Book Review, Fiction, Holiday, Romance

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan ~ Book Review

Morgan

William Morrow
Genre: Holiday
Release Date: October 26, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

When the store Carmen works for suddenly closes, she finds herself faced with the unappealing proposition of moving in with her successful, put-together, very pregnant sister Sofia. Sofia is less than thrilled by Carmen’s arrival, but a client of hers needs retail assistance in his bookstore, so she agrees.

I loved seeing Carmen slowly warm up to her nieces and nephew and embrace her identity as their aunt. She stands in stark contrast to their nanny, Skylar, who is a sexy yoga/wellness caricature. Each of the main characters was very distinct from one another, and made for really interesting dynamics.

Carmen quickly begins to implement changes to the bookshop to draw attention to passersby, despite the consternation of curmudgeonly Mr. McCredie, the owner. Carmen’s commitment to the bookstore felt really genuine, and helped her character develop a lot.

There are two semi-love interests introduced throughout the storyline, but the romance is pretty peripheral, and overall this is much more a story about Carmen’s relationship with her sister, herself, and Edinburgh. The descriptions of Edinburgh were so quirky and charming and it so clearly holds a special place in the author’s heart. I could vividly visualize Carmen’s wanderings around the city.

This was a sweet and unique story, perfect for a cozy winter night.

Buy The Christmas Bookshop at an indie bookstore near you
The Christmas Bookshop on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Holiday, Romance

A Magical New York Christmas by Anita Hughes ~ Book Review

Morgan

St. Martin’s Griffin
Genre: Holiday
Release Date: September 28, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

I really thought I was going to love this book. First of all the setting – the Plaza Hotel at Christmastime. The descriptions of the lavish Plaza were wonderful and it felt like a character in and of itself. The premise was also fantastic. Sabrina, a struggling writer, accepts a job as a ghostwriter for the memoir of Grayson Westcott. The position includes accommodations at the Plaza for the entirety of the job. Grayson, who used to work as a butler at the Plaza, largely recounts his experiences with Kay Thompson, the author of the Eloise books. This was such a fun and interesting story within a story.

Simultaneously, Ian is staying at the hotel. He’s traveling as the secretary for his friend Spencer, who is British royalty. In a case of double mistaken identity, Sabrina and Ian meet and both assume the other is the type of person who stays at the Plaza of their own volition.

The magic of Christmas in New York really came alive through this book, but Ian and Sabrina’s lack of common sense was so frustrating. I felt like the same sentences kept being used over and over, along the lines of “Ian thought she was the kind of person who could afford the Plaza.” This happened so many times, I honestly couldn’t stand it.

Also, Ian had been hired essentially to keep Spencer from proposing to random girls he met in his travels?! Like seriously, that was his entire job. He kept needing to run off to check in on Spencer’s dates. The utter unbelievability of this setup made it really hard for me to get into the story. For all the promise this book had, there were a few major pieces that really didn’t work for me.

Buy A Magical New York Christmas at an indie bookstore near you
A Magical New York Christmas on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Holiday

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand ~ Book Review

Morgan

Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Holiday
Release Date: October 14, 2014
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

I discovered Elin Hilderbrand this year and was excited to get to experience her Nantucket magic infused with some holiday spirit in Winter Street. As always, the setting and descriptions were spectacular. I could perfectly picture the Winter Street Inn and the traditions and festivities that took place there and in the surrounding town.

This book follows a web of members of the Quinn family, from Kelley, the owner, to his four children, his wife, and his ex-wife. There are a lot of moving pieces in this book, and a lot of characters to keep track of. It’s also a pretty short book, so I definitely felt like I didn’t really get a good sense of each character and their motivations as in depth as I would have liked. That being said, this is a four book series, so I would assume that the characters develop more slowly throughout them all.

I liked the festive atmosphere and Elin Hilderbrand’s writing style enough that I plan to read more of this series, but I did wish there was a little less drama and a little more time learning about a few characters.

Buy Winter Street at an indie bookstore near you
Winter Street on Goodreads

Book Review, Fantasy

We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange ~ Book Review

Morgan

Celadon Books
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: August 3, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪

Super unpopular opinion coming at you, but this book was not it for me. Sunday Brennan moves back across the country to be with her family after a drunk driving accident. Her return sends waves through the tight-knit community she left behind and I was excited to see what it stirred up but then….nothing happened. This whole book was me just waiting for action that never came.

There’s one big event in Sunday’s past that was a catalyst for a lot of change and trauma in her life, but even that felt anticlimactic. For a character-driven plot, I felt like a lot of the characters were given very surface level descriptions and shallow back stories that made them hard for me to feel invested in. The family dynamics were interesting and there was a lot of potential, but the unbelievable and cliched road it went down vastly underwhelmed me.

Buy We Are the Brennans at an indie bookstore near you
We Are the Brennans on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, mystery, thriller

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Morgan

Celadon Books
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: May 11, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

There was something about the storyline in The Plot that gave it a sense of urgency that permeated out to me as the reader. Jacob Finch Bonner, a once successful author, has resigned himself to teaching writing courses since his own ideas seem to have dried up. When one of his (incredibly cocky) students tells him the plot for his novel, Jake begrudgingly agrees that it’s sure to be a bestseller. Years later, when he finds out said student died without having ever written the book, Jake takes it upon himself to bring the story into the world.

The narration of Jake in the audiobook of The Plot is fantastic. His character comes across so clearly as this kind of awkward, down on his luck guy who wants to write a good book, but secretly basks in the fame he’s sure to get upon its publication. As his secret starts to catch up with him, I found myself utterly glued to the story, wanting to know who would make the next move.

This book has a story within a story format, simultaneously telling Jake’s story, and the story of the book he writes, Crib. For all the hype Crib got in its fictional world, I didn’t think it was as good as Jake’s story going on around it.

The twist at the end of this book wasn’t the most shocking discovery, but I was satisfied with how well it tied up the questions that Jake had been pursuing answers to.

Buy The Plot at an indie bookstore near you
The Plot on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson ~ Book Review

Morgan

Ecco
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: October 29, 2019
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

Nothing to See Here tells a story that is exceptionally normal except for one key detail: two kids who spontaneously burst into flames. The juxtaposition of their condition against the mundaneness of the rest of the narrative was a little jarring at first, but once I got used to it I kind of loved it.

When Lillian hears from Madison, her ex-boarding school roommate, for the first time in years, she has no idea what to expect. Madison, who’s married to a successful politician, doesn’t have the capacity to take care of her stepchildren who have just come under her husband’s custody. Instead, she wants Lillian to.

The backstory of Lillian and Madison was compelling and made for a really interesting relationship between them and setting the stage for the rest of the book. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was incredible. I highly recommend going for the audio version of this one. That language is really casual, colloquial, and often explicit, and listening to it brought Lillian’s character to life. She is so frank about life and the difficulties she’s experienced and I loved watching her learn how to apply her approach to life to helping the kids.

The ending of this book, unfortunately, lost me a little. The sudden shift in Madison and Lillian’s relationship felt unexplored and the ultimate ending was unbelievable. It felt unfinished, like an ending had been chosen at random to just wrap the story up.

Buy Nothing to See Here at an indie bookstore near you
Nothing to See Here on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Holiday, Romance

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss ~ Book Review

Morgan

G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Holiday romance
Release Date: September 28, 2020
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪

There was a lot that I liked about this book. The premise follows Kate as she embarks on a dating agency’s “12 date of Christmas” promotion. Each date encompasses a festive Christmas-y activity, and the holiday spirit was palpable. I loved the different types of chemistry (or lack thereof) that Kate encountered with each man she met.

On the side, Kate bakes for her friend Matt’s bakery. The two of them go way back, although a falling out in their past kept them from speaking for several years. I did not like Matt. He seemed incredibly controlling and manipulative of Kate. He constantly expected her to drop everything she was doing to help him with every minor inconvenience, even when her doing so was detrimental to her own happiness. Matt kept me from ever getting fully invested in this otherwise wonderful holiday story. I think the twelve date idea was enough of a fun premise that Matt did not need to be in this book at all.

I liked this book for the atmosphere, but it was pretty predictable and I was not satisfied with the ending. 

Buy The Twelve Dates of Christmas at an indie bookstore near you
The Twelve Dates of Christmas on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, Romance, Uncategorized

The Heart Principle by Helena Hoang ~ Book Review

Morgan

Berkley
Genre: Romance
Release Date: August 31, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪.5

The Heart Principle covers a lot of really heavy topics, which I wasn’t expecting. Anna, the main character, deals with extensive gaslighting and struggles with agreeing with her family end of life care for a relative. All this is happening in conjunction with her boyfriend announcing that he wants them to try having an open relationship.

Anna decides she wants to have a one night stand and ends up meeting Quan on a dating app. It quickly becomes clear that they are destined for more than either of them anticipated.

The romance in this book seemed really rushed which made it seem somewhat unbelievable to me. The individual scenes with Anna and Quan were well done and I loved watching them fully accept one another, but everything seemed to happen too fast.

I think part of what made me not love this book was how hard it was to read. The way Anna was treated by her family was unacceptable. Her thoughts and feelings were completely invalidated and ignored. Although Anna came to realize this a little bit by the end of her story, it still felt like she didn’t understand the magnitude of how terribly she’d been treated. These aspects of the book kept me from being able to fully appreciate her professional and romantic storylines.

Thank you to Libro.fm for my copy.

Buy The Heart Principle at an indie bookstore near you
The Heart Principle on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction, mystery, thriller

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead ~ Book Review

Morgan

Sourcebooks Landmark
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: August 3, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪🍪

And I’m back again, with yet another ‘murder at a bougie prep school’ thriller review. This is a favorite sub-genre of mine, so I had high hopes going into it. Right away, we meet our squad of six, now grown up, ex-best friends who also double as our murder suspects.

As the group reunites at their high school reunion, Jessica Miller wants nothing more than to make a splash and have people finally recognize her success and potential. Instead, the six of them find themselves being forced to relive the night in high school when the seventh member of their squad, Heather, was stabbed to death.

The dual-narrative of this plot made it nearly impossible to put down, with one timeline chronicling the friends’ high school experiences, and the other in the present as they are forced to relive the days and weeks leading up to Heather’s murder.

Having six main characters was a bold move, and I found it difficult to keep track of everyone. Especially at the beginning, the nicknames and the intertwined romantic and platonic relationships were very hard to follow. This kept me from staying as immersed in the story as I would have liked.

Overall, this was a fast, riveting thriller and the deeply layered character motivations made it stand out from other similarly structured books.

Buy In My Dreams I Hold a Knife at an indie bookstore near you
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife on Goodreads

Book Review, Fiction

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller ~ Book Review

Morgan

Riverhead Books
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: July 6, 2021
My Rating: 🍪🍪🍪.5

Oh man, there is a lot to unpack from The Paper Palace. This book is based around Elle’s infidelity with her childhood best friend Jonas. She and Jonas met while she was staying at her summer house, ‘the paper palace’ with her family when she was young. Although he was several years younger than her, they formed a fast friendship, despite constant taunts about crushing on each other. I thought the flashbacks to their childhood were really touching. Young Jonas was so thoughtful and selfless, and the way they came together felt very realistic.

As Jonas and Elle’s friendship blossoms, Elle is also going through a number of traumatizing incidents at home, including rape. There was a lot of heaviness in Elle’s childhood, and a lot of disturbing scenes that helped to understand what shaped her as an adult.

The narrative that is not flashbacks follows Elle in the twenty-four hours after she cheats on her husband with Jonas, as she struggles to imagine what her life would look like if she chose to be with Jonas.

The relationships in The Paper Palace were incredibly well-crafted, especially those between each of Elle’s family members. Although many of the relationships were problematic, they seemed realistic and everything helped paint an in-depth character study of Elle.

Be warned that this book has a lot of heaviness, and that it focuses on infidelity. This is a trait I have difficulty looking past in a character, and definitely made me enjoy this book less than I might have otherwise.

Buy The Paper Palace at an indie bookstore near you
The Paper Palace on Goodreads