Dear Emily Henry,

After reading and loving your books for a number of years now, I’ve come to have high expectations. I’ve yet to be disappointed.

There must be a signal released in my brain when I recognise your words; something in me just relaxes and prepares to be all-in on the story. I guess all my favourite authors have it – that thing where recognition occurs from that first page. It’s comforting and exciting all at once.

Funny Story is about Daphne Vincent, a children’s librarian who moved to Waning Bay on Lake Michigan with her fiance, Peter. Daphne has always wanted to belong somewhere and to someone. She is very close with her mother, but after her dad left when she was little, they moved around a lot and Daphne learned not to make friends because they wouldn’t be staying long enough for her to keep them. Her dad has been unreliable all her life and many of her childhood memories around him involve her waiting for him to arrive and fairly often him not turning up at all. She wants roots and friends and family beyond her mother and thinks she has it in Peter. She’s made an incredible effort to be accepted by his friends and family.

But then, following his bachelor party, Peter announces that he’s actually in love with his best friend, Petra, and Daphne is left very much alone.

I’d thought we were building something permanent together. Now I realize I’d just been slotting myself into his life, leaving me without my own.

Petra had been living with her boyfriend, Miles Nowak. When Petra moves in with Peter, Daphne needs a place to live. Miles, in turn, could use help with the rent. Plus, he’s a nice guy. So Daphne moves into the second bedroom in Miles’s apartment.  Daphne is hurt and reeling and counting down the days until she can leave Waning Bay and go somewhere else, to start again. Miles is not any happier and they bond over their shared heartbreak.

Very shortly after they are dumped, Daphne and Miles are shocked to receive wedding invitations in the mail for Peter and Petra. After the initial pain of it wears of, Daphne allows some anger in. And, when Peter is being condescending in a phone conversation, she blurts out that she and Miles are dating.

“I didn’t need a plus-one. He got his own invitation.”

The weighty silence tells me Peter is doing invisible calculus now. Only he’s got the brain for it. “You can’t mean . . .” His voice slides past disbelief straight into incredulity. “You’re with Miles?”

No, no, no, the voice in my head screams.

“Yep!” my mouth chirps.

I am instantly back to silent Munch-screaming out the window.

The next silence extends too long. I’m incapable of breaking it, because the only thing I can think to say is, I don’t know why I said that—it’s an outright lie, but I also cannot. Cannot tell him that.

Miles is pretty easygoing and is prepared to go along with the fake relationship. He’s also come to value Daphne as a friend and when he finds out she’s planning to leave town at the end of the summer, he embarks upon a plan to show her the real Waning Bay and the surrounds and convince her to stay. Most Sundays they play tourist and Daphne learns more about the town than she ever did while with Peter. She realises that Peter had never made an effort to help Daphne belong or be welcome.

“Daphne,” he tuts. “Daphne, Daphne, Daphne.”

“Let me guess: I’m a clueless fool,” I say.

He starts the car. “No, just a sweet, naive, beautiful little innocent, raised in captivity by a man who loves wheatgrass.”

As Daphne and Miles spend more time together, a simmering attraction develops and grows, bursting out of them from time to time before they try and put the genie back in the bottle rather than risk their friendship and their copacetic living arrangement. But it just won’t go away.

The thing, it would seem, Miles has been hiding all along is that he’s diabolically handsome, with angular cheekbones and a jaw that sort of looks like it might cut your fingertips if you were to run a hand over it. Or your tongue. You know, whatever.

Miles is nice. He’s popular with locals and strangers alike. He’s able to strike up a conversation easily and is genuinely interested in what people say to him. He’s easygoing and laid back – basically the opposite of Peter. (He also has a quirky but endearing love of sad love songs.)

Daphne has a deep sense of not being good enough, not being worth staying for, not being anyone’s first choice (apart from her mother). She wonders what is wrong with her that people leave.

Miles has his own baggage. Raised in an extremely toxic household, he feels great responsibility for his (13 years’ younger) sister, Julia. He feels like he didn’t do enough and let her down. He feels like he always lets people down when it counts.

To him, he’s the brother who ran away. To her, he’s the one who stays, even when he shouldn’t.

He tries hard to live in the moment and not to foster too much expectation from others. At least, that’s what he says. It’s clear enough that that the connections he’s made in Waning Bay don’t share that view at all. Yes, he’s often late because he gets caught up in conversations and because he’s very good at being in the moment but people want him around – he’s kind, generous, funny and personable. Because of that genuine interest, he knows everyone in town.

Miles’s philosophy can be summed up in this passage:

“Things go smoother if you don’t let people get a rise out of you,” he says. “If you give them control over how you feel, they’ll always use it.”

“Finally, I see your cynical side,” I say.

He smiles, but his jaw is tight, and it doesn’t reach his eyes. “It’s not cynical. If you don’t give other people responsibility for your feelings, you can have a decent relationship with most of them.”

Honestly, it’s not far off from thoughts I’ve had. Only for me, it’s never been about controlling the feelings themselves. I wouldn’t know where to begin with that. It’s more, controlling the expectations you have for certain people.

If a person lets you down, it’s time to reconsider what you’re asking of them.

Whereas Daphne’s is very different.

You can’t force a person to show up, but you can learn a lesson when they don’t.

Trust people’s actions, not their words.

Don’t love anyone who isn’t ready to love you back.

Let go of the people who don’t hold on to you.

Don’t wait on anyone who’s in no rush to get to you.

Beyond the relationship between Miles and Daphne though, Funny Story, charts Daphne coming into her own, learning more about herself, putting herself out there and finding her own sense of belonging rather than looking for it from others. She makes a good friend at work, Ashleigh, and their growing bond is also great to witness. I liked Ashleigh very much – as well as the other library staff and other locals we meet along the way.

I also liked that Daphne learns she isn’t perfect and that, ultimately, it’s okay – people make mistakes and hurt others, even she does. She has to grapple with not just being the one being left waiting, but being a person who has let others down. It’s a thing she’s never realised before – mostly it’s never come up (my impression was this was largely because she lived her life in such rigid compartments before the Peter/Petra catastrophe – which turned out to be the best thing for her). But things get a little messy and Daphne realises that not everything needs to be coloured inside the lines. She also realises she’s worth loving, worth staying for and worth investing in – by others and by herself.

I liked very much that Miles got support he didn’t even know he needed from Daphne and was able to see himself through her eyes and realise that he’s worthy too.

Funny Story is told entirely from Daphne’s point of view which makes sense given the eventual conflict between she and Miles. You set up very well the reasons for each character to act as they do. I did think that Miles’s initial explanation as contrasted with the more complete version was a little bait-and-switchy. It made the ending more satisfying but it felt to me a bit like the conflict was a tad manufactured. That’s really my only criticism of the book – otherwise, I pretty much loved it from start to finish. And, I want to reiterate, the HEA was extremely satisfying.

Grade: A-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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Hairstylist Jess Greene has spent the last decade raising her younger half-sister, Tegan—and keeping a shocking secret. Ever since their reckless mother ran off with a boyfriend she’d known only a few months, Jess has been aware that he’s the same accomplished con man who was the subject of a wildly popular podcast, The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore.

Now thirty-one, Jess didn’t bargain on Tegan eventually piecing together the connection for herself. But Tegan plans to do exactly what Jess has always feared—leave their safe, stable home to search for their mother—and she’ll be accompanied by the prying podcast host and her watchful, handsome producer, Adam Hawkins. Unwilling to let the sister she’s spent so much of her life protecting go it alone, Jess reluctantly joins them.

Together, the four make their way across the country, unraveling the mystery of where the couple disappeared to and why. But soon Jess is discovering other things too. Like a renewed sense of vulnerability and curiosity, and a willingness to expand beyond the walls she’s so carefully built. And in Adam, she finds an unexpected connection she didn’t even know was missing, if only she can let go and let him in . . .

Content Note: mention of a past death by suicide, mental illness

Dear Kate Clayborn,

Anyone who has ever read one of your books knows your writing is beautiful. It is also unique. Your writing voice is one I can pick out in a crowd, a combination of gorgeous turns of phrase and  thoughtful motifs and word pictures. The Other Side of Disappearing is no different.

On it’s face, the “disappearing” in the title refers to Jess’s mother and her boyfriend, con man Lynton Baltimore. But there are layers of disappearing and disappeared in the book and by the end, the title has new significance. When Tegan was left in her care, Jess disappeared. She was focused solely on looking after Tegan and protecting her privacy. She has no social media, few friends and keeps everyone at a distance. This, to a certain extent, includes Tegan herself, particularly given the things she she has not shared about their mother. Jess’s is the biggest but there are other “disappearances” and reappearances, things and people being seen and unseen in the story, some small and subtle, some more obvious. These are all woven wonderfully together in a beautiful tapestry.

Adam is struck down by almost instant love when he first meets Jess. He immediately wants to protect her and make sure she is not taken advantage of by his boss, Salem Durant (the host of the first big podcast, The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore). Salem had been due to meet Lynton in person for the last episode of the iconic podcast, ten years before. But he didn’t show. (Instead he was busy running off with Jess and Tegan’s mother.) Some say Baltimore’s last con was to Salem herself. It still stings and she wants the follow up. There’s something there about relevance and reclaiming glory too as well as other things which are revealed later in the story.

Adam wants this story too. His best friend, Copeland “Cope” Frederick, a famous NFL player, died by suicide following a mental health crisis. Adam longs to tell Cope’s story in a podcast of his own but he is new to journalism and needs to earn his stripes before he can get the chance. Nonetheless, Adam finds himself immediately torn between his own goals and his desire to protect Jess. Jess may have disappeared but Adam sees her, immediately and clearly and he never loses sight of her. Not once.

Jess decides to go with Salem, Adam and Tegan on the search for the missing couple but does not intend to talk or share her story with the podcast. She is the epitome of reluctant to be involved. When Salem offers Adam the chance at his podcast if he gets Jess to talk on the record I thought I knew where the story was going. But you are too clever and, no. There were a number of times where the book could have gone a certain way but Adam and Jess are better than that and what separates them near the end is far more complicated. It all comes down to who sees you, how you see yourself.

Another recurring motif in the book is this:

“A shell souvenir,” she says quietly.

 

“What?”

 

She shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s like—collecting a bunch of little shells from the beach. Individually, they’re nice, sure. But if you want to remember your trip, you do something with them, the way these shops do. Put them in a jar, or glue them to a frame. Coat them in something that’s probably toxic and make a keychain. Stock them on your shelves for selling. A souvenir.”

which occurs when the team are in Florida during their search. There are a number of callbacks to this word picture as the story progresses and each one builds until in the end, it is its very own shell souvenir.

Jess is by no means immune to Adam’s charms. He is handsome and big and tall, protective, kind, open and vulnerable.

I push myself more upright so I can see him better. He’s wearing athletic shorts and a soaked-through T-shirt. He’s sweating. Breathing harder than normal. His hair is damp and sticking up in all directions, windblown. He’s the in-real-life version of every movie star who does some cheesy magazine cover story about how they bulked up to play a superhero, except in real life, it’s not cheesy at all.

 

This is terrible news.

To get involved with Adam threatens her privacy, her lack of visual substance, her framework. But he is a very hard man to resist. He doesn’t push. He’s just there, being kind and constant and caring and how can you fight that?

Adam tries to keep things professional. He doesn’t want to be any kind of burden to Jess who clearly has a lot on her plate but she’s just so darn wonderful it’s a hopeless case.

I turn to look at her. She pulled her hair up a couple of hours ago, high on the top of her head in a haphazard bun, and the fact is, I’ve avoided most eye contact since. Her neck is long and smooth and she has two slim, gold hoops in the cartilage of her right ear. I thought seeing her legs was bad, but this?

This is brutal.

In some ways, the result of the search is a little bit of a McGuffin – The Other Side of Disappearing is a romance, not a mystery – though the mystery is solved at the end. At least one of the revelations felt a little underdeveloped or perhaps just a bit out of place/unnecessary. I did love the way Jess and Tegan’s relationship grew and changed over the course of the book, from the initial fracturing to something better and far stronger by the end. I enjoyed Adam’s family and his steadfastness – though I was perhaps 5% confused by his obsession with his best friend. Perhaps I needed just a tiny bit more for me to truly understand their bond.

I loved Jess and Adam’s connections and contrasts. Adam is the one who reveals things. He sees Jess. He finds the lead which started the podcast search in the first place. He revealed hypocrisy within the NFL community about his friend Cope when Cope first died and has plans to reveal more. Jess is the one who has people disappearing on her and who has disappeared. But then Adam sees her and everything changes. It’s beautiful.

I am a shell collector. I’m trying so hard to coat all these precious, fragile facts about Adam in something hard and firm and inflexible.

I’m trying to make a souvenir.

Grade: A-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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When the war is lost, what else is worth winning?

Lt. Francis Ransome is newly promoted and completely miserable. After a year and a half of fighting in Russia’s revolutionary fallout, his regiment is retreating across the bitter Siberian wilderness, the war lost. Home has never been so close and yet so far, and any breath could be their last. When they stumble upon the remains of a Czech evacuation, they offer what help they can, but out here, it’s every man for himself.

Francis is instantly drawn to Sasha Jandácek, a handsome but withdrawn young soldier. The attraction is mutual—and enthralling—but it could spell the end for them both. Despite their best efforts, hesitance grows into friendship, and friendship blossoms into something else. Together, they struggle to conceal both feelings and fear in a world that won’t accept either.

As war stalks their footsteps and relentless winter gnaws on their morale, the journey home becomes a fight for survival. Francis and Sasha face the threat of discovery, death, and one burning question: even if they make it home, what future can they possibly have together?

Review:

Dear Ravella Ives,

This was a surprise recommendation by Amazon and it was a very good one. It is a historical with strong romantic elements rather than a full blown romance and it is a pretty well researched historical. Please heed the warning though, it is taking place during the Civil War in Russia, at the time when troops from many countries were trying to exit it or more specifically to run away from it. It is a painful read, a realistic one as well as far as I am aware and horrors of war were shown as part of the story, not to dial up the angst of the story to eleven.

The story shows the soldiers who are trying to leave the hell of revolutionary Russia and all they had to endure on the way out. Does the war show the worst or the best in people living through it? I always thought that the war can show both and it really depends on the people, so we see people doing things to survive, but also something like bringing an almost dead soldier to die in a relative comfort and safety (relative is the key word here) just because they could not bear the thought of him dying alone for example.

And there is that building romance between Sasha and Francis. It would have been so easy for me to roll my eyes if the author overdid romance in the midst of war, not because people cannot have romance and love in the middle of war, but because war comes first, before anything else. Somehow though I thought author managed very well to mix the romantic storyline in between everything that was happening and did not overdone it at all.

I was so rooting for Sasha and Francis to make it against all odds after the war with all their traumas and I was grateful for the ending we got.

I have to say that I cannot judge whether the English in the story sounded exactly how people spoke in 1919-1920s, however I can definitely say that it did not sound quite modern to me and I do hope that it fit the time well.

A-

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Note: Charlotte Stein have followed each other and have been friendly online for many years. This review is my unvarnished opinion regardless.

Content notes: parental abuse, childhood poverty, and alcoholism, fatphobia

Dear Charlotte Stein,

I admit I had some hesitation about reading When Grumpy Met Sunshine. Generally, I’m less excited to read about characters inspired by either real life people (this is harder for me) or fictional characters. I tend to find it difficult to separate the “original” (person or character) from the book version and can find myself importing a whole pile of things which don’t belong into the story. Alfie Harding is inspired by Roy Kent from Ted Lasso. Now, I love Roy Kent, (how could I not?) but I wasn’t sure how I felt about reading about a someone very like Roy Kent who was not Roy Kent. The thing is, while I totally heard Roy Kent’s voice in my head every time Alfie spoke, he wasn’t Roy Kent. Alfie Harding was the inspiration but that’s as far as it went. Which, I admit, was a relief. Unlike other books where I found the story being intruded upon by the original person, here, Alfie very quickly became someone totally new to me. Yay. Which is all to say I’m very glad I read it because I really would have been missing out.

Mabel Willicker is a would-be novelist and ghostwriter. She’s been put forward to ghostwrite the memoir of Alfie Harding, former football (that is, soccer for those outside the UK) star. Alfie is notoriously grumpy, hot-tempered, uptight and difficult. He’s gone through 17 prior suggestions already. Mabel doesn’t really hold out a lot of hope she will be lucky number 18.

One of his teammates was asked to use three words to describe him, and all three had been annoying.

Mabel is, of course, the “sunshine” of the title. Only, her bright and bubbly personality is most often a front so that people can’t see she is easily hurt and vulnerable. For some reason though, when she first meets Alfie, she doesn’t let him get away with his bad behaviour and puts a stop to the meeting promptly, telling herself she’s just dodged a bullet rather than missed out on a job which guaranteed her income.

The whole thing would have been a disaster.

A mess of a million scary arguments.

Him, coming up with increasingly horrible insults.

Her, eventually tossing him into the nearest wood chipper.

And she just didn’t have easy access to machinery like that.

Only, it turns out that Alfie does want Mabel to ghostwrite his memoir for reasons that are unclear until the very end of the book. From there, Mabel is in a kind of wonderland (of the Alice and the white rabbit variety), never really trusting her own eyes or ears, barely able to believe she’s becoming friends with Alfie, let alone anything else. 

More as a kind of preemptive armor than intention, Mabel starts as she means to go on and shows a fairly unfiltered version of herself to Alfie. Alfie does not wish to reveal too much in his memoir; it is Mabel’s job to extract all the things he doesn’t want to talk about from him and put it on paper and, to try and convince him to allow it to be printed. (Mabel would never put something in the book Alfie did not agree to.) She has some rather provoking methods.

He shook his head and blew out a breath. “You’re sadistic, you are. Like a really evil Mary Poppins.”

Mabel’s role is a secret, so when the media notice Alfie is spending time with Mabel, they need to come up with an excuse for it. Mabel is a fat woman and the internet has a lot of feelings about that as well (it has to be said that there is a vocal contingent of supporters, not just trolls). Alfie finds himself …enthusiastically defending Mabel to members of the paparazzi and next thing you know they’re fake dating.

Mabel is already having all kinds of feelings for Alfie – not just pants feelings either – but she knows better than to believe someone like him could really want to be with someone like her. He usually dates supermodels. The very idea of Alfie falling in love with Mabel for real is such a non-starter for Mabel that she misses every sign that’s right before her eyes. 

Of course, fake dating means spending additional time together in the public eye. Alfie has a bit of a reputation for kissing his girlfriends on doorsteps so, for the media to believe their really dating…  Mabel is beside herself.

And as she did she felt him lean down, and kiss her fucking neck.

Just straight up kissed her neck, like that was a normal thing people did all the time as they were trying to get indoors. Instead of something she was pretty sure she’d never even seen happen to Julia Roberts in eighty movies about people being really horny for Julia Roberts.

The story is told completely from Mabel’s POV so we don’t know what’s going on in Alfie’s head until right near the end. Mabel’s belief that Alfie could not possibly love her could have been annoying I suppose. It was, essentially, what was keeping them apart. But I understood it. Alfie Harding is a superstar. He’s rich, famous and yes, he usually does date supermodels. Mabel is a normal person who does not move in Alfie’s usual circles. Her whole life she’s been told, by various men, that she’s not good enough and not deserving of their attention. As a result, she’s built up a thick armor. It’s really no wonder that Mabel tries to protect herself or that she takes a lot of convincing that Alfie does in fact love her to the moon and back.

I laughed out loud so many times as I read. Actual guffawing and snorting occurred. Mabel and Alfie have such a delightful dynamic. Both of them are head over heels for the other but neither can or will believe it is possible for the other to feel the same so they are constantly at cross purposes and constantly trying not to let the other know what’s really happening*. (*it turns out that Alfie is much worse at this than Mabel is, to be fair.) The say preposterous things to each other – Mabel in attempts at misdirection and Alfie because he’s baffled and trying desperately to keep up.

“Holy crapola did you actually just say that?”

“No. I never. You’ve fallen asleep and me saying that is just a horrible nightmare. In a second I’m going to wake you up by telling you something completely normal, like you looked like a soft rabbit.”

“But that isn’t completely normal either, Alfie.”

“I know,” he groaned. “I heard myself saying it and my brain just started yelling.”

“Well, it obviously needs to get faster. So it grabs you before you do it.”

“And what are the chances of that? You’ve seen how I am. Stuck in the past, slower than an old man sucking a toffee. It’s a fucking miracle I can even keep up with you at all, conversation-wise. Never mind saying things that make sense.”

It’s not all laughs. Over the course of the book, Mabel finds she recognises in Alfie things that resonate with her own experience. She finds out who the real man is and he’s not very much like the public persona at all. There’s a reason he’s so angry all the time. And, he’s never angry with her. (Occasionally frustrated and yes, grumpy, but not angry.) Alfie is much more than a “football guy” in the public eye who gets in trouble a lot. There’s far more to him than that and Mabel, for her part, appreciates what it means that she gets to know the real him.

I highlighted so much of the text as I read. I enjoyed the turns of phrase and the banter and the baffling, charming absurdity of their courtship. I liked both Mabel and Alfie very much. I would like to be Mabel’s friend. Possibly Alfie’s too but he’s not big on friends so maybe not.

Even though I understood Mabel’s fear and belief, I did wish she had been a little braver near the end. I did wish that they didn’t have to spend so much time apart (in terms of temporal-time if not page-time). (I was reading an ARC which was clearly not the final version so I’m not exactly sure if the time frame I read is what’s in the published book. Still, I can only review the book I actually read.) Perhaps it is a sign of the book’s success with me that I reacted so strongly to things going pear-shaped. As it was though I experienced quite the disappointment.

Of course, this is a romance novel and things turn out right in the end. Just… did it have to take them so long? They were miserable for too much time!!

While my overwhelming memory of the story is laughing at how great they were together, there was no lack of the more earthy kind of chemistry either. Mabel is delighted to find that the tell-all stories from former girlfriends are all completely true: it’s huge and yes, he can go all night.

But, what sticks in my mind the most is how charmed I was and how much I laughed.

“Well, at least tell me why you did it.”

“As if I have the first fucking clue. Mabel, I don’t know why I do anything. A fact that you well know after the meeting debacle. And the phone call debacle. And the restaurant debacle. And the Starbucks debacle.”

She rolled her eyes. “I get it. You have a lot of debacles.”

“Yet you’re surprised this happened.”

Grade: A-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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The Germans pause their bombing raids on London but life on the homefront is certainly far from ordinary. The Seamstress on Cider Lane is a lighthearted and hopeful romance, perfect for fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Last Bookshop in London.

Gifted seamstress Nora Archer opens a sewing shop just as clothing becomes rationed and scarce in Britain. London’s fashionable elites soon discover her remarkable talent for giving garments new life and her skills are soon in high demand.

Having lost his flat during the Blitz, Jack Parker is relieved to finally locate a new home. He finds himself living under the same roof as Nora, the spirited and enchanting woman he thought he’d lost, as well as Nora’s protective aunt.

Despite her aunt’s warnings, Nora can’t help falling for Jack. However, the sweet and bookish teacher is from a different world and Nora doesn’t know if she fits in or if Jack might be too good to be true. She can’t deny the intense attraction between herself and Jack—and neither of them wants to.

When a struggling friend’s desperate plea for help lures Nora into the dodgy clothing black market, she risks not only her business and reputation but also her blossoming relationship with Jack.

Will Jack and Nora’s wartime romance survive when Nora’s secrets are revealed?

Dear Ms. Hamilton, 

Well this makes two good books in a row. Nora made such a good impression on me in the first book, The Hobby Shop on Barnaby Street that I had my fingers crossed when I started her story. There’s some angst, a lot of happiness, a beagle puppy, and a bit of delicious comeuppance for more than a few people but trust me, they had it coming. 

Nora Archer has always wanted her own design shop but without the start-up money and with retail space being in short supply in blitzed London, she’s put that dream off. But when the place where she works is bombed and her aunt offers a loan, “Archer Fashion and Tailoring” is born. Teacher Jack Parker has wondered why the lovely young woman he met and danced one evening with never responded to his letters. When he moves to a new attic flat closer to the school where the war department decided he would be better utilized instead of being shot at by the Jerries, imagine his surprise and delight when he realizes Nora lives there, too. Their feelings immediately begin to spark but there’s more than just Nora’s aunt’s proprieties standing in the way of their HEA.    

So once again we’re in wartime London. Nora’s new store is going to have to deal with the newly started clothing rationing and coupons – imagine! says one customer, starting it so quickly with so little lead time – so she will mainly be repairing, repurposing, and mending for her customers. When a childhood friend arrives and Nora sees how bleak Irene is looking, she offers her friend some mending to do to help the woman make ends meet. A few days later Irene arrives with a proposition that I was astounded to see as part of the story but given the circumstances, it makes perfect sense even if Nora maybe shouldn’t have taken Irene up on it. 

Jack’s heart has always been in research (17th and 18th century) but after he tried to sign up for the war effort, it was decided that London’s children needed a teacher more than the Army needed another warm body to be shot at. Jack admits he isn’t the best at the job but he does know how to handle the thing that one snotty brat brings into class. Jack does like Marvin though and once he sees who Marvin’s cousin is, he likes things a lot more. 

One thing I really like about this series is how things that would usually become Big Ticking Bomb Misunderstandings that I would normally wait to see explode are dealt with fairly quickly. Nora and Jack are getting along well but Nora had one posh prat treat her badly so when she discovers who Jack’s family is and how much money they have, she is concerned. Then along comes Mr. Weasel to a party but lo and behold it doesn’t become a future issue. Rather Jack sees that the creep has upset Nora who Tells Jack All after which Jack offers to take revenge on him for her. Bravo Jack and yay that these people talk to each other.

But even if they talk, that doesn’t mean that things are immediately perfect. Nora admits that she trusts Jack – well, after a time or two when his family keep pushing a young deb at him – but realizes that she’s still a bit fragile and needs time to quell her insecurities  which is totally understandable. Jack has family troubles in that he’s a step-son of his wealthy step-father and he knows that his younger brother is the Golden Child. Even after all these years – and Jack is treated well by the family – he knows he’s second best. When Some Things Happen – both to Nora and in Jack’s family – they have to deal with the potential fallout. I was delighted that Jack takes an internal stand for what he really wants out of life.    

After the way the War Issue was resolved in book one, I admit to being surprised that this time it is different. The full weight of it will be brought to bear and Nora faces real and lasting consequences. Jack might be forced to act one way but Nora’s Aunt’s reaction startled me as did her quick turnabout. That didn’t seem like the character I’d watched take Nora’s side all along. The way that Jack learns what Nora risked and whom she covered for and then ensures that those people make amends is satisfying. 

I’m now looking forward to book three and the set up promises to be sweet payback based on how a character acts in this book. I would love to see a follow up Next Gen book with Marvin and Ginger the Beagle in it. Please? A-

~Jayne   

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A forbidden wartime romance begins just as German planes fill the skies over London in 1940. A playful and heartfelt read perfect for fans of Dear Mrs. Bird, The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

When Maisie Beckett steps into her brother’s struggling London hobby shop during wartime, she’s confronted with two harsh realities: the looming threat of a Nazi invasion and the shop’s dire financial situation. Determined to prove herself to her parents and keep the shop afloat, Maisie moonlights as a pinup photographer, covertly boosting the shop’s earnings. In the midst of London’s nightly bombings, Maisie finds herself irresistibly drawn to the shop’s co-owner, Cal Woodbury, captivated by his quick wit and bashful smile—and his mysterious secret.

But Cal made a promise to his best friend and business partner, Roy—a promise that he would never pursue a romantic relationship with Maisie, Roy’s sweet and beautiful sister. As the German bombs rain down upon London, and as Cal’s bond with Maisie deepens, he discovers that some promises are impossible to keep. When Roy deserts the Navy and unexpectedly appears at Cal’s doorstep, Cal is forced to choose between his loyal friend and the woman he’s falling for.

While London goes to war around them, Maisie and Cal face their own battle—finding their courage and recognizing their worth.

Dear Ms. Hamilton,

Thank you for contacting us about this series. I’ve been (yes, I will admit it) whining a bit about how most books set in WWII these days seem to be all about libraries. But a hobby shop? Wow, that’s a different setting. I wasn’t quite sure that a hobby shop would be able to stay in business during the Blitz but as I kept reading, I found I definitely wanted to discover if it could and what would happen to the two friends trying to keep it going.

Maisie and Cal are such wonderful people. It’s not that they don’t make mistakes – they do. Yet those are honest and understandable mistakes. But they keep trying to be better, to be helpful, to look after those they care about in spite of how some of these people sometimes treat them. Maisie is aware that her brother Roy is the sun in her parents’ lives. When Roy’s London shop appears to be struggling – actually it’s poor co-owner Cal struggling to get and keep good help in the face of the higher wages paid by munitions factories – Maisie is dispatched (whether or not she really wants to go) to assist. Maisie is the sibling who always wanted to run a shop or perhaps she just wants to get out of her small village but to not have a say about it still rankles.

Cal Woodbury is trying to keep the business going but can see that getting certain stock will become even more trying as this war goes on. Items made of metal can be crossed off the inventory list and obtaining anything from the buying lists submitted to his suppliers is getting worse by the week. When Roy’s younger sister shows up and announces she’s there to help, Cal is frustrated for a number of reasons. He knows he needs the help but he worries that the shop is barely bringing in enough income to cover bills and his salary much less pay Maisie. Oh, and he quickly discovers that he’s very much interested in Maisie as a lovely young woman despite promising Roy he’d never try dating her.

Maisie soon lands a flat rental with a starchy older woman and strikes up a friendship with Nora who, after learning of Maisie’s interest in photography, comes up with a money making plan. Meanwhile Cal is faced with a terrible choice which will bite him in the bum no matter what he does plus he learns of a second family his father – who deserted him and his mother – has. When the bombs get closer to them and secrets are unearthed, what will Maisie and Cal discover about themselves and decide to do?

I loved the way the story unfolds. Little bits of information about the characters are shown along the way rather than info-dumped. There is a reason why young, healthy looking Cal is not in military service but rather than spill his life history to every nosy stranger who accosts him, he has devised a series of answers (delivered with a straight face) that had me laughing with the best (IMO) being that he’s actually a dog in a man suit. When a woman keeps entering the shop and behaving strangely, it takes a while before her true identity is dropped on Cal like a bombshell. He doesn’t take things well but as the situation unfolds, I can understand why it pains him so much.

Maisie is clearly the secondary child in her parents’ eyes. When she gets to London, she feels freer and begins to make some of her own choices. She also tries to help Cal keep the store afloat and pitches in to rescue and save an injured kitten. Nora’s suggestion forces Maisie to confront something painful from her past and start to move past it. The women who seek out her services want something to send to their men which they can’t get anywhere else and taking photos again brings back to Maisie the joy she once got from it.

I was surprised by a secondary subplot as I don’t recall ever reading anything like it before. Of course it will end up wreaking havoc on several people at the worst possible time but it, along with Maisie’s activities, will also open her parents’ eyes a bit as well.

There is pain but also laughter in the story. The MCs are sweethearts (and I don’t only mean their ultimate relationship which, no, I don’t see as a spoiler). Their actions and reactions are believable plus I got a great feel for the time period. And Tiger recovers from his injuries and is going to be along for Maisie’s and Cal’s future adventures. A-

~Jayne

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All the Duke of Dunfallon wants this holiday season is a respite from the machinations of the matchmakers. When pursued by a particularly determined would-be duchess, he ducks into the West Bartholomew Street Lending Library. Librarian Emerald Armstrong sees a dapper gent in a bit of a hurry and mistakes Dunfallon for a curate overdue for his assignation with West Bart’s theological collection.

Dunfallon is intrigued by Emmie’s love of books, her disdain for society’s games, and her ferocious generosity of spirit toward all of the library’s patrons. She has no patience with posturing, and thus he takes the risk of admitting his true identity. To his surprise, Emmie doesn’t mind all that much that he’s a duke—some things cannot be helped—but she is far less willing to keep silent about Dunfallon’s other secret, the one he has been guarding from even his fellow peers.

If an honorable woman is worth more than rubies, what will a duke sacrifice to earn her love?

Note: This story was half of Yuletide Gems, a novella duet originally published as a web store/library exclusive in 2022.

Dear Ms. Burrowes,

What a delight. Another book loving couple and more cats! And what a silly widgeon I’ve been to not have been reading your books up until now. 

I hope that Miss Minerva Peasegill gets an invitation to the wedding of the Duke of Dunfallon and the Hon. Emerald Armstrong because Minerva is the cause of their romance. If he hadn’t ducked into the West Bart. Street Lending Library, to avoid her and her mama and been mistaken for the budding curate in need of Welsh language skills, would these two have found each other? 

Dunfallon’s best hope lay in the fact that Bellefonte, being as tall as a lighthouse, would hold the ladies’ attention. Dunfallon himself could steal away unseen if he moved with the purpose and stealth of a border reiver beneath a quarter moon.

Dane, or Mr. Dunn, or the Duke of Dunfallon and Emmie, or the Honorable Miss Armstrong have much in common. They both love to read, they can interact well with children, and they’re hiding. Dane, the second spare who ended up inheriting after his elder brother died of the cliched “tragic accident” and the spare died of consumption, has been husband-hunted by marriage minded misses and their mamas. Emmie was guilted into entering the London marriage mart, didn’t take for five years and then when a second son did offer for her, she allowed intimacies (common among even the upper classes?) before her betrothed threw her over for a woman with a larger dowry. Then her brother, along with Society, viewed her as being the problem. 

They both have had family issues. Dane’s father was a tyrannical martinet who belittled his son, forced him into the Army, and then ultimately did something Dane found unforgettable. Emmie’s father (very) quickly remarried after her mother’s death in order to get his heir and Ambrose was willing to believe his school chum rather than his sister about their broken betrothal. 

Not all the things they have in common are dire. They both enjoy discussing books, debating finer points, cats, and reading aloud – which the street children and pensioners who routinely inhabit the library also enjoy. Ah, yes. The story is full of street children but rather than find them cloying or overdone heartstring tuggers, I enjoyed them, too. They are not plot moppets either. Little bits of information here and there reveal the tough life they lead and though they’re canny about survival, they can gather to hear the beloved books written by one Mr. Christopher Dingle about four kittens who work together and think their way through problems on the mean streets of London. 

“You mustn’t blame them for trying,” Mr. Dunn said when Emmie reshelved the book. “You have a way with a tale.”
 “Mr. Dingle has the way with a tale,” she said. “The children love his kittens, and what they love, they can learn from. Do you enjoy fiction, Mr. Dunn?”
He paused in his dusting. “As a lad, I did.”

There are also some wonderful secondary characters who have had their own book which I want to read.  

As (initially) Emmie and Dane don’t know the particulars about each other, they can ignore the dictates of Society and sit together, enjoying lunch or tea in Emmie’s office. This also gives them time to get to know each other far more than if they had merely waltzed together at Almacks. 

Miss Armstrong set down her sandwich and bestowed on Dunfallon a smile of such delighted sweetness that had she shot him in the bum with an arrow, he could not have been more astonished. When she smiled like that, Miss Armstrong barreled right past beguiling and galloped into the nearer reaches of fascinating.
The slight detachment that she carried around like a banner when executing her librarian’s duties was exchanged for the pennant of the prettiest lady in the shire, the most warmhearted, intelligent, alluring, unexpected…
God have mercy, he wasn’t the only one dissembling. Miss Emerald Armstrong wasn’t what she appeared to be, not at all, and that pleased Dunfallon as spirited debate, hot soup, and bachelor freedoms never had.

They are widely read and take delight in a rousing debate (not mansplaining) – something Emmie tells her friend Leah with wonder. Her (boorish) betrothed had boasted about having never finished a book (so we know he’s a caddish clod from the get go). She and Dane also discuss the Dingle book felines and how those kittens teach the children valuable life lessons. There is also a delightful discussion about the differences between men and women and societal expectations. 

Miss Peasegill and her ilk could pursue only the Dunfallon tiara, because they had not bothered to acquaint themselves with the man who could offer it to them. They had not paid attention to the subtle effect of mood on his burr. They had not wondered if he liked animals or disdained to allow them into his domiciles. They had never inquired about his literary tastes.
To them, those aspects of the man were irrelevant beside the shining wealth and consequence of the duke.
To Emmie Armstrong, the ducal trappings probably wouldn’t matter all that much even if she knew of them.

I wondered when Emmie would learn the truth behind Dane’s identity, thinking this would probably lead to the proverbial Third Act breakup only to discover the story would unfold quite differently. Huzzah for something unusual and some quality intimacy that even includes heaving bosoms. No, the third section of the novella makes Dane and Emmie learn some hard truths about themselves. Listening, really listening is vital. Supporting someone’s truths and being willing to apologize when wrong make a relationship work better.   

“I never want you to feel the misery that I did when my only sibling turned a deaf ear on my misfortune. I will tell you when you are wrong, Dunfallon, but I will also listen to you. Truly listen, not simply hoard up ammunition for my next volley in the argument. We can both be right, and we can both be wrong, all at the same time. 

Dunfallon’s fingers stroked Emmie’s hair from her temple to her nape, a deliciously soothing touch. “You propose a sound bargain. I promise you both honesty and kindness, and that means listening to each other even when we are disappointed or dismayed, but it also means we don’t lie to ourselves.”

      
So all’s well that ends well. Each is now seen, loved, and cherished. I did note a few probably anachronistic decorations and “plaid” was used where “tartan” maybe ought to have been but darn it, I don’t care. This was lovely. A-
~Jayne 

“I found Mr. Dingle’s stories and his unrelenting faith that there is always a way home, if only we are resourceful and true to ourselves and to our loved ones.”

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It’s Christmas 1946 and wounded doctor Laurence is struggling to find a way to live during peacetime. Lost in the Hampshire countryside on a snowy Christmas Eve, Laurence stumbles across lonely Mistletoe Cottage and its owner: Avery.
Avery is bright and beautiful, welcoming Laurence to his home with warmth and joy. But Laurence can’t stay forever, and Avery’s secrets mean he can never leave. When everything goes wrong, it’s up to Laurence to find a way to secure a happy-ever-after for their midwinter fairy tale.

Dear Ms. Durreson,

I’ve read several of your stories but not this one. I think others have mentioned it though so I went in, hoping for the best. Ah, what a charming story this is. 

I love how the awful British winter of 1946 is worked into it. How Laurence’s “broken brain” is not the PTSD I was expecting. His neurological issues also help him accept what Laurence considers at first to be Avery’s eccentricities. Avery is not quite historical but not quite contemporary (for Laurence’s time). Avery knows a bit about trains, has a range to cook on rather than cooking in the oven. Laurence’s upbringing has taught him that when he’s in a new environment, he needs to accept, be agreeable, and watch to see how to act so he doesn’t totally flip out when Avery uses some magic. The magic is also revealed at the start of their time together so the standard “what is happening, can’t be happening!” scenes can be eliminated.   

Both men know their preferences already but the realization has to dawn on them, through some subtle flirting, that they both feel this way. The relationship between Avery and Laurence does start fairly quickly but then they’ve only got twelve days to kickstart that. Or do they? The way that Laurence and Avery “connect” over the course of the year is clever and gets me ready for them to actually be in love When It Counts. Having Laurence discover something that helps him accept what is actually going on works for me, too. 

I wasn’t expecting the last half of the story but it’s lovely and filled with other people who are not quite what society expects or will tolerate. Lady Althea and her “secretary” Millie (who knows how to fly spitfires but was not allowed to fight during the war) are obviously a couple, while Elspeth, the village lass and daughter of the local vicar, longs to apply to Oxford while her sister did “something mysterious” during the war. Even these things would have been beyond the dreams of Avery’s sisters but the world is changing. And as the village gets used to the fact that Laurence’s head injury necessitates that he needs some form of long term help, there might be a way forward into a HEA for him and this lovely man to whom Laurence has given back spring flowers. A-

~Jayne

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When a young nanny is found dead in mysterious circumstances, new mom, Tash, is intrigued. She has been searching for a story to launch her career as a freelance journalist. But she has also been searching for something else—new friends to help her navigate motherhood.

She sees them at her son’s new playgroup. The other mothers. A group of sleek, sophisticated women who live in a neighborhood of tree-lined avenues and stunning houses. The sort of mothers Tash herself would like to be. When the mothers welcome her into their circle, Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of—their elegant London townhouses a far cry from her cramped basement flat and endless bills. She is quickly swept up into their wealthy world via coffees, cocktails, and playdates.

But when another young woman is found dead, it’s clear there’s much more to the community than meets the eye. The more Tash investigates, the more she’s led uncomfortably close to the other mothers. Are these women really her friends? Or is there another, more dangerous reason why she has been so quickly accepted into their exclusive world? Who, exactly, is investigating who?

I read the author’s debut Greenwich Park last year and gave it a B+, though in my recollection it’s a little lower, probably a B. Still, I liked the book well enough to request this, Faulkner’s second book. It covers some of the same themes as Greenwich Park and has some similar issues as well.

The story is told in alternating chapters by Natasha (Tash) and Sophie. Tash is a youngish married journalist (her husband Tom is hospital resident) with a two-year-old son, Finn. Since giving birth, Tash has felt her career slipping away – she is trying to freelance but finding it hard to break in; she’d previously been with a newspaper. Tash is also a bit at sea in her personal life – motherhood has put a predictable strain on her in a variety of ways, and also, money is tight. (I guess NHS doctors make considerably less than their American counterparts.)

It wasn’t clear to me how the “other mothers” of the title ended up in the same playgroup as Tash and Finn – I would presume that they would have enrolled their tots in expensive and prestigious preschools, but again, this may be a “it’s different in the UK” thing.

But they are in the same playgroup, and Tash particularly notices the three of them: Claire, a waifish and delicate blonde; Nicole, a sharp and acerbic American (Nicole is so unpleasant I sort of took it personally as a fellow countrywoman), and Laura, who it turns out is a doctor at Tom’s hospital. The trio, apparently inseparable since birthing classes, invite Tash into their group and she quickly finds herself drawn to their comparatively glamorous lives.

At the same time, a woman comes to Tash about an article that she wrote – a short piece about a young woman that drowned in a local nature reserve. The authorities had ruled it an accident. The woman is Jane, mother of the dead woman, Sophie. Jane doesn’t believe Sophie’s death was accidental, and she wants Tash to look into it.

Tash is mildly intrigued, if skeptical. But then she discovers that Sophie was a nanny for Claire for a period of time leading up to her death.

One thing that frustrated me about Tash was that for a reporter, she is surprisingly reticent about investigating, at least early on. At times it feels like most of the clues about Sophie’s death that move the story forward kind of fall into Tash’s lap, rather than being a result of hard investigative work on her part. Sure, she works to get Sophie’s recovered phone working, but she doesn’t directly confront the various players and ask questions. Instead she skulks around nibbling at the edges of the story. This makes sense for the plot and pacing of the book but doesn’t make Tash look good at her job.

Though to be fair, one could argue that it demonstrates the duality of Tash’s interest in the other mothers – she’s investigating, but she’s also just drawn to their lifestyle and the way those two things overlap while remaining in opposition is one of the central themes of the story. I think my issue has to do with the fact that I read a lot of suspense books that feature a young female protagonist trying to dig up the truth about something. I am ambivalent about how many of the women share certain traits: raging insecurity, an inferiority complex, and a heightened sense that they don’t belong (often having to do with issues of class). The central character in Greenwich Park was very mousy and intimidated by her glamorous sister-in-law.

On the one hand, I understand why so many of these protagonists are the way they are – for one thing, they are meant to be relatable. But the more I read them, the more irritating I find them. Give me a heroine (if we’re calling these women heroines) with some confidence, some competence, some VERVE. I wouldn’t want to read about that type of protagonist all the time either, but I would like some variety.

(I think low-key I was also thinking that Tash’s actions weren’t particularly ethical from a journalistic standpoint; I kind of wish that’d been addressed.)

In the earlier Sophie timeline, she develops an infatuation with Claire’s husband, Jez. Claire is pregnant with the child who ends up being Finn’s contemporary in the later timeline; Sophie is chiefly a caretaker for Jez’s son Jude, whose mother died of cancer shortly after his birth. Jude is a strange child, particularly in the later timeline with Tash. Sophie becomes devoted to him and finds herself in the position of default caretaker of Claire and Jez’s household. Claire becomes more neurotic and reticent before her son’s birth, and afterward clearly suffers from postpartum depression, though it takes a long time for anyone to do anything about it. Meanwhile, Sophie bonds with Claire’s infant, Beau, and increasingly imagines herself in Claire’s place in the household, as wife to Jez and mother to Jude and Beau.

The class issues are intriguing and front and center in The Other Mothers. Sophie finds the idea of going back to the drab lower-middle class life she lived before coming to live in Claire and Jez’s house untenable. Her friend Sal is also a nanny; she cares for the daughter of another mother from the playgroup, Christina. (As an aside, I figured out a biggish twist about Christina fairly early on.) Sal is a bit more hard-bitten than Sophie and she has a fairly cynical attitude toward the wealthy mothers in the group. Later in the story, Sal tries to help Tash with some critical information that may be relevant to Sophie’s death, with tragic results.

Tash appears to have grown up middle-class (her father was a noted photographer who died in Iraq on assignment when she was 15), but she’s not happy with her place in life now – she and Tom both want something better for Finn than their sad little flat in a non-fashionable area without much of a yard. She ends up as drawn as Sophie was to the life that Claire leads, as well as a bit to Claire’s husband, Jez.

I thought The Other Mothers did a good job of laying out enough possible suspects and motives to keep me guessing (except for Christina’s secret, that is – but I wasn’t clear on whether that fit into Sophie’s death or not).  The initial ending was a bit unsatisfying. Not because of the resolution of the mystery – that was fine – but because Tash makes some choices that felt not quite true to character (or maybe I just wanted to believe that she had more integrity than she did). Then there’s a whole second ending, with several batshit twists.

(I really overuse the word “batshit” when reviewing suspense, because that’s how these twists feel to me. I’m ambivalent about them – I admit I kind of like the craziness, but I also shake my head at how over-the-top they are.)

The second ending didn’t quite work for me either – there’s a fair amount of moral ambiguity about several characters’ actions and I’m not sure how I felt about it. There’s also a sort of emergent second villain (well, the story actually has quite a few villains), and that character’s villainy, or at least the extent of it, felt out of left field and overblown.

Complaints aside, I really found The Other Mothers a compelling read. I would wake up in the morning wanting to read more of it, and I was even sad that it was ending as the final chapters approached. I’m going to give this an A-/B+, and eagerly look forward to Faulkner’s next book.

Best,

Jennie

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Sometimes it’s the most unlikely meetings that give us life’s greatest gifts.

1970s, Southern Alabama. Sixty-two-year-old Jeremiah Lewis Taylor, or “Nub,” has spent his whole life listening to those he’s loved telling him he’s no good—first his ex-wife, now his always-disapproving daughter. Sure, his escapades have made him, along with his cousin and perennial sidekick, Benny, just a smidge too familiar with small town law enforcement, but he’s never harmed anyone—except perhaps himself.

Nub never meant to change his ways, but when he and fifteen-year-old Waffle House waitress Minnie form an unlikely friendship, he realizes for the first time that there may be some good in him after all. Six-foot-five Minnie has been dealt a full deck of bad luck—her father is a convicted murderer serving a life sentence, her mother is dead and buried, and she has a Grand Ole Opry–worthy singing voice with no place to perform. Oh, and there’s the small fact that she’s unexpectedly pregnant, courtesy of a no-good high-school boy.

Gradually, Nub realizes the gift he’s been given: a second chance to make a difference.

Beloved Southern writer Sean Dietrich, also known as Sean of the South, once again brings people and places to life in this lyrical song-turned-story about found family, second chances, country music, and the poignant power of love and forgiveness.

CW/TW – suicide, alcoholism, cancer, teen pregnancy, bullying

In Alabama, “Drive safe” is code for “I love you.” There are different versions of this phrase, of course. But the words all mean the same thing. They all carry the same spirit. In central Alabama, one variation of this phrase is, “Be careful, the cops are out tonight.” In northern regions of the state, people say, “Y’all be safe going home.” Others might say, “Watch out for deer.” 
Either way, the specific words are inconsequential; they all convey the same meaning: You matter to me. You’re important to me. Keep your high beams on. Keep both hands on the wheel. Deer are homicidal. Eavesdrop at any Alabamian get-together, from women’s Bible studies to Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, from Boy Scout rallies to bunco games, and at the end of the night, you won’t hear I-love-yous uttered. Not even among families. You will, however, hear the “drive safe” invocation used about fifty or sixty times.

Dear Mr. Dietrich,

This book is a country and western song in the making. Most of the plot can probably already be found in various country and western songs. Well maybe not the C-4 but most of the rest. Love, drinking, regret, heartache, exes, anger, love, regret, drinking, singing, family, lost love, drinking, second chances, regret, drinking, family, prison, parole, drinking, love, and second chances. Yep, that about covers it. When I read the blurb I crossed my fingers and asked to read it, hoping it would be similar – in a 1970s way – to “The Big Finish” which also centers around an older man, his friend, and a young woman needing a helping hand. To my delight, it is.
    
If you are a Southerner, you will probably know, be related to or have someone like one of these people in your life. Said person has probably Been Discussed at family gatherings with a smile, a sigh, and/or some heavy eye rolling. “Lord, what is soandso up to now??” You might even be one of these characters. If you are not a Southerner, you will probably be horrified at these people. You might sneer, curl a lip in disgust, sniff disparagingly, and thank whatever power you believe in that you are not from here or related to anyone like them thankyouverymuch. 

I am a Southerner – born and bred – and while this is not quite a homecoming for me, I’ve lived in and been around small Southern towns, had extended family around me, been to services in small, rural churches, and my daddy was an alcoholic. He wasn’t as publicly bad as Nub but dad and I, in many ways, were like Nub and his daughter Emily. There were wounds, there were scars, there were regrets. 

Though the book is laced with wry, deadpan humor – and I laughed Out Loud a whole bunch of times – there are some painful things as well. The book starts off with a load of them including a two suicides and a drunken rampage by Nub as he attempts to escape the long arm of the law. It doesn’t go well for him but frankly, he lives in a small town, works for the county government, and everyone knows where he lives so it wasn’t like he was going to evade anything. Sigh … sometimes the liquor drives Nub to do things he shouldn’t. 

Nub knows he’s been a disappointment to his friends and family. But, in his defense, he has an Incident from his youth which was followed by a year in a youth asylum (because his mama couldn’t cope with the first Incident) that would leave lifelong wounds on most people much less an eleven year old boy. Nub knows he shouldn’t have done a lot that he’s done – heck the whole town knows it – but alcohol is a powerful mistress and Nub doesn’t seem to have an off-switch once he starts. 

Minnie and Nub first meet in the hospital. It’s a small town with a small hospital so I didn’t bat an eye that an older man and teen girl would be recovering in the same room. Later when Nub sees Minnie being bullied by a teen snot – heck the whole town knows Philip is a little pissant – and his minions it lights a fire in Nub. He might have messed up being there for his own daughter but he’s going to help Minnie even if that requires filling out “thirty miles of documents” and attending a parenting class so he can foster this young teen who has no one. Everyone – including his daughter (who is a little jealous) and his ex – tells him he’s insane but Nub is a man on a mission.  

Minnie is a sweet teen who has always been teased because of her height and who believed a pissant when he said he would love her if she just agreed to sex. Now she’s pregnant, an orphan and due to Nub’s sense of mission, finally in a home where she can relax, take hot showers, and wear clothes that fit and aren’t falling apart. She can’t believe her luck. Nub’s cat Wyatt likes her, too.  

What no one knows is that Minnie’s father isn’t dead and is out on parole. Right, the man who worked for organized crime, ripped them off, and then accidentally killed a man leading to fifteen years in the slammer where his height and size made him a target. The men dressed all in black and driving a white caddy who follow Sugar make no attempt to evade Shug’s notice. That’s part of the intimidation. They also begin harassing Minnie – and by extension Nub – to mess with Shug and get their money back. But no one is messing with his daughter and if he has to camp out in the woods near Nub’s house and keep watch – and also get his hands on some C-4, as Shug was a demolition man in the Army – he will. 

The myth of absent fathers is that they are careless and selfish. But sometimes the opposite is also true. Sometimes absent fathers care too much. Sometimes they’re drunks. And sometimes drunks know they’re drunks. Sometimes, contrary to what you’ve been told, drunks don’t want to screw up your life. So they stay away.

Emily Ives initially thinks her father is nuts to take on a foster teen. Emily is also a bit pissed that, through Minnie, Nub appears to want to make up for all he missed in Emily’s life. Emily is also hiding a secret that she discovered after dealing with yet another Thanksgiving from hell. Yet as she watches her father actually seem to reform himself – except for the smoking as you can only give up so much at a time as AA knows – Emily does what Southern women do, she brings food and tries to help including a wild ride to the hospital with a teen in labor in the backseat of her car. 

Somehow all of the plot threads come together in the end. It’s wild but what else should I have expected from this book? As I mentioned earlier, I laughed my ass off at times and blinked back a tear at others. Some things cut close while many, many others brought me good memories as I know the South and I lived through 1972. Boomers and Gen Xers will know a lot of these things first hand. The book has sass, heart, and people triumphing over the odds against them. It will not be for everyone but I inhaled the 400 pages in two days and loved it. It will break your heart and then put it back together. A-         

~Jayne 
   

Because Minnie had come to believe that life was not about finding miracles, or happiness, or success, or purpose, or about avoiding disappointment. It was about finding people. People are what make life worth it. People are the buried treasure. People who understand you. People who will bleed with you. People who make your life richer. Your people. Your kinfolk.

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Nick Russo has worked his way from a rough Brooklyn neighborhood to a reporting job at one of the city’s biggest newspapers. But the late 1950s are a hostile time for gay men, and Nick knows that he can’t let anyone into his life. He just never counted on meeting someone as impossible to say no to as Andy.

Andy Fleming’s newspaper-tycoon father wants him to take over the family business. Andy, though, has no intention of running the paper. He’s barely able to run his life–he’s never paid a bill on time, routinely gets lost on the way to work, and would rather gouge out his own eyes than deal with office politics. Andy agrees to work for a year in the newsroom, knowing he’ll make an ass of himself and hate every second of it.

Except, Nick Russo keeps rescuing Andy: showing him the ropes, tracking down his keys, freeing his tie when it gets stuck in the ancient filing cabinets. Their unlikely friendship soon sharpens into feelings they can’t deny. But what feels possible in secret–this fragile, tender thing between them–seems doomed in the light of day. Now Nick and Andy have to decide if, for the first time, they’re willing to fight.

Review:

Dear Cat Sebastian,

I have read many of your works and by now I have no doubt that I find your books set in the 20 century more enjoyable than the 19 century ones. This book was lovely. It is mostly a character study written with such a delicate touch of two people who, to put it simply, belong together but at the beginning neither of them quite know it.

Nick has some feelings for Andy almost from the beginning. I think the beginning of the story should clue you in that nobody is hating anyone in this book:

“Nick Russo could fill the Sunday paper with reasons why he shouldn’t be able to stand Andy Fleming. Not only is he the boss’s son, but rumor has it he’s only slumming it at the New York Chronicle city desk — a job Nick has been hungry for ever since he first held a newspaper in his hands — because his father threatened to cut off his allowance. He can’t type. He roots for the Red Sox. He has no idea how to buy subway tokens. He has this stupid habit of biting his nails and then, realizing what he’s doing, abruptly stopping and looking around furtively to check if anyone saw him.

He blushes approximately five hundred times a day. He has a cluster of tiny freckles at the corner of his mouth shaped like a copy editor’s caret and, since Nick can’t stop looking at them, those freckles are going to ruin his career. With covert glances across the newsroom, Nick catalogs all the things he doesn’t like about Andy and stores them up like a misanthropic squirrel. He’s Nick’s age, twenty-five or so, but has definitely never done an honest day’s work in his life, probably not even a dishonest day’s.

He’s gangly, not short, but maybe a buck thirty soaking wet. His hair is that in-between color that on women gets called dishwater blond and on men isn’t called anything at all because it usually looks brown after being slicked back or combed smooth. But Andy doesn’t slick his hair back. He parts it on the side like a six-year-old. Nick doesn’t bother with any of that garbage, either, but that’s only because his hair is curly and has ideas of its own. Nick’s hair laughs in the face of pomade. It’s offensive, is what it is, that the boss’s son thinks he’s going to play at being a cub reporter. It’s possibly even more offensive than the story behind how Nick got the job, which owes more to the old city desk editor going senile than anything else, but Nick isn’t going to think about that right now.

The point is, Nick knows how to hate people. He’s no stranger to a grudge. He ought to spend the rest of his career resenting the ever-living daylights out of Andy. Instead he lasts less than a week. Less than a day, even. About forty-five minutes, to be exact, and that’s Andy’s fault, too. *”

And yes, the book is written in the present time first person switching between Nick and Andy. And normally it is not my favorite POV, but it worked very well for me here. Probably because it felt as if the main focus of the story was Nick and Andy learning things about themselves in the present time and their relationship was evolving in front of us. I thought it was a good choice for this particular story.

I was fascinated by the promise of seeing how journalists worked in the 1950s and we see some of that for sure, I am not lowering the grade for that of course, since I always try to evaluate the story I am reading and not the one I was expecting but I think I am allowed to wish for more, to see more scenes in the actual newspaper and them working.

Again though, the plot here was mostly very character based and everything revolved around Nick and Andy figuring stuff out, realizing that they are able to find the way to be together, how they feel about each other, what they want from their careers, I was especially pleased how Andy figured out that he could run the newspaper despite his many worries. Nick may not have made drastic changes about his career, but he also made some and I was proud of him, too.

We also got to see Andy’s relationship with his father changing for the better and some stuff with Nick and his family. It all felt so, I don’t know what is the best word here? Organic I guess?

There are also touches of humor and it worked well for me. There is my beloved New York on the pages of the story.

Most importantly I absolutely believed that Nick and Andy were it for each other by the time book ended.

Recommended

4.5 stars

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London, April 1943. A little over a year since she married Captain Charles Mayhew and he went away to war, Emmy Lake is now in charge of “Yours Cheerfully,” the hugely popular advice column in Woman’s Friend magazine. Cheered on by her best friend Bunty, Emmy is dedicated to helping readers face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war. The postbags are full and Woman’s Friend is thriving.

But Emmy’s world is turned upside down when glamorous socialite, the Honorable Mrs. Cressida Porter, becomes the new publisher of the magazine, and wants to change everything the readers love. Aided by Mrs. Pye, a Paris-obsessed fashion editor with delusions of grandeur, and Small Winston, the grumpiest dog in London, Mrs. Porter fills the pages with expensive clothes and frivolous articles about her friends. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the “Yours Cheerfully” column and her vision for the publication’s future seems dire. With the stakes higher than ever, Emmy and her friends must find a way to save the magazine that they love.

Dear Ms. Pearce, 

I was thrilled to get a chance to read this book in advance. Thrilled. Over the moon. Giddy. Alright, I’ll stop now. Chuffed. Happy. Ecstatic. Right, right, stopping now. The previous two books had been such joys to read but I knew that there was still a lot to be written in this series. 

Emmy’s life is going well considering this is heading towards the fourth year of the war. She’s happily married yet has spent so little time with Charles who is off censored somewhere fighting for King and country. No personal news is good news, right? She and bestie Bunty are still living in Bunty’s grandmother’s house in Pimlico and thrilled that Thelma, Emmy’s fellow telephonist at the National Fire station were Emmy works part time, and Thel’s three children will be moving into the flat at the top of the house. 

Lord Overton, the beloved longtime owner of Woman’s Friend magazine has recently passed away but so far, the staff don’t anticipate any change to their mission to help the ordinary women of Britain soldier through the wartime shortages and challenges. Then word arrives that the magazine has been left to Lord Overton’s Society niece – the Hon. Mrs. Cressida Porter.     

While she might at first appear like a dazzling haute couture fairy creature dispensing glamor and fudge, Mrs. Porter, while smiling charmingly, quickly slashes through the bread-and-butter content of Woman’s Friend in a way that would make a velociraptor sit back in awed appreciation before beginning to take notes on her technique. Emmy’s brother-in-law, Mr. Collins – wonderful man and the type of manager anyone would be lucky to work for, is tact and patience personified as he attempts to stanch the blood and soothe the nerves of the staff. But there’s only so much Guy can do to head off Mrs. – “call me Egg” – Porter’s. ruthless plans to turn their humble but needed magazine into a glitzy publication for the wealthy, landed, and titled. As the complaints from their readers rise and ad revenue falls, can Emmy and Guy cook up a plan to save what’s left of Woman’s Friend?  

We’ve been through ups and downs with Emmy, Bunty, and the staff at the newspaper Woman’s Friend. The staff brought it back from the edge – and unwittingly became minor celebrities among the London journalists for doing so – but now they face their greatest challenge. They’ve dispensed helpful information and tips to their readers about how to make do and carry on. The “Friend to Friend” column has been a sounding board for readers’ hopes for the future “once the world is free.” And in “Your’s Cheerfully,” Emmy has given advice to those who often have nowhere else to turn. When Mrs. Porter’s little ideas begin to turn things on their head, the staff is dismayed and then furious. She might think that glum letters from dreary people are “a bit Mis” and that yet another recipe for potatoes or knitting patterns need to be ditched for a write up on a Society wedding or advice to spend 4 guineas for a frock (4 guineas!) but as boring as Mrs. Porter finds business dealings (a bit Mis) it’s soon obvious that the paper is spiraling and headed for disaster. 

Bunty is still a bit raw at the loss of her fiancé Will in a Luftwaffe bombing raid but Emmy susses out that there might be a new male friend in Bunty’s life. Soon Harold is a part of the jolly bunch living in the house and he finds himself a hero to Stan, Marg, and George – Thel’s children. As an engineer (formerly tasked with dealing with unexploded bombs), Harold is a key part of repairing the garden shed for Stan’s hoped for guinea pigs and other assorted creatures. If you need chickens, ask for Scary David or his scary brother but don’t ask too many questions. 

Emmy and Guy watch helplessly as Mrs. Porter’s ideas scuttle the paper until Emmy thinks outside the box after which the Wonderful Monica and her source at the Ministry Do Their Part. What Guy and Emmy don’t count on is a rear attack. I was sweating how this would end. I was also waiting for Something Dire as several people near and dear are fighting in various military theaters plus though the Blitz is over, the Luftwaffe still does bombing raids. What happened had me gutted. I cried. I will freely admit that. For a good section of the last third of the story, tears trickled. Emmy’s oft repeated thought, “You are safe and you are loved” got me through. Then just when I thought all hope of a positive outcome for one issue was lost, it was saved and I cheered.  

If I have one complaint to lodge, it would be that most of these characters are either very good or very bad. Most of the characters are three dimensional and have layers – even Small Winston – but yeah, good or bad. One big Yes from me though for Stan, Marg, and George who are Definitely Not Plot Moppets. Write the next book please quickly as I need to know what will happen next. A  

~Jayne

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Being an intern at One Wizard sounds magical on the page, but in practice mostly means getting yelled at by senior mages and angry clients alike. And so, after receiving a frantic call from a young man who’s awoken to a talisman on his bedroom wall—and no memory of how it got there—Journeyman Wen jumps at the chance to escape call-center duty and actually help someone for once.

But the case ends up being more complicated than Wen could ever have anticipated. The client has been possessed by a demon prince from Hell, and he’s not interested in leaving.

Review:

Dear Em.X.Liu,

I purchased this book on impulse, because somebody on my tweeter feed retweeted the review by KJ Charles. I don’t follow her myself, but the review hit several of my buttons, and I said to myself why not.

First of all, this is not a long read. The author calls it a novella, it has 165 pages on my kindle and it took me few hours to finish it.

The writing was on another level. I am not capable of analyzing the finer details, but I wanted to stop and taste every word and every sentence. Also, since I have not read any other reviews, I need to nod in agreement with KJ Charles’ one. Most of the story is written in second person present POV. The author does infuse some other tenses from time to time, but the vast majority is second person present. Let me tell you, I dislike first person present, but I certainly have read the books in that POV that I liked.

Second person present? I usually run away from the book when I see it. This book however I inhaled.

Now let me tell you what this book is not in my opinion – it is not a romance, at most it is a beginning of the romance and at the end of the book I was still not completely sure between which characters the romance may start (or NOT! and NOT is a very real possibility when the story ends). There are certainly emotional attachments formed between all four main characters, but where it will go, who the heck knows.

I also don’t think that this book is actually about magic, even though the settings are described very accurately in the blurb – the main character works in the magical agency and the actual magic is part of this world, but we dont see much of the magic at work. I mean, very real possession is at the heart of the plot, so magic should be involved, but I think the unhelpfulness of magical bureaucracy is what we see more than actual magic and dont get me wrong, the portrayal is very on point.

And main character trying to help to the best of his abilities and getting his heart involved too, was lovely and the client possessed by Demon Prince from Hell was wonderful, too. Oh and there was Nathaniel too who fit very well…

Read it… A-

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Dear Elle Kennedy,

I’ve enjoyed your previous Avalon Bay books (Good Girl Complex and Bad Girl Reputation) but they had not quite lived up to the experience of books like The Deal for me. It’s the kind of reading high I’m always chasing and I’m pleased to say that The Summer Girl brings it. (So much so that I am currently happily falling down an Off Campus re-reading rabbit hole with no regrets.) This time the banter and the vibe and the plot all worked for me and I spent most all of the book in a happy reading daze.

Tate Bartlett gets “dumped” by Alana at the start of the book. (I put dumped in quotes because they’d had a casual FWB relationship and Alana decided to end it before either of them could potentially catch feelings. They’ve been friends for years and will remain so. Tate is not heartbroken.) Of course, Cassie Soul, who unfortunately is nearby and has no way not to overhear the late night beach conversation does not know that. She’s trying to sneak off without Tate realising she’s even been there when her phone buzzes with a text and the jig is up. 

Before I can think of a witty response to his cute girl remark—or any response at all, really—my phone dings again. I glance down. Another text from Peyton. Followed by another one.

“Someone’s popular,” he teases.

“Um, yeah. I mean, no. It’s just my friend.” I grit my teeth. “She’s one of those annoying people who send, like, ten one-line messages instead of a single paragraph, so they just keep popping up and the phone dings over and over again until you want to smash it over their head. I hate that—don’t you hate that?”

His jaw drops. “Yes,” he says, with such sincerity I have to grin. He shakes his head. “I fucking hate that.”

“Right?”

Tate is not exactly a player but he has no trouble finding companionship as and when he wants it. He’s a one-woman-at-a-time kind of guy but he is not in the market for a relationship. He likes to keep things casual, friendly and respectful. His parents are nauseatingly in love and they have provided him with a very high standard to aspire to. Having not ever felt anything close to that, he doesn’t see the point in pretending.

Cassie is a student at Briar College in Boston (Briar!)  and is in Avalon Bay for the summer visiting with her maternal grandmother, the former owner of the Beacon Hotel. Mackenzie Cabot will be reopening The Beacon at the end of the summer and grandma will be moving to Boston so it’s a last hurrah for the Tanner family. Cassie’s mother is in Boston and won’t be in Avalon Bay until the end of the summer, thankfully. Cassie’s mother is a narcissist who is constantly belittling and criticising Cassie. Cassie’s dad and his second wife live in Avalon Bay, in the house Cassie grew up in. They have twin girls who share Cassie’s birthday. Cassie will turn 21 over the summer, the girls will turn 6. Cassie feels estranged from her dad and usurped by his new family (much as she adores the girls and longs for a better relationship with her stepother), like she doesn’t really belong anywhere. More than anything, she longs for that sense of belonging and family she’s missing.

However, Cassie is more interested, this summer, in finding a fling and finally losing her virginity. The first guy she meets in the bay is Tate and he’s a very gorgeous specimen indeed. It’s difficult to imagine she will find anyone better.

Cassie and Tate are instantly attracted to one another but Tate is warned off Cassie by Mac because Cassie is exactly the kind of girl who will catch feelings and want those strings Tate is trying to avoid. He doesn’t want to hurt her. He genuinely likes her and wants to be her friend. Cassie is disappointed but likes Tate for himself and is happy to hang out with him platonically.

Cassie’s self-esteem has been severely damaged by her mother’s constant criticism about everything from what she wears, to how she looks, what she eats, and everything else in her life and by feeling distanced from her father. Her old bedroom is now shared by the twins and she feels excluded from his family. Her stepmother (never referred to as such) is distant and Cassie believes, not without reason, that she is unwelcome and unwanted at their house. Cassie finds it difficult to express her needs and wants openly, tending to go along to get along and to push her feelings down rather than risk a confrontation which could make things worse.

However, almost straight away with Tate, things are different. She tells him how she feels, what she wants and is open with him in a way she is only with her two best girl friends. She doesn’t get as tongue-tied around him the way she does with most guys. That said, Cassie tends to babble when she’s nervous and can’t help doing it when she first meets Tate. He finds it charming and amusing in the kind of way that you just know this pair belong together forever.

Tate and Cassie have a wonderful chemistry and camaraderie and their banter is everything I want in a romance novel. It’s snappy, funny and oh so entertaining. It put me in mind of Hannah (aka “Wellsy”) and Garrett from The Deal. In the same way that Garrett was a good guy, so too is Tate. Both characters are people I’d like to hang around (…if I was a bit younger than I am now because it would be weird otherwise). They’re the kind of people you just want good things for.

“You’re a ginger,” he accuses, his eyes twinkling. They’re a light blue, just as I suspected.

“Don’t paint me with that ginger brush,” I protest. “I’m a copper.”

“That’s not a real thing.”

“I’m a copper,” I insist. I grip my ponytail and hold it closer to his face. “See? Dark red. It’s practically brown!”

“Mmm-hmm. Keep telling yourself that, ginger.”

As it happens, Tate is house-sitting next door to Cassie’s grandmother’s house for the summer. Cassie is still trying to find some one to have a summer fling with but the most promising not-Tate candidate is a terrible kisser. The scenes where Tate is “coaching” Cassie in how to handle the tonsil-tickler to try and improve his technique without crushing his ego are fun but also, I think, educational (in a good way).

Cassie being right next door means proximity does its own work. Before long Tate has succumbed to “flinging” with Cassie and he’s happy as a clam. Cassie is determined to keep her promise to keep things to a summer romance only but over the weeks that follow their connection is such that both of them are thinking that the plan needs a review. Tate, for the first time ever, wants a capital R Relationship.

Unfortunately Cassie’s awful mother arrives early in the bay and she brings with her mountains of trouble and oceans of criticism. On Tate’s side of the equation, he finds out things about his family he wished he didn’t know. Tate has an opportunity of a lifetime to sail a boat from Miami to New Zealand but this puts him in conflict with his dad and a promise to look after the family boat business while his parents take a month’s holiday. Tate never wants to let his parents down – he describes himself as the child who suggested his own punishments after he confessed to wrongdoing as a kid – but there comes a time when Tate has to spread his own wings and not live to please his parents.

Between trouble with Cassie’s mother and Tate’s dad, it looks like the casualty will be their future and for a while things seem bleak. But this is a romance and of course everything turns out right in the end.

One of the things I loved about the entire Off Campus series (and its offshoots) was the banter between the friends; the hockey guys, the girls and their own group of friends. It’s present in the Avalon Bay series too but in The Summer Girl it shines more brightly. It gave me those feel-good vibes you do so well.

Our buddy Jordy and his reggae band play this venue most weekends, but they’re not here tonight. In their place is a metal outfit with a lead singer who’s scream-singing unintelligible lyrics as I sidle up to the boys.

Cooper, clad in a black T-shirt and ripped jeans, is sipping on a beer and wincing at the ungodly noises coming from the stage. His other half is nowhere to be found, and by that I mean Evan, his twin. Mackenzie would be his better half, the chick who got Cooper to smile more times in the last year than in all the years I’ve known him combined. Genuine smiles, too, and not the cocky smirks he’d flash right before we used to fuck shit up.

Chase is next to Coop, engrossed with his phone, while Danny listens to the band with a pained expression.

“These guys are awful,” I say, wondering who the hell decided to book them. The singer is now making strange breathing noises while the two guitarists whisper into their microphones. “Why are they whispering now?”

“Is he saying my skull is weeping?” Cooper demands, wrinkling his brow.

“No. It’s my soul is sleeping,” Danny tells him.

“It’s both,” Chase says without looking up from his phone. “My skull is weeping/my soul is sleeping. Those are the lyrics.”

Equally in The Summer Girl there are strong female friendships as well – Cassie’s good friend back in Boston and her local friend from her childhood, as well as the new friends she makes with Mac and Gen and their crew.

Right up until the last 5-10% of the book I was pretty much in my reading happy place. I didn’t love the ending (well, except for the very end because of course) – I had hoped to see some things on page which were all done off page – especially an important conversation Cassie was to have with her dad – and I got a bit grumpy with Tate’s mother at one point. Still, the bleak part doesn’t last long for readers and Tate and Cassie are happy and in love – where they belong – by the time THE END rolls around.

I gobbled up this book like the tastiest treat. I felt disappointed at the end only because the book had finished. The Summer Girl is of course a different book to The Deal or The Mistake or any of my other favourites of your books. But it has everything in it that makes it the best of Elle Kennedy’s stories. Readers who loved the Off Campus books will probably love The Summer Girl too. I know I did.

Grade: A-

Regards,
Kaetrin

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