Book Review: "Heart the Lover" by Lily King

This was an utterly gorgeous book, full of incredible dialogue, powerful emotions, and some truly memorable main characters. It may have been my first book by Lily King but it definitely won’t be my last!

It was her essay that caught their attention first. Our narrator wrote a parody for her English Literature class, and it caught the attention of two of her fellow students, Sam and Yash. They’re best friends and roommates, studious yet fun-loving, and they’re house sitting for a professor on sabbatical.

It’s not long before she falls into a tumultuous relationship with one, while maintaining an intense friendship with the other. But as often is the case in these situations, the lines blur between friendship and attraction, passion and jealousy, resulting in a love triangle that threatens to wreck everything.

“Love is crushing. Love is something you let yourself feel at your own peril, despite your better sense.” “But where would we be if we didn’t feel it? I think it’s the only form of hope we have. For our survival, I mean. What good is any other virtue without love?”

Years later, she is a successful author, and she gets a surprise visit from someone from her past. Old wounds are reopened; emotions pivot between regret and relief. And when they are brought together again, it’s time to say the things they’ve kept to themselves.

I love books about intense friendships that last through the years—even when the connections fray from time to time. This was such a beautiful book about how we make a life after we think we’ve been destroyed, and how love endures, even in a different form.

Book Review: "I Know How This Ends" by Holly Smale

How would you live your life if you know what is going to happen? Margot is a meteorologist whose life was upended, both personally and professionally, when her 10-year relationship ended just before she got married. Since then she’s more than just a little unstable, and while she’s been dating, the men all seem to have red flags.

One day she has a vision of herself with a man she’s never met, but the vision makes her happy. And when she meets Henry, a single dad, she realizes she is happy and optimistic for the first time in a long while.

Yet as she continues to get glimpses of different aspects of her future, she isn’t sure whether to trust what she sees. But if everything she sees will come to fruition, should she pursue a relationship with Henry, or can she outrun her destiny?

“I’d thought I’d loved Aaron—so much, for so many years—but now that love seems…contained, somehow, like a storm inside a bottle. When inside me was all the weather—all the rains and the fires and the hurricanes and the clouds, the rainbows and the dews and the tornadoes and the halos—waiting to be unleashed. I just had no idea, until I was shown how much of everything I could be.”

As she tries to figure out how to navigate her hopes and fears, she also realizes she has to work on the next steps in her career as well as her relationships with her family and friends. And how can she tell Henry what she’s seen?

I really enjoyed Holly Smale’s previous book, Cassandra in Reverse, but this gave me all the feels. I love books which deal with fate and destiny, especially as it pertains to love and relationships. This really made me think, and I can’t wait to see what Smale does next!

Book Review: "The Irish Goodbye" by Heather Aimee O'Neill

Here’s another terrific debut novel to add to the list of the ones I’ve enjoyed this year. You know I’m a fan of family dysfunction and drama (fictional, of course)!

The Ryan sisters—Cait, Alice, and Maggie—haven’t all been together in their family home in years. But this Thanksgiving, they’ll all be spending the holiday together, despite the misgivings and unspoken resentments each feels.

Twenty years ago, their brother Topher was involved in a boating accident that killed the younger brother of his best friend. The resulting lawsuit and the requirement that Topher admit guilt destroyed their family, and ultimately sent him into a downward spiral. But all those years later, Cait still feels immense guilt about her role in the accident.

Maggie, the youngest, is bringing her new girlfriend Isabel home with her. It’s the first time she’s brought anyone home, since her devoutly Catholic mother has never really accepted that she’s gay. But amidst the nervousness about the situation, Maggie is worried her job might be in jeopardy for a mistake she made.

Alice lives very near to their parents and has taken responsibility for their care, something she resents her sisters for. She, too, has a secret that has the potential to destroy her marriage and her future ambitions. All of these issues will be brought out in the open, as is often the case with the holidays.

Heather Aimee O’Neill is a terrific storyteller. While there’s a lot happening in this book, she deftly steered the plot away from too much melodrama or shocking pronouncements. I wanted to shake some sense into the characters at times, but I want to do that to people IRL sometimes, too. This reminded me a bit of Tracey Lange’s books. Can’t wait to see what O’Neill does next!