelations, as well as lovely moments of connection and understanding. This is a beautiful, sad, complicated story, well worth checking out.

Rating: