Tag: fiction

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A Quiet Week

Peanut Butter is slightly obsessed with his new catnip toy!

This was a pretty quiet week for me. I didn’t have any appointments and I didn’t have to take Michael anywhere other than work. On Friday, I did have a friend over who had a rough week and needed some company. We ate Chinese takeout and did a puzzle, which was nice.

I only finished one book this week – Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick. It was one of the Amazon First Reads I got for free back in late 2024, and I finally got around to reading it. I stopped getting those over a year ago because I have so many books I am more interested in on my list, but I am trying to read the ones I did get.

The story was enjoyable and had some funny moments. It was a good entry into the “finding your way after divorce” genre. Here’s the blurb about it:

Vivian Quackenbush enjoys a typical life. She has winesday evenings with her two best friends. Her son is in college. She and her husband, Mitch, are planning the next move for their empty-nester future. But to Vivian’s blindsided surprise…not together.

After nearly twenty-five years of marriage, Mitch wants a divorce. He confesses that he doesn’t love her anymore. He never even liked her chicken salad! Brutal. What is Vivian to do but channel her anger, frustration, and pain into a video she posts online. Ill advised? Perhaps. Cathartic? Absolutely. Overnight, Vivian goes viral. Millions of views and counting—to Mitch’s fury, her son’s embarrassment, her mother’s support, and the media’s delight. For Vivian, it’s a moment of hide or lean into it. Vivian 2.0 chooses to lean—maybe even toward the younger single father next door.

Now Vivian is wondering where she goes from here. She’s discovering that somewhere in her trending if upended life, she’ll have to figure out who she really wants to be.

I have to go into the office to do some more training on Monday and Tuesday, but then I have Wednesday off, which I am looking forward to.

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Mini Book Reviews

I have finished three books this week and wanted to share my quick impressions of them here.

Fury In Death by J.D. Robb – In Death #63

Blurb: NYSPD homicide detective Eve Dallas never knows what to expect when she gets word of a body. It could be an elderly man who made the mistake of climbing a ladder in slippery footwear. And the next call could be a wealthy biotech executive beaten to death in his home office—but what was Larry Chu’s mistake?

The victim’s corpse is so mangled and damaged it’s hard to believe a lone, unarmed assailant could have managed it. The killer was clearly unnaturally strong—and smart enough to find a way into Chu’s highly secure building. Most of all, whoever did this was very, very angry.

The excessive violence leads Dallas to conclude that this was a deeply personal act, born of a rage that she can’t excuse but can understand thanks to her own traumatic past. And though the motive seems rooted in heated emotion rather than cold hard cash, she can’t ignore the suspicious bank account in the Cayman Islands, or the shadowy, profit-hungry company Chu worked for. The mystery only grows when it turns out Chu isn’t the only victim—and Dallas will need to tear through one layer of secrecy after another to reveal what lies behind this explosion of fury…

My Thoughts: Another thrilling entry in this amazing series. I loved the way this one unfolded. So good!

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory – The Wedding Date #2

Blurb: When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part–they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…

At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up–in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes…

My Thoughts: Really enjoyable romance with great characters and a good story. I’m liking this series a lot.

Book Club at Butterfly Inn by Kate Wentworth – Butterfly Lane #2

Blurb: The picturesque Butterfly Inn sits the a California coastal town of Bella Beach where bookshops and bakeries line the streets, wine tastings bring neighbors together, and everyone knows your name. When Jessica London leaves her wealthy family behind to run the historic inn, she’s not just starting a business. She’s starting over completely. And her first big idea? A book club that that brings together the eclectic women of the community.

Sara is ready to start the next chapter in her life and embrace her unexpected new romance. Zoe is determined to build her coffee empire while tentatively opening her heart to love again. Mayor Deb is working overtime to save the town’s finances and attract new businesses, even as her own family life grows complicated. And Miriam, the inn’s beloved former owner, is discovering what comes after your life’s work becomes someone else’s dream.

Together, these women form an unlikely circle of support, sharing wine, books, and the messy truths of their lives. But when an intriguing stranger shows up at book club, his presence sets off a chain of events that will test every relationship and unearth a secret buried for decades. Now these women must decide whether the truth will tear them apart or bind them together even stronger.

My Thoughts: Sweet, feel-good entry to the series. I just wish it had been longer and a bit more had been wrapped up.

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Mini Book Reviews

I have still been reading – not just puzzling – but I haven’t had the motivation to sit down and write reviews for the books I have finished. I do want to share them, however, so here are my recent reads with the book blurb and my very short thoughts!

Blurb: On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded, and she’s confident that, together, they’ll dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love.

But when Carla’s superstitious family insists she visit a fortune teller before her big day, the tarot reveals that the love of Carla’s life is not Tom, but one of the men she dated on a gap year—twenty-one years ago. With her wedding just weeks away, Carla sets off across Europe, tracking down her exes from that unforgettable year to prove the fortune wrong. From Spain to Portugal, Italy to France, will one of them be her perfect match? And could a face from Carla’s past help her rewrite her entire family history forever?

My thoughts: 3.5 stars – Nice story about whether love should be based on the head or the heart and how to know when you have found the right person for you.

Blurb: Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is . . . complicated. So when her real dad—a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago—suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach you: about love, and what it actually means to be family.

My thoughts: 4.5 stars – Fun story about handling life after death and divorce. Quirky characters.

Blurb: A snowstorm. A stranger. A spark. And it’s Christmas!
It should be the perfect start to the perfect love story.

But real life is far messier and more complicated than in the pages of the books in Megan Taylor’s family bookshop – the last few years have left this young widow in no doubt of that. Moving back home to York should have been a fresh start, but all it did was allow her to retreat from the world.

When prize-winning author Xander Stone rams his supermarket trolley into her ankles and then trashes her taste in books, Megan is abruptly awoken from her self-imposed hibernation. It’s time to start living again, and she’s going to start by putting this arrogant, superior – admittedly sexy – stranger in his place.

Just as she is beginning to enjoy life again, the worst happens and Megan begins to wonder if she should have stayed hidden away. Because it turns out that falling in love again is about more than just meeting under the mistletoe…

My thoughts: 4 stars – Enjoyable holiday romance. Bonus points for being centered on the book world.

Blurb: Since her husband’s death six months ago, Yesica Diaz-Taylor seems to be taking her grief in stride. Then an angry outburst at work shatters the illusion. Her mandated support group counseling doesn’t help much. Yesica has always kept her feelings close, so even when an unlikely friendship blossoms with the group’s facilitator, she still has reasons for holding back. She’s just not ready to share.

Ana Diaz has been widowed for five years and continues to live life exactly as she did with her late husband. When her house floods, she’s forced to shake things up. Although it was never part of her plan, Ana moves in with her eldest daughter, Yesica. But the new living arrangement tests their already strained relationship.

Shadowed by unresolved tensions, Yesica, Ana, and matriarch Mama Melda must learn to share a home, their heartbreak, and, once and for all, the haunting family secrets that have kept them apart.

My thoughts: 5 stars – I got this for free on my Kindle as an Amazon First Reads and finally got around to reading it. I don’t know why I waited so long because I loved it! I enjoyed the way each of the women’s stories unfolded and how their relationships evolved over the course of the book.

Blurb: The last thing Alice expects to see at her husband’s graveside on his birthday is a giant, talking frog. On closer inspection, it’s a grown man dressed as Kermit.

Turns out Alice’s husband is buried next to Ben’s older brother Harry, who—as a parting practical joke in his will—insisted that Ben visit his grave each year, on this specific day, dressed in an as-yet-undisclosed pageant of embarrassing fancy dress.

With little but their grief and this one day in common, Alice and Ben form a very special, very strange friendship, meeting just once a same day, same time, same place—different silly costume. As the years pass and grief alters, can their unique bond help them cope with the hardest part of life?

My thoughts – 4 stars – This was another Amazon First Reads that I enjoyed. It was a combination of fun and deep, and I really liked the friendship that grew between this unlikely pair.

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Christmas in July – Three Holiday Books

I read three Christmas books in July, ranging from sweet to funny.

One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery was a really fun story about Julie Parker, who is planning a quiet holiday with the younger man she is dating but instead ends up hosting a houseful of family and friends at their holiday cabin. Hilarity ensues as the holiday unfolds and personalities clash.

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin is the story of Anais, who has become the owner of a rundown Paris hotel through her divorce settlement. She is working on getting it renovated in time for Christmas with the goal of finding a buyer, but will she change her mind after finding a mysterious hidden set of rooms?

In A Christmas Duet, Debbie Macomber introduces us to Hailey Morgan, an aspiring singer-songwriter who is currently working as a band teacher. To avoid her meddling family, she accepts a friend’s offer to use a family cabin for the holidays. Once there, she meets Jay, the mayor’s son and a former musician, and sparks fly.

I really enjoyed reading some holiday stories during the summer!

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Nantucket Second Chances

I don’t buy many books – I usually borrow them from the library using Libby or Hoopla – but Pamela Kelley is an auto-buy author for me. I always enjoy her feel-good stories, which are mostly set on Nantucket and have those fun beachy vibes.

Nantucket Second Chances is about Claire Shipman, who is going through a divorce and returns home to Nantucket to figure out what to do next. Did I mention she has a teenage daughter and is also pregnant again? As the divorce drags on, she decides to start selling her high end bags and shoes to make some extra money. She opens a little shop in the extra space owned by custom furniture maker Cody, and we get to follow along as she builds her business and develops a friendship (and maybe more) with Cody.

This was such a fun read. I really liked the characters, and the story was paced well and had just the right amount of drama for me. Highly recommended!

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The Midnight Train

I read Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library shortly after it came out in 2020 and absolutely loved it, so when he wrote The Midnight Train, a novel set in the same world, I jumped at the chance to read it.

I am not kidding when I say I devoured this book. It has been a while since I read a book this fast, but I did not want to put it down. In this book, we meet Wilbur, who has just died and is now experiencing his life flashing before his eyes. But the form it takes in a train that speeds through his life, stopping at important moments so he can watch them happen and understand them better.

I loved the philosophical nature of this book, as well as the twists and turns it took as Wilbur sees things he wished he had done differently. It was a powerful story, and the ending had me in total tears (which rarely happens to me).

Highly recommended!

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The Anti-Heroes

The Anti-Heroes by Jen Lancaster

Dr. Emily Nichols is a former eco-crusader who has ended up in academia and is not sure how her life got so bland. Her best friend, Liv Bennett, is a real estate agent who is a chronic people pleaser and is not living her best life because of it. When they witness an attempted robbery at their local coffee shop, they are impressed by the bravery of a yoga mom who confronts the thief. Through this experience, they end up in a mysterious class called Fearless, Inc, where the instructor Zeus wants to help them overcome their fears.

The story of women who are stuck in some way and need to find a way to speak their truth and stand up for themselves is not new, but the way the theme is addressed in this novel is so fun and engaging that I found myself eager to pick the book up again each time. There were a lot of humorous moments along with the opportunities for growth that Emily and Liv experience along with the other members of their class.

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Recent Reads from Sonali Dev

Sonali Dev has become one of my favorite authors, and I have recently read a novel and a short story of hers. The novel, Lies and Other Love Languages, is the story of Vandy Guru and her daughter Mallika. Vandy Guru is an advice columnist who is struggling with grief after the loss of her husband, and her daughter Mallika is an aspiring choreographer who is struggling to find her niche. The story also involves Vandy’s estranged childhood friend Rani Parekh and the secrets that tore them apart.

The book moves back and forth between the past and the present day until finally the story merges near the end of the book. Sometimes all that switching is difficult for me to follow or engage with, but I didn’t have any trouble with this one and was interested in both storylines. I was most invested in Vandy and Rani but gradually connected with Mallika as her character was fleshed out more and more. I also really liked the ending.

The Wedding Setup is a short story about Ayesha Shetty, a young woman who has thrown herself into the family business after the death of her brother. At her best friend’s wedding, she runs into an old flame while trying to avoid a doctor her mother is trying to set her up with. It was cute but mostly predictable, but I did enjoy the little twist at the end.

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School by the Sea Series (Maggie Adair)

The School by the Sea, aka Maggie Adair, is a charming series about an English boarding school for girls. Jenny Colgan tells the story of how she loved books about boarding schools but realized there weren’t very many for adults, so she wrote the first two books of the series and published them under the name Jane Beaton. A few years later, she republished them under Jenny Colgan and wrote the last two books to finish out the story.

I read the first two books back in 2022 and just read the last two books this year. The main character is Maggie Adair, a Scottish literature teacher who comes to teach at the school, and we see how she adjusts to this new situation and how it affects her personal and romantic life. The story also follows several of the girls in the school and explores their different backgrounds and experiences.

I am a big fan of Jenny Colgan and really enjoyed this series. I especially liked that we got to see things from the perspectives of both the teachers and the students, and I liked the interactions they had with the nearby boys’ school. Overall, this is a charming series that I would highly recommend!

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The March Sisters

I have read many adaptations and retellings of books by Jane Austen, but it’s not that often that I come across books based on 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 by Louisa May Alcott. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘚𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 is a two-book series that was published in 2019 and 2020. The first book focuses on Meg & Jo, while the second book focuses on Beth & Amy. We also get a glimpse into their parents’ relationship.

I thoroughly enjoyed this modern take on a beloved classic. Each sister faces different challenges in her life and in her relationships, and I appreciated the way Kantra shows how their childhood experiences mix with their personalities to contribute to their current issues.

Highly recommended!