Book Review: Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: Summer Romance
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication date: June 4, 2024
Length: 321 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Benefits of a summer romance: it’s always fun, always brief, and no one gets their heart broken.

There aren’t enough labeled glass containers to contain the mess that is Ali Morris’s life. Her mom died two years ago, then her husband left, and she hasn’t worn pants with a zipper in longer than she cares to remember. She’s a professional organizer whose pantry is a disgrace.

No one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring and puts on pants with hardware—overalls count, right?—she meets someone. Or rather, her dog claims a man for her in the same way he claimed his favorite of her three children: by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right—like he likes what he sees. The last thing Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there’s no harm in a little Summer Romance. Is there?

Summer Romance delivers on the promise of its title, but with so much more. And it’s really no surprise — this 3rd book** by author Annabel Monaghan is just as delightful as the previous two, Nora Goes Off Script and Same Time Next Summer.

**3rd adult novel — she has earlier YA and non-fiction books, according to her Goodreads profile.

In Summer Romance, the main character is Ali, whose life is incredibly messy despite her professional role as a home organizer. It’s been two years since her mother’s death and one year since her husband Pete decided he wanted out. Ali’s pantry is overflowing with unneeded items (who needs four boxes of corn starch?), her sweatpants have seen much better days, and her counters have piles of paper everywhere. Just keeping her three children going takes all her effort — and yes, she’s a terrific mom, but her emotions are a mess and she’s just so, so worn out.

When Ali’s best friend Frannie pushes her to make a change and at least put on a pair of “hard pants” (i.e., any that don’t feature an elastic waist), Ali thinks Frannie’s probably expecting too much, but a trip to the dog park leads her to a very attractive man with a cute dog and a sense of humor. He’s new to their small town — Ali would definitely know if he were a local — and he seems to like what he sees when he looks at Ali. For the first time in years, Ali feels a bit of joy. Maybe a summer romance with a visitor to town will snap her out of her funk.

Of course, the mystery man — Ethan — has more to him than meets the eye, but Ali is drawn to him, and their chemistry is terrific. Plus, he’s kind and considerate and funny, not to mention hot, and with very specifically appealing features, such as his “shouldery shoulders” and:

His hands are the hands of a man who works construction all day and then races home to perform a piano concerto.

As they spend time together, Ali starts to get a new sense of energy for the rest of her life too, and starts to realize that the line from her high school graduation speech (which gets quoted back to her at a key moment) about being “the architect of your own experience” might be more relevant to her today than it was all those years ago.

Without going too far into the plot, I’ll just talk about some of the elements you might not get based just on the synopsis. The central theme in Summer Romance is not just the love story, but Ali rediscovering herself and finding a way to live through and past her grief. Her mother was her touchstone, the one constant in her life, the person who was there for her even when her marriage wasn’t going great and she started feeling like she’d lost her way. When we first meet Ali, she talks to her mother in her car whenever she’s alone, and hears her mother’s responses — not in a “oh my god, she’s hallucinating” sort of way, but more like she’s soothing herself by imagining how her mother might talk her through any of her fresh challenges.

And it’s in this moment that I understand my mother’s love for me. I can still feel the intensity of that love and the way she walked into my home, bright as the sun, and blinded me to all the shadows.

The depiction of Ali’s life as a single mother feels realistic. She loves her kids and is wonderful with them, but she’s also tired. Her ex can’t be counted on — he’s the type of clueless ex-husband who still just walks into the house when he arrives, and changes plans on a dime when he’s supposed to have the kids because something else has come up. Ali is the anchor, the one who can be counted on, and it’s clearly exhausting to have to be the one responsible person in all of their lives.

I really appreciated how well the author shows Ali’s return to hope and joy over the course of the summer. It’s not just about having a new man in her life — it’s about recognizing her own worth, finding purpose, and recommitting to all the messiness that emotional involvement can bring, even knowing that sometimes there will be loss down the road, but getting involved anyway.

As with her previous books, the author excels at writing clever or funny lines that capture something true beneath the wittiness:

When I stopped working, I started making the coffee to suit Pete. He liked me to add cinnamon to the grounds, which I think completely ruins the taste of the coffee, but I made it that way because he was the one going to work. It seemed like his coffee moment mattered more than mine.

One of Ali’s big epiphanies over the course of her summer romance is that love and beauty and joy need to be embraced, even if there’s sorrow inevitably coming later. Whether it’s befriending the old woman next door despite knowing her time is limited, or getting a dog who in the natural course of things she’ll eventually see die, Ali learns that her life is richer when she accepts the joy in the moment — even if, like a summer romance, it has a predetermined end date.

Summer Romance is a wonderful read — the romantic elements are absolutely great, but the family dynamics, the memories of Ali’s mother and how Ali processes her grief, the appreciation of the connections of life in a small town, the depiction of how sexy kindness can be — all of these really make this book something special. Don’t miss it.

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15May2024

Book Review: The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The House that Horror Built
Author: Christina Henry
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May 14, 2024
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets.

Harry Adams loves horror movies, so it’s no coincidence that she accepted a job cleaning house for horror-movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding gray-stone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes as well as glittering awards from his career making movies that thrilled audiences—until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.

Javier values discretion, and Harry always tries to keep the house immaculate, her head down, and her job safe. Then she hears noises from behind a locked door, noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help. Harry knows not asking questions is a vital part of keeping her job, but she soon discovers that the house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.

The House that Horror Built is a clever haunted house story, set in a post-COVID world in which the odds seem stacked against single mother Harry and her son Gabe.

The world is just reemerging from lockdown. 14-year-old Gabe’s school is open for in-person learning three days per week. After losing her previous restaurant work when everything shut down, Harry has finally found a decent job again, which means — if she’s frugal — she can still pay her bills and put food on the table for her son. Years earlier as a teen, Harry lived on the streets and in shelters, and she knows just how close to losing it all she and Gabe are — especially once she receives an eviction notice from her heartless landlord.

Fortunately, Harry’s part-time job pays very, very well. She works as a housecleaner for Javier Castillo, a world-renowned, Oscar-winning director who now lives as a recluse behind the gates of Bright Horses, his Chicago mansion. A life-long horror fan herself, Harry can truly appreciate Javier’s artistry and loves his movies, but even she is somewhat shaken by the replicas and original props that fill his house, especially the masks and costumes from one of his creepiest movies. It’s Harry’s job to keep all of these spotless, no matter how uneasy they make her.

Javier seems to take an interest in Harry and Gabe, and when he starts inviting them for meals at his home, it’s hard to say no, even though Harry isn’t comfortable blurring the lines between professional and personal. Still, Gabe is over the moon at being invited into such an icon’s home, and he develops an instant rapport with Javier. But Harry has heard and seen unexplainable things in the house, and when a dinner with two of Javier’s leading film stars ends in tragedy, Harry knows that something is very, very wrong. Yet with eviction looming, she may have no choice but to move into Javier’s home with Gabe… and there’s definitely danger waiting for them there.

The House that Horror Built is a slow-burn horror story. The terror is more of the psychological variety — no guts and gore spilling out of the shadows, and no buckets of blood. Instead, there’s a sense of menace pervading Bright Horses — the feeling that something is moving when Harry’s head is turned, unexplained noises from behind locked doors, glaring eyes from inanimate objects. It’s creepy, and Harry knows it’s creepy, so why does she bring her son into this place?

Here’s where I feel the book has such an interesting hook: We may scream at horror movie characters to walk away, don’t open that door, don’t go into the haunted house… but in reality, people don’t always have options. Harry and Gabe literally have nowhere to go. The building where they’ve lived for ten years has been sold and is slated for demolition. There aren’t any affordable apartments available, and anyway, with such little notice, Harry has no money saved for a down-payment, much less moving expenses. She knows she’s lucky to have gotten the job with Javier. If she loses it, she and Gabe will be on the streets, and while she survived her earlier experiences of homelessness, she’s determined to avoid that for her son by any means necessary.

So yes, Harry moves Gabe into Javier’s home, knowing full well that the place may very well be haunted, and that something malevolent lurks in the corners and very probably wants to hurt her. But at Bright Horses, Gabe has a room, plenty of food, and a safe way to get to school. Author Christina Henry does a superb job showing the choices and sacrifices a mother will make to care for her child.

In terms of the horror story, it’s somewhat of a mixed bag. There’s a creepiness to the book, and we know from the start that something seems off about Javier. We learn that he became a recluse after a family tragedy, and after the most recent scandal in Chicago, he’s once again being hounded by paparazzi. Javier seems determined to help Harry and Gabe, even when she clearly doesn’t want him in their lives. And then there are the noises and the inexplicable events in the house — how much is Javier aware of?

The secrets of the house aren’t revealed until close to the end, and although I’d guessed what was going on, there were still elements that surprised me. I did feel that the ending was too abrupt. We’re left with answers about Bright Horses and Javier, and the immediate situation is resolved, but we don’t actually get any big-picture resolution for Harry and Gabe. After investing so much in their struggles, it feels unfinished to not get an epilogue that lets us know what happens next for them (and, hopefully, to let us know that they’re doing well!).

Overall, I enjoyed The House that Horror Built. Christina Henry’s books are always intensely gripping, and this one is no exception. Once I started I couldn’t put it down. Apart from not feeling fully satisfied by the ending, I enjoyed the building tension of the story as well as having such an interesting, unusual lead character as Harry. Recommended for fans of haunted house stories and horror movie buffs!

1Mar2020

Audiobook Review: The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Bookshop on the Shore
Author: Jenny Colgan
Narrator: Eilidh Beaton
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: June 13, 2019
Print length: 416 pages
Audio length: 13 hours, 11 minutes
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:

A grand baronial house on Loch Ness, a quirky small-town bookseller, and a single mom looking for a fresh start all come together in this witty and warm-hearted novel by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan.
Desperate to escape London, single mother Zoe wants to build a new life for herself and her four-year-old son Hari. She can barely afford the crammed studio apartment on a busy street where shouting football fans keep them awake all night, and Hari’s dad, Jaz, a charismatic but perpetually broke DJ, is no help at all. But his sister, Surinder, comes to Zoe’s aid, hooking her up with a job as far away from the urban crush as possible: working at a bookshop on the banks of Loch Ness. And there’s a second job to cover housing: Zoe will be an au pair for three children at a genuine castle in the Scottish Highlands.
But while Scotland is everything Zoe dreamed of — clear skies, brisk fresh air, blessed quiet — everything else is a bit of a mess. The Urquart family castle is grand but crumbling, the children’s mother has abandoned the family, their father is a wreck, and the kids have been kicked ot of school and left to their own devices. Zoe has her work cut out for her and is determined to rise to the challenge, especially when she sees how happily Hari has taken to their new home.
With the help of Nina, the friendly local bookseller, Zoe begins to put down roots in the community. Are books, fresh air, and kindness enough to heal the Urquart family—and her own?

Love, love, love, love, love.

Jenny Colgan’s books have been reliable, sweet escapes for me, and I’ve loved so many of them — but The Bookshop on the Shore just may be my favorite yet!

Zoe is a lovely main character, who starts the book in an awful situation. She’s about to be evicted from her grotty little apartment, she works in a posh nursery that she can’t afford to send her precious boy to, she can’t find help for the fact that Hari seems to be mute by choice, and Hari’s dad is unreliable and offers no support whatsoever.

The opportunity to be an au pair in the Highlands, providing a roof over her head and a small income, and to run a mobile bookselling business during the owner’s maternity leave, is too good to pass up — and frankly, Zoe is completely out of options.

She and Hari pack up and head to the Highlands, where the dark, neglected manor is in disarray and the children are completely wild, snidely referring to Zoe as “Nanny Seven” when she shows up, since she’s likely to be just one more in a string of hopeless caregivers who the bratty kids manage to drive away.

But Zoe is determined and desperate, and simply refuses to fail. She and Hari settle in. Hari is immediately befriended by Patrick, the precocious 5-year-old of the family, although the older children, 9-year-old Mary and 12-year-old Shackleton, are much harder to win over.

Meanwhile, Zoe takes up the bookselling business when the owner Nina is unexpectedly forced into an early bed rest, and combines her love of books with her startlingly good business sense to develop an entirely new clientele — one that Nina might not entirely approve of, but hey, at least Zoe is making money!

The description may make this seem like pretty standard fare, but I promise, this book is something special! The Urquart children are troubled and troublesome, but with good reason, and their behavior isn’t sugar-coated or made cute. Mary especially has some serious issues to contend with, and it’s heartbreaking to see what she experiences.

Zoe does come off a bit like a magical Mary Poppins/Maria from The Sounds of Music combo — swooping in with her good sense and cheery disposition, steeling herself against hurtful comments and making the children eat healthy, go outdoors, clean up, and all sorts of other positive activities, entirely against their will. Still, behind the scenes, we see Zoe’s vulnerability, and this keeps her grounded as a character and keeps her from seeming too super-nanny-ish.

Gradually, the children warm up to Zoe, and her influence lets light and joy back into the lives of this sad family. Naturally, there’s a love story too, and it’s sweet without being saccharine, and feels well developed and well earned.

Zoe’s anxiety over Hari’s well-being feels very real and all too relatable. To her, her boy is perfect, but at the same time, he’s isolated himself from the world in a way that brings him all sorts of negative attention from well-meaning strangers. Seeing the boy becoming close with the adorable Patrick is just one of the pleasures of this novel.

The narration of the audiobook is delightful, keeping the story moving along crisply, giving personality to each of the characters and making them all distinct and vivid. If you can’t tell already, my favorite is little Patrick, whose use of the word “absolutely” in every sentence is just the cutest thing ever.

There’s real heart-ache in this book, and some moments that had me at the edge of my seat, but also a realistic look at the messy business of raising a family, dealing with children who aren’t perfect, and looking for small ways to make things better, even if just a bit at a time.

Just to put this book in context, it’s set in the same world as The Bookshop on the Corner, with some cross-over characters, but I wouldn’t call it a sequel, and it can absolutely (thanks, Patrick!) be read a stand-alone.

Jenny Colgan’s books tend to have certain elements in common — a lonely or sad main character needing a dramatic change, moving to a small, remote community, meeting lots of quirky characters, finding a place for herself, and falling in love. This is all true of The Bookshop on the Shore, but that doesn’t mean that it’s at all formulaic.

I loved the setting, the characters, the investment in the portrayals of the children, and the way Zoe, Hari, and the Urquarts all change one another’s lives for the better.

A bonus is how much all of these characters love to read! In this book as well as The Bookshop on the Corner, the characters talk about books all the time, and listening to the audiobook, I was often tempted to hit the pause button so I could write down the books mentioned. What a treat!

I’ll use Patrick’s favorite word one more time and say that I ABSOLUTELY recommend The Bookshop on the Shore!

9Dec2019

Take A Peek Book Review: The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

“Take a Peek” book reviews are short and (possibly) sweet, keeping the commentary brief and providing a little peek at what the book’s about and what I thought.

Title: The Cactus
Author: Sarah Haywood
Publisher: Park Row
Publication date: May 7, 2019
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library
Rating:

Synopsis:

In this charming and poignant debut, one woman’s unconventional journey to finding love means learning to embrace the unexpected.

For Susan Green, messy emotions don’t fit into the equation of her perfectly ordered life. She has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic, and an “interpersonal arrangement” that provides cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized. She is losing control.

Enter Rob, the dubious but well-meaning friend of her indolent brother. As Susan’s due date draws near and her dismantled world falls further into a tailspin, Susan finds an unlikely ally in Rob. She might have a chance at finding real love and learning to love herself, if only she can figure out how to let go.

My Thoughts:

I borrowed the audiobook of The Cactus from my library on a whim, based on its being available and also being a Reese’s Book Club pick (because I do seem to like most of their selections). This was an enjoyable, diverting story, although I’m not sure that I loved it. Susan is set in her ways, negating emotion at every turn, always aiming for efficiency and neatness. When her life turns upside down, she’s forced to start letting others in, and learns some hard truths about her own childhood.

The cactus metaphor is a little heavy-handed, in my humble opinion. We get it: Susan is prickly, defensive, making sure others don’t get too close… but with proper attention and nurturing, she’s still capable of flowering. Geez.

I mostly enjoyed Susan’s brand of no-nonsense bossiness and solitude, although some of her behaviors are a bit extreme. The love story didn’t grab me — I didn’t feel convinced by the relationship and its development. I was much more interested in Susan’s family history and its dysfunctions, and how her childhood experiences slowly turned her into the woman she’d become.

The Cactus is a fairly light read, and I enjoyed it overall, but I wouldn’t put it at the top of my priority recommendations.

26Aug2018

Book Review: You Me Everything by Catherine Isaac

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Set in the French countryside on an idyllic summer vacation, a delicious, tender novel about finding joy and love even in the most unexpected places.

Jess and her ten-year-old son William set off to spend the summer at Château de Roussignol, deep in the rich, sunlit hills of the Dordogne. There, Jess’s ex-boyfriend—and William’s father—Adam, runs a beautiful hotel in a restored castle. Lush gardens, a gorgeous pool, delectable French food, and a seemingly never-ending wine list—what’s not to like? Jess is bowled over by what Adam has accomplished, but she’s in France for a much more urgent reason: to make Adam fall in love with his own son.

But Adam has other ideas, and another girlfriend—and he doesn’t seem inclined to change the habits of a lifetime just because Jess and William have appeared on the scene. Jess isn’t surprised, but William—who has quickly come to idolize his father—wants nothing more than to spend time with him. But Jess can’t allow Adam to let their son down—because she is tormented by a secret of her own, one that nobody—especially William—must discover.

By turns heartwrenching and hopeful, You Me Everything is a novel about one woman’s fierce determination to grab hold of the family she has and never let go, and a romantic story as heady as a crisp Sancerre on a summer day.

I’m not entirely sure what led me to pick up this book at the library — I think I may have read about it on another blog sometime this summer, and something about that colorful cover just beckoned me to it when I saw it on the shelf. I’m so glad I gave into the impulse to pick it up and take it home!

You Me Everything is a sweet and surprisingly down-to-earth story about a single mother, her ten-year-old son, and unexpected second chances.

Jess spent a good part of her relationship with Adam feeling let down by him, and his failure to arrive at the hospital for his son’s birth was the last straw. Now, ten years later, Jess travels to France with William to ensure that the distant relationship between father and son has a chance to finally turn into something real. Jess expects little from Adam for herself, having been burned by his thoughtlessness so many times before, but she’s adamant that he finally step up and become a real presence in their son’s life.

The setting is gorgeous, full of fancy food, beautiful landscapes, endless sun, and great wine. William thrives, and is even willing to put down the IPad once in a while in pursuit of adventure with his dad.

At first glance, I was afraid this would be one of those chick-lit books filled with pretty people in pretty places doing pretty things, but without a whole lot of substance beyond that. Fortunately, my first impressions were wrong.

You Me Everything has deep feeling at its heart. I don’t want to reveal too much here, so I’ll just share that there’s a reason why Jess’s parents push her to spend the summer giving Adam a new chance with his son, and a reason why she agrees. The book has some real sorrow in it, but it also manages to be life-affirming and hopeful. Adam and Jess’s past is complicated and not without plenty of fault to go around — mostly, but not exclusively Adam’s. There’s hurt and miscommunication and some bad times to get past, but as we see through Jess’s memories of their earlier years, Adam was not always a selfish jerk, and they did truly love each other at one point.

The writing conveys the characters’ emotional states while maintaining a sense of fun and good humor, even in the more serious and difficult moments. Jess is a terrific lead character — a devoted mother and daughter, a good friend, and a woman who strives to do the smart and sensible thing. While I thought Adam was worthless at the beginning, we grow to learn more about him, his childhood, and what’s in his heart, so I couldn’t help warming to him over the course of the book. There are some funny scenes that depict parenthood in all its messy, occasionally infuriating, often exhausting glory. And the dynamics between the family members and associated friends who come together throughout the story are priceless.

I ended up really enjoying You Me Everything, and tore my way through the book in about a day and a half. Once I started, I just didn’t want to start. This book is the author’s US debut — I’d definitely want to read more of her work.

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The details:

Title: You Me Everything
Author: Catherine Isaac
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication date: May 1, 2018
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Source: Library

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