Tag Archives: Books

Jan2

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner- Review

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This is a follow up book from Bloomsbury Girls which I read and reviewed for Rosie’s Book Review team. I appreciate St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book for me to read and review.

The story is set in the 1950s and is the continuation of the life of one of the women who worked at the bookstore in Bloomsbury, London. Vivien, in addition to working in the store, is also a playwright and chose to leave for Italy for a period of time when her success as a playwright was called into question. She took a job working at a film studio in Rome and worked on rewriting some of the screenplays being filmed there. Rome is still recovering from WWII and all the various issues that time period caused in Italy.

While there, she has to deal with the censorship of the Vatican as they have full control of what is acceptable or not in what film audiences are allowed to see.

Vivien also meets some interesting people and forms friendships with them. As well, she forms a romantic entanglement with an older man.

The story is richly layered with individual characters who are uniquely drawn and have multi-faceted personalities.

Vivien is a character we grew to admire in Bloomsbury Girls and this book finds this reader still rooting for her and hoping she gets resolution of a matter that has haunted her since the war. One of the young men she meets while working at the studio also has an interesting story line about events that happened to him during the war. Both of them were characters this reader grew attached to and hoped for the best outcome.

The author is very talented and the prose is beautifully written. The flow of the story is well done as well. This book does not have to be read after Bloomsbury Girls as the story is complete without it being necessary to know the events of the other book. Some of the characters are recurring, but it’s not vital to know those back stories. I do love how real life famous people are woven into the tale. Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner even make appearances. Such fun to addition to the story.

A lovely read.

Dec29

First Date Prophecy- By Kate and Danny Tamberelli- A Review

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What a fun book this was. I read it on a car trip back in September and kept thinking I’d already reviewed it when I realized the other day that I hadn’t posted the review. I did receive this book from Kensington Publishing in exchange for an unbiased review. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a light read that made a long car ride very enjoyable. 

When your first date with someone ends in a prophecy about you as well as the death of an old lady, you wonder what else might go wrong in the potential relationship. No matter how interesting the date was, is there an inherent risk in trying to go out again with this person?

This book was written by a husband and wife team. The husband was a real life child star and was one of the two brothers in the Pete and Pete show that was popular on Nickelodeon Channel. The male protagonist in the story was also a child star and that forms part of the challenges he has in the dating world. Wondering if he’s liked for himself or for his former role and fame. His older brother is a big movie star now and our hero, Rudy, also has some angst about that success of his brother—making for an edgy relationship between them.

The female protagonist, Lucy, is witty, klutzy, and has a plethora of crazy date stories and failures.  She works at odd jobs which find her in all kinds of scrapes. I have to confess, I wasn’t too sure about this book in the first chapter as she seemed so over the top and silly. I wasn’t convinced I was going to like her but I pushed on and, after Chapter one, I found her to be quite a charming character and someone I could root for. 

This was such a cute story and read. It also had some deep messages about forgiveness and finding ways to make life work when expectations don’t quite come to fruition. 

Humorous and engaging, yet full of wisdom. I recommend this one. 

Dec14

South of Sepharad- A Review

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This book will be released on February 20, 2024- Mark that date on your calendar as you are going to want this one. Many thanks to History Through Fiction for the pre-release copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

When most of us initially think of 1492 and Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, we think of Christopher Columbus and his journey to the new world (which is a whole other problematic tale). We might also think about their daughter Katherine of Aragon who married two Tudor princes. What we might not think about is the edict this king and queen sent out in 1492 to require all the Jewish citizens of Spain to leave the country or convert to Catholicism. Under penalty of death.

The story of Vidal and his family, South of Sepharad, by Eric Z. Weintraub, takes us past these better known happenings affecting Spain in 1492 to something sinister and evil. The expulsion of a whole population of people from the country of Spain.

I had heard of the horror of the Inquisition, of course, and seen films and read other books about it. This story from Mr. Weintraub was so well-written and had characters so vividly drawn that the absolutely horrific events were brought home in a way that, while hard to read, made the journey of these Jewish people who had to leave with what few possession they could haul on a wagon really hit hard. They didn’t do anything wrong to warrant expulsion except practice their religion.

I’ve always been shocked and saddened at the number of deaths and amount of torture inflicted on others in the name of God. And this story didn’t shy away from the Inquisition and what those so-called holy men were capable of. If they wanted you dead, they would plant words in the mouths of the person they were interrogating. They would also twist what the person said to match their own agenda.

This book hit all the harrowing parts of the journey out of Spain for the Jewish people. From having to sell homes that had been in their families for generations, and selling their possessions and heirlooms, to leaving people behind, and the way their feet hurt and boots became full of holes on that journey. It also covered the food shortages and lack of water. I felt as if I was on the journey with them.

Even the few who stayed behind and converted to Catholicism weren’t really safe as they were always suspected of converting for purposes that weren’t sincere. And it was a forced conversion so how sincere could it have been? To betray the religion of your people must have been very difficult to decide to do. In short, these poor people were in a no win situation.

This book is an important one for us to read in these times. This horror of disliking or even hating people of other religions seems to have never gone away, but it seems to be coming back to the forefront of being acceptable to treat those who do not share certain beliefs as less than human.

The story in this book is obviously fiction and it’s well told. The author has a beautiful way with prose. Even though it’s hard to read in places, it’s an important and captivating tale (with moments of heartbreak) of one family’s life and the changes they are forced to make by a king and queen who were absolutely vile human beings.

The author did meticulous research and immersed us in the world of Spain in 1492. He gives some excellent resources at the end as well. The cover is so vivid and attractive too.

I give this one five stars

Dec5

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

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I came to this book with a white woman’ perspective because that’s what I am. Before I posted this review, I read some reviews on Reddit and Goodreads as I was afraid my being white had colored (forgive the pun) my perception of this novel. But it appears it did not. Many people of other races seem to agree with the thoughts I have on this book which gives me comfort that my perceptions were not skewed by my own race.

I picked this book up as the premise sounded intriguing and also because I’m trying to read more diverse fiction to try to educate myself more about how Black and other People of Color move through the world. I think that’s an important thing in our current climate.

I enjoyed the book in the beginning, but it did have some issues as it went on. There were two subplots that initially added to the story but eventually were disappointing. They were tossed in and never resolved or were not explained well or were ultimately not necessary.

The protagonist was kind of meh. She had some good points, but she seemed ashamed of her background—she came from a wealthier background than her best friend—the best friend who was the best character of the book. I did root for the protagonist as I wanted her to succeed. But the ending made me feel betrayed by the author. There was no real resolution and I wanted the villains to get their comeuppance. They didn’t. Which leads me to the subplots that weren’t resolved.

There was a “resistance” to the villains but they didn’t actually do any resisting. They watched and listened but were ineffective other than that.

The other subplot was about two women, one a writer and one an editor who had a hugely successful book launch in the 1980s. There was some sort of scandal (not really explained) and one (the editor) went into hiding and the other (the writer) became a sell out in her work—betraying what she initially stood for in her writing—or at least that’s what I gleaned from the disjointed flashbacks. The story skipped to them off and on, but the book would be okay without that subplot- maybe even better. All the subplot did was set up the work of the villains. It didn’t really add much to the tale as it was muddled and never really explained or resolved.

In short, this book didn’t seem complete. It dragged on too long for about 250-270 pages. Then there was a big rushed ending. Like there was a page count the author wanted to get to and then she stopped writing even with lots of parts hanging and not completed.

The protagonist betrayed the reader as well as herself with the way this book ended. Certain expectations are built in to a story as the reader gets to know the characters and when they don’t stay consistent with expectations, at the end, it leads to disappointment.

When I was in high school, we had to read ‘The Good Earth’. I hated the ending so much, I threw the paperback across the room. I wanted to do that to this book but it was a hardback and I was afraid of what I might hit. 🙂

I’m giving it 3 stars as I did enjoy parts of it and the writer is definitely talented. I just can’t get behind a higher rating for it.

I understand this is a mini-series on Hulu as well. I’ll be giving that a pass as I don’t want to get mad all over again at the ending.

Dec1

Cover Love: Twelve Days of Christmas

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This is my upcoming new release blurb and cover.

Just imagine…Imagine if the twelve days of Christmas weren’t about Christmas at all.  What if the Partridge in a pear tree was actually a chef named Otto Partridge who found a pear orchard to pick some fresh pears for his restaurant? Imagine the two turtle doves as a pop duo? What if the eleven pipers piping were bakers on a baking challenge show? And what if the six geese a-laying were sassy birds full of advice for a young girl looking to earn money for a prom dress?

A mixture of stories sure to appeal to a variety of readers. Some are set in historical times, some are modern, some fantasy and some romantic. All of them fun and mostly light-hearted. Something for everyone. And none of them Christmas…except for the last one, which involves the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade… the traditional kick off for Christmas festivities.

Nov29

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren, a Review

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I have been working on my NaNoWriMo novel so have not been posting any reviews this month.

I was browsing at Sam’s Club on Black Friday when I was in the store to pick up a new television for my dad and made my way to the book section, because of course I did. 🙂 I saw this one and the cover appealed to me as well as the back blurb.

This was super fun and I gobbled it down. This was the first book I have read by this writing team but it is definitely not the last. I loved the way they made the characters so appealing. A large cast of characters, but so well done that there was no issue keeping them all straight. All the characters were supportive of each other no matter the circumstances and it was great to not have even one nasty character in the story. It shows that books can be entertaining and have conflict without meanness and, in our times, I love that so much.

The heroine was very witty and the interaction between her and the guy she had a crush on was super fun. They bantered with some of the best banter I’ve read in a book. So clever and never dull at all. Creativity abounded in this story.

This was a story with elements of the movie “Groundhog Day” as well as a great tale of family and lasting friendships. It was a great read and so appropriate for the time of year. I highly recommend it.

Oct18

Wander in the Dark- by Jumata Emill- a Review

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New Orleans. Mardi Gras. The Garden District. Two half-brothers, estranged. Families with issues. A private school. A murder. A perfect storm of ingredients that lead to a great read full of mystery, danger, and anxiety for the protagonists.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books in exchange for an impartial review.

Marcel and Amir are half-brothers who share a father and not much else. Marcel is the elder of the two and his father cheated on his mother with Amir’s mother. This led to their father leaving Marcel’s mother and his subsequent marriage to Amir’s mother. Family dynamics have been problematic since that time. The boys are now in high school and don’t communicate with each other.

Until the fateful night of Amir’s 16th birthday party when Marcel shows up at the invitation of Amir’s best friend, Chloe.

He and Chloe eventually leave the party and head to her house. A few hours later, Marcel wakes to the horrifying sight of Chloe’s lifeless body. Her room ransacked and her being stabbed panics Marcel and he runs. A Black young man found in the home of a dead white girl is always going to go sideways.

And indeed it does when he’s seen on a security camera leaving the house via the front door.

From this point, the story moves into trying to resolve the question of who really killed Chloe.

Amir is sure his brother is innocent and he’s on a quest to clear his brother’s name.

Along the way, we meet a cast of characters who all have something to hide. The family dynamics of several of the characters enter into the story. There’s also the discovery of a reprehensible game being played online at the private school. That part of the book absolutely turned my stomach and made my blood boil.

Amir and Marcel’s family dynamics are also an integral part of the story and I was rooting for a good resolution to that part of the story as well as the solving of the murder.

I loved this book. Lots of twists and turns and some parts kept me guessing which I love. The growth of the characters is super well done by the author.

Throughout the days as I was reading this, I found myself thinking about getting back to the story of Marcel and Amir when I should’ve been focused on other things. These characters were both well drawn and they seemed very real to me.

The New Orleans setting also appealed. It’s one of my favorite cities and I could picture all the places in the book which added to my enjoyment of this story.

Highly recommended. To be released Jan 29, 2024.

Oct9

Salt of the Earth- JJ Marsh- a review

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Set in Switzerland in the era of WWI and up to the mid-1920s, we first meet Seraphine where she lives in the Alps. Her life is hard. She’s the illegitimate child of an unwed mother who has found a husband and given birth to two other children. The two children (sons) suffer from cretinism (congenital hypothyroidism) and the daughter (as well as the mother) has a goiter condition.

The daughter has the burden of caring for the family with her work tending the sheep as well caring for her brothers. The father is off patrolling the borders and the mother is clearly depressed and doesn’t do much other than sit at the house. The only break Seraphine gets is when she’s at school.

We’re then introduced to Bastian, a young man who was in medical school but conscripted into the army during the war. Eventually, he is mustered out and returns to school in Zurich. We meet his friends and learn about his life.

The chapters alternate with the two main characters and also include newspaper articles of the era detailing the Russian revolution and the Swiss workers’ strikes, as well as letters between a number of people that help move the story along.

Eventually, Bastian comes to the Alps to assist a doctor who is working on a cure for cretinism and goiters and the two main characters meet.

The book is called Salt of the Earth for a reason as this doctor, among others, believes these conditions are caused by a lack of iodine in the diet. It’s especially important to not have an iodine deficiency in the preconception stage. The doctors’ work focuses on helping the people of the Alps and concentrates as well on the pregnant population to try to stop these conditions from manifesting in the infants and children.

Intrigued by the story and the iodine component, I took a deep dive into the history of this disease and who started the research into a cure. The author used the real history in the story, even naming the doctor, H. Eggenberger, as a peripheral character, as well as using Otto Bayard as a mentor to the male protagonist.

She also used Anna Heer, a female doctor, who founded the first professional nursing school in Switzerland. The female protagonist also did some work with a real person, Lotte Volger, who specialized in moulaguese. I had never heard of moulages so did a look around online about them as well. They were wax models of how certain conditions manifested themselves on patients. Lot of great innovation happening in Zurich medically in that era and I love how it was woven into the tale without being boring.

I learned a lot reading this story. I love novels that use real events from the past as a jumping off point for the book. When such whets my appetite for more information, that’s even better. The author even worked in a famous murder that occurred in Santis, Switzerland in order to get the male protagonist out of a sticky situation he found himself in. It was quite a clever use of a historical event in the time period.  

I’m also curious about the author and why this thyroid condition intrigued her enough to write this book. I guess I’ll never get the answer to that question. Haha.

Historically set with a lot of references to everything that was happening in this era, this is an enjoyable story with characters who speak to the reader with their kindness and concern, not only for their loved ones, but for humanity at large. I liked the characters and the setting as well as how the author wove all the elements together.

A lovely read and beautiful story that I very much enjoyed.

Sep26

The Revenge Game by Jordyn Taylor- Review

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Alyson, the high school junior, protagonist of this book, is a hopeful romantic. She even wants to write romance novels someday after attending a prestigious college with a first rate literature and writing department.

Her problem? She comes across to the first boy she’s interested in as desperate and, after she overhears him talking about her not in a good way, she determines to be more cautious as she moves on from this embarrassment.

But her resolution doesn’t last long. The first day of the new school year, she finds herself attracted to a senior lacrosse superstar. To her astonishment, her teacher pairs her with him for a class project.

Before she knows it, she finds herself falling for him as they seem to hit it off immediately. He’s kind and sexy and nothing like she thought he might be as the big man on campus. They seem to have a lot in common even though she is a library nerd and he’s a sports star.

At a camping trip with other students, one of Alyson’s friends overhears a conversation with some of the boys. It seems they have a contest going called the King’s Cup. Points are awarded to the young men for various acts related to the opposite sex.

Upon learning of this, the girls set up a Queen’s Cup for dumping boys publicly because of this point system.

Alyson is sure her lacrosse player, Riggs, isn’t part of the King’s Cup. He even tells her he thinks it’s a stupid game.

She helps her friends with their plans for the Queen’s Cup and is pretty much the ringleader of the quest to expose the boys in the King’s Cup to ridicule. But she is relentless in her belief in Riggs. She feels sorry for the other girls that they can’t find a true and loyal boyfriend.

As the book progresses, the book moves from flashbacks of Alyson and Riggs during the school year to various news reports of Riggs being missing after the prom in May.

The way the author moves the story from time to time is seamless and intriguing. We as the readers know something bad may have happened to Riggs and the story keeps us turning pages to see what occurred to cause his disappearance.

Alyson is likable and funny.  She’s a well-rounded character with a few blind spots but, she’s a teenager, so that’s expected. I enjoyed her and her personality. I liked she had a good family relationship and loyal friendships.

The last chapter seemed a bit off for the character to me but that’s really my only issue with the story. I didn’t think it rang true for the character we’d learned about in the rest of the story.

An enjoyable, intriguing read with a unique presentation. And it ticked a lot of boxes for our times, including feminism, family dynamics, date rape, and empowerment over misogyny in a boarding school environment.

Thank you to Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

BLURB:

Alyson is a romantic, and sometimes it gets her into trouble. Like last summer, she thought her co-worker was into her, when in reality he found her flirting pathetic.

Then she meets Brenton Riggs Jr., and right away she knows that their connection isn’t just in her head. When he swoops in to save her one night from a less than savory party encounter, she falls head-over-heels. Finally, someone Alyson likes who likes her back!

But when she finds out about the King’s Cup—a competition the guys at their boarding school started to see who has the most sexual prowess—she’s put on edge. Does Brenton really want to be with her, or is he just trying to win? Then Alyson and the other girls at the school start a competition of their own: The Queen’s Cup. It’s all about reclaiming their power. But as the competition heats up, Alyson’s relationship begins to fall apart—and it isn’t long before the cracks in her perfect love story start to show through.

Sep18

The Trouble with You- by Ellen Feldman- A review

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Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Franny Fabricant was the product of her time as well as her position in life. Although she graduated from one of the Seven Sisters colleges, she was mostly educated in order to be a successful wife and mother as well as to support her husband’s career by being a good conversationalist and able to hold her own at dinner and cocktail parties.

Her mother passed away while she was still young and thus her aunt, Rose, had a strong effect on her along with the culture in which she was raised. Sometimes the two forces were diametrically opposed. And that is the crux of the story. How Fanny navigates not only young widowhood, being a single mother, and learning how to support herself and her daughter makes for a very interesting story. Throw in the McCarthyism and two men who are polar opposites and therein lies the inner conflict of the main character.

I enjoyed reading Franny’s journey and rooting for her to make the right decisions. Her aunt Rose was a great character and her story was intriguing as well. We got it in little dribbles, but she was a strong character who lived a full life herself even though many people in the book felt sorry for her for never marrying. I liked this character a lot.

This book moves at a nice pace. No explosions, car chases or other crazy drama, just a lovely read with a likeable cast of characters—although one of the men set my teeth on edge—in a good way as far as bringing conflict to the plot.

The setting, era and morals of the day are well set out by the author and this is just very much an enjoyable read. Five Stars.

Description

In an exuberant post WWII New York City, a young woman is forced to reinvent her life and choose between the safe and the ethical, and the men who represent each…

Set in New York City in the heady aftermath of World War II when the men were coming home, the women were exhaling in relief, and everyone was having babies, The Trouble With You is the story of a young woman whose rosy future is upended in a single instant. Raised never to step out of bounds, educated in one of the Sister Seven Colleges for a career as a wife and mother, torn between her cousin Mimi who is determined to keep her a “nice girl”—the kind that marries a doctor—and her aunt Rose who has a rebellious past of her own, Fanny struggles to raise her young daughter and forge a new life by sheer will and pluck. When she gets a job as a secretary to the “queen” of radio serials—never to be referred to as soaps—she discovers she likes working, and through her friendship with an actress who stars in the series and a man who writes them, comes face to face with the blacklist which is destroying careers and wrecking lives. Ultimately, Fanny must decide between playing it safe or doing what she knows is right in this vivid evocation of a world that seems at once light years away and strangely immediate.