Accelerated Reader: Volume 1
Rating: 3.75
I am a sucker for a rom-com where our protagonists hate each other and then (out of nowhere) fall in love, and this is a good entry into that genre. This book started with an adorable “meet cute” - girl falls over boy, boy turns out to be the teen heartthrob she was obsessed with, girl and boy are in the same law school class - then there was a big falling out, and nine years later, boy needs girls help with an urgent legal matter. The plot itself is adorable, and I loved reading about all the behind-the-scenes lawyer stuff (as I am one). There were some really trendy names in the book that made me cringe — our main characters were Daxton and Kailyn — but I did love their repartee and the switching first-person narrative enough to get over it. This book is similar to Jasmine Guillory or Sally Thorne, if those are up your alley.
Rating: 4.5
Pardon my French, but this book scared the sh*t out of me. I have always found a psychological thriller to be more compelling than something more gore-y, and this was a great one. It’s the story of a comatose woman, a grieving husband, and the young ghostwriter hired to continue her successful book series — or is it? Almost immediately, you are thrown into a different world where you aren’t sure what is truth and what isn’t. Tbh, I’m still a little troubled by the ending - the last 20 pages gave me a little bit of whiplash with the characters and the plot of the book up to that point, and I’m not sure how I feel about the way that Hoover wrapped it all up. Also, do not read this book if you want likable characters; none of the protagonists are.
Trigger warnings: unstable and sociopathic characters, murder, drowning
“An Unkindness of Magicians”, Kat Howard
Rating: 4
I think I first heard about this one from Grace Atwood, one of my favorite bloggers, and I am so glad that I did. I really enjoyed this book, but I will also say that “Books about Magic” is unabashedly one of my favorite categories of fiction. I blame reading Harry Potter at a formative age for that predilection. This book was the story of a New York City that also had a secret magician hierarchy, ruled by a variety of powerful houses, and the semi-regular competition to see who was the best. There was a mystery and it got dark at a few points; my only real complaint is that Howard sometimes attempted to get too “technical” in her descriptions of magical tasks, which, ironically, made those moments less magical.
Spoiler: Shannon will be coming out with a full review in the next few weeks, so I can’t wait to see her thoughts.
Rating: 3.75
“The Lovely War” is two stories that, at first glance, don’t really go together: the goddess Aphrodite “on trial” with her estranged husband, Hephastus - after being caught with her lover, Ares - showing how love and war are inextricably intertwined. The love and war story she chooses is a group of connected individuals during World War I: a young British man sent away to the front; his lady friend and aspiring concert pianist; a Belgian on the run from the horrors of the Germans; a young African-American jazz musician playing in the US army. I loved, loved, loved the Great War story - it was epic and exciting and really put me on the front lines in France. I didn’t love the Aphrodite/Hephastus story nearly as much; it was an interesting narrative conceit, but one that wasn’t as engrossing.
“The Missing Years”, Lexie Elliott
Rating: 3.5
This is another psychological thriller that I added to my to-read list thanks to another’s recommendation, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Set in the Scottish Highlands, it’s part ghost story and part family mystery, and totally unnerving. Ailsa inherited a house from her dead mother, but she can’t sell it because half of it belongs to her father, who abandoned them years ago. While waiting for her father to be declared dead, she goes to the house, and she feels like the house is haunting her. I don’t love a book with an unreliable narrator, even if it has a real reason, but in this case, it totally added to the narrative. The book is from Ailsa’s perspective, and her not knowing what’s real and what isn’t only aids the creepy-factor. Beyond that, the true “villain” in this book definitely took me by surprise and scared me — I felt like such a bad judge of (fictional) character that I didn’t see it.
“All is Not Forgotten”, Wendy Walker
Rating: 2.5
I really, really wanted to like this book - the premise of being able to “erase” trauma in a way to help victims (and then it not working) sounds so compelling. Unfortunately, that was the extent of it. I am not a monster, so I did genuinely feel bad for Jenny, and I enjoyed getting to see the central mystery getting solved (as in, who raped her and why?), but the narrator was the worstttt. The book is from the point of view of the psychologist treating Jenny and her (also somewhat horrible parents), Dr. Forrester, and to be blunt, he was a condescending asshole. Also, the “twist” at the end is terrible, and, in my opinion, totally unbelievable. The idea of this book is great, the execution much less so.
Trigger warnings: violent (violent) rape, adultery, dickhead dudes
”Summer Country”, Lauren Willig
Rating: 3.75
I am normally a Lauren Willig-stan, so I was disappointed I didn’t like this book that much. This is another that uses the narrative structure of two stories, one “modern” and one “old”, learning a family secret or mystery; the twist here is that the “modern” was 1854. Our protaganist is Emily, a fish-out-of-water vicar’s daughter who has unexpectedly inherited property in Barbados; the journey back in time is to how that plantation ended up in her family. I never felt connected to any of the characters; I felt really squicked out by the various relationships between white people and enslaved persons; and it just, in my opinion, wasn’t her best. The epic love story I was promised never materialized, and isn’t that the whole point of reading a historical romance?
”Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold,” Nancy Atherton
Rating: 3.25
You know how some books are just comforting, like sitting with a blanket and drinking a cup of tea? That’s how the Aunt Dimity series has been for me — I read the first one (Aunt Dimity’s Death) in high school, and I’ve been a loyal and faithful reader of Lori Shepherd’s myriad adventures since. I have to say I was both confused and disappointed by this one, though. Confused because it’s a book about a dangerous ice storm and the Christmas holiday, but it came out in June. Disappointed because it feels like Nancy Atherton is just phoning it in at this point. If you like a cosy English “mystery” with a touch of the supernatural, go with some of the first few books in this series.
“The Rest of the Story", Sarah Dessen
Rating: 3.5
This was my first book by Sarah Dessen, and the only word that comes to mind is cute. It wasn’t particularly noteworthy or creative, but it was a good light summer poolside read (yes, I know it’s technically young adult, but I consider myself young-at-heart). Things I liked: complicated family relationships, talking about hard topics, that the main character had anxiety. Things I thought were a little absurd: the quick onset of a hurricane, the “dual identity” of the protagonist (Is she Emma? Is she Saylor? Do I really care?), the Lake North/North Lake “rivalry. That said, I liked the book, but I also needed a break after a few weeks of challenging reads (see: The River).
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