The House Girl by Tara Conklin

The House Girl by Tara Conklin

⭐⭐⭐

I love the premise of this book. I love the writing and the characters. I was engaged and hungry for more from beginning to end. However, that's also the downfall for me. I wanted more from the characters and their stories and in the end, I just didn't get it. 

I would have rather seen two novels with more character depth than the one that only scraped their surfaces. 

Disappointed that I didn't get more from the book but I enjoyed it enough to both finish it and review it. 

Genre:

Historical Fiction

The Girls With No Names by Serena Burdick

The Girls With No Names by Serena Burdick

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I haven't read a story before about anyone with the same heart condition as me. I was instantly interested in Effie's story after I learned that. VSD, the heart condition we share, was not operable or curable in Effie's time and the corrective surgery was very new when I had it in 1990. It was an experience that was almost mine in that regard. 

The book at it's center is about two close knit sisters and their family. Effie, the youngest, is coddled a bit by her parents because of her heart defect that often leads to "blue fits" that put Effie into an almost cardiac arrest type event. Luella is the oldest, outspoken and headstrong, a bit rebellious. They find a Romanian camp near their house and begin visiting regularly. Luella is infatuated with the Gypsy lifestyle and one night leaves home to travel with them. The girls' parents decide against telling Effie fearing that her sister and best friend leaving her will cause a dangerous blue fit. Effie believes her father sent Luella away to the House of Mercy, a home for wayward girls, because of his own infidelity that Luella both knew about and was threatening to tell about.

Effie gets herself secretly committed to the House of Mercy as an act of devotion to her sister. Banking on her parents taking both girls home when they realize that Effie has stowed away there. Effie soon realizes the dangers that await her at the House of Mercy. Not only is Luella not there, but her parents don't know where she's gone. To survive, Effie must beat the odds against the other girls, the Sisters in charge, and her own defective heart.

I loved the time frame, I love that the historical truths in the story, including the Asch building fire that was the biggest tragedy to happen in Manhattan at that time.

I also believe there's a bit of magical realism to this story in the aspect of the gypsies and some of Effie's point of view. I love that it's so subtle it's very much so believable to the story.

Favorite Quotes:
"But life's a blind business, none of us can see up ahead, and none of us would move forward if we could."

"I viewed the world through the small, damaged portal. It was a weakness I sharpened my strength upon."

Genre:

Historical Fiction, Magical Realism

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I personally think this book is inclusive of many people that probably don't find themselves often represented in a book. The main characters are Chloe Brown and Redford Morgan. Chloe has fibromyalgia that triggers other conditions as well. Red is damaged goods from a previous relationship that was abusive. Writing a steamy and romantic book about these two people finding solidarity and love in each other was a fresh idea that was executed very well. 

I keep saying I'm not overly indulgent in romcoms but I keep reading them so maybe I am. Is it cheesy at times? Yes. Do those moments make the story even better? Yes. Is this book also full of depth and previously unexplored territory that left me better for having read? YES. 

I mean, real life includes a man that is not turned off by a medical brace or condition. We NEED that kind of romance. We need to know that we don't have to look like Gigi Hadid to be found sexually attractive. No offense to Gigi, seriously, she's beautiful.

We also need to know that domestic abuse against males is very real. Also, that men can also seek out treatment to be better and still be a man.

I also LOVE the language. Is it vulgar by some standards? Yes but so am I. This book speaks my love language and I almost gave it another star for that alone. 

Also - do Brits really not know what an effing s'more is?!

Favorite Quotes:

"Chloe's family was abnormal in their loyalty and she loved them for it."

"If I die, I die."

"That's how people should behave, they should fill in each other's gaps."

"When she was sick and tired of being sick and tired, she clung to moments like this. The first shower after a flare up."

"You were hurt and you reacted. You were in an unhealthy situation in more ways than one and you panicked and you cleansed everything with fire. Don't dismiss your emotions and your self protection as just a fucked up decision. Don't reduce something so complex and real and important to nothing."

Genre:

Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Adult

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I should start with the fact that I read The Rules of Magic before I started Practical Magic. In which, The Rules of Magic is a prequal to the ladder. I also think that reading them in that order helped me stay into Practical Magic as the pace of it is a bit slow. I was happy to trade climax and/or big twists for Hoffman's many epigrams and bits of wisdom. Both books are more of slow burners but this review is about the original, Practical Magic.

Sally and Gillian begin as child orphans that are living with their quirky aunts. Their aunts are well known and not well liked in their small Massachusetts town. However, women know to call on the aunts when they're in need of small tinctures to mend a broken heart, help become pregnant or even make someone unobtainable love them. 

Gillian, young and rebellious, leaves home and becomes nomadic across the country and vows to never cross the Mississippi river again. She ventures both men and cities, never in the same place with the same person for long. 

Sally however, falls in love, marries, takes over the aunts attic and has two daughters before her husband suddenly dies. Sally soon moves her family out of the aunts home and into a quiet neighborhood where her daughters can grow up outside of the aunts' shadow and she outside of her husband's.

Gillian shows up at Sally's one full mooned night with her husband's dead body in her car, believing she has killed him by accident. Through burying the body and creating a cover up, the sisters revive their relationship not just with each other but with their aunts as well.

Practical Magic is a book about sisterhood through multiple generations. Having my own sister, I see the ebb and flow of their relationships reflect in my own. We often think we know what's best for each other, forcefully stating so. Eventually letting go and letting things be, and ultimately realizing that we also needed what we were being given, not just what we were giving.

Favorite Quotes:

"A halo around the moon is always a sign of disruption. Either a change in the weather, a fever to come or a streak of bad fortune that wont go away. But when it's a double ring, all tangled and snarled like an agitated rainbow or a love affair gone wrong, anything can happen."

"In her opinion, everything goes wrong if you give it enough time. Close your eyes, count to three and chances are, you'll have some sort of disaster creeping up on you."

"Children are certain to shove each other and pull hair, teenagers will call each other names and cry, and grown women who are sisters will say words that are so cruel to each other that each syllable will take on the form of a snake. Although such a snake often circles in on itself to eat it's own tail once the words are said aloud."

“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”

Genre:

Women's Fiction, Magical Realism, Romance

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Where to begin? Kristin Hannah uses such descriptive writing to create the perfect setting for The Nightingale. I've never been to France but could see Carriveau and Paris so clearly in my mind. (No surprise, I felt the same way while reading The Great Alone. 

Without giving too much away, the story follows Vianne and Isabelle. Two sisters that find very different but equally immeasurable hardships and rewards during WW2 and the Holocaust. After every ugly moment, every inhumane thing they'd witnessed and experienced, they state over and over that they are the lucky ones. The volumes of which that statement speaks, is heartbreaking. To know that in real life, as well as in this work of fiction, the atrocities they bore are more agreeable than many of their neighbors and friends and an entire generation of Jewish families is almost hard to accept. It's also important that we do.

Vianne and Isabelle are two French born, Catholic women. Women that many people would believe to survive, without incident, the Holocaust. It simply isn't and wasn't true. It touched every life, even the ones that weren't the direct targets of the Nazis hatred. Perspective of those events through different sets of eyes is worth thinking about and discussing.

Books like this one allow those of us that are privileged and fortunate enough to grow up and exist in a generation of people that will never know about the holocaust the ability to gain insight, knowledge and respect for that period of time and for our own future.

I encourage everyone to read this book. Read this book and then pick out the very real places and events and then investigate and research the truth in those things. It's important to know why and how human beings should never allow something like this happen again.

Favorite Quotes:

"In love, we find out who we want to be. In war, we find out who we are."

"I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us."

"The father who went off to war was not the one who came home. She had tried to be loved by him, more important, she had tried to keep loving him. But in the end, one was as impossible as the other."

"I always thought it was what I wanted, to be loved and admired. Now, I think, perhaps I'd like to be known."

"And as afraid as she was of risking Sophie's life, she was suddenly more afraid of letting her daughter grow up in a world where good people did nothing to stop evil."

"Men tell stories, women get on with it."

"Wounds heal, love lasts, we remain."

Genre:

Historical fiction, WW2 Fiction

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

 ⭐⭐⭐

Evvie Drake isn't your average romance/romcom book. This story has complex characters, sheds light on emotional abuse (which needs more voice in this world), and shows 3 different stories of what starting over in your 30s looks like. There is a lot of depth and heart to this book that makes it meatier than most romance stories. I could really feel for and empathize with the characters at times.

Evvie Drake is leaving her husband. In an unfortunate twist of fate, she attempts to leave him on the day he dies.

At the request of her best friend, Andy, she rents out an apartment on her property to a friend of his, Dean. Dean was an MLB player until he got the "yips" and retired at the height of his career. He moves to Maine to try and "reset" his life.

There's a lot going on in their lives and they help each other move forward, together.

Favorite Quotes:

 "Young women dream about the husbands they want. Old women dream about the husbands they wanted. And only the luckiest women for a moment in the middle, dream about the husband's they've got."

  “Your head is the house you live in, so you have to do the maintenance.”

“To some of the people who had watched him grow up, I think he was a unicorn.” “He didn’t want bigger things?” “No, he did.” “Then why come back?” Evvie shrugged. “Because anywhere else, he’d just be a nice-looking horse.” 

Genre:

 

 Adult Fiction, Women's, Romance, Contemporary

** I listened to the audio version of this book and have to say that I didn't love the narrator. I would reccomend reading the book instead to anyone.

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

 

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 This book is unique, in a good way. The story set in a very real place, with assumably fictional characters, in a dream like story line, that make up a love story and murder mystery. I loved the play of numbers and words intertwined with one's current life line and their fate. Alternating between a young woman and a young boy that are on very different and yet merging paths. I could see some of the twists and others I couldn't which made for an enjoyable experience. I'm not sharing too much about the story as the experience of reading this book deserves to be with an untainted mind.

Mysteries aren't typically what I read, though I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Yangsze Choo's writing is engaging. She provides the reader with a show. The setting of this story was beautiful, even when the plot created scenes that were less palatable.

Favorite Quote:

“One of the appalling yet convenient things about being family is that you can trade accusations at night, then pretend next morning that nothing has happened.”

Genre:

Historical Fiction, Mystery, Magical Realism, Fantasy

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bernadette Fox is an architectural genius, MacArthur Grant award winner, and current stay at home mom that lives a bit like a recluse and is just a smidge bitter about it. She lives with her husband, Elgie, who works at “Big Brother” aka Microsoft and is always busy working, and her daughter Bee, who is a 15 year old genius and is set to start at Choate in January and is cashing in all her good grades for a cruise to Antarctica.

Everything goes sideways and Bernadette disappears, leaving everyone wondering where she’s gone and eventually if she’s offed herself. Leaving her daughter Bee as the only one seemingly willing to fight to find her.

An epic fiasco of events unravel that is mapped out between emails, FBI documents, cruise records, doctor’s visits, and even a few handwritten notes, as Bee pieces together where her mom has gone in the aftermath of everything that has happened.

I loved this book. Bernadette was relatable, not because I’m a freaking genius also (I'm not), but because she sacrificed herself for her kid. Determined to have a thriving child, she pushed everything else she loved aside. Even the house they live in, which she planned to redesign completely, she’s left to shambles. The reader comes in at a time that Bee is soon to be off to boarding school, leaving Bernadette more vulnerable than ever. Her husband, a bigger ass than ever, tries to have her committed as opposed to talking to her. I was SO frustrated by Elgie’s behavior and almost quite literally had a cow about.

I laughed so many times at Bernadette’s wit and her nonplussed approach to the mom’s of Gaylor Street. Bee is a lovable character also, there to defend her mom and have her back at a moment’s notice.  There’s a lot of depth for such an extraordinarily funny book. Bernadette is dripping with satire and it’s truly a smart book.

Favorite Quotes:

"Here's something about mom: she's bad with annoyances but great in a crisis. If a waiter doesn't refill her water after she asked three times or she forgets her dark glasses when the sun comes out, LOOK OUT! But when it comes to something truly bad happening, mom plugs into this supreme calm. I'm just saying, when things are bad, there's nobody better to have in your corner than mom."

"Maybe that's what religion is, hurling yourself off a cliff and trusting that something bigger will take care of you and carry you to the right place."

“My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like I'm going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life.” 

 “I felt so full of love for everything. But at the same time, I felt so hung out to dry there, like nobody could ever understand. I felt so alone in this world, and so loved at the same time.”

Genre: 

Fiction, Women's, Humor, Contemporary 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love this story. I love these characters. I now know why this book has won so many awards. It is simply an amazing story from start to finish.

Ari and Dante leave their growing pains on these pages. Trying to piece together who they are, who their parents are and how they fit into a world that defines them as Mexican Americans in the 1980s. Ari cover a lot of ground when it comes to secrets of the universe and really digs deep into himself and his family to find those answers. A journey many teenagers don't have the emotional maturity to take just yet.

Everything about this book was just beautiful. The boys both go through some very painful events and explore the trauma that many around them have also endured and overcome. "Scars. A sign that you had been hurt. A sign that you had healed." 

 I have two small boys and this book really went to my core. I hope my boys are kind, smart, funny and thinkers like Ari and Dante both. When Dante says "Wanna know a secret? I'm in love with my parents." My heart stilled. The responsibility and respect for their parents while their teenage hearts beat for rebellion was beautiful.

I plan to read this book once a year. To remind myself of the relationship I wish to have with my boys. Ari and his family, Dante and his, will be with me for a very long time.

Also, I listened to the audio version of this book this time around and Lin Manuel Miranda was the narrator. He is the perfect voice for Ari. I also love his Gina.

Favorite Quotes:

  “I came to understand that my father was a careful man. To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.” 

 “And it seemed to me that Dante's face was a map of the world. A world without any darkness."

  “Sometimes, you do things and you do them not because you're thinking but because you're feeling. Because you're feeling too much. And you can't always control the things you do when you're feeling too much.” 

  “Scars. A sign that you had been hurt. A sign that you had healed.”


Genre:

YA, LGBTQ, Romance, Fiction
 

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This story was enchanting. Bright, imaginative characters that really came to life. Their intertwined fates paired with curses and magic really gave the plot it's roots. Sadness and hope braided tightly together through time. 

Simon is gifted a book that appears to be a journal/log for a traveling show. As he resolves the mysteries of the book, he also resolves the mysteries of his family. A generational story that includes a carnival atmosphere, mermaids, fortune tellers and of course, books.

 I only wished the author had spent more time on the "what's next" part for their lives. I suppose being left to my own speculation is all part of the story.

You can read this book at leisure but you'll also find yourself with an itch to see where the next chapter is taking you. If you're expecting a thriller, find a different read. If you're looking for a slow burn that will stay with you long after you read the last page, this is it.

Favorite Quotes:

“We carry our families like anchors, rooting us in storms, making sure we never drift from where and who we are. We carry our families within us the way we carry our breath underwater, keeping us afloat, keeping us alive. I’ve been lifting anchors since I was eighteen. I’ve been holding my breath since before I was born.”

 “Because there are things you do for people you’ve known your whole life. You let them save you, you put them in your books, and you let each other begin again, clean.” 

Genre:

Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Mystery 

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

by Katarina Bivald

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sara travels from Sweden to Iowa at the persuasion of her pen pal, Amy for a summer holiday. They are a bonded pair over their love of books and simple pleasures in life. Upon arriving in Broken Wheel, Iowa, Sara learns her dear friend Amy has passed away from an extended illness. The townsfolk talk Sara into staying as originally planned at Amy's house and she quickly learns that the people are a small, tight-knit community.

The people of Broken Wheel have ever evolving motives when it comes to Sara's presence in their town. Originally they plan to give her the holiday that Amy had planned to, in honor of her. As Sara processes her loss and vulnerability in a completely foreign territory, she has the idea to open a bookstore filled with all of Amy's books, in her own way of honoring Amy. The townspeople back it, help accommodate Sara in putting it together, even if they think the idea is a dud. However, Amy's store begins to receive foot traffic from the people of Hope, a rival neighboring "snooty" town. This is where the motives of Broken Wheel change, and the book gets it's name. 

The meddling town is full of quirky, funny, forgivable, lovable characters that you find making you smile right from the beginning. A charming story, with the predictable yet highly anticipated ending you were hoping for. The perfect rom-com.

  There's a quote on the cover of the book that absolutely nails my opinion of it:

"One of those books you want to live in for a little while."

Favorite Quotes:

 “People were strange like that. They could be completely uninterested in you, but the moment you picked up a book, you were the one being rude.” 

 “Don’t ever argue with an idiot. They’ll drag you down to their level and then beat you with their experience.” 

 Genre:

Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Women's, Romance

**This book is an excellent one to check off of reading challenges. It is translated from Swedish and it is also a book about books.**

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

 

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

 Children of Blood and Bone is an epic fantasy that challenges you to create a new world, with new magic and new rules. This book demanded more of my attention than most because of how new the world of Orïsha, it's language and rules are to me and my own previous knowledge of what defines magic. It was like learning a new meaning to the word.

Zélie lives in Orïsha, a world where magic and her mother was taken away 13 years ago. She lives in constant fear for herself and those like her (the maji and the diviners). Anyone who has been capable of magic is now at risk of becoming indentured to the King, other nobles, or worse, death. 

Zélie saves a young, hooded girl from soldiers only to realize that she is Princess Amari and she has stolen a sacred artifact from her father, King Saran. Upon touching the artifact, Zélie's magic returns, but only a small amount of it.

To return magic in its full capacity to all of Orïsha, Zélie, her brother Tzain and Amari go through hell and back to retrieve two other artifacts that are needed to perform the ritual necessary. Inan, Amari's brother, prince of Orïsha and sworn protector of the crown sets off to stop them and destroy the artifacts at all costs. 

There are many heartbreaking moments that you wish didn't have to happen but ultimately signify the desperation for the return of magic and equal footing for all. They remind the reader what's at stake.

Zélie, Tzain and Amari must make it to the Holy Temple with all three of the sacred artifacts and perfom the ritual at solstice or magic will be lost forever.

Favorite Quotes:

  “I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.”

  “They don't hate you, my child. They hate what you were meant to become.”

 

Genre:

Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction

 

Queenie by Candance Carty-Williams

Queenie by Candace Carty-Williams

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

There's so much to say about Queenie. I am aware that I will never understand the challenges she faces as a black woman not just in her very white surroundings but her culturally rich Jamaican family. I do understand her childhood trauma, recent adult trauma, depression and anxiety and how those things can make you do dangerous things you're ashamed of before you even do them.

Queenie spent much of the book not seeing her own worth and trying to find it in awful men. With a family dynamic that didn't do a lot of communicating and therefore neither did she, with friends, coworkers and men. 

Throughout all the back slides, Queenie is still someone I admire. I love her ability to still hold on to parts of herself throughout it all. Yes, she slept with that random dude that was too aggressive but she also told that other dude she wasnt going down on him. Her spirit never left, she just let it fade sometimes. And I love her spirit so much.

I couldn't have been happier with the end of the book and I really truly hope to see a follow up book with a happy and healthy Queenie. In a life she deserves.

I listened to this book on Overdrive and I must note that the narrator was AMAZING. She authenticated Queenie's world.

Favorite Quote:

"Is this what growing into an adult woman is—having to predict and accordingly arrange for the avoidance of sexual harassment?"

Genre:

Fiction, Adult, Contemporary, Women's