Category: Reviews

Malibu Rising

This book was not only a Goodreads Choice Winner for 2021, it was also a finalist for Book of the Month’s Book of the Year for 2021.  I think I got it as an add-on with one of my monthly book selections – I’d heard that it was highly thought of, and while it wasn’t the first choice, I thought I would try it out.

Not going to lie – it took me a while to get into this.  After flying through the first two books of the year, this one slowed me down a bit.  I’m not entirely sure why.  I didn’t immediately dislike any of the characters, and while a book set in the 80s feels weird, it wasn’t completely off-putting.  Perhaps it was because there was a little more obvious in some places than I had hoped.  Spoilers ahead! Read more

Comfort Food, but for the Eyes

By far, this is one of my most favorite novels.  It’s one of those that I come back to pretty much once a year, just to feel comforted and happy.  When I get to the point where I just don’t want to care anymore, and I don’t want to have to figure out what the author is trying to tell me, I head to Jennifer Crusie, and specifically, to Bet Me.  I went to a signing for Ms. Crusie years ago, and in her talk, she referred to many of her books and the general theme she sticks with, but mentioned that Bet Me is one of those books that doesn’t quite fit the mold.  Why?  Because this book is a straight up fairy tale.  Read ahead for potential spoilers…

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The Ex Hex

I ended up choosing two books for October’s Book of the Month – one that will probably be a bit more thriller-ish, and this one.  After spending about a month reading a book that was pretty thought provoking, and, dare I say, depressing and dark, I needed something that was going to be light, fun, and fast.  After all, I need to get through my Goodreads challenge, and I’m really, really behind.  🙂  And so, I ended up reading The Ex Hex in about 2.5 days.  Potential Spoilers ahead…

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Once There Were Wolves

It took me a very long time to finish this book.  It’s not because it’s a terrible book – it’s beautifully written, with a large focus on the Scotland environment, and the flora and fauna found there.  McConaghy does a fantastic job describing Scotland and Alaska wilderness.  I appreciate the love of the wolves, the desire to ensure that the wilderness and the animals found within are conserved.  I’m not an outdoors person, so I’m guessing quite a few things were lost on me, and to be honest, I had trouble identifying with Inti and her principles.  Potential Spoilers ahead…

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Big Summer – Big Letdown

A long, long time ago, I read Little Earthquakes by a relatively new author with a humorous last name (what can I say?  I was a lot younger!).  I loved it, and rapidly read her next novels – In Her Shoes, Good in Bed, Then Came You…  At some point, I became bored with the fairly consistent premise.  The main character, usually female, usually larger in size, usually angry in some way, started to get old.  So I put her down for a while.  For a long while.  But then this book showed up as an add on book for my subscription to Book of the Month, and the summary seemed interesting – the potential of being a good chick-lit book.

And that’s how it started.  I’m not a huge fan of influencers.  I don’t tend to understand why they’re looked at as something to be, but I was able to put that aside for a bit, to concentrate on a larger woman, navigating the internet and haters, building her life with her crafts, and a job she seems to like (though babysitting?  Really?  How old is she supposed to be again?), and living with a bisexual Indian woman.  I can’t identify with all of those things, but it wasn’t too difficult to suspend my own reality to enjoy what I was reading.  The reentry of an old friend who abused her so badly through high school was… interesting… and the way they connected was a little out there.

But still, I was willing to believe it.

Maybe the first indication that this wasn’t what I thought it would be was around the time that I realized that time had jumped forward with little to no notice – there’s no way that a woman like Drue would ask an ex-friend to be a bridesmaid with only weeks left to go in planning.  There’s references to dress shopping, catering, programs, multiple events that Daphne helps to plan…  there’s just now way that it was done in a few weeks.  She had to have been asked with at least a few months to go.  So that was a little jarring.  All of the sudden, we’re to the weekend of the wedding, the night before the wedding, and the big twist.

Stop reading here if you don’t want to know the twist…

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The Chicken Sisters

We start with two sisters who seem to be as disparate as they can be.  One stayed in her home town, the other left as soon as she could.  One followed in the footsteps of her family, though it meant disconnecting from her mother, aunt, and sister, and aligning with her late husband’s family, while the other went as far away as she could (while still being in the same country), and made a name for herself as a tidy/organized influencer.

The book resolved well, but it seemed really lazy. Read more

The Lost Apothecary

This particular book pulled me in pretty quickly, opening with Nella sitting in her London apothecary shop in 1791, waiting for her newest client.  I immediately enjoyed the way she processed things, and I absolutely enjoyed learning about Eliza as well.  While the book doesn’t go into immediate detail about either of the characters, it was fun to read how they interacted with each other, … Continue reading The Lost Apothecary

Arsenic and Adobo

Who doesn’t love a rom-com that’s compared to Nora Ephron?  Who doesn’t like Agatha Christie and her winding tales of mystery and murder?  I love both of those, though I’m a relative newcomer to Agatha Christie.

The first page or two of this book pulled me in quickly.  And then it went downhill from there.  I get that this is supposed to be one of a series, and will probably flesh out characters more in future books, but I was really missing a connection with them in this book.  They’re all one dimensional, and in a really annoying way.  And I’m absolutely confused about how forgetful and idiotic the main character, Lila, was.  She’s being accused of a pretty big crime, but she’s bouncing around the town, without an displayed care in the world, trying food in many different restaurants.

Spoilers ahead!

People We Meet on Vacation

Over the years, I have tried to move outside my comfort zone of chick lit and romantic comedy genres, venturing into fantasy, sci-fi, and thrillers. Most of the time I enjoy them, but there’s something special about going back to where you’ve been, revisiting the tropes that you know, but seeing the way that a different writer handles them. I picked this as my April … Continue reading People We Meet on Vacation