Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.

Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.

But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.

Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed and maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…

Dear Ms. Lau, 

Despite the fact that generally I’m not a fake-dating fan, I loved this book. I think this is a standalone novel but honestly I enjoyed it so much that I was a little sad that the sisters of the MCs are already married. Ms. Margaret Muffins, who often looks unimpressed with the world, is an unexpected treat and I adore that the hero talks to her as I do to my cats. Yes, they understand me, why do you ask? The heroine’s horror at the realization that she might actually be “getting old” (per her niece), was amusing to me as I look (way) back on the age Emily is now.  

Emily Hung’s last single sister is married and even Emily’s five year old niece (and I adored Scarlett and her sister Khloe) is questioning why Emily is single and tells her that she’s old. But all of that is in a loving five year old way. As Emily sees her mother bee-lining towards her, she knows that something is up. Mark Chan isn’t exactly thrilled with the forced meeting at this wedding but Mrs.Hung convinces him that Emily wants to see him again. Well, that isn’t true but Emily’s out-of-the-blue suggestion to fake-date takes him by surprise until he decides, why not. Can they keep it up long enough to get Emily’s mom off her back while also convincing half of Toronto that it’s a real relationship? And what will happen once all the secrets start coming out?

The book brings to life the story of immigrant’s hopes and expectations for their Canadian children, how those children feel about what their parents want, lots of family drama and dynamics, some scrumptious sounding restaurants, good friendships, the outrageous prices for Toronto real estate, living your own life and dreams, and a cat. Even though Emily (and to a degree her sisters) moan about their feeling at being pushed to choose a prestigious career, it is obvious across the whole of the book that their parents love them and just want the best for them. Emily often thinks about how much her parents gave up in order to immigrate to Canada with hopes for their future children. There is a truly lovely revelation at the end that is both heartwarming as well as bittersweet when Emily learns something her mother has never told her. 

Emily is a hard worker who has dared to leave a career that her degree in mathematics got her in order to do what she loves – writing. She’s got one book published but as she (eventually) explains to Mark, the fucked up publishing world gives no guarantees of future success based on past performances. Emily is that increasing rara avis – the midlist author – and she’s worried that after she’s finished this three book contract, she won’t ever get another. I liked seeing so much of her writing job as well as the fact that in order to afford half of a two bedroom Toronto apartment, she has to do two other part time jobs. Roommate Paige is delightful as well and the two definitely have each other’s backs. 

Ashley frowns. “So what happened?”
“The kiss … we were sitting on a bench, and then I saw my auntie.”
“Oh my God,” Paige says, “Your auntie saw you tonguing your fake boyfriend?”  
“We were not tonguing.” I paused. “Okay, maybe there was a little tongue.”

Mark initially didn’t make a good impression on Emily but after they open up and discuss the wedding, Emily realizes why he was texting so much and what his facial expression meant when she mentioned her roommate. Emily, to her credit, immediately apologizes for her misunderstandings. I had thought that the book would be totally shown from Emily’s first person POV so the switch up at halftime to both character’s POV was a nice surprise. As Mark says, he wishes he could know what Emily is thinking because he’s thinking he likes her. A lot. 

Mark: Margaret will stay home. She doesn’t like car rides. I’ll ask my neighbor to check on her once a day.
Me: You’re on a first name basis with your cat now?
Mark: No, she calls me Mr. Chan, alas.

Their romance slowly plays out as things become clear to both of them and the shift from fake dates, to real fake dates (it makes sense in the book) to real dates feels real. I never felt that things were moving either too quickly or too slowly and totally believed in their changed feelings. I felt that Mark was a bit more thoughtful at times than Emily who let herself get overwhelmed by the whole fake-dating circus but her final act confession of her true feelings was heartfelt. Maybe with the two of them together, Ms. Margaret Muffins’s social media presence will increase to what she deserves. B+         

~Jayne

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Drawing on the little-known true story of one tragic night at an Ozarks dance hall in the author’s Missouri hometown, this beautifully written, endearingly nostalgic novel picks up 50 years later for a folksy, character-driven portrayal of small-town life, split second decisions, and the ways family secrets reverberate through generations.

Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier…

On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident.

Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living.

Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last.

CW – Violent death depicted on page, the aftermath of identifying remains is discussed – both these sections get graphic. Death of an infant. 

Dear Michelle Collins Anderson,

Lately I’ve been in the mood for historical fiction and when I saw this cover I fell in love with it. That plus a story set in 1978 (which I remember quite well, thank you very much) closed the deal. 

In 1928 most of the young people in the small town of Possum Flats, Missouri are at the upstairs dance hall late in the evening when suddenly it explodes in heat and flame. By reason and chance of where they are some are spared while others die horrible deaths. Stunned, the town rushes in to try to save the living then gather the dead. 

Almost fifty years later, young fifteen year old Daisy Flowers is dropped off at her grandmother’s house in some podunk town in Missouri after which her peripatetic mother leaves for California along with her latest lover. Daisy and Rose awkwardly work out how they’re going to live together until Lettie sends for her daughter. As Rose now runs the town’s funeral home and lives above it, Daisy is desperate to get out. When Rose takes Daisy along with her to the local paper to hand in an obituary (for the beloved town mayor who died in flagrante delicto with a woman who was not his wife), Daisy is fascinated by journalism and determined to get a job there. 

Some fast talking gets the interest of the editor who offers her a summer internship but writing obits (though she’s good at it) bores Daisy who jumps at Fence McMillan’s offer to dig through old newspapers and write a history piece. She latches onto the idea of revisiting the 1928 explosion and telling the story via interviews with survivors. Stunned at the negative reception she gets from various townspeople, Daisy nonetheless forges ahead. But when the last of her four part series has been published, old and well hidden secrets will be unearthed and lives will be changed forever. 

I loved these characters. None of them are perfect. Rather they are flawed in great and small ways that make them come alive. Daisy is intelligent and stubborn, things that Rose immediately remembers in her daughter Lettie who fought against the restrictions on females in the 1940s and finally fled town to escape. Rose is meticulous about her job and proud of the service she supplies but lived a painful life with her husband and in-laws who disliked her. Rose also still mourns her twin sister who died in 1928. 

One of the local pastors was a party boy until that night after which he devoted his life to God, something he never thought or planned to do after a horrible childhood. The stubborn sheriff has devoted his life to the town and its people. He might take an afternoon nap in the office every day but he’ll never leave a job undone. The other reporters take Daisy under their wing and try to give her good advice and photography lessons but warn her to tread lightly as despite the passage of fifty years, the town is still sensitive about its losses. Meanwhile Daisy keeps sending letters to her mother even though she’s yet to hear back from Lettie. 

I did guess a few of the secrets and who was responsible for them. Clues are given and if readers pay attention, not much will be a surprise. But the enjoyment is in watching the various characters interacting, remembering, and coming to terms with events past and present. There is an “epilogue” of sorts which shows what will happen to some characters and allows forgiveness for others which I liked but might be too sappy for some. I’m still debating some of the outcomes. This is not a light and fluffy book though parts are truly funny. I enjoyed watching Rose and Daisy, who are both strong women, as well as revisiting the late 1970s but be warned that there are graphic scenes in the book. B

~Jayne 

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He’s the bad boy she needs to help her lay down the law…

Assistant District Attorney Georgia Star is on the ballot in Last Stand, Texas to finally take the top job—but popularity has never been this overachiever’s forte. When her big-city outsider opponent begins wooing her constituents with lies, Georgia knows she has to stop playing nice. She turns to the infamous Cy Powell for advice, but his provocative solution might be worse than a defeat.

Cyrus “Cy” Powell is a property mogul, rancher, and entrepreneur—and a scion of Last Stand’s most notorious criminal family. Despite his legit success he’s never outrun his last name, so when Georgia asks for his help, Cy decides a fake relationship is the perfect pretext to infiltrate her world.

Dating Cy will connect Georgia with her voter base, and squiring Georgia through her influential social circles will polish Cy’s reputation and facilitate his latest business deal. Their chemistry is undeniable, but as the election looms, they’ll need to decide if their fake alliance is real and where their loyalties lie.

Dear Ms. Crowley,

Tropes, tropes, get yer tropes here! Small town, friends to lovers, bad boy, across the tracks, fake relationship, (a slight touch of) enemies to lovers, Jewish women in Texas. Wait, what was that last one? It’s the second in The Stars of Texas series about four sisters who are slowly getting back in touch with family and falling for friends in Last Stand, Texas where 150 years ago their Jewish Austrian great … Grandfather put down roots and established himself in a new land.

Georgia Star the ADA in this district is doing what she’s done since getting a job in her hometown – seeking justice rather than trying to be popular. She knows she’s made a few enemies along the way but she’s tried to do her best for everyone she’s seen in court. But now a Hot Shot from out of town has arrived to campaign for the position of District Attorney which Georgia knows is just for show until he can move on to bigger and better political things.

Cy Powell is a certified bad boy from a bad family. The local cops even called the Powell homestead “DFW” (after the largest airport in Texas) since so many of his relatives are frequent flyers through the justice system. Cy uses his reputation for his own purposes but it’s also one he’s been trying to outgrow since he can’t seem to outrun it.

Cy’s (legit) business partner suggests that Cy needs to put in some face time with major bigwigs for the land deals that they’re trying to swing. Looking for someone to give him credibility, Cy devises a plan. If Georgia will be his fake girlfriend, he’ll help her campaign among the outcasts, bikers, rednecks, and other working class rural people of the area whom Hot Shot has spurned. Can Georgia and Cy keep it private and professional until after the election?

The deal that Georgia and Cy have worked out makes a bit more sense to me than other fake dating scenarios. Georgia is really, really bad at campaigning for the position of DA. Cy is really good at hiding his pain and anger at how and what the town thinks of him. She provides the credibility that helps him with the fancy stuff he needs in order to get on the inside of property development deals and he delivers the votes of the barflies and Hermanos Guapos motorcycle gang for her election. To her credit, Georgia does think about this a bit but then decides that telling one little white lie to save her hometown from the city slicker with fancy boots who thinks he can just swoop in for a few years and pander to a few interests then exit to bigger things is something she can do.

For all that they appear as opposites, Cy and Georgia are actually very similar inside. Both feel responsible for family members. Georgia for her three younger sisters and Cy for his younger, feckless, brother. Both also feel like outsiders. Cy because of his ramshackle family and upbringing that caused him to build walls around the trust that he gives to no-one and avoid the pain that giving love would bring. Loyalty is a currency that Cy trades in. And Georgia for her religion and her single-dad father who couldn’t take her to school things which isolated her from peers while she was growing up. Georgia had thought that antisemitism was a thing of the past and not something to affect her in this day and age. To discover how it had shaped her mother’s life is a shock.

Georgia was parentalized at age seven when her mother died. She champions the underdogs and works for real justice for the three counties for which she works. Which might actually work against her in the election as twisted by her opponent. Cy dispenses much needed advice about money and navigating government paperwork to those who have no one else to turn to. They both help their community.

Georgia and her sisters are digging deeper into and having to mentally deal with the antisemitism that separated their mother from her family when mom married their dad and converted. This began in book one, played a minor role here – except for when Georgia out and out calls out a relative for not keeping up with Caroline Star after the family cut Caroline off for marrying a Jewish man. Cy is worrying about his younger brother who might be mixed up in something that threatens the local community.

I liked the way that their similarities bring them together over dealing with the threat to the community. Then I like how this turns into a realistic third act breakup that temporarily pushes them apart. They act in ways that are authentic to how their characters have been built on page. Bonus points that after the initial dust settles, they think about what’s happened, what they want, and, after not storming off nor vowing that they’re done with the other, they offer apologies as they work things out. And though I can take or leave epilogues, this is a nice one. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. B+

~Jayne

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Just when she thought she’d gotten far enough away . . . a life-changing phone call throws an antisocial scientist back into her least favorite place—the spotlight.

After a tumultuous childhood, Christa Barnet has hidden away, both figuratively and literally. Happily studying sea snails in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Christa finds her tranquil existence thrown into chaos when her once-famous father—long thought dead after a plane crash—turns out to be alive, well, and ready to make amends. The world goes wild, fascinated by this real-life saga, pinning Christa and her family under the spotlight. As if that weren’t enough, her reunion with an old childhood friend reveals an intense physical attraction neither was expecting and both want to act on . . . if they can just keep a lid on it. When her father’s story starts to develop cracks, Christa fears she will lose herself, her potential relationship, and—most importantly—any chance of making it back to her snails before they forget her completely.

CW/TW – past teen alcohol and drug use, past sexual assault attempt

Dear Ms. Waxman, 

I’ve said before that my experiences with your books have been mixed. This is one which I sorta love it and sorta dislike it. Parts had me laughing out loud, or cringing, or upset. Most of the characters pissed me off at times and the one who didn’t piss me off felt too good to be true. But I sucked down roughly 400 pages in two days (taking a bit of time out to watch the eclipse which I feel sure Christa, as a scientist would approve of). 

Christa is in her happy place, on a remote island in the Indian Ocean studying her snails, when her world detonates. Suddenly she’s flying home (Reunion to Paris to LA) back to a family which has complicated dynamics. Her (long lost and presumed dead) father has reappeared, her family is stunned, and her father’s long term (reptilian) agent is attempting to micromanage every stage of his return and their reaction on a world stage. What the heck is going on here and how soon can Christa escape? Before she can head back to her snails, she’ll have to come to terms with how life is now.

Christa is little but she can be fierce. Her default survival mechanism though is run and hide. If that doesn’t work, then she’ll come out swinging. Her childhood was a bit of a mess partly due to the fact that her well organized mother took over her father’s TV Show and Conservation Foundation activities after dear old dad’s plane crashed in the Alaska wilderness and his body was never found. Christa was too young to remember her father but through a series of widely published photos, being hauled onto the set of TV shows to hold the cute animals, and some unfortunate acting-out as a teen, Christa gained some notoriety. 

She, her sisters, and their mother (who, after dad was ruled to be legally dead, married a man she loved), have dealt with many “sightings” before over the years but when Jasper appears on Oprah, they know he’s really back. The press and general public with smartphones descend on the family turning things into a circus. If that wasn’t bad enough, the slimey agent and his minions intend to milk this for every exclusive deal possible with Christa, as the only bonafide scientist, front and center with her father about whom she has conflicting opinions once the truth starts coming out. Then there’s Nathan, someone who has been in Christa’s life for ages and for whom she’s beginning to feel feelings she’s never felt for him before while Nathan appears to reciprocate those feelings. 

Given her background, I can understand why Christa prefers to be out of the limelight now. As a child and given no choice in the matter, she got dragged into a lot of stuff that she didn’t want any part of. She did finally bust loose and do things that were, unfortunately, caught on camera leading her mother to wake up and get Christa away from it all. As Christa tells mom Denny (Denise) when mom apologizes as she should have done years ago, this all led to Christa finding her passion in marine biology (and I loved the biology stuff!) so it wasn’t all for naught. There were times though when I wanted to shake Denny as she immediately starts committing Christa to doing public things (again!) with no consent from Christa. Mom is mostly good but has her moments. 

Christa’s sisters are much older which caused some rifts in years past but they’re acting better now due to intensive therapy. Yay that they’re not their old selves who Christa had been dreading seeing but I felt that there was still a lot of old family drama that had never been quite worked out either and which got – more or less – swept under the carpet. Both sisters also appeared fine with disappearing back into their lives and leaving Christa as the Liddle sister stuck with the machinations of dad and the agent who pulled no punches in manipulating Christa into doing what he wanted.

Jasper Liddle is one of those charismatic souls who can read a room, easily slip into friendships with total strangers but who really isn’t the nice guy he might appear to be. Jasper’s got some “‘splaining to do” about where he was for so many years and once that ugly truth begins to tumble out, I disliked him intensely. And yet, the family is conflicted about how to react to his return. This is also somewhat understandable as the daughters were young and Denny was able to provide for them all and also found her true love. Christa, who has no memories of her father, probably has the purest response which has a lot of anger in it. And things only get worse later on. She’s also (understandably) angry about having her life hijacked for all the Netflix specials, TV appearances, books, and whatnot that the agent is spinning and her dad seems to be falling for. 

The romance in the story gets sprinkled into it in various places but I found I liked this the least. Nathan is quite frankly too good to be true. He’s endlessly understanding, beyond patient with the whole three-ring circus situation, always ready to drop what he’s doing and appear at a moment’s notice to help the Liddles, and unbelievably supportive of Christa. I’d love a man like this in my life but honestly, I don’t think they actually exist. After Christa has pulled back, then moved in, then announced she’s leaving, then spouted her “I love yous” only to announce for the umpteenth time that she’s headed back to the snails, good old Nathan is still the totally there for her and urging her to do what she has to. His speech in which he spells out to her just why he thinks she’s the best thing ever in his life is lovely and a great “boombox” moment but I wanted him to finally get a little mad about something, anything in this book which he keeps getting dragged into. 

There are some dark things that swirled through the book such as the power of social media, the hunger of the public for a piece of someone’s life, the price that some people are willing to pay to get what they want, the fact that all the women of the Liddle family have either already gone to or end up going to therapy to deal with the fallout of what Jasper did, the lack of consent for things Christa was made to do and the lack of support her family gave her for so many years. There is also a lot of funny stuff as Christa is an acerbic person who doesn’t worry about filters but yeah, dark places are visited here. The book works more for me as fiction and women’s fiction but less so as a romance. B-

~Jayne    

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Laurie Morrison’s Keeping Pace is a poignant middle-grade novel about friends-turned-rivals training for a half-marathon—and rethinking what it means to win and what they mean to each other.

Grace has been working for years to beat her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be named top scholar of the eighth grade. But when Jonah beats her for the title, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And then the wide, empty summer looms. With nothing planned and no more goals or checklists, she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be working toward.

Eager for something to occupy her days, Grace signs up for a half-marathon race that she and Jonah used to talk about running together. Jonah’s running it, too. Maybe if she can beat Jonah on race day, she’ll feel OK again. But as she begins training with Jonah and checking off a new list of summer goals, she starts to question what—and who—really matters to her. Is winning at all costs really worth it?

Engaging and heartfelt, Keeping Pace is about wanting to win at all costs—and having to learn how to fail.

CW – divorced parents, FMC’s neglectful father, past death of MMC’s father

Dear Ms. Morrison, 

This is a little different from the usual middle grade books I’ve chosen to read. Usually there’s some fantasy and a cat in those stories but I liked the idea of reading something a little more normal and relatable. 

Grace is very goal focused. She has certain ways she wants to do things, certain rituals she follows, and at times she’s not that good in her relationships with others. When she misses out on getting the highest scholar award for her eighth grade class, what others might see as a great achievement – coming in second by half a point – to her feels like failure. Then she learns that her former best friend – who beat her out for the award – will be going to a different high school next year, Grace feels even more deflated as now she won’t be able to come back and overcome her loss. This is it. It’s over.
Or is it? Jonah mentions signing up for a race at the end of the summer and with nothing else planned, Grace decides to turn her enjoyment of jogging with her sister into another contest. She and Jonah used to be friends until he pulled away after the death of his father. If she trains hard, maybe she can beat him in the race. But if she opens herself to trying some new things, maybe they can work out what happened and possibly be more than friends. 

There are a lot of other things in the book that give Grace and Jonah some depth. Her parents are now divorced and she and her sister’s relationship with their father is strained due to his work. Grace is secretly worried about her transition to high school as there will be a lot of other smart kids there from other schools. Maybe she won’t be the smartest anymore as she is used to being. Maybe her PhD father won’t be as proud of her. Since her scholastic standing is basically her identity, I can see why she’s so razor focused on all of these issues.     

Grace and Jonah had been best friends for years but three years ago his father suddenly died and Jonah withdrew from their friendship. Now instead of pushing each other to be supportive, they are arch rivals. Grace’s sister, who might be slower to learn something but who keeps trying until she masters it, and their cousin Avery are determined that Grace isn’t just going to sit all summer and “help” her come up with a list of goals. Some of them are aimed at pushing Grace a little out of her comfort zone but she’s the one who tosses in completing the half-marathon. She remembers how fun it was when she and Jonah helped at one years ago. 

Another thing she does is babysit her father’s new girlfriend’s young son. Brie doesn’t want Teddy to be praised the way that Grace thinks is normal which leads to Grace having to rethink everything she’s used to about encouragement. She also begins to see her father in a new light and worries about the changing friend dynamics for high school with her friend group and cousin Avery.

I could see where most of the points of the book were being made but that’s probably older me with years more life experience looking (way) back to my own middle school days. I don’t think that these lessons were overly emphasized too much to Make. Sure. I. Got. Them. On the other hand, I think that by the end of the book, teen readers will be able to grasp what’s important without feeling lectured or condescended to. The book finishes with some things still open-ended but with a very positive feel. B  

~Jayne

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Lillian Rose Atkins is tired. She’s tired of picking cotton, serving as a maid in a hotel, and taking care of her younger cousins. So when she receives an invitation from the mother she hasn’t seen in ten years to move to Chicago and take part in Chicago society, Lily jumps at the chance. This is her opportunity to finally have new things, be on the other side of service, and find a wealthy husband.

Rutledge “Rudy” Addison is tired. As an investigative journalist who reports on the facts of lynchings and race riots in the South, he’s tired of dealing with the dregs of society. But when he is challenged to love those he is starting to hate, he begins to find that life is not as black-and-white as he always thought.

When Lily and Rudy are thrown together, will they realize that maybe the things they’re tired of are more important than they could ever have fathomed?

TW/CW – mention of past racial violence/lynchings, current (in the book) threat to incarcerated African American men

Dear Ms. Susberry,

I’ve been eyeing several of your books/series and finally decided to try this one as it appears to be a stand alone story. Right from the beginning, I realized that it wouldn’t just be a story about a young woman trying to better her prospects. Instead there are dark past and current incidents that investigative reporter Rudy covers as well as mentions of race riots in Chicago and Nebraska. An element of faith is also included.

Rudy Addison never planned on being a reporter but when teaching didn’t pan out, he discovered he has a natural knack for digging into stories, especially ones about racial injustice. Rudy gains such detailed insights because he can “pass.” With blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin Rudy can arrive in towns that have just lynched uppity negroes (term used in the book) and suss out the true reasons why these horrific acts were committed without the whites whom he talks to realizing that he’s Black. Rudy knows he’s playing a dangerous game and that if he’s identified as Black, he’ll be the next “strange fruit” in town.

Lily Atkins wants something better in life. She’s lived without her mother who moved to Chicago ten years ago and who has remarried a relatively well-to-do man. But upon arriving in a city that astonishes her at its size, Lily’s dreams are facing a cold reality. Her mother is intent on bettering Lily but the bond they lost isn’t being rebuilt. Lily feels terribly out of place and at times humiliated by other Black women in her age group who deliberately show Lily – with her seventh grade education – up. A few people are nice, surprisingly her step-father, and two other young women who enlist Lily’s aid to help Blacks who have suffered due to the recent race riots in town.

When Lily meets Rudy, sparks fly. At times Rudy is curt to Lily and ends up calling her Daisy because he couldn’t be bothered to remember her “flower” name. But the two work out a plan to help each other. However things are derailed when news of riots in Lily’s hometown reach them. Lily heads back to help her family and Rudy quickly follows to report on what’s happening. But will Lily remain stuck in Elaine, AR and can Rudy escape it?

Let me start with what didn’t work so well for me. At times the story feels disjointed as there is a lot going on both good and bad. The book starts with Rudy in a TN town that just lynched someone and the needs of the Black Chicagoans who suffered due to the (real) riots there seems intense and is something Lily and her friends try to alleviate. But then Rudy is helping Lily write a poem based on British Romantic poets for her ladies society meeting as well as learning to waltz. The contrast is jarring. I know that the two need to remain in the same vicinity for their relationship to begin but I kept thinking, doesn’t Rudy have more important things to report on and do?

Another thing that felt a bit forced was the element of faith. Rudy’s family has been raised in the strong Christian faith of his parents and his father is urging Rudy to find a way to love those who are difficult to love and we know Rudy is faced with a lot of those. Lily is also religious and there are many church service scenes. But then chapters will pass with little mention of faith until suddenly it’s front and center again. I liked how in the end, both Rudy and Lily find a degree of forgiveness for those who are doing them wrong but it’s more for them to be able to lay down the burden of hate that is eating them up, and as Rudy says, allow them to pity those whites with such racial hatred in them.

Now there is a lot to enjoy in the book. Lily has a dry but wicked sense of humor and doesn’t let people put or keep her down long. Her mother might push Lily at Rudy but Lily makes it clear that he’s not on her marriage list and makes sure he knows it. Lily has also already started improving herself even before she leaves Arkansas because she knows she wants more out of life. When she decides something, she does it. Yet when her family needs her, she immediately heads back to help even if that means possibly surrendering her dreams. Family is that important to her.

Rudy has built a career going into places dangerous to him in order to get the truth and make sure that it sees the light of day. The plot calls for him to be stupidly fixated on a woman we all know isn’t The One and honestly, I never saw much in her beyond she’s pretty. When he quickly decides to go to AK, several of his friends call him on his insistence that he’s not going down for Lily but once he realizes his true feelings, he throws himself into helping her family as well as covering the events of the (real) Elaine Race Riots.

I loved Lily’s family including her younger cousins. Aunt Rachel is a Rock in the troubled waters and Uncle Rufus is a man staunchly determined to provide for and better his family’s lot in life. Lily has white friends in Elaine including a family who has employed her and quietly looks after and helps her. She also makes good friends in Chicago (I’d love to have seen more about one couple’s romance) and works out relationships with her step siblings. Stepfather Frank is a jewel of a man. I would join the Frank Harrison Fan Club.

Even with the issues I’ve mentioned, for me the positives of the book far outweigh the niggles. Lily is my favorite but I think by the end, she’s got Rudy in line and fully aware of what a gem he’s got. B

~Jayne

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Why is this night different from all other nights?

For starters, Jared Leiman is home for the holidays. Because though he and Caroline Weiss were high school sweethearts, their postcollege lives took them in different directions. Jared became a big-time entertainment lawyer in LA, while Caroline became a fitness instructor and stayed in town to care for her sick mother. And though her mother passed away three years ago, Caroline is finally free to go where she chooses. Meanwhile Jared, who inherited custody of his baby niece after a tragic accident, is suddenly a family man.

So now Caroline wants to leave her hometown in the dust, whereas Jared might just set up roots there. Because there is one thing that Browerville, New Jersey, offers the two of them that no other place does…each other!

CW – mention of death of family members due to a car accident and cancer. 

Dear Ms. Wilck, 

After loving “Home for the Challah Days” last year, I was really looking forward to the next installment of this series. Because yes, it’s not a Hanukkah book! 

Instead Jared and his orphaned niece Becca are coming home for Passover with his parents as he tries to work out what he wants in life. Meanwhile, his old highschool flame Caroline, yeah the woman Jared basically ghosted when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, has finally paid off the medical bills, carved out a life and a job, and plans to start doing all the things she’s longed to for years. Is the past the past or might they have a second chance to work out a future for themselves. 

Let me just be honest and admit that I’m sad to say this one didn’t work as well for me. Yay that Jared already knows he acted like a shit all those years ago and that he plans on apologizing to Caroline. But dang despite the fact that he has matured a lot over the years, he can still act like a shit at times. I was all on #teamCaroline. Even two year old Becca can act better than Jared.

It also doesn’t help that much of the relationship time between Jared and Caroline kept rehashing what we’d already seen. I also didn’t have warm fuzzies about how much Jared initially pushes Caroline to go out with him while he’s home in New Jersey with all parties aware that he plans to go back to L.A. Without their past history it might have been okay but with it — his insistence in the face of his eventual leaving felt tone deaf. Much of Caroline’s discussions with her besties about her relationship time with Jared was also rehashing. The plot felt as if its wheels were spinning in the mud and things dragged. And dragged. Then the romance part of the story swung into gear and raced along before Jared pissed me, Caroline, and his parents off. Trifecta! 

What did I like? I liked Caroline’s job and competency. She has worked hard to finish her education and after losing her mother, gotten a job at the JCC, and has plans and ambitions. When something spikes part of her plans, she doesn’t just sit back and say “Oh, well.” No, she starts to look into it, keeps her head on straight, moves cautiously, and sees this through to a conclusion. When her boss – who believes in her – hands her a “gotta get it done fast” project, Caro rises to the occasion and – I’ll give Jared credit that he comes through in assisting her – pulls something spectacular out that wows people. Go, Caroline!

The family relationship stuff is great, too. When Jared’s brother and sister-in-law died and left him as guardian of Becca, Jared was out of his depth. But he tries, he learns, and he adores his niece. It’s great that his loving parents are there for them both and unobtrusively ready with advice when he asks for it. Mrs. Leiman is fiercely protective of Caroline as well and warns her son not to mess with Caroline.

Passover preparation is something the Leimans take seriously and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of Harriet Leiman’s cleaning (which she ropes the whole family into), shopping, and cooking plans. Watching them carefully, thoughtfully (not too much horseradish for Becca so she won’t associate Passover with yucky tastes), and lovingly celebrating the Seder with their granddaughter was delightful.      

So this ended up being a bit of half and half for me. There was a lot that I really did like and enjoyed. But the romance just didn’t work as well as I would have liked to have seen. Overall, C for the romance and B for everything else.

~Jayne      

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When Anna Mowbray receives a curt message from one of her estranged daughters that her ex-husband–a silent and surly Yorkshire farmer –is dying, she realizes it’s time to return home. Twelve years ago when her daughters were mostly grown, Anna walked away from Embthwaite Farm with no plan except to preserve her sanity and to find a ray of light to cling to.

But going home is harder than even Anna imagines. Her daughters are miles away from forgiveness and rebuff her every overture of help and communication, and her ex, who knows why she left, doesn’t even want to speak to her. But Anna’s determined to face her demons, make amends, and reconnect with her family.

What she doesn’t expect is kindness from her neighbors and understanding and warmth from the handsome widower James Adams, as well as his warm and welcoming daughter Jane. As Anna grieves her old life and tries to come to terms with the mistakes and hurts from the past, can she create a future where there’s room for a family around her… and the possibility of love?

CW/TW – discussion of mental health crises (including postnatal depression) and treatments, death of a character from cancer, discussion of adultery

Dear Ms. Hewitt, 

My goodness. There’s much more drama to be dished out at Embthwaite Farm with the Mowbray Sisters. Taciturn father Peter is closer to death from a brain tumor, sisters Rachel and Harriet are dealing with the pain of their mother’s return – the mother who walked out on the family thirteen years ago, Anna herself is trying to reconnect with her daughters and might have a new relationship on the horizon, and a change to Peter’s will could upend everything. 

Let’s just dive right in. Straight off the bat I admire that everyone was allowed moments of being totally pissed off. There are situations in the book which can be viewed like a funhouse mirror with people seeing different realities based on where they’re standing and what they are/were going through at the time. Mistakes were made. Mistakes are corrected but everyone needs to be allowed “moments of grace” to explain their side. Even if the people hurt by past actions are still hurt and mad. 

Up until now, it’s just been sisters Rachel and Harriet (books 1 and 2) who described the pain and fallout from when their mother abruptly left the family. Rachel was in uni while younger sister Harriet (who had been her mother’s favorite) felt lost and devastated. Their father had clearly – and painfully – favored Rachel which damaged Harriet’s coping mechanisms. Their books allowed readers to see their viewpoints. But what caused Anna to bolt?

When word reaches her about Peter’s disease and prognosis, Anna returns to try and rebuild the relationships that she severed. Yes, she had her reasons which are slowly explained. I appreciate, as I said, that the sisters now understand but are still dealing with over a decade of hurt. Had they instantly brushed that away, I would have cried foul. Anna is also finally coming to terms with her relationship with her ex-husband who both loved and negligently (but deliberately) hurt her for years. Yeah, Peter does not come off in a good light in regards to how he treated anyone. He might have been a good Yorkshire farmer but he was a crap husband and father. There, I said it. If this was a reddit thread, I’d say “YTA.” 

After it’s discussed, I can understand why Anna behaved as she did. This ties into some of the CWs above. She left because of the astounding hurt she felt for almost twenty years, the fact that her fairytale dreams of “Heathcliff” were just that, and because her own health was at risk. One character whispers to Anna that it’s amazing she didn’t leave before she did. I totally agree. Yet, Anna’s reasons for hanging on as long as she did are valid as well and are baked into her character’s backstory. The new relationship she tentatively begins is lovely but also not perfect. Yay for that. I saw a few things coming with it which I’m guessing will play out in book four. 

Ah yes, book four. Peter’s will is a bombshell. I knew there would be a fourth book but as this one progressed I wondered, who was going to be the main character. Let me just say I can’t wait for this story. There looks like there will be drama leaping off of ledges all over the place. I want this book now. And also to know where Fred’s going to live – with Rachel and Ben? I’m looking forward to the final installment of As the Yorkshire Farm Turns. B+ 

~Jayne     

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Sisters Rose Tillman and Marvina Nash haven’t spoken in decades—not since Rose sent Marvina $40 to register their business and Marvina spent it on something else. Rose begins a long career at the post office and Marvina spends her weekends cooking chicken dinners for the church fundraiser. Marvina never leaves the canister of their mama’s special spice mix in the church kitchen, and she shares the recipe with no one.

Rose never forgave Marvina for that $40 betrayal, but when she retires, she’s still dreaming of opening a restaurant with her sister, using mama’s secret spice mix to make their fortune in fried chicken and Southern comfort food. To her horror, Rose realizes she’s forgotten the spice mix recipe. There’s nothing to do but get in her car to drive the two hours to Marvina’s house back in Fork City, Texas. Marvina’s determined never to speak to Rose again, but figures she’ll meet her on the doorstep to hear what she has to say, before closing the door in her face.

Of course, that’s not what happens next, as the sisters find a way to turn their mama’s legacy into a bright new future for their whole community.

CW/TW – mention of miscarriages, mention of past thoughts of suicide, mention of past homophobia, unwed pregnant teenager

Dear Ms. Stimpson, 

It was the cover that got me. And though the book has some heavier subjects than the cartoon cover might imply, it also has a lot of humor and heart. Plus enough talk of yummy sounding food that I wish I could actually try the Dewberry sisters’ magical seasoning.

Every family has got some grudge or misunderstanding that has soured relations among them. Some of them are honest to goodness “yeah, this isn’t something that we can come back from” and some of them are “we didn’t speak for decades because of this? Marvina and Rose haven’t been close for forty years for a lot of reasons which they’re just about to start exploring. That is if they can get past the anger that still simmers over what they think happened so many years ago.

With Rose now retired from her job with the USPS, she’s thinking about what she wants to do next. Can she revive her dream of opening a restaurant that will use her mother’s secret spice blend to bring in happy customers? It didn’t work forty years ago for reasons which each sister remembers differently. Her trip to see her younger sister Marvina in order to refresh her memory about exactly how many pinches of certain ingredients make up the closely guarded spice blend also threatens to bring up all their past issues which are numerous.  

Marvina is one of those people who live to be hospitable. Their mother raised them in a strict church and with a severe brand of religion. Thou shalt not go against Elders or the church hierarchy. When her church seems poised to pivot in order to try and pull in younger parishioners, Marvina is at risk of losing the thing she’s loved, which is cooking with the youth to sell plates of home cooked Southern food to raise money. The Elders are set in “new and improved” which will push Marvina and others, who have given generously of their time and efforts, out. 

Then the sisters discover there’s a young, unwed pregnant teenager who has been living in an accessory dwelling unit behind Marvina’s house. Kerresha’s relationship with her own mother is strained and Rose and Marvina can’t see putting her out on the street when she obviously needs help. 

There is a lot more going on in the book. Let me first tell people that the book is very Southern. Southern food, Southern culture, Southern dialect. Marvina is very dedicated to her conservative church and her religious beliefs – and Rose’s lack of them – figure prominently. The small town in which most of the book takes place is a hotbed of gossip. Past red-lining of Blacks into a certain section of town is mentioned and there is a reason why Marvina and her adult son don’t communicate much. I refer you back to the description of her church which I think will explain things. 

It’s not so much miscommunications that have separated the sisters as it is misremembering or not having the full picture of past events. Neither sister is at first willing to let go of her “truth” and a major reason they haven’t talked is due to not wishing to criticize their (now dead) mother who was a strong influence on them. It will take a long time before Rose is ready to test the waters about her plans with Marvina and even then things won’t go smoothly. 

At one point, one of the sisters (paraphrasing) describes Kerresha as an old soul in a young body. Nineteen year old Kerresha doesn’t initially understand some of the sisters’ expressions and Kerresha’s Insta-talk baffles Marvina and occasionally Rose but Kerresha isn’t one to not speak her mind. She doesn’t hold with sticking to old customs “just because” and her blunt observations give (mostly) Marvina a lot to think about. I could understand why her character was there – to (respectfully) shake things up and highlight where Marvina and Rose were butting heads for no good reason but after a while, her comments seemed a little bit too on point. Still I liked her freshness. 

Marvina and Rose have a lot to learn about what really happened in the past and unlearn a great deal of what they thought they knew. Given how long these wounds had festered and how settled the sisters were in believing they were right and the other was wrong, it’s understandable that it takes most of the book to work these out. Brava that these things causing the estrangement between them are believable even if I wanted to throw my hands up at times. In the end, they both get a new outlook on the past and move forward with a plan that suits them both. B             

~Jayne

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The land they love might tear them apart…

Josie Star knew one day she’d step into her father’s boots and take over the Lone Star Ranch, but she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. When her father collapses, she trades her corporate desk for a dusty tractor to shoulder the legacy of generations of Jewish Texans. She’s ready to take her place in the Lone Star’s history – with a little help from Easton McKinney. The ranch foreman is her lifelong best friend – and a man for whom her feelings once ran much deeper.

The Lone Star gave Easton the stable home his upbringing lacked, but when Josie returns, the dirt beneath his boots crumbles. She broke his heart when she left – and now she’s his boss. He’ll help her find her feet, but he won’t abandon his dream of running his own ranch. Maybe her homecoming is the kickstart he needs to finally move on from the Lone Star – and from her.

When Josie uncovers troubling family secrets, she needs Easton more than ever. But can he stay knowing she’s forever out of reach?

Dear Ms. Crowley,

Hurrah that there’s more to this book than beef prices and drought. Yes, there’s a lot about the Star family ranch and how important this is to both main characters but it’s more focused on people working out their issues instead of fighting the elements.

Josie Star has always known that when her father was ready to put down the reins – so to speak – she would be the one picking them up. Still when the unexpected phone call arrives, she does feel a bit of bitterness and regret that she can’t have a few years to enjoy the corporate executive position that all her sacrifices and hard work earned her. Arriving home, she begins the chore of fitting back in and jump-starting the plans she has for the ranch.

Easton McKinney practically grew up on the Star Ranch. His teen parents never married, his grandparents weren’t thrilled to be raising him but Mike Star accepted him, trained him, and eventually made him a foreman. Ranching, with all its challenges, runs in Easton’s blood. When Josie returns, Easton swallows his (small amount of) resentment that he won’t be allowed to run the place. When his mother, who has moved on with a new husband and children, questions what Easton really wants in life, he has to admit to his long held dream of owning his own land and running it himself.

Then there’s the Star sisters’ stunning discovery that what they’ve believed about their parents’ marriage might not be the whole truth, younger sister Amy’s attempts to matchmake Josie and Easton (with other people) and Josie and Easton’s slow realization that what they feel for each other might be more than friendship. A whole lot is going on down in Texas.

Josie and Easton have more in common than just loving ranching. Both have grown up feeling, at least somewhat, pushed away. Josie’s distant father was emotionally stuck grieving the early death of his wife plus running the ranch so didn’t have much time for four daughters while Easton has never felt truly accepted into his mother’s life or new family. While Josie has turned this into a tough shell and the determination not to need anyone, Easton has developed the habit of trying to ride to the rescue of damsels in distress (as Josie calls them) whom he can help. Neither is married so it’s not working to get them life partners. Their actions make sense given how their characters’ backgrounds are written.

Josie decided early on to push herself to be the best, head out to college, then work her way up the corporate ladder. She’s got plans for the ranch but needs to stop seeking her father’s approval of them. Easton has sort of drifted into where he is and what he’s doing. When his mother sighs in frustration at his lack of planning, he decides that at age thirty, if he’s ever going to get what he wants, he needs to do more than just wish for it. But both love ranching, even the dirty stuff, and they’re both smart though Easton might need reminding that just because he doesn’t have a fancy degree in econ-ag as does Josie, that doesn’t mean he’s dumb. Kudos for competence from both of them.

One thing I really like is that neither person has been pining for the other since their teen years. There was no relationship between them to have a break-up from and they enjoy an easy, comfortable friendship. So of course when both decide they want to be in relationships, they double date and spend those dates showing the world that they ought to be together. The last date (when they’re already a little mad at each other) is hilarious as grievances pour out before their stunned dates. A hot kiss in an alley behind the bar follows that but it’s the horseback trip in a thunderstorm (to round up loose cows) that leaves them taking shelter in an old barn which dropkicks the hotter sex.

Things get a touch repetitive as Easton gets a new job and they mentally dither about their feelings. He wants Josie to ask him to stay while she feels that doing anything that might thwart his dreams is selfish of her. Rinse, repeat, and nope the other still isn’t reading your mind.

The book touched lightly on how unreligious the sisters are but the stuff they found out about their mother’s family promises that this, plus some past anti-Semitism, will be delved into in the coming books. So there’s some cattle, some sisterly quarrels, Family Secrets, and a nice “friends to lovers” plot without anyone leaping off ledges of angst and drama. B

~Jayne

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For readers of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles, an evocative, morally complex novel set in rural 19th century North Carolina, as one woman fights to keep her family united, her farm running, and her convictions whole during the most devastating and divisive period in American history.

Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy’s position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight.

Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta’s own father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta’s frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home.

But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son and Joetta is battered by the strain of running a farm with so little help. As the country becomes further entangled in the ramifications of war, Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her – until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster.

Though shunned and struggling to survive, Joetta remains committed to her principles, and to her belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come – for a fractured nation, for Joetta, and for those she loves . . .

CW – description/discussion of miscarriage, derogatory description of enslaved people

Dear Ms. Everhart,

This was not an easy book to read. Civil Wars divide families, friends, and neighbors. Even those who want to stay apart will usually get drawn in eventually as do the McBrides. But healthy servings of guilt and pain also haunt Joetta as her world crashes around her.

The blurb doesn’t truly reveal the unpopular stance Joetta takes after rumors of coming war finally reach their small town in Nash County, North Carolina. After her father-in-law fills her restless older son’s head with visions of glory on a battlefield of a war that will soon be won, Henry leaves in the night. Ten days later, after the boy should have reached Raleigh and been turned away due to his age, Joetta guilts her husband into going after him only for Ennis to now be caught up in it as well. Refusing to let her neighbors believe that her menfolk have joined the Glorious Cause, Joetta begins to earn stares and whispers. After she allows NC Union troops to water their horses at her farm, things begin to get ugly with, at times, her father-in-law leading the charge.

Joetta staunchly refuses to change her mind and her neutrality although, after a visit from troublemakers ruins their corn and sorghum crops, she tempers her public outspokenness and tries to fade into the background. Then devastating news reaches her before someone new arrives to give her hope only for this to be followed by worse troubles. Can the McBrides who are left hang on in the face of angry resentments and desperate deserters?

There were times I cheered Joetta and her determination to hold onto her convictions. The easy way was there all the time but even biting her tongue was hard for Joetta in the face of needling comments designed to catch her out. She also had to deal with her younger twelve year old son who has lost the two men most important in his life and who now must help his mother wrest a living from the farm. Feeling her son slip away into resentment and pain at his own losses hurts Joetta even more. Yet there were also times when I yelled through my ereader at Joetta to just play along, read the room, and try to keep from upsetting those who could, and did, arrive with harmful intentions.

Joetta stubbornly sticks to her guns and there was one point where she ruminated on the fact that someone in her life called her pigheaded. Yep, that’s a good description. I kept feeling that she could have handled things better and still held onto her beliefs while also keeping her son and crippled father-in-law a bit safer. The middle of the book meanders around a bit with a lot of repetition of how the McBrides survive while the ending drags a little. Could they have managed through a harsh winter and two summers as they did? Possibly but it’s a stretch.

I think the two books listed above the blurb are accurate as far as which readers might enjoy this book. It is a hard look at a hard time. Though the McBrides and most of their neighbors don’t own enslaved people, there are some large plantations with owners who do. Nasty reasons for people to support the Confederate cause are mentioned. Sadly some of the attitudes are not ones that have died away in the century and a half and crop up in daily news now. Holding onto the courage of your convictions at any time when those convictions run counter to the prevailing viewpoints is challenging. There is much to admire about Joetta but watching her fight against the current leads to a darker story. B-

~Jayne

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Is it ever okay to stop caring for others and start living for yourself?

After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece—“his last shot at leaving a footprint on the dying planet.” Assuming, that is, he can stick to his resolution to keep the demands of his needy family at bay.

Naturally, that’s when his phone rings. His niece, Cecily—the real love of Tom’s life, as his boyfriend reminded him when moving out—is embroiled in a Title IX investigation at the college where she teaches that threatens her career and relationship. And after decades of lying, his sister wants him to help her tell Cecily the real identity of her father.

Tom does what he’s always done—answers the call. Thus begins a journey that will change everyone’s life and demonstrate the beauty or dysfunction (or both?) of the ties that bind families together and sometimes strangle them.

Dear Mr. McCauley,

This turned out to be not at all what I expected. The blurb led me to believe that this would be a madcap dramedy. Yes it had moments of humor and drama but it is more a quiet look into a family life that is somewhat dysfunctional but loving for all that.

I think most people have got someone in their family who has to be bailed out of situations while everyone else looks on and either shakes their heads or rolls their eyes. For architect Tom, this is his impulsive, impetuous younger sister Dorothy. Dorothy flows through life never paying any attention to planning ahead or worrying about tomorrow. Everything will work out and, thanks to Tom bailing her out with money, her life pretty much has. Tom also looks after Dorothy’s daughter Cecily who has the self possession and quiet reserve of someone who has lived with chaos all her life.

But now Tom is facing losing his job due to a wealthy, balky client (who also happens to be a long time friend of Dorothy’s) and her husband. Tom has also lost his long time lover because of always putting Cecily first over Alan. Cecily is being investigated for a Title IX infraction with a female student in whom Cecily saw a bit of herself. Cecily is also worried about how her boyfriend’s mother is (not subtly) trying to ease Cecily out of a relationship with Santosh. And flighty Dorothy is desperately trying to finally have a successful venture in her life in order to pass on a legacy to Cecily and also spill the beans as to who Cecily’s father is. Will everyone’s life fall apart, or finally come together?

Yeah so I was expecting more of Tom finally cutting the umbilical cord with his breezy free spirit sister. I never thought he’d push Cecily out of his life, though. But the book is more about how we handle dysfunction, long time life patterns, and family. I settled into it and just let it take me away like a Netflix drama.

Most of the characters have some flaws or are (I suspect intentionally) made to be a bit unlikeable. Tom might silently grumble about how often and for how long he’s had to be the responsible person in his family and how much this has cost him both financially and in his relationships. Still we know that when someone calls needing advice or help, he will do what he can. Yet he also has trouble letting Alan go and ends up doing a few things that, even as he’s thinking about doing them, he knows are bad ideas.

Cecily thought she was on her way up in her academic career with a published book, TV guest appearances, and a seminar that had so much demand that it was expanded into a lecture. But her bright future might implode because she tried to help a talented student and didn’t realize the situation was too far out of control. Instead of confronting Santosh’s mother and pushing back there, Cecily has remained too passive – afraid that asserting herself will cause her to lose this man she’s crazy in love with.

Then Dorothy has landed herself in a situation she wants to work out and working with an author who aggressively micromanages their business endeavor then lets Some News out of the bag. And Dorothy refuses to face the reality of something in her life because she thinks doing what she’s told to in this instance would be a sign of weakness. Dorothy thinks managing her life means simply waving away bad news.

I have to admit that many of the characters in the book are rather two dimensional and could have used some filling out. There’s a lot of telling instead of showing. In the end, the big events of two of the major characters are rather unfinished. And yet I was left feeling that the book is mainly about choices and family rather than the end result of the plot points. Life is sticky and messy, family will sometimes drive you nuts, and making your way through the trials of relationships and jobs can be exasperating but that’s what living is about. I wanted to keep reading and clocked roughly 150 pages a day. I was a little astonished at one person’s actions (and what inspired them) but quietly pleased that another character finally spoke up and insisted on being heard. Many of the characters are also facing and dealing with getting older which I, as a slightly older person, appreciated seeing handled with humor and love. B-

~Jayne

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Margaret is her brothers’ dependent. With her sister-in-law expecting another child and her younger brother soon to marry, Margaret will lose her home. When her former suitor offers her work as a governess, she accepts, despite misgivings.

Unable to marry his first love, Alasdair abandoned his home for a disappointing military career. When his dying brother begs him to return, he agrees. He must protect his brother, the children, and the estate from his brother’s wife and her greedy family.

While on his brother’s business, Alasdair meets his old sweetheart. Can love flare up again despite family chaos and fifteen years’ separation?

Dear Ms. Buckley,

Last year “A Peculiar Enchantment” was one of my Best of 2022 books. This one doesn’t quite reach that level but I still enjoyed it as, once again, it took me back to the Fawcett Crest books of my youth. Behavior matters. Etiquette matters. Family reputation matters. And there’s no sex. Okay so if that isn’t what a reader wants, this book probably won’t be for them. 

Margaret MacGavin is a widow now, living with her two brothers in London, above the shop, as Rupert and Adam run a Salle D’Armes teaching fencing as well as selling arms to gentlemen. She also brings in a bit of money to the household by giving lessons to the daughters of merchants. She and her brothers are the children of the second son of a Baronet but are firmly viewed as “trade” now which is why in her youth, her romance with Alasdair Falstone, the second son of a Baron, was thwarted. Alasdair’s brother, fresh from London and feeling snooty, didn’t feel that she was good enough for the family. 

Angered by his brother’s threat to cut him off financially should he marry Margaret, Alasdair leaves home, enters the Army, and give up his love after her father (a former military man, himself) writes Alaisdar a letter telling him of his own wife’s experience “following the drum” and how he felt that his wife’s health was ruined by this. With little money of his own and fearing for Margaret, Alasdair doesn’t write to her. 

Now fifteen years later, Alasdair’s brother writes to him, apologizing for his actions and (basically) begging his younger brother to come home. The Baron married badly and with failing health, he worries that his spendthrift wife will run through the estate monies supporting her rakish brothers, the eldest of whom the Baron had named as his childrens’ guardian. When Alasdair reaches home, he sees how desperate the situation is and agrees to take over, carrying his brother’s new will to the lawyers in Newcastle and London. While in London, he searches for a tutor for his nephews and a governess for his nieces. Guess who he finds. 

Margaret is sure that her love for Alasdair his died, that its roots have been yanked out of her heart, and also that this is her chance to earn enough money to give her some independence and control over her destiney as well as help set her up for her old age since both of her brothers (who dearly love her) will have the expenses of families to meet. So off she goes to Northumberland, back toward where she was raised in County Durham, and determined to be nothing but professional with Alasdair. But when something threatens her charges, Margaret isn’t going to faint or sit waiting for a man to save the day. Can Alasdair accept this fearless woman and is there a chance for the love they both set aside years ago?

Just about everything I said regarding “A Peculiar Enchantment” goes for this one, too. I will also caution readers that it is slow burn and seems a bit more historical fiction with a romance than a strict historical romance. There are sections during the part where the threatening takes place where Margaret and (separately) Alasdair think through what might happen next and how they could/should respond should this take place or that happen. I like that they think through things rather than just charging in but at times my mental “yeah, yeah, yeah, come on” hand twirl got engaged. 

I enjoyed watching Sebastian not only make up to Alasdair but also see to the welfare of his children. He obviously loves them and worries about what will happen after his death. Once that does occur, Alasdair and the other family, servants, and estate tenants begin training fourteen year old Colin in his new duties. In turn, Colin sees how well thought of his father was and worries about living up to his responsibilities as a good estate owner should. The children also love each other and protect each other. They are not plot moppets either. Huzzah. 

Along with Margaret, there is a tutor and various lawyers and bankers with whom Alasdair and the family interact. They are all treated with courtesy and respected for what they do. As well, the old family servants and retainers (but maybe not the toadies brought in by Lady Hawkslowe) hold positions of respect and are looked after. During an inquest, the magistrate and the coroner cleverly question Margaret in such a way that the male jurors – who are used to their women taking leading positions and helping in businesses and on the farm – applaud what she has done. 

It’s clear to readers that Margaret and Alasdair initially both think well of each other but given their past history and current positions, they act with courtesy and circumspection. Margaret doesn’t want to give Lady Hawkslowe any reason to think she’s setting her cap for Alasdair and he doesn’t want to overstep his position of authority over a servant (not the mark of a gentleman), as Margaret is. But he respects her intelligence, her riding ability, and something else she can do as well as how she averts a troublesome issue in the end. Margaret thinks that he has grown into a confident person who is ready to see to his responsibilities and family. In the name of honor and respect and despite the obvious fact that they both still have feelings for the other, they both seem ready to continue to forgo any romantic hopes until The Breakthrough occurs but readers will have to wait for that. Margaret might think that the passion of their youth is behind them but … nope, it’s still there. They have matured, have gained confidence in themselves and are ready for their second chance. B

~Jayne 

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WOULD SHE EVER HAVE A PROPER MARRIAGE?

Some people might think Emily Seymour was a bit prim and proper. Emily preferred to think of herself as sensible. Unfortunately, all the good sense in the world could not stop Emily from falling in love with Professor Renier Jurres-Romeijn. The professor barely seemed to notice her, though. He was too busy making plans for a winter wedding. But who exactly was his intended bride?

Review

Looking for another seasonal Neels book, I found that I had this one along with “A Christmas Proposal” in a duology. Again, it’s more that a lot of the book takes place in December and we do get a massive Dutch holiday celebration of open house, drink parties, Christmas Eve party, Christmas day party, Boxing Day party, New Year’s Eve party, grandma birthday party – so yeah our heroine Emily gets lots of use out of the new wardrobe she was (luckily) able to buy before she headed over to our hero’s stately family country home in Holland.

Emily Seymour is a bit of a mix between a Neel’s heroine with a nursing job at which she is very good and a little match-girl who has a family that has loaded her down with responsibility. Older sister Mary and her husband George (who is mysteriously detained in some foreign country due to his job) have left their twins (Claire and William – 8 months old) with middle sister Emily who had worked at a London hospital. But thinking the twins need fresh air, Emily has ditched her job there, gotten another at a new built hospital outside of London and now lives in a pokey semi-detached house along with 18 year old Louisa who seems set on making a living as a model (she’s the pretty one). By the end of the book I wanted to reach through my ereader and slap Louisa who is a selfish little beeyotch.  

Emily overhears two surgeons at work talking about her for a special nursing job. One describes her unflatteringly and our girl feels some rage at this. But she’s a pro and doesn’t toss a bedpan at him. Soon Professor Renier Jurres-Romeijn is rethinking his opinion as Emily is darn good at what she does. Yes, she yanks her brown hair into a bun and wears dreadful clothes but wow, can she dance at the hospital ball. She also juggles a full time job, taking care of the pokey house and the twins with minimal help from the Dreadful Louisa. 

After dazzling him with her nursing skills, Emily makes it plain that she is Not Interested in the Professor being kind to her and lets slip that she overheard him earlier. But she does appreciate his kindness in getting the canteen help to bring her a dinner tray after he kept her busy for almost all of her dinner break. He also helps save the day when the first Medical Emergency occurs due to the Dreadful Louisa and later when something happens in Holland. Renier is a good man in a crisis. 

What he is not good at is making his feelings Really Plain. But then Emily is just as determined to Ignore Fate and return to carving out a career in nursing in London. What to do? Well no one appears to know what will entice Emily into believing that Renier is head over heels in love with her as she does “grow on one.” Even grandma’s diamonds “which will go to Renier’s wife at her death” don’t tempt Emily into spilling her thoughts on love and matrimony. And Emily keeps “flinging Heleen (beautiful wanna be other woman) in his face. In true Neels fashion, Renier must get masterful to win his bride.  B      

~ Jayne

Emily sat up, but he pushed her head gently against his shoulder. ‘We must make a few plans, my love; we’ll marry just as soon as I can arrange it.’ 
‘But what about Mary and George—and the twins. . .?’ 
‘If you think that I am prepared to wait until the twins are old enough to be your bridal attendants, then you are grossly mistaken, Emily. Now sit still, dearest, while I tell you what a beautiful girl you are.’ 
Emily sighed blissfully into his shoulder. It seemed likely that she was going to be rushed down the nearest aisle without so much as a new hat on her head, but somehow it didn’t matter at all. She said in a happy voice: ‘I’m listening, Renier.’ 

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Welcome to Embthwaite Farm, a charming English home in North Yorkshire, belonging to the fractured Mowbray family…

With older sister Rachel home to help run the family farm and navigate their father’s terminal illness, Harriet Mowbray feels untethered, yet surprisingly free. She wants to embrace her future but continually trips over the insecurities and hurts from her fraught family relationships. When a mysterious millionaire purchases a derelict manor home to renovate into a hotel set to open before Christmas, Harriet pushes herself out of her comfort zone and approaches the owner to become a client for her fledging bakery business.

Former gaming entrepreneur Quinn Tyler has sunk everything into this new venture, and Harriet finds him utterly unexpected. Confident, impulsive and fun, he sweeps Harriet off her feet and their friendship blossoms to Harriet’s surprise and delight. As they work together on the hotel’s finishing touches, Harriet and Quinn battle their insecurities and demons and make surprising revelations as they build their fledgling relationship.

As Christmas looms, will they have the strength of conviction to fight for the hotel—and their newfound love?

CW/TW – parental emotional neglect, extreme MC self doubt

Dear Ms. Hewitt,

After finishing the first book in The Mowbray Sisters series, I was all set for book two about troubled younger sister Harriet. Plus there were still the issues with dying Peter Mowbray, the father, to be dealt with as he’d emotionally neglected his daughter for most of her life. How was all this going to be settled? I think my reading experience might have been helped if I’d realized this is only the second book in a three four book series rather than expecting it to wrap things up. So heads up to readers, when the page count appears to be dwindling and you’re thinking “but, but …” there’s one last two more books to go.

Rachel Mowbray basically fled the family farm when she went to uni and rarely looked back. Her younger sister Harriet has stayed and endured, keeping the house, looking after their taciturn famer father, and not hoping for anything better. One of the reasons Rachel hated to visit was because of Hats’s sullen anger which simmered more than close enough to the surface for Rachel to see. When family friend Ben guilted Rachel into returning, the two sisters managed to clear the air a little and reexamine their viewpoints of the past ten years.

Yet Harriet’s relationship with her father is still fraught. She had always been a mother’s girl while their father favored Rachel. When their mother just walked out, Harriet was stunned and fell apart, skipping her A levels and her chance to escape as Rachel had. Now she’s tentatively starting a baking business. Baking has always given her pleasure and – she admits – been a way she tried to earn her family’s love. It’s hard, though, to silence the voice in her head which reminds her that everyone has always left her so she must not be worth anything. If she doesn’t try, she can’t fail.

Quinn Taylor also has life long family issues with parents who belittle him no matter how hard he tries. So his coping mechanism is to self-destruct before others can fail him. If he ruins it – whatever “it” might be – on his own, then he won’t be emotionally crushed when his dyslexia causes him issues or his parents and others don’t care. After flaming out of the tech business he started for Reasons, Quinn’s found something he really wants: to rehab an abandoned estate in rural Yorkshire into a family hotel. He’s got a vision of what he wants though it’s been hard to get others to see it. Now he’s poured all his millions into it and is increasingly worried as the opening deadline approaches.

When Harriet arrives with samples of her cookies in the hope that the Owner, known in town only as the Mysterious Millionaire, will hire her and give her fledgling business a boost, Quinn sees her. After sampling the goods, Quinn seeks her out. Slowly the two begin to relax around each other and discover similarities. But with each facing life long issues, and during the tight rundown to the hotel’s opening, is this enough to build a relationship on?

Fair warning to readers that this is not a typical light hearted book filled with Christmas joy. Both MCs also deal with a lot of self doubt and negativity.

I liked that Harriet and Quinn have both been given some weighty Issues and that the background and reasons for the Issues are handled well. It all makes sense to me that they act and believe the way they do. Yeah, some parents are just shit. Quinn’s father openly expresses his dismay at Quinn’s actions and repeatedly tells Quinn he’s a failure. Quinn hates the whole 1% attitudes and lifestyle and thought he’d found a fellowship in the American tech game industry only to realize it was just as fake and shallow.

Harriet’s father never openly hurt her but he almost totally ignored her, turning Rachel into the favored child. With Peter now dying from a brain tumor, Harriet sees that her window of opportunity to seek answers is closing. When she musters the courage to confront her father, he asks her if she really wants the truth which Harriet discovers is still beyond her. During Rachel’s attempt to have one last family Christmas experience, an Ugly Truth comes out – a truth that I had sort of guessed.

My problems with the story aren’t because I don’t believe that Harriet and Quinn are falling in love but rather due to the emotional baggage they’re still hauling around. Yes they seem to “see” each other – warts and all – and “get” each other but is that enough to base long term happiness on? Their about-faces in how they’ve acted and reacted to what has marred their life experiences up to now appears to be more a quick “this other person has changed how I react to things” and “I’m determined to break the old molds that have defined me.” It’s a good start for both but Harriet is still facing some tough revelations and I need more which I hope I’ll get in the next book. B-

~Jayne

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Anything but Yes is the true story of a young woman’s struggle to defend her identity in the face of relentless attempts to destroy it. In 1749, eighteen-year-old Anna del Monte was seized at gunpoint from her home in the Jewish ghetto of Rome and thrown into a convent cell at the Casa dei Catecumeni, the house of converts. With no access to the outside world, she withstood endless lectures, threats, promises, isolation and sleep deprivation. If she were she to utter the simple word “yes,” she risked forced baptism, which would mean never returning to her home, and total loss of contact with any Jew—mother, father, brother, sister—for the rest of her life.

Even in Rome, very few people know the story of the Ghetto or the abduction of Jews, the story of popes ever more intent on converting every non-Catholic living in the long shadow of the Vatican. Young girls and small children were the primary targets. They were vulnerable, easily confused, gullible. Anna del Monte was different. She was strong, brilliant, educated, and wrote a diary of her experiences. The document was lost for more than 200 hundred years, then rediscovered in 1989. Anything but Yes is also based on Davidow’s extensive research on life in the eighteenth-century Roman ghetto, its traditions, food, personalities, and dialect.

Includes Italian to English glossary

Dear Ms. Davidow,

It was the cover image of a subdued looking woman and the title that got me. Who was Anna Del Monte and what could she not say “yes” to? Well, basically by saying yes she would have lost her identity, family, religion, way of life, and her soul. Other young women and children had been forcibly taken from the Jewish ghetto in Rome based on the belief or based on the lie that someone had heard a whisper of a murmur that this person might want to convert to Catholicism. Or a scorned suitor wanted to force a woman into a position to marry him. On that alone, armed sbirri would haul someone out of the ghetto usually never to be seen there again. Such a thing occurred to Anna – or Channa – Del Monte when she was an older teenager.

The book is a novelization of what happened to her based on the diary she wrote, at the urging of her older brother, afterwards. But in addition to telling her story, it offers a detailed glimpse of what life was like for Jews in Rome at the time. Increasingly harsh laws had been decreed by Popes in an effort to get Jews to convert. The Catholics viewed them as damned to hell for eternity and pulled out all the stops to save their souls while the Jews thought they were just fine. No thanks, but no thanks.

In educated Anna Del Monte, the best (well, actually the worst) minds that Roman Catholicism could throw at her failed. Learned men (though Anna mentally disputed their interpretation of religious stories) cajoled her, railed at her, threatened her, prayed over her, dumped (holy) water all over her cell, kept her awake day and night, sent in converted Jewish nuns to her cell to pray for hours at a time and then started all over again when they all got nowhere. Anna refuted their view of Biblical stories, refused to believe their statements that she was doomed to the eternal torments of the damned and steadfastly held to her beliefs. Meanwhile her family and the Jewish community leaders made every effort they could think of to get her out.

It is as much a historical novel about 1740s life in Rome as it is Anna’s story. Even a woman of her mental strength and conviction had to have suffered after what she went through. I would dearly love to know what happened to her in later life after she wrote her account of her kidnapping and attempted forced conversion but the way things are presented in the book sound reasonable to me. Anna was a force to be reckoned with and she did not say yes. B

~Jayne

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Welcome to Embthwaite Farm, a charming English home in North Yorkshire, belonging to the fractured Mowbray family…

When Rachel Mowbray left behind her family farm in North Yorkshire at eighteen, she never planned on returning. But when her ex-childhood sweetheart calls and insists she return due to her father’s declining health, she travels north. Every moment home reminds Rachel why she left—her sister Harriet is both hostile and cold, her father barely communicates with anyone, and the house feels stuck in time. Plus, her old neighbour and ex, sheep farmer Ben Mackey, still has the power to make her pulse race…a decidedly unwelcome realization!

As a can-do businesswoman, Rachel wants to sweep in and fix everything, but it seems as if no one actually wants her help and nothing goes according to plan. Even more alarmingly, she must face the confounding memories of her own childhood—and she questions how many of them she can truly trust.

As Rachel navigates her father’s health crisis and confronts old hurts with her sister and community, she wonders if she can finally find her happily-ever-after in the most unexpected place of all—home. But will she—as well as Ben—have the courage to fight for their future together this time?

CW – one character has

Dear Ms. Hewitt,

Adding tags to this review reminded me of how many books I’ve read that are set in Yorkshire. Watching “All Creatures Great and Small” has taught me a bit about taciturn Yorkshire farmers and the Yorkshire accent. Poor Rachel thought she wanted nothing more than to leave and see the world. Maybe she’s not quite done with her home county just yet.

Rachel works hard in a finance job in London. It’s cut throat and to succeed, you have to be there to be seen and also be willing to give up holidays or time off for family stuff. Now that she’s finally in Ibiza on a long delayed vacation, on a sun lounger, on the beach she doesn’t want to answer her buzzing mobile. When she finally gives in, it’s someone she didn’t expect to hear from – Ben – the person Rachel had a crush on her whole life but who wouldn’t make any effort to keep her from leaving as she headed off to uni.

After being guilted into coming home early and driving up to Yorkshire, Rachel arrives to what she expects – a sullen and hostile younger sister and a father who prefers to stay in the barn with the cows. They’ve never seemed to want her there so after a while, Rachel had finally stopped going and trying. Her goal now is to get her father to his medical appointment and then leave. But the longer she has to stay, the more Rachel realizes that maybe what she remembers of her childhood isn’t exactly what happened and perhaps it’s time to talk and correct misunderstandings.

There’s quite a lot packed into this story: going home again, memories, dysfunctional families, abandonment, choices, sickness, not-the-favorite-child, and misunderstandings – most due to age and pride. I’d say most families have had to deal with one or (probably) more of these.

Rachel remembers her childhood as unhappy with a mother who cried often and ultimately abandoned the family. Her best friend and crush Ben seemingly ignored her during years of school only to reconnect for a short period before not being willing to even talk with her about her plans for university. Sister Harriet appears to both want Rachel to shoulder some of the load at home while also resenting her older sister for showing up. Father Peter is a typical laconic farmer who is also stubborn and set in his ways. Within a few hours, Rachel is already fed up and seething. Yet Ben is right, if her sister thinks their father should see a doctor then something is wrong.

Little by little, bit by bit, Harriet and Rachel talk. Rachel discovers that a lot of what she remembers is how she saw it (obviously) but that she also never questioned some things. Communication is a two way street but she put aside asking heavy questions or delving too deep as all she wanted was to leave and as she didn’t feel wanted, she never made the effort. Thus a cyclical, self fulfilling twelve years of avoidance and pain have built up between the sisters while their father has remained dour and silent.

Resolution comes slowly and after a lot of rethinking on Rachel’s part (as the main POV is hers). Her initial attempts to ask Hats about her childhood memories and her pronouncements that she’s sticking around are met with (understandable) skepticism by Harriet as Rachel has skedaddled every time before. Rachel is also surprised to learn some of what is behind why Harriet stayed and that Harriet actually has some plans for her life. There’s a lovely scene near the end that shows the closeness that the sisters once had and will (hopefully) have in the future.

The medical situation with their father is fraught and as someone dealing with it a bit with my own mother now, I can understand. Peter Mowbray is a proud man who doesn’t want any palaver about anything. Yet there are also fleeting moments when Rachel sees the fear on his face before his defiance kicks back in. When they do finally get a diagnosis, I can understand Peter’s reaction and his choice even if Rachel briefly struggles with it.

When it comes to Ben, there is a great deal to be worked out. Rachel’s discussions with her female boss (and yay for her) get Rachel thinking of what she might be leaving on the table and of what she might regret in years to come. Slowly she and Ben edge towards revisiting the past and thinking of the future. Rachel has thought of events that hurt her and that changed the way she acted and/or what she decided she wanted. When she mentions these to Ben, his “oh that’s ancient history” response annoys me as much as it does Rachel. Yes, they were eleven but it hurt and despite Rachel initially agreeing to stop revisiting a few things, I was delighted when she finally sticks to her guns and Ben awkwardly confesses why he acted the way he did.. After twenty years – the air is cleared! It still doesn’t mean everything is hunky dory but this time Rachel is willing to voice what is bothering her and Ben is willing to take a risk and answer her. I feel they’re finally ready for their future but am also pleased that Rachel makes her decision based on her needs and wants. I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen, in the next book, with Harriet’s plans and dreams. B

~Jayne

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Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep.

Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.

When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

CW –

Dear Ms. Harrison,

I’m not usually one for horror. I don’t like horror movies and don’t watch them (a coworker also hates them but watches them for the delicious thrill of being scared shitless by them). I rarely read books with the label but after checking out the excerpt for “Black Sheep” something compelled me to give it a whirl. Vesper Wright learns an important lesson. Not “you can’t go home again” but in her case “you shouldn’t go home again.”

Vesper is making a life for herself (working in the food service industry which involves wearing a crappy green polo shirt and singing the Shortee’s birthday song) after running away from home shortly before her eighteenth birthday. Geographically she didn’t go that far from the remote farm in southern New Jersey where she was raised along with friends and family and the other (relatively few) members of the religious cult in which she was raised. Once you leave, that’s it. But after an awful night at work (double shift and a table of obnoxious bros), she staggers home to find a wedding invitation. At first she’s gutted to see that it’s for her (former) first love and her (former) best friend. The handwritten note clinches it though – she’s just got to go back.

Arriving at the homestead (old house, old barn, old worship facilities) in the midst of the rehearsal dinner, Vesper is surprised by how welcoming people are, including the bride and groom with whom she Has History. Vesper’s mother – scream queen actress Constance – is her usual dismissive, cold self. Well, Vesper didn’t really expect that to be any different.

The wedding is planned to a T and Vesper has to go along with the religious stuff in order to attend (they’re that strict) but she’s stunned when a certain guest arrives for the wedding dinner. Then she’s gobsmacked at who people think this person is. Then she flees again only to be reeled back into the madness. Will Vesper get to the bottom of her relationship with these people? And will she survive it?

Sadly, the early sarcasm is soon abandoned. I liked how the book serves up some faux horror in the various movie props that Constance has accumulated over the course of her career and which she insists on displaying all over the house. Growing up with that must have been difficult. The true nature of the cult is revealed suddenly and with – dare I say? – glee. I’ll try not to spoil things and will admit that I had read some reviews that hinted enough to give me an idea of what to expect but it still took me aback to see it in black and white. Yes, I know devotees actually exist but the people in the book are devoted.

Faux horror gently slides into the realms of discomfort as Vesper remembers her upbringing – something she had just thought of as “normal” while growing up. That’s bad enough but the toxic relationship she has with her mother is another form of awful. Is it better to have a Mommy Dearest or a mother who ignores you when she can and makes it clear she wants little or nothing to do with you when she can’t? Another uncomfortable thing for me was

Things get real at the end. And by “get real” I mean get messy and horrid. Since the book is told in first person POV, it’s clear that one person survives after things go to hell in a handcart but this person will have scars (real and mental) for life and a whole lot to discuss with a therapist (which happens). Vesper might be seen by some readers as unlikeable (her co-workers call her Your Highness) but she gets shit done and often others don’t like this sort of person. There were a few times when I thought, “Really, Vesper? How could you be this naive about your life?” I enjoyed the book but I’m still not someone who is going to go looking to read horror books. B

~Jayne

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Nothing brings an estranged family together like a murder next door.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of: her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking near their bungalow. Jack quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power.

With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn do the one thing they’ve always resisted: depend on each other.

CW/TW – one of the main characters has cancer and is getting treatments. 

Dear Ms. Simon, 

I don’t read too many contemporary murder mysteries but this one sounded interesting. The dynamics of the Rubicon women caught my attention and made me want to read about them. In a way, solving the murder was kind of a side interest to watching the way Lana Rubicon power walked into a scene and grabbed it with both hands. Lana is the kind of woman who can make grown men fear and obey her and now she’s passing on some of her skills to her granddaughter – while solving a murder. 

Beth Rubican and her mother have never really gotten along well. When seventeen year old Beth announced she was pregnant and keeping her baby, Lana didn’t take the news well. Beth ended up moving out of LA to Northern California and making her own way. But when her mother calls her from the hospital with a new cancer diagnosis and needs a place to recuperate and get her chemo, Beth drops everything, drives five hours each way and hauls her mother, along with five suitcases of designer clothes, back to her small bungalow by a marshy slough near Monterey. 

It’s not all happy families though as Lana is going bonkers away from the powerful career she built for herself by the sweat of her brow and the abandonment of her young daughter after her asshat husband left them. Waking up in the middle of the night, Lana sees something down by the slough – a man hauling something via a wheelbarrow. It’s not until her granddaughter Jack (for Jacqueline) is guiding a kayak tour and two of the participants find a dead body on the mudflats – and the detectives show up directing pointed questions towards Jack – that Lana puts two and two together. Too bad the police aren’t interested in what she tells them. Lana realizes that she needs to protect her mixed race granddaughter from a bigoted. misogynistic cop and then solve this murder. It’s time for her to pull out her Chanel suits, power stilettos, and “take no prisoners” attitude.   

Beware of reading the prologue without a warning. A harbor seal has died on the beach near Beth’s house and, in the third paragraph, readers are “treated” to a fairly gross description of it. Skip the third paragraph and you’ll be okay.

I was correct to pay more attention to the women of the book and how they go about solving the murder rather than be focused on the “who-dunnit.” The Rubicon women are tough each in their own way. Lana, as mentioned, has built her own career and makes men sweat merely at the sound of her heels coming down the hall. She’s a steamroller and lets little stand in her way. Cancer? She might be staggering a bit in exhaustion a few days after her chemo sessions but can still shove the weakness aside and pull off a power suit and designer shoes while intimidating Jack’s loser boss with a direct stare. Though I would love to believe that Lana could pull off all she does, it seems a little bit of a stretch for a woman at the end of five months of chemo.

Beth seems like the quiet, gentler one but she stuck to her guns, kept her baby, renovated her house, went to nursing school, and has raised Jack alone with no help from the father and little from her mother. She might not be able to completely rein her mother in but she can curb her a little. Beth has also dealt with the stares and comments about her biracial daughter and unlike Lana, Beth knows things can be stacked against Jack just because of the color of her skin. She is fiercely protective of her daughter but also doesn’t let Jack get away with breaking rules they’ve made.

Jack loves the slough, loves being on the water, loves seeing the natural world around her and is horrified at what her tourists found. Even after her grandmother’s spirited defense and the investigation turns away from her as “person of interest,” Jack is keen to help figure out what really happened and why. The more time she spends with Lana – or Prima as Jack calls her – the more life lessons and negotiating skills Lana imparts to her about getting men to do what you want.

These women are tough and fierce when they need to be. Do they eventually crack the case? Well, eventually. There are a plethora of possible culprits with motives, secrets, and means to have done the crime. There’s also a police detective who is determined to shoo Lana and her interference off the case. I enjoyed watching them put their skills and knowledge to work as well as following along via the clues lightly scattered along the way. The final paragraphs hint at possible future books which I would be happy to read. B        

~Jayne     

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