Some Great Reads For Labor Day Weekend

Reprinted from auburnpub.com 

We’re in the dog days of summer as they call it. What to read as we try to make it last as long as we possibly can? This month’s Book Report has some suggestions.

Summer is a time for weddings, and Alison Espach’s novel The Wedding People is set at a fancy Newport, Rhode Island resort. Phoebe has checked into the Cornwall Inn not realizing that she is the only person there not attending the wedding of Lila and Gary, two people she doesn't know. 

Phoebe has come to the Cornwall Inn intending to end her life. Her husband left her for another woman after several unsuccessful attempts to have a baby, her career as a literature adjunct professor at a St. Louis college is stalled, and her cat died.

As Phoebe is preparing to end her life, Lila, the bride, bursts into her hotel room. Lila is a whirlwind, talking a mile a minute about her wedding problems, demanding to know why Phoebe is at the hotel. When Phoebe explains her situation, Lila is furious that Phoebe’s plan would wreck Lila’s perfect wedding.

Lila has planned each and every detail of the week-long wedding celebration. She is a bridezilla, yet she opens up to Phoebe and they form an interesting bond that ends up with Phoebe becoming the maid of honor.

We meet the members of the wedding party and the family, and Phoebe even has a flirtation with a handsome man in the hot tub. The characters in The Wedding People are so well-drawn, especially Lila, who in lesser hands could have been a one-dimensional character, but the author gives her such depth.

The writing is filled with wit, and the subject of depression is dealt with sensitivity. I enjoyed The Wedding People immensely. Read With Jenna chose it as her August read and it was a Book of the Month option.

Read With Jenna’s July pick was Chris Whitaker’s All the Colors of the Dark. This one is a much darker story. Patch is a young boy with one eye, being raised by an alcoholic mom, and picked on by bullies.  

When he sees the girl he has a crush on being attacked by a man, he rushes in to save her and the man takes Patch instead. Patch’s best friend Saint, a young girl who is a bit of an outcast as well, is determined to find out what happened to her best friend no matter the cost.

Saint hounds the local police, who are stymied in their investigation into this and other missing girls in the area. The local police chief is devastated by Patch’s disappearance.

All The Colors of the Dark continues through the next 20 years, combining a missing person mystery with a serial killer thriller with a friendship and love story. Serial killer stories are not a genre I enjoy reading, but All the Colors of the Dark captured me with relationship between Patch and Saint, and the several twists and turns before the ultimate resolution. It was also a Book fo the Month selection.

If you can’t wait for the next installment of Bridgerton on Netflix, give Eloisa James’ new historical romance Viscount in Love a read. Dominic is a viscount engaged to a suitable young woman. When he finds himself guardian to his young niece and nephew after his brother and sister-in-law tragically die, his fiancee up and elopes with another man. 

Dominic finds himself attracted to his ex-fiancee’s sister Torie. Torie enjoys spending time with the children, but she fears that Dom wants a nanny and she is determined to marry someone who loves her.

Torie is illiterate, seemingly incapable of learning how to read, but she can remember everything she has heard. She is very intelligent and Dominic is impressed with her. Can he convince Torie that he loves her and that they should be together?

James writes spicy, witty, literate romance novels, and even though you know how things will turn out, the fun is in getting there. 

If thrillers are your favorite, Chris Bohjalian’s The Princess of Las Vegas is a good one. It tells the story of a Princess Diana impersonator in Las Vegas who finds herself in the middle of an organized crime conspiracy of murder involving cryptocurrency. 

When her estranged sister shows up with a new boyfriend and the teenage girl she adopted, things really get messy- and dangerous. You’ll race through this one, and Bohjalian manages to make each of his books unique, something you can’t say for many mystery/thriller writers. 

Happy Labor Day!

Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer

Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer

Published by MIRA ISBN 9780778334415

Trade paperback, $18.99, 400 pages

From the publisher:

From the author of the buzzy The Matzah Ball comes a romantic comedy for fans of Sally Thorne, about a lonely potter who drunkenly creates a golem doll of her perfect match—and meets the man of her dreams the next day.

Is he the real deal…or did she truly summon a golem?

Faye Kaplan used to be engaged. She also used to have a successful legal practice. But she much prefers her new life as a potter in Woodstock, New York. The only thing missing is the perfect guy.

Not that she needs one. She’s definitely happy alone.

That is, until she finds her town papered with anti-Semitic flyers after yet another failed singles event at the synagogue. Desperate for comfort, Faye drunkenly turns to the only thing guaranteed to soothe her—pottery. A golem protector is just what her town needs…and adding all the little details to make him her ideal man can’t hurt, right?

When a seriously hot stranger mysteriously turns up the next day, Greg seems too good to be true—if you ignore the fact that Faye hit him with her bike. And that he subsequently lost his memory…

But otherwise, the man checks Every. Single. Box. Causing Faye to wonder if Greg’s sudden and spicy appearance might be anything but a coincidence.

My thoughts:

I have enjoyed reading Jean Meltzer's romance novels for many reasons. Her characters are interesting and not the stock "perfect" romance protagonists, they have serious issues to deal with- Avital in Kissing Kosher has a chronic health issue (as does Meltzer herself), Dara in Mr. Perfect On Paper has General Anxiety Disorder, and Faye in Magical Meet Cute was subjected to trauma and abuse by her mother as a child.

Meltzer is Jewish and I am not so I find learning about Jewish cultures and traditions enlightening. In Magical Meet Cute Faye is artistic and has mystical beliefs, and the reader learns more about what that entails. 

I am familiar with the Woodstock area of upstate New York, which most people know as the place where the famous 1969 concert was held. The Woodstock of today is filled with artists, musicians, and a tight-knit community of caring people. In Magical Meet Cute, even that Woodstock is not immune to the problems of the world, where anti-Semitism has reared its ugly head.

The novel is a romantic comedy- Faye's sometimes comical efforts to discover if Greg is a golem she conjured and her elderly neighbor Nelly is a hoot- but the serious tones of anti-Semitism add gravity to the story. There are a few twists here (one which I guessed) but the big mystery is finding out who Greg really is, and I was totally invested in that.

Although I don't usually read romances with magical elements, I truly enjoyed Magical Meet Cute and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good romance with intriguing characters and a small town setting.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer 2024 Blog Tours.

Time To Refill Your Beach Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

Time to Refill Your Beach Reads

Summer is going by much too fast and it’s time again to refill your beach reads. I’ve got some wonderful suggestions for you to toss in your beach bag as you head out on vacation or just to your front porch.

Kate Quinn’s WWII historical novels are popular (The Alice Network,The Rose Code). Her new novel The Briar Club takes place during the Cold War. Set in a boarding house in Washington D.C. run by an unpleasant widow and her teenage son, the story begins with two dead bodies in the house. 

We flash back and forth in time as the story is told by the women who rent rooms in the house. Each of the women have secrets they don’t want known, and each of their stories are intriguing. Quinn does a remarkable job keeping each woman’s voice distinct as they band together through the dramatic climax. Quinn is in top form here.

Liz Moore’s new mystery novel The God of The Woods also tells a story from differing points of view. When thirteen year-old Barbara Van Laar goes missing from her Adirondack summer camp, people fear that it is a repeat of an incident from fourteen years ago- her nine year-old brother disappeared from the same area, never to be found. 

Like Kate Quinn’s book, the story shifts back and forth in times, and Moore does a masterful job keeping everything straight in the reader’s mind with chapter headings that indicate the timeline. The story is propulsive, and the reader feels dropped right into the Adirondack camp. Although this book is almost 500 pages, you’ll fly through it as you wait to discover what happened to Barbara- and her brother.

For something on the lighter side, take a trip to Italy in Steven Rowley’s The Guncle Abroad. Five years later we meet with our friends from the delightful The Guncle. Patrick’s resumed his acting career, and he is charged with accompanying his young niece and nephew to Italy where their widowed father is marrying a wealthy heiress.

The children want Patrick to convince their father not to get married, and Patrick is stuck in the middle- and unhappy that the children have taken a shine to their oh-so-cool future step-aunt. Once again the humor and love shine in this delightful story, and it had me laughing out loud at Patrick’s caustic comments. 

Kirsten Miller’s Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books also has humor at its core, albeit a more satirical type. Lula Dean is determined to make a name for herself by starting a  campaign to rid her small Southern town of “inappropriate” books from the public library. (The fact that the town’s librarian Beverly is her archenemy has nothing to do with it.)

Lula opens a Little Library in her front yard and fills it with wholesome books from her own library for people to read. Unbeknownst to her, Beverly’s daughter has been swapping out Lula’s books for books on the “banned list”, but putting the covers from Lula’s books on the banned books. Now when people choose one of Lula’s books, they are getting something very different. 

Lula is thrilled with the popularity of her Little Library, and the people of the town are changed in profound and delightful ways as they read books that expand their minds and souls. This one is a funny and timely read.

For nonfiction fans, Sloane Crosley’s memoir Grief Is For People tells the story of two events that changed Sloane deeply. First, she returns to her New York City apartment to discover that someone has broken in and stolen her jewelry. Sloane becomes obsessed with trying to discover who stole her jewelry, going to extreme lengths to get answers. 

One month later, her former boss, mentor, and good friend goes into his barn and hangs himself. Sloane is devastated by this, and shares the story of her relationship with her friend over the years, looking for answers as to what happened to him.

Her writing is piercing and moving, and she makes us feel like we knew her friend almost as well as she did, sharing his idiosyncrasies in vivid style.

Fans of yacht rock music will enjoy Michael McDonald’s memoir What a Fool Believes, co-written with his friend, actor Paul Reiser. McDonald is best known for being an intregal member of the Doobie Brothers, but his journey through the music scene of the 70s and 80s is so much more, and a terrific and sometimes terrifying, ride to take with him. 

Enjoy the rest of summer, may it slow down.

The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa

The Backtrack by Erin LaRosa

Published by Canary Street Press ISBN 9781335009456

Trade paperback, $18.99, 304 pages

From the publisher:

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From the author of FOR BUTTER OR WORSE and PLOT TWIST comes a new speculative contemporary romance. One woman is sucked into the past—and shown glimpses of what her life could have been—as she listens to nostalgic hits on her old CD player. For fans of Rebecca Serle and Allison Winn Scotch.

When pilot Sam Leto jet-setted out of small town Georgia, she promised she’d never be back—even though it meant leaving behind her best friend, Damon Rocha. Now on a forced vacation home to pack up her childhood house (and help her injured grandmother), Sam is unexpectedly hit with nostalgia from her teens--especially her bedroom, perfectly preserved from the time she left all those years ago. Sam discovers an old CD player among her teenage possessions, and in listening to the burned disc inside, she receives flashbacks from her past life--senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren't as she remembers them. They show an alternate past. What could have been. If she never left Georgia all those years ago, would she now have the life (and love) she always wanted for herself?

My Thoughts:

I liked that Sam has an unusual occupation- she's a pilot who flies international routes. We don't see that often in romance novels. Sam and her in-flight crew play the "What If" game with passengers. They seat people together that they believe will make a connection- friendship or romantic- and see if anything develops.

When Sam's old CD player from high school plays a disc her marching bandmate and best friend-wannabe-boyfriend Damon gave her, she sees snippets of an alternate life she could have led- the ultimate "What If" game. It begins with the night that changed everything: the night Damon asked to kiss Sam and she said no.

In Sam's alternate past, she says yes and each song on the disc plays out a different incident related to the song and her life. Sam writes down what happens in each incident and tries to piece together what it could possibly mean.

Now that Sam is back in the hometown she ran away from after high school, she has to face Damon as she cares for her sassy grandmother. (I love a good sassy grandmother!) Does Sam have romantic feelings for Damon and does he still feel the same for her? If so, what do they do about it?

The Backtrack brings the reader back to their own high school days, and I'm guessing many will relate to the outsider status that Sam and Damon shared. It creates a nostalgic feeling in the reader, and readers may reflect on their own "What If" moments from that time.

Anyone who came of age in the 2000's will truly enjoy all the music references, and there is a playlist at the end of the book.

I enjoyed the nostalgic aspects of the story, and the romance of the guy-she-got-away-from is well-done. While I don't usually look for magical aspects in a story, I found this one intriguing. I recommend The Backtrack.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer 2024 Blog Tour.

Beat the heat with two great reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

Summer is in full swing and this month’s Book Report has two books to beat the heat.

We last heard from Jane L. Rosen with her wonderful novel On Fire Island, which made my list of the Most Compelling Books of 2023. In it, we met young widower Ben grieving the tragic loss of his wife. His older neighbor Shep, a widower himself, helps Ben navigate his new life, and Ben in turn takes a teen neighbor under his wing. (She is one of my all-time favorite characters.)

Rosen returns to the same Fire Island community with Seven Summer Weekends. Addison is poised to become the first female head of the art department at a prestigious Manhattan advertising agency when she accidentally sends a message to everyone in a Zoom that ends her career. 

When an aunt that Addison hasn’t seen in years passes away, she leaves Addison her Fire Island home. Addison goes to Fire Island to regroup, and plans to sell the house to tide her over until she can find a new job.

There’s one catch though- the guest house on the property is booked throughout the summer so Addison can’t sell the home until the fall. And the hot neighbor guy tells Addison that her aunt promised him that he could buy the house for a very reasonable price.

It turns out the neighbor is Ben, the young widower from On Fire Island. Ben and Addison have a push-pull relationship- one moment Addison is very attracted to him, the next he does something that makes her rethink her friendship with him.

Addison discovers that each of the weekly guests have a connection to her aunt, and through them she learns more about the aunt she never knew due to a family feud between her parents and her aunt. As the summer goes on, Addison becomes more involved in the Fire Island community and questions her future- should she stay or sell?

I loved Seven Summer Weekends just as much as On Fire Island, and that is a lot. The characters are interesting (Shep makes an appearance!), and Rosen’s writing is filled humor, heart, and even some steamy heat. I'd like to take the ferry to Fire Island and hang out with Addison, Ben, and the gang. I give it my highest recommendation. 

Francis S. Barry decided to buy a Winnebago during the pandemic and take off with his wife Laurel to follow the Lincoln Highway from New York City to San Francisco. He recounts their adventures in Back Roads and Better Angels- A Journey Into The Heart Of American Democracy. 

Barry, a writer for Bloomberg News, previously served in Michael Bloomberg’s administration as chief speechwriter when Bloomberg was mayor of New York City.  Dismayed by the rancor and political division he sees today in this country, he wanted to discover what people really thought about what was happening.

The fact that neither Barry nor his wife had ever driven a Winnebago didn’t damper their enthusiasm, and they had their fair share of mishaps (including a toilet pedal that continuously malfunctioned).

As they travel the country, they camp in KOAs and Walmart parking lots and meet up with people they know and those they don’t know. They stop at historic sites and find more places named Lincoln than you might think could possibly exist.

One learns a great deal about history that you’d never find in history books, particularly with regards to Native American people. Some of it is incredibly disturbing, and made me gasp at the callous inhumanity people inflicted on each other.

Barry ties the Lincoln Highway sites, as well as the state of the country today, to events and words spoken by Abraham Lincoln himself. He clearly studied our 16th President and gives him his due, showing Lincoln as the politician, man, and leader he truly was.

The one question Barry asks each person he meets is “What binds us together as Americans?”. The answers given are often profound, thought-provoking, and shine a light on where we are today as well as where we'd like to be.

Barry meets a politician in Nebraska who explains how the state legislature has the reputation as “one of the most civil and cooperative in the nation” because political parties are less relevant there. People work together in common cause to make government work better for all. Perhaps that is the most important export Nebraska has to share with the rest of the country.

Anyone who likes to read road trip stories and has an interest in history and Abraham Lincoln will get great pleasure and learn much from Back Roads and Better Angels. It is essential reading for all citizens, I give it my highest recommendation.

Seven Summer Weekends by Jane L. Rosen- A+

Published by Berkley

Trade paperback, $19, 302 pages

Back Roads and Better Angels by Francis S. Barry- A+

Published by SteerForth Press

Hardcover, $35, 552 pages

Summer Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

Memorial Day has passed us by and now it is time to prepare for our Summer Reading Season. Whether you’re headed to the lake, the beach, or just your own front porch, you’re going to need some good books to enjoy. 

Abby Jimenez’s romance Just For the Summer is the perfect way to kick off summer reading. Emma is tired of dating guys, breaking up with them and then finding that they find their true love after the breakup. 

When she discovers through social media that a young man named Justin has the same bad luck, they decide to date each other. Their theory is that when they break up, they will each then go on to meet their soulmate. So they decide to date ‘just for the summer’ to test their theory. What could go wrong? This is a fantastic read and so well-written.

Catherine Newman’s novel Sandwich is set on Cape Cod during an annual summer vacation. Rocky looks forward each year to having her husband and adult children all together, along with a visit from her parents. 

This year Rocky is dealing with menopause, along with family secrets that come to light. Sandwich is funny and charming, and anyone who has vacationed with family will relate to Rocky’s situation. The characters are wonderful.

Holly Gramazio’s novel The Husbands has a unique concept. When Lauren arrives home one night after too much partying she is greeted by her husband, but she isn’t married. Her husband goes up to the attic and when he comes back down, he is a different man- literally. 

Lauren discovers that every time her husband goes up into the attic, a different husband comes down. She cycles through several men, and when she decides she doesn’t like something about them, she sends them up to the attic to get a new husband. It’s hilarious and thought-provoking at the same time.

Speaking of husbands, author Beatriz Williams’ Husbands & Lovers has two main characters in three time lines. In 2018, single mom Mallory Dunne’s 10 year-old son Sam gets acute mushroom poisoning at summer camp and has to go on dialysis. 

Three years later, her sister convinces Mallory to finally tell her summer fling from 2008 that he is Sam’s father. The only problem is that she is going to tell him on the weekend he is to be married to another woman.

In 1952, Hungarian war refugee Hannah is in Egypt with her British diplomat husband. She begins an affair with a hotel manager who has something to hide. We slowly get Hannah’s backstory, and how Beatriz Williams connects the stories of these two women is just brilliant. 

Historical mystery fans will want to read the final chapters of two of the best series in recent years. Jacqueline Winspear closes out her captivating WWII Maisie Dobbs series with The Comfort of Ghosts. 

We meet up with all of the characters in private investigator/psychologist Maisie’s life that we have come to love as she attempts to help some young orphaned squatters and a seriously injured serviceman. Maisie discovers that they have some connection to her deceased husband. This is one of the most satisfying endings to a series that I have ever read.

Susan Elia MacNeal says goodbye to her protagonist Maggie Hope in The Last Hope. We have seen Maggie go from a secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill to a spy for the top secret WWII SOE agency where she risked her life many times over. Maggie is one of the most intriguing characters in historical mysteries and MacNeal gives her a proper sendoff. 

If Nonfiction is more to your taste, Erik Larson is back with The Demon of Unrest about the battle at Fort Sumpter that began the Civil War. History buffs have already made it a best seller. 

For more current history, George Stephanopoulos and Lisa Dickey team up for The Situation Room which puts the reader right into the famed Situation Room in the White House where they recount the tales of twelve presidents who have dealt with crisis and disasters at critical junctures in our history. 

If you love looking at birds in your backyard, author Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles is for you. Tan’s beautifully illustrates the bird she saw in her backyard and has a story about each of them in this lovely book that would make a great gift. 

Happy Summer Reading!