A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: June 25, 2024
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.
None of Eileen’s book club friends can go on their annual book retreat, where they spend the week reading and discussing romance books. Feeling sad and lonely after a bad breakup, Eileen decides to go on the retreat all by herself. On the way, her car breaks down and she finds herself in Eloraton, the town in which her favorite romance series is set. It will take a few days to get it fixed, so the town’s grumpy bookstore owner offers to let her stay in the loft in the store. She quickly makes friends with the townspeople since she knows almost everything about them from reading the books. She’s so comfortable in the town that she doesn’t want to leave and go back to her real life.
A Novel Love Story completely charmed me. While I’m not a huge fantasy fan, I can get on board with magical realism if it’s done right. Ashley Poston got it right in The Seven Year Slip and she’s done it again here. This book is a tribute to romance, not a send up. It’s interesting how self-aware it is. Eileen can recognize the tropes that are playing out right before her eyes. She feels like she knows what’s best for the characters and can’t help meddling in their lives a bit even though the bookstore owner warns her not to.
Eileen does have a bit of a romance herself, but the focus of the book is the journey that both her and the people who live in Eloraton take while she’s there. Eileen has to time to reevaluate her life and try to figure out what would make her happy.
I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Eloraton right along with Eileen and thought the story was clever and fun. Highly recommended.
September 2nd, 2024 in
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Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.
Rue works as a biotech engineer at Kline, a food science corporation that has become the target of a hostile takeover attempt. Eli works for the private equity firm trying to take over Kline. When he meets Rue, he feels an instant, intense attraction. Rue feels it too, but she doesn’t want to betray the owner of Kline, who is also a close friend by doing anything with Eli. But they can’t help themselves and end up having a secret, passionate affair.
Not in Love has a different tone from Ali Hazelwood’s other books. She states in a note in the front of the book that Not in Love is less a rom-com and more erotica or dark romance. It is darker – both Eli and Rue come from troubled childhoods and have issues because of that. The spicy scenes are on the dark side, but nothing compared to some of the dark romance that’s out there! Ali Hazelwood knows how to write a love scene. They don’t have any of the cringy language that I’ve seen in some other romance books.
I loved Not in Love. Rue and Eli’s chemistry was palpable. I liked that Rue was a strong woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t have any problems communicating it. Her dry humor was fantastic – she had some great lines. And there was a callback to Check & Mate. It’s fun when authors put Easter eggs in their books.
Ali Hazelwood continues her streak of writing fantastic romance books with Not in Love. She can do no wrong. Highly recommended.
Other books by Ali Hazelwood I’ve reviewed:
The Love Hypothosis
Love, Theoretically
Check & Mate
August 20th, 2024 in
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Turtles All the Way Down is based on the book of the same name written by John Green. It follows Aza, a high school girl who has OCD. Her OCD manifests itself in her being afraid that any sort of bacteria she encounters will lead to her contracting clostridium difficle, commonly known as c. diff. It’s actually not that common and rarely leads to death although Aza’s sure she’ll die if she gets it. Her thought spirals as she calls them, have started to affect her relationships with her friends.
I thought this movie was a fantastic adaptation of Turtles All the Way Down. I wondered how they would do it successfully because a lot of the book is Aza’s inner thoughts. There are some great special effects used to convey what Aza is feeling and her thought spirals.
In the book, Aza reconnects with her childhood friend Davis when his billionaire Dad goes missing. It explores Davis’s feelings about this and also how Davis’s younger brother Noah is not handling things well. Davis’s father is missing in the movie but how it’s affecting Davis and Noah isn’t a part of the story. I understand why that was left out. This was a movie primarily for teenagers. To include Davis’s story would have made the movie a lot longer and might not have held the kids’ attention. Aza’s point of view is the most important.
I thought the movie was well-cast. Almost everyone looked how I pictured they would. The acting was a lot better than in most young adult movies. And John Green has a cameo! (That is not a spoiler. He posted a clip of it on Instagram.) Felix Mallard, who plays Davis, is hot in a generic hot guy way. He’s 26 in real life so it’s okay to say that! didn’t picture Davis as being particularly good looking when I read the book. He’s not nearly as awkward in the movie as he is in the book.
Turtles All the Way Down is a movie that both teenagers and adults alike will enjoy, even if they haven’t read the book or are a John Green fangirl like me. Highly recommended.
The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi
Narrator: Sneha Mathan
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Release Date: March 28, 2023
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick The Henna Artist, the final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes listeners to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.
Paris, 1974. Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents.
She has an exciting and challenging position working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.
Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.
The Perfumist of Paris follows Radha, Lakshmi’s younger sister. She lives in Paris with her husband Pierre and works at a perfume company mixing scents. She and Pierre have two little girls. Radha loves her job and sometimes works long hours. Pierre would rather she stay home and focus on their daughters.
*****This review has tiny spoilers for The Henna Artist*****
This book takes place in the 1970s when women were entering the work force en mass for the first time. France was behind America in accepting working women, which is one of the reasons Pierre was so against it.
If you’ve read The Henna Artist, you know that Radha gave birth to a baby boy when she was thirteen and placed him for adoption. One day, that boy, named Nicki, who is now a teenager, shows up at Radha and Pierre’s doorstep. The problem is that Radha never told Pierre about Nikki.
This book started out slowly – the first half was just Pierre and Radha fighting over her career. It got tedious. Things picked up once Nikki showed up at Radha’s house. Radha takes a trip back to India to look for new fragrances and we get to catch up with what Lakshmi and Malik have been up to.
Although not my favorite book of the series, I thought The Perfumist of Paris was a nice conclusion to The Henna Artist Trilogy.
Review of The Henna Artist (Book 1)
Review of The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (Book 2)
June 24th, 2024 in
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The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi
Publisher: MIRA
Publication Date: June 22, 2021
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At 20, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema.
Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies.
***This review might have mild spoilers for The Henna Artist.***
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur takes place about ten years after the end of The Henna Artist. Lakshmi and Dr. J are married and running a medical clinic in Shimla. Malik has graduated from an elite boarding school and is in Jaipur interning at Samir’s construction company. The company has been contracted by the Palace to build a fancy cinema.
Malik has left Nimmi, a humble tribeswoman that he’s started to form a relationship with, behind in Shimla. One of the reasons Lakshmi sent Malik to Jaipur is to get him away from Nimmi – she doesn’t think Nimmi is good enough for him.
The cinema collapses on opening night, injuring, and even killing, some of the people in attendance. Malik doesn’t buy the official explanation for the collapse and decides to investigate himself.
In this book Laksmi is a supporting character but she’s still up in everyone’s business, just like she was in The Henna Artist. The focus is mostly on Malik and Nimmi. It’s more plot driven than The Henna Artist since we already know most of the characters. (Although this could be read as a stand-alone because anything you need to know from the first book to understand what’s going on is explained.)
I thought The Secret Keeper of Jaipur was just as good as The Henna Artist. The mystery of who was behind the cinema collapse was well-plotted. I’m looking forward to the final book in the trilogy, The Perfumist of Paris.
My review of The Henna Artist is here.
May 9th, 2024 in
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A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: October 3, 2023
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.
But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?
Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?
Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.
A Winter in New York follows Iris, who has moved to New York City from London to get a fresh start after a bad breakup. She’s also still grieving after the loss of her mother Vivien.
Growing up, Iris’s mother made the best gelato using a recipe she got years ago from Santo, a man that she had a brief fling with. The recipe is a family secret so secret that only two family members are allowed to know it at the same time. Santo should not have given Vivien the recipe.
Iris happens to stumble upon Santo’s gelato shop while out walking but they are closed because they’ve lost the gelato recipe. Iris is torn – should she give them the recipe and risk making the family mad at Santo for giving the recipe to her mom? Iris is a chef so she decides she will offer to help Santo’s nephew Gio experiment with different ingredient combinations, knowing she will eventually lead him to the right recipe. And you know what ends up happening with them working so closely to together…
Frankly, I thought this book was boring. The writing itself wasn’t bad but it was very slow paced. I didn’t think there was good chemistry between Iris and Gio. They spent a lot of time making gelato. Like a lot. And I didn’t understand what the big deal was with Iris just telling Gio’s family that she had the recipe. I think they would have preferred that over being closed for weeks while they tried to figure out the recipe. I probably would have DNFed this book if it wasn’t one of my Book of the Month books. I paid good money for it, so I was determined to make it through!
Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
Narrators: Carolina Do, David Lee Huynah, Quyen Ngo, Vyvy Nguyen and Trieu Tran
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: July 4, 2023
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked.
Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?
Sunshine Nails is a light-hearted, urgent fable of gentrification with a cast of memorable and complex characters who showcase the diversity of immigrant experiences and community resilience.
Debbie and Phil Tran have owned Sunshine Nails for years, but the neighborhood is becoming more gentrified by the minute. A fancy new nail salon opens across the street while Sunshine Nails’ rent is nearly doubled. What lengths will Phil and Debbie go to save their nail salon?
I enjoyed Sunshine Nails. It’s a heartwarming story about family and community. It has its serious moments. The microaggressions some members of the Tran family experienced made me angry. But there is humor to keep it from becoming too heavy. The audiobook had multiple narrators, which I thought worked well. Recommended.
March 14th, 2024 in
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The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
Publication Date: December 5, 2023
Publisher: Forever
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Sadie Thatcher’s life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend—all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn’t believe magic will fix her life, but taking a leap of faith, Sadie makes her wish, opens her eyes, and . . . nothing has changed. And then, in perhaps her dumbest move yet, she kisses her brother’s best friend, Jacob.
When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she’s in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. Checking the date, she realizes it’s January 1 . . . of last year. As Sadie navigates her second-chance year, she begins to see the red flags she missed in her relationship and in her career. Plus, she keeps running into Jacob, and she can’t stop thinking about their kiss . . . the one he has no idea ever happened. Suddenly, Sadie begins to wonder if her only mistake was wishing for a second chance.
Sadie has just had a Very Bad Year. Her temper has caused her boyfriend to break up with her and for her to lose her job as a pastry chef as well. Plus, she kissed her brother’s best friend Jacob, which was probably not a good idea. At a New Year’s Eve party, a fortune teller casts a spell that wipes out the previous year. The next morning when she wakes up, it’s the first day of what was her Very Bad Year. She has a chance to do things differently, so she doesn’t lose her job and boyfriend. And kissing Jacob never happened.
As Sadie relives the year, she starts to wonder if the Very Bad Year wasn’t so bad after all.
This book was cute. I loved Jacob. He was so shy and sweet. I thought it was clever that since. Sadie was a pastry chef, all the metaphors she thought were food related. For example:
“I blush brighter than a red velvet cake.”
The Second Chance Year is a great New Year’s themed book to read anytime.
***The Second Chance Year was one of my Book of the Month Club selections. You can join Book of the Month with this link and get a hardcover book for only $5 with no obligation to continue your membership.***
The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
Publisher: Park Row
Publication Date: January 29, 2022
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.
As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls—haunted by secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. But soon it becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone is willing to do anything to find them.
Another great thriller!
Wylie is a true crime writer staying at a remote cabin to finish her latest book. A huge snowstorm is raging outside when she encounters a small child who will not speak. Who is this child and why are they alone outside in a snowstorm?
The book also flashes back to the 1990s when the crime Wylie is currently writing about occurred. That is another mystery – who committed that crime and why?
This is the kind of thriller where I really can’t tell you much more about it without spoilers. Just trust me when I tell you that the twists are crazy. And the last part was so suspenseful, my stomach was in knots. Heather has a long backlist – I can’t wait to read more of her books!
February 20th, 2024 in
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The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen
Narrator: Andy Cohen
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 9, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Andy Cohen has taken on the most important job of his life—father—and boy (and girl!) does he have a lot to say about it!
One of Andy Cohen’s most momentous years starts off with a hangover the morning after an epic New Year’s Eve broadcast. But Andy doesn’t have time to dwell on the drama, as his role as media mogul is now matched with the responsibilities, joys, and growing pains of parenthood.
This fast-paced, mile-a-minute look behind the scenes of living the so-called glamorous life in Manhattan now takes firm aim at life at home. With a three-year-old son, Ben, and a daughter, Lucy, born in May, stories of late-night parties are replaced by early mornings with Ben, drama at the playground, and the musings of a single dad trying to navigate having it all. All this is set against the backdrop of constant Housewives drama, hijinks behind the scenes at Watch What Happens Live, a revolving door of famous faces, and a worried mother (and newly minted grandmother) in St. Louis.
Buckle up, bottle up, and get ready for a laugh-out-loud and surprisingly poignant look at the ways in which family changes everything and the superficial gets very real. Watch what happens!
Andy Cohen’s new book is his third book of published diaries. It starts when his son Ben is three and his surrogate is pregnant with his daughter Lucy to when Lucy is a few months old.
Even though Andy is wealthy and has a nanny, his struggles as a single dad were actually relatable. He writes about feeling insecure at one of his son Ben’s birthday parties because he doesn’t feel he measure’s up to the other parents. My favorite relatable moment is when he moved Ben to a toddler bed and Ben would not stay in it and would get up super early. Andy wrote, “This toddler bed is ruining my life!” I’ve totally been there, Andy!
I listened to this on audio, which is a must. Andy reads it himself which makes it even funnier. His comedic timing is spot on. And he spills tea all over the place, which I love.
I hope he keeps publishing his diaries – they’re the best!
Other books I’ve reviewed by Andy Cohen:
Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture
The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year
Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries
February 3rd, 2024 in
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