Tag: book review

The Dane of My Existence by Jessica Martin (Chick Lit)

Book two in the Shakespeare drenched Rom Com series from Jessica Martin. While the first book (For the Love of the Bard) focused on one Barnes daughter ( the Barnes family being a kind of First Family of the Bard’s Rest Shakespeare Festival), this book centered on the eldest daughter — Portia — the uber driven, germaphobic, corporate lawyer who does not get the hype about Shakespeare (grumble grumble). Forced into a summer sabbatical prior to a big promotion, Portia gets a real chance for something different when she meets Ben Dane — a genuine good (and smart and gorgeous etc.) guy in the guise of an evil developer who wants to turn the local island / festival outdoor stage into — gasp — condos!

Honesty, ethics, and truth in relationships trump all — great banter and wonderful (completely unrealistic but absolutely fun to read about) characters make this very entertaining and great alternative to reading the daily news. Medium-high on the Steamy Scale. Plenty of fun around the Shakespeare themed town with merchants such as: the Merry Wines of Windsor, The Taming of the Shoe, and Parting is Such Sweet Gelato including the flavor “Et Tu, Brûlée.” I admit it — I would totally book a place for the weekend.

A few fun quotes to give you an idea of her comic and irreverent writing style:

“Selfishly, I rooted against the baby thing. Babies were gross, and I was really bad at faking any enthusiasm for them.”

“Dan’ face twisted into somewhere between ‘accidentally licked a persimmon’ and ‘received undesirable correspondence from the IRS.’”

“Candace is the total package: smart, creative, caring. And in a zombie apocalypse scenario, she’d be the last one standing atop a pile of rotting undead carcasses.”

“I was committing a felony with people who weren’t smart enough to wear non-identifiable gear. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.”

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 4th, 2023

A Traitor in Whitehall by Julia Kelly (Historical Mystery)

Writing: 3.5/5 Characters: 4/5 Plot: 4.5/5 Enjoyment: 5/5

The start of a new mystery series (and her first stab at the mystery genre, no pun intended) by one of my favorite historical fiction writers — Julia Kelly. WWII – London – 1940. There is a body, there is a mole in Whitehall, and there is a smart, sharp heroine who insists on equal billing with the agent assigned to ferret out the answers. Best of all — the action takes place in the Churchill War Rooms with a detailed and accurate (as far as my two fascinating visits to the place informs) depiction of the environment and activities within. As always, she really brings it all to life! A nice complicated plot, characters with good backstories, and of course, a time period and place that is rife with opportunities for mystery.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 3rd, 2023

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (Speculative Fiction)

This book is Delightful — light, funny, and well written. It’s sometimes startling what the quality of writing brings to a book. This story about the isolation, loneliness, and fear of prejudice of … Witches — could have wandered into trashy territory but instead it becomes meaningful, heart warming, and happy-making in Mandanna’s skilled hands.

Mika Moon is a Witch. Through an old curse (we learn more about this later) all Witches find themselves orphaned early in life, and Mika has been raised (by a series of nannies) to hide what she is out of fear. When she finds herself in a quirky (to say the least) group of people, hired to tutor not one but three young Witches, she struggles with understanding what it means to become part of real family. Just reading this story will relieve the reader of any remnants of loneliness s/he might feel — at least for the time it takes to get through the story.

Translation State by Ann Leckie (Science Fiction)

Translation State is a standalone story in the (beloved) universe of the Ancillary Justice series. You don’t need to have read those first, but they are wonderful, so if you haven’t — do so now! Leckie’s universe is populated by any number of richly delineated alien species along with numerous human based cultures, far flung across the universe. In this story, three completely unrelated characters are drawn together through a bizarre set of circumstances and manage to have an impact on the way things have always been done. Enae — the reluctant diplomat tasked with tracking down a fugitive from 200 years ago; Reet, an adopted mechanic who struggles with intense (and definitely unacceptable) urges that he doesn’t understand; and Qven, a juvenile form of a manufactured species designed to translate between humans and the mysterious Presgers — absolutely necessary to preserving the fragile peace between the two races.

I love the way Leckie writes rich interior (alien) lives while simultaneously illustrating the complexity of multiple, variegated, worlds. I loved her description of the process for “raising” the translators — as alien as you can get and described from Qven’s very nuanced and real perspective. This story includes a fully fleshed out description of how to challenge cultural expectations when some aspects of the problem are (currently) immutable while others are simply rigidly accepted ways of doing things. The teasing apart of the situation and dawning awareness of what solutions are possible is brilliant and a skill that I wish would be more developed in us all.

As an aside, Leckie has a great time playing with pronouns. While occasionally single characters are referred to as “they” (which I hate), there are several other labels (sie, e, he, she) which I admit I couldn’t always differentiate but were meaningful to the characters — more importantly though, there was a wide range of pronouns which people sometimes had to correct but never got strident about.

Ann Leckie may well be my favorite current science fiction writer — in addition to writing engaging stories populated with realistic and diverse characters, she doesn’t insist on dwelling in constant dystopia and darkness as so many of today’s SF writers do.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 6th, 2023

The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (Mystery)

Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 25th, 2023

Number 15 in the Norfolk based, archeologist Ruth Galloway series. I’ve read every single one so obviously think it’s a great series! This one takes place in mid-2021, smack dab in the middle of Covid lock downs / ease ups, etc. In this story, a body is found bricked up in the wall of a local cafe during remodeling which is quickly identified as the body of a young student who had gone missing in 2002. The regulars are all back: single-mom forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway, the gruff and somewhat tormented DCI Nelson, and the intuitive Druid Cathbad. As always, plenty of history — both bone and myth related. One character suffers from Long Covid, declining enrollments threaten to shut down the archeology department of the University of North Nofolk, and — for those who have been following the series — I will say (with no spoilers) that there is some real closure on one aspect of the long range storyline. Also, a delightful surprise near the end of the book.

Always enjoyable — read in a day.

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

I am so NOT into essay collections, so when my friend loaned me this book several months ago, I read a couple of essays and then lost interest. However, when one of my (many) book clubs insisted on reading it, I picked it up again and had an epiphany: I didn’t have to read every essay! I could pick and choose and just read the ones that appealed to me. And with this new approach I discovered … that I REALLY liked a whole bunch of them. Actually, they were spectacular. Not a surprise — Ann Patchett is one of my favorite authors. I’ve seen her speak and have read all of her novels. It’s just that some topics are more interesting (to me) than others — I’m sure your experience will vary from mine. I haven’t come across another author who is as articulate when expressing absolutely relatable (to me) thoughts and feelings — her own and her characters’. There is nothing like that responding spark of whole hearted recognition / identification I get when she summarizes an entire state of being in just a line or two. As an aside, almost every one of these essays ends with the perfect line.


Some of my favorite essays from this collection: The Fathers — a memoir about marriages and the abundance of family that comes from multiple attempts ; My Year of No Shopping — a brilliant depiction of understanding her own motivations to shop far beyond what she needed; To The Doghouse — I won’t summarize, suffice it to say that Snoopy has a surprising and wonderful part to play; There Are No Children Here — one of my favorites — an ingenious, insightful, and surprising diatribe on society’s reaction to women who do not want to have children; Reading Kate Di Camillo — just wow! Last but certainly not least, the titular These Precious Days — heartbreaking, beautiful, and simultaneously full of joy.

The Bones of the Story by Carol Goodman (Thriller)

A highly selective literary honor society at the Briarwood school in upstate New York. An even more selective senior writing seminar with a famous writer. A group of students who would do anything to get into both. What happened then? What is happening now, 25 years years later? In this eerie, academically oriented, psychological thriller, Carol Goodman explores themes of vengeance, retribution, guilt, and the impact of one’s “minor” misdeed on the person who feels wronged. Lots of literary references for me, plenty of action and Agatha Christie style “pop em off one by one until you suspect absolutely everybody,” and a surprise ending. I did have a little trouble keeping track of all the characters — my advice is just to write down the names as they are introduced so you don’t forget any 🙂

Thank you to William Morrow Paperbacks and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 11th, 2023

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Literary Fiction)

I love Ann Patchett’s books. The reflective, perfectly paced books focus on life and the intricate intersections between characters that give life its shape. This story follows Lara along a dual timeline. In the present, she is the mother of three grown daughters, each pursuing different interests — one will take over the orchard Lara and her husband run in Northern Michigan; one will be a vet; and one longs to be an actress. The narrative takes a jump backwards as she tells her daughters the story of her pre-orchard life. Some parts are stories well loved and often told, others have not been told before, and a few are only whispered in her own mind (and — obviously — to us).

This previous life features Lara the actress — once on the fast track to fame and glory. The threads come together beautifully, as always — Patchett is a master of her craft. The stories don’t really go the way you would imagine because life never does. No twisty surprises, just different paths taken, each a result of experiences and self insight. I was completely drawn in from page one and never felt like stopping. Would happily befriend her whole family.

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on August 8th, 2023

Murder at Midnight by Katharine Schellman

Number four in the Lily Adler series, it is the first I have read, and I quite enjoyed it! I was looking for a nice palette cleansing non-stressful mystery, and this fit the bill beautifully. A regency era (1816) mystery starring the widow, Lily Adler. A snowstorm (according to the author’s note, based on the historical “Year Without a Summer” resulting from the eruption of Mount Tambora) forces a number of Christmas Ball attendees to stay the night. The next morning, one of the party is discovered — quite dead — in the chicken coops.

Regency manners, the impact of scandal on women, the greater (unspoken) freedoms allowed a widow over an unmarried woman and two (!) hints of lesbianism pepper a narrative surprisingly free of filler and with some Upstairs / Downstairs thrown in. Lily Adler is smart, self assured, and takes charge of cases without having to beg, look demure, or manipulate — bravo! The plot is clever, twisted, and not obvious (though I did figure it out before the end), and I liked the characters. There were tiny bits of romance tossed in, but of a more Austenian style — there are bodices but they are never, ever, ripped.

I’ll probably go back to check out volumes one to three as I am always happy to discover a nice, reliable, series.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on September 19th, 2023

Rabble Starkey by Lois Lowry (Children’s Fiction)

It’s not easy to write good (as opposed to entertaining or easily marketable) children’s fiction. Lois Lowry is simply the best. This story — originally published in 1987 and about to be reissued — is about 12-year old Rabble (short for Parable) Starkey and her single mother (a mere 26 — you do the math) and how they both “grow up” while living with Rabble’s best friend, Virginia, when Virginia’s mother becomes mentally incapacitated and is taken away.
Lowry’s messages are foundational — not particularly humorous or designed to artificially raise self-esteem — but to help characters and readers alike understand life. She writes about what is important, what is valuable, and what each person can do to move forward successfully. Loved every minute of reading.

Thank you to Clarion Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 13th, 2023