Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance
Read if you liked: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise

Former childhood star Millicent is on a journey to reunite her elderly friend Mrs. Nash with the woman she fell in love with decades before. Well, not Mrs. Nash exactly, but her ashes. This story follows Millicent as she joins forces with Hollis, a man from her past, as they battle travel obstacles to get across the country.

I always have fun with epic road trip adventures and this story was no different. The people they meet along the way and the experiences that cause Millicent and Hollis to open up to one another and get closer were a joy to read about.

Millicent’s character in particular was easy to connect with and believably quirky and nuanced. I loved her humor and eccentricities and the detail Adler included about her past. It made her seem layered and real and helped me understand the choices she was making.

Interspersed with this journey is the story of Mrs. Nash and Elsie, meeting and falling in love when they are both overseas during World War II. Millicent recounts their story to Hollis as the two drive and it made for such an organic way to include both timelines.

The romance in this story was so wholesome and heartwarming and I was rooting so hard for both couples (even though I knew that ultimately Mrs. Nash and Elsie would not be reunited). The antics of the road trip, complete with a stop in a Stars Hollow-esque small town of well meaning busybodies, along with the poignancy of Elsie and Mrs. Nash’s story made for a really complex and wonderful book.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Mrs. Nash’s Ashes at an indie bookstore near you
Mrs. Nash’s Ashes on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Adelaide by Geneveive Wheeler ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction
Read if you liked: Really Good, Actually

I saw Adelaide hyped allll over bookstagram and I have to say I don’t quite get it. I was pretty much infuriated at the main character during the entire book as she consistently poured her soul into a man who couldn’t care less about her. I understand that this was a depiction of an experience that happens all too often and Wheeler did an incredible job of depicting the internal gymnastics Adelaide performs to justify staying with Rory Hughes.

If the intent of this book was to explore a toxic relationship in excruciating detail, it succeeded. However, it also kept hinting at something huge and drastic happening that would completely rattle everyone. When this actually happened it seemed to lead to more of the same behaviors just a bit more acutely. I felt like I’d been holding my breath for no reason.

If you’re down for a book that interrogates the decisions we make to try to cling to a love that may not exist, this one’s for you. Writing that is able to make me feel so consistently uncomfortable is impressive in itself. That said, it’s a pretty long time to be reading about the same actions over and over again.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Adelaide at an indie bookstore near you
Adelaide on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Magical Realism
Similar to: T.J. Klune

The Wishing Game is kind of a literary spin on Willie Wonka. Jack Masterson, author of the children’s Clock Island series, invites four contestants to his home on Clock Island to compete for the single copy of his new manuscript. As a child, each contestant ran away to Clock Island in an attempt to meet one of the series’ main characters, who they believed could grant their wishes and help them escape from hardships in their lives.

Lucy, our main character, fell in love with the Clock Island series as a child and has shared that love with the children she teaches as an adult. In particular, she has shared their magic with Christopher, an orphan who she wants nothing more than to foster. Her financial circumstances make this an impossibility, but if she’s able to win Jack’s contest, it could change everything.

I loved how whimsical this book was. Jack is so eccentric and fun and I loved the way he was balanced out by the grumpy illustrator living on the island with him. The premise of the contest added an element of thrill to the story, as the contestants had no idea what to expect next. I loved that despite the fact that they were competing, the four of them were supportive of one another and understanding of the paths that led them each there.

Overall, this was such a heartwarming, feel-good story. Despite the heavy topics it delves into surrounding each character’s past, it ended on a high note and leaves everyone in the story believing that wishes can come true.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Wishing Game at an indie bookstore near you
The Wishing Game on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Magical Realism

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Fiction/Magical Realism

I went into Shark Heart with highhh expectations. Usually, I really enjoy books set in the normal world but with one fantastical element, and this one fit the bill. Lewis, a newlywed, is diagnosed with a mutation that will cause him to transform into a shark within a year. Together, he and his wife Wren face the tremendous grief that comes with his diagnosis as they both lose grasp of the lives they had expected for themselves.

The chapters and narration in this book were short and to the point. For me, it helped express how rapidly things were changing in Lewis and Wren’s life and the times when all they could focus on was a singular event signaling that Lewis’s mutation was escalating. I was able to wrap my head around this strange world, but I would have appreciated a little more world-building to explain what supports were in place for people dealing with mutations and how common they were.

In the middle of the book, the storyline changes completely, moving back into the past to Angela, Wren’s mother. This part of the book did not tie neatly into Lewis and Wren’s section and really threw off the story for me. Although it wasn’t a poorly written plot line, I just didn’t get how it fit into the rest of the story. I would have preferred more depth into Lewis and Wren’s lives before and during the mutation.

This one definitely left my heart aching and deeply explored the ideas of loss and grief through a bizarre lens that somehow worked. I read it within 48 hours and even though I did enjoy it, it left me wishing there had been a little more to it.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Shark Heart at an indie bookstore near you
Shark Heart on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction
Read if you liked: Hello, Beautiful

Pineapple Street focuses on the lives of three women who are all, whether through blood or marriage, part of the ultra-wealthy Stockton family. Each one, Darley, Sasha, and Georgiana treats her approach to her wealth and its impact on her life differently. I liked the way that their relationship with money impacted how they approached life and treated/were treated by those around them.

It took me a little while to be able to keep the characters and their perspectives straight, particularly since the main three all interacted with the same secondary set of family members. I understand that this was an exploitation of entitled rich people, but that made it was maybe a little to successful because it made me not really care about them.

I appreciated the deep dive into these three women, but the lack of significant action to push the story along was notable the whole way through and the way they all supposedly had changed for the better at the end was pretty thin. An interesting character exploration for sure, but it didn’t feel like the kind of story that hadn’t been done before.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Pineapple Street at an indie bookstore near you
Pineapple Street on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Love, Holly by Emily Stone ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Romance
Read if you liked: A Winter in New York

Holly takes part in a lonely-hearts letter writing program every holiday season – an opportunity for anonymous strangers to share their stories and their struggles at a time that can be particularly challenging. For Holly, it’s a time to reflect on her lost relationship with her sister following a car crash when she was driving. When she receives a letter from an older woman named Emma, Holly realizes she might be able to actually help her in person.

The whole premise here seemed kind of off to me since the whole point of the letters was that they were anonymous. Emma got over that point a little too quickly when Holly, a total stranger, showed up in her life, lied to her, and started trying to meddle. Holly was somewhat unremarkable to me as a main character, but that said, I loved all the other characters in her life who she surrounded herself with, and the found-family aspect of the book between Emma and Holly. Their relationship and bond was very special and I appreciated the way they learned from one another.

I really enjoyed the romance as well, from the initial electric chemistry between Holly and Jack when they first meet to the slow-burn rekindling in the present day. The complexity of their lives that kept them from fully embracing their connection felt realistic and kept me on my toes.

This was a cute, if predictable, read, but not my favorite by Emily Stone.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Love, Holly at an indie bookstore near you
Love, Holly on Goodreads

Book Review, thriller

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Thriller

Daisy Darker’s Nana was told by a psychic that she won’t live past the age of 80. For her 80th birthday, she summons her whole family to her island home where they are soon cut off from the mainland for eight hours as the tide comes in. As the night wears on, family members are found dead one by one.

I love Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, so I was excited about the similarities in this thriller. There were a lot of characters and it was a bit hard to keep track of them. I could have used a little more time distinctly introducing each one before the action set in.

Feeney did an excellent job of building tension as she marked how many hours were left of isolation before the tide went back out. I felt largely in the dark about who to suspect. There may have been hints I didn’t pick up on, but I wish there had been a little more of that.

As a ‘thriller,’ this felt somewhat repetitive. It didn’t seem like there was anything particularly distinct about each murder.

The ending was completely unexpected and changed my view of the entire story. It was really unique and nothing I could have seen coming. Understanding the actions of the murderer based on the information we gain at the end was really fascinating and redeemed the story somewhat for me.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Daisy Darker at an indie bookstore near you
Daisy Darker on Goodreads

Book Review, Magical Realism, Romance

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪.5
Genre: Romance/Magical Realism
Similar to: In Five Years

After the death of her aunt, Clementine moves into her aunt’s apartment; the apartment she was always told is magic. One day, she returns to it to find a strange man, Iwan, there, claiming to be renting the space from her aunt for the summer. As Clementine gets to know him, she simultaneously realizes that she’s falling for him and that he exists seven years in the past.

I lovvvve a book with a whisper of magical realism in an otherwise normal reality. It took me a minute to understand the premise of this one, but once it clicked I was enchanted.

The chemistry between Iwan and Clementine was sooo palpable. I loved that it was fostered in the haven of the magic apartment in the past and forced to be confined there until they crossed paths again seven years later.

Clementine is struggling to come to terms with existing in a world without her aunt and grief plays into her narrative so palpably and painfully. She also finds herself at a crossroads in her career and all of these facets made her a complex, well-rounded character who I found myself rooting for.

The only piece of this story I didn’t absolutely adore was the ending which felt like it rushed to tie up all the loose ends. Nonetheless, I’ll definitely reread this one to be re-immersed in the magical world Poston created.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy The Seven Year Slip at an indie bookstore near you
The Seven Year Slip on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction

Talk about an unlikeable, delusional main character!! When June Hayward’s loose friend and literary darling Athena Liu dies suddenly, June steals her latest manuscript and finishes it herself under a pen name. What follows is a darkly humorous exploration of cultural appropriation, racism, and June’s utter lack of accountability.

Athena’s books focused on the trauma of her Chinese characters, a niche she felt pressured by the publishing industry to play into time and time again. June, writing under the name Juniper, leaves her race ambiguous and only tells anyone she is white when asked directly. Rumors begin to swirl on social media accusing her of stealing Athena’s work, kicking off a whole new cycle of crazy.

Kuang does an incredible job of writing characters who are unlikeable. She paints an uncomfortable picture of the publishing industry’s interactions with marginalized authors. Her dialogue is painfully good at getting to the heart of this story and I could not stop listening (to the audiobook). It’s cringe-worthy in a way that verges on satire.

June is so selfishly focused on her own success and using her intellect to get out of negative situations. I was holding my breath to find out what would lead to her eventual final downfall, but I never could have seen the ending coming. It left me utterly shook and continued, all the way to the last paragraph, to hammer home the themes and messages that played out through the entire book.  

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Yellowface at an indie bookstore near you
Yellowface on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle ~ Book Review

Morgan

My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Genre: Fiction
Similar to: In Five Years
Release Date: March 19, 2024 (Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for my ARC)

Rebecca Serle has done it again. Daphne, our protagonist, receives a slip of paper whenever she meets a new man she’ll have a romantic connection with. The paper tells her how long they will be romantically involved. That is, until she meets Jake, whose slip of paper has only his name.

I absolutely love the way Serle incorporates the littlest bit of the fantastical into an everyday narrative. It makes for such captivating stories. I loved that there was no justification for the expiration dates in Daphne’s life, they simply were. Her relationship with Jake seemed so effortless and heartwarming and I believed in their chemistry. I also appreciated the way the story explored her past and her previous relationships, illustrating how the expiration dates came to be correct.

This is a short book and a very quick read, but it made my jaw literally drop multiple times. They were twists I would never have guessed were coming and moved the story along in such interesting ways. I will say I was not 1000% happy with the ending, but I loved the rest of the book so much that it still gets 5 stars from me.

Check out my bookstagram: @Treat.your.shelf
Buy Expiration Dates at an indie bookstore near you
Expiration Dates on Goodreads