Tag: contemporary fiction

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The Seven Year Slip

The Seven Year Slip is my first Ashley Poston novel, and I was drawn to it for the magical realism aspect of the story. I have enjoyed several books in this genre over the last couple of years, and this was no exception.

Clementine is an overworked book publicist who has just moved into her deceased aunt’s apartment on New York’s upper east side. Her aunt had claimed that the apartment was magical, and, now that Clementine is living there, it is time for her to experience it for herself. She falls asleep on the couch one night only to awaken seven years in the past. Her aunt is still alive but is abroad for the summer, and the apartment has been sublet to a young man named Iwan.

What follows is an engaging story of love and loss across time. I thoroughly enjoyed the love story and was moved by how Clementine deals with the grief surrounding her aunt’s passing. I thought the supporting characters were very well done and liked the message about following your passion in life. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

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The Bright Side of Going Dark

The Bright Side of Going Dark by Kelly Harms, which was published in 2020, reads like a modern morality tale. Mia Bell is an influencer who lives her life on a social media site called Pictey. When her fiance breaks up with her just days before their wedding, she fakes the event to satisfy her followers and sponsors. Then her mother confronts her with her reliance on social media, and Mia responds by throwing her phone off a cliff. 

Meanwhile, Paige Miller is a techie loner who notices Mia’s absence, hacks into her Pictey account, and begins ghost posting on her feed. Paige is dealing with her own issues, including job stress and her sister Jessica’s mental health crisis, but she convinces herself this will be a good thing somehow. Of course, it all comes to a head when Mia finds out what Paige has been doing.

This was a fun read, although slightly heavy-handed in its message. My favorite part was seeing how Mia adjusted to being offline and made connections in real life.

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The Library

The Library is the first book I have read by Bella Osborne, a UK writer who has been publishing mostly romcoms since 2015. This book is one of her uplifting bookclub reads, and I’m sure the library setting was what got it on my radar. The main characters are Tom, a sixteen-year old boy who feels invisible, and Maggie, a seventy-two year old woman who has been on her own for the last ten years.

Tom and Maggie meet at the village library and become friends as they join forces to help save the library from being closed by the council. It is definitely a feel-good story with a heavy emphasis on books, so right up my alley.

I could identify with both characters in different ways. I can relate to Tom feeling invisible and finding solace in reading, and I can relate to Maggie having a good life but still finding something missing. For instance, Maggie finds that in her situation, the thing she misses most of all is the hugs.

“It was a peculiar quirk of polite modern society that without a partner or offspring in your life you were denied that one key comfort humans require – the need for physical contact. An embrace can be on many different levels but the basic sensation of emotional and physical warmth given freely by another is most noticeable when it is no longer there.”

I also appreciated the focus on books and reading being part of one’s life. I loved how Tom grew in his confidence with books and the library until he was recommending books to others, and these words from Maggie really resonate with me:

“Books are such an underrated essential. Every book is a key that unlocks another world, leads us down the path of a different life and offers the chance to explore an unexpected adventure. Every one is a gift of either knowledge, entertainment or pure escapism and goodness knows we all need that from time to time.”

All in all, this was a lovely story and an enjoyable read.

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Short Story Reviews November 2025

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi

⭐⭐⭐/5

This short story is the first of The Time Traveler’s Passport, six Amazon Original stories that are free to read with Kindle Unlimited. I found this one quite interesting with a good twist at the end. Scalzi has an intriguing take on how time travel could work and what part it would play in society.

The Toy Car by Rose Tremain

⭐⭐/5

This is a coming-of-age story about a young man from Greece who visits his mother’s home country of England at her insistence so that he can see what else is out there before he follows in his father’s footsteps as the owner of a small taxi company. I didn’t really connect with the characters, so this was a miss for me.

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What you are looking for is in the library

What you are looking for is in the library, written by Michiko Aoyama and translated by Alison Watts

I love the idea that a wise librarian could point you in a direction you had not thought of, which would turn out to be the perfect answer to what you were struggling with. In this book, we meet five different people, each of whom is unhappy with their life in some way:

  • Tomoka, 21 womenswear sales assistant
  • Ryo, 35, accounts department of a furniture manufacturer
  • Natsumi, 40, former magazine editor
  • Hiroya, 30, NEET (not in employment, education or training)
  • Masao, 65, retired

Somehow, each of them ends up at the community library and meets Sayuri Komachi, a librarian who asks them what they are looking for and gives them a list of books that includes one unrelated book as well as a bonus gift, a small felted object. The seemingly unrelated book ends up leading them to the answer they need to find happiness in their lives.

One thing that I found jarring was the reaction each of the characters had to the librarian when they first saw her. She is a large woman, and the descriptions of her appearance are quite derogatory. They each assume that she is an angry, unapproachable person and are surprised when she is friendly and helpful.

Putting that aside, I found the conclusions that each person reached to be very satisfying and thought-provoking. I am glad that I read this book.

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The Lost Bookshop

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods – ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I enjoyed The Lost Bookshop so much. I loved immersing myself in the world Woods created in this story.

The highlights:

✅I have really come to enjoy magical realism as I have read more of it, and it was very well done in this book. 

✅I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to follow along with the two timelines and the different points of view. 

✅The two women did encounter some difficult situations in their lives that were hard to read about, but they was handled well.

✅The emphasis on books was so lovely, especially the rare book dealing aspect.

✅I love Henry, the MMC.

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Woodworking

Woodworking by Emily St. James

I had to wait a long time for my hold of Woodworking to come up, but it was well worth the wait. This is the story of Erica Skyberg, a trans woman who hasn’t told anyone yet. Erica is a recently divorced high school English teacher, and she befriends Abigail, who is one of her students and a trans girl.

There is a lot to like about this book. It is very well written with interesting characters and good pacing. I also learned a lot about the trans experience from characters at different points of their transition. It was a pleasure to read, and I look forward to more from this new author.

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Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout is book 5 in the Amgash series.

Summary

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been.

Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

My Thoughts

Simple yet profound – that is the best way I can describe Elizabeth Strout’s writing. On the surface, this book follows the lives of Bob Burgess and Lucy Barton as they experience their friendship and deal with the everyday situations in their lives. Ultimately, however, it explores the meaning of life, especially that of the “unrecorded life.”

If you are interested in reading Elizabeth Strout, I would recommend starting with Olive Kitteredge and the first book in the Amgash series, My Name is Lucy Barton.

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The Paris Cooking School

The Paris Cooking School by Sophie Beaumont

Summary

There’s nothing quite so beautiful as Paris in the spring; and when you add in the chance to learn the French way of food, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, who can resist? Not Gabi Picabea or Kate Evans who have come from Australia to Sylvie Morel’s Paris Cooking School.

Both are at a crossroads, and learning to cook the French way in Paris, far away from all their troubles, seems like the perfect escape. Meanwhile, Sylvie herself is facing challenges of her own – a mysterious harassment campaign against the School and a reassessment of her relationship with her commitment-shy lover Claude. 

For each of the women, that extraordinary April in Paris will bring unexpected twists and transformations that will change the course of their lives.

My Thoughts

This is a lovely book. Gabi and Kate are likeable characters who are trying to find their way despite various difficulties in their lives. I enjoyed their interaction with the rest of the class as well as with the people they meet in Paris. I also liked the storyline with Sylvie, who runs the school, as she deals with her own challenges.

My favorite part was how descriptive Beaumont is, showing us an intimate view of Paris and tantalizing us with mouthwatering descriptions of food, both around the city and in the cooking school. I am such a picky eater, but it made me want to try all of the dishes they encountered.

I am definitely putting her second book, A Secret Garden in Paris, on my list!

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Every Time You Go Away

Every Time You Go Away by Beth Harbison

Willa Bennett’s husband Ben passed away three years ago while he was up at their beach house to do some work on it. She has not really been living her life since, including not being very present for her teenage son, Jamie. Now she is heading to the beach house to get it ready to sell, hoping it will help her to move on. Once she arrives, she is surprised to encounter her husband’s ghost.

When it turns out there is a lot of work to do before she can sell, she summons her son Jamie, her best friend Kristin, and Kristin’s daughter Kelsey to come for the summer. Even with their company, she continues to see Ben and is even able to talk with him, reminiscing about their life together and how she is dealing with being on her own.

I enjoyed this book so much. The writing was engaging and emotional, with well-developed, relatable characters. The touch of the supernatural was handled very well–I loved the interactions between Willa and Ben. For me, it was a satisfying story about moving through grief and finding healing.