Book Review: "The Midnight Train" by Matt Haig

Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library was a profoundly moving book, and one of my favorite books of 2020. This book is in the same world but isn’t a sequel, so either can be read as a standalone.

“I think the trouble with life is we do things because we should. We act for outside eyes. I’m trying to live it the other way round. To do what feels right deep down even if it shouldn’t be.”

Wilbur is in his eighties when he dies. He was once a business tycoon, with bookstores all over the world. He was an adviser to prime ministers and sought after as a speaker and consultant. It was quite a journey from being raised poor in post-World War II England.

Moments after he dies, the Midnight Train comes to pick up his ghost. The Midnight Train can take you back to your past, giving you the chance to relive the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.

Wilbur knows he was happiest on his honeymoon in Venice with his wife, Maggie, whom he loved since they were children. But as the train takes him through his life, he sees all of the moments he’s squandered, the things that were unsaid to loved ones, and the things that should never have been said or done. Can he help the Wilbur he sees in these memories change course without completely ruining the future?

I loved the concept of this book. I definitely found many moments that spoke to me and made me realize the importance of being a good person, saying the things I want to the people who matter. I didn’t find this book as emotional as The Midnight Library, but that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the book.

Book Review: "Nerve Damage" by Annakeara Stinson

“Is it love if it does more harm than good in the end?”

Clarice and her boyfriend have had a rocky one-year relationship. There certainly have been good times but there have been a lot of fights as well. Clarice has broken up with P.T. more than a few times, but she’s always taken him back.

One night he admits that he cheated on her when he was angry at her. This was the last straw. She broke up with him and told him to never contact her again. But shortly thereafter, P.T. started bombarding her with texts from burner phones and emails from fake accounts. He apologized and begged her to take him back. When she refused, he started sending gifts, hanging outside her office with flowers, and showing up everywhere she went. She had no choice to get a restraining order, and then moved across the country to escape.

Three years later—the day the restraining order expired—Clarice swears she sees P.T. at a bar in Los Angeles, where she lives now. Her best friend thinks she must’ve hallucinated it; her therapist is worried about all the anger and anxiety she’s kept bottled up; her mother is planning her fourth wedding; and her father, from whom she’s been estranged, keeps calling.

She really doesn’t know what to do. If it really is P.T., should she ignore him? Confront him? Go back to court? As she gets more and more anxious, she decides to track him down. But her methods are a bit, well, stalkerish…

This was definitely a tension-filled book because I had no idea what was going to happen. The narrative shifts between different incidents in the past and the current time. Clarice is a fascinating, slightly unhinged character, and I could totally see her causing trouble.

Book Review: "Frat Around and Find Out" by Devon McCormack

I like reading “important” books that challenge me as much as the next person. But sometimes I need a smutty M/M romance. This hit the spot and actually had more emotional complexity than I was expecting.

Sigma Alpha and Alpha Theta Mu are two rival fraternities. They’re constantly trying to one up each other, and when the annual TaskFrat challenges come around, the two are always neck and neck until the very end.

Lance is the president of Alpha Theta Mu. He takes his responsibilities seriously, especially when it comes to battling their foes. And he has a worthy rival in Ty, the Sigma Alpha president.

Ty is supremely confident about everything, including his prowess with women. He’s the type to love ‘em and leave ‘em, and he teases Lance for focusing more on feelings than conquests. But he also can’t seem to get Lance out of his mind, and not for competitive reasons. What’s that about?

Lance, too, realizes that Ty has an inexplicable hold over him. Is it possible that he’s crushing on his rival? The more they’re pushed together, the more they’re drawn to each other. Is this just a curiosity thing for the both of them, or are there feelings behind the attraction? And how will the brothers of both of their frats handle this?

I’m excited that this is the first book in a series, because I really enjoyed it. Both Ty and Lance are dealing with grief-related issues, and it was nice to see how each helped the other. (And in case you were wondering, the steam was pretty hot.)

Book Review: "Ironwood" by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly has written more than 40 books and I’ve been reading them since 1992, when his first book was published. He has created some prolific characters, which have spawned several series. Ironwood is the second book in a new series, and this one kicked ass.

Stilwell is a detective sergeant stationed on California’s Catalina Island. Those who get stationed there are usually paying for making someone higher-up angry, or for doing something illegal or inappropriate. Stilwell was sent to Catalina for similar reasons, but he’s grown to like that it’s separate from the chaos of Los Angeles.

One night, acting on a tip one of his deputies got from a confidential informant, Stilwell and two of his deputies are staking out the island’s airstrip. They’re waiting for a plane to land and drop off drugs. But when it does, the deputies close in on the plane, shots are fired, and the plane leaves.

The whole incident has tragic consequences. As the police investigate, Stilwell is relegated to the side. But he wants to know who was responsible and where everything went wrong, so he does some investigating on the side.

Meanwhile, when sorting through the list and found, he finds an expensive backpack that belonged to a woman who disappeared while hiking four years earlier. But the backpack was found only two months ago; why is that? Stilwell’s looking into this connects him to the cold case unit led by Detective Renée Ballard. And what this partnership uncovers is another tangled web he’ll have to deal with.

Connelly is so good at taking his time to lay out the details and then gradually ratchet up the tension. He always keeps me guessing one way or another. I hope there will be a third book in this series!!

Book Review: "Patient, Female" by Julie Schumacher

I first discovered Julie Schumacher when I read her absolutely hilarious book Dear Committee Members. In that book (and a few others afterward) she created a pompous college professor adrift and amidst bureaucracy.

Her latest book is a short story collection, and it really demonstrated the depth of her talent. While one story made me laugh out loud and a few others had flashes of sly humor, most of the stories had more of an emotional pull.

In “Passengers,” an overprotective mother worries about her daughter after an incident at school. “Hospital Bridge” is the story of a middle-school student who, after being forced into volunteering at a nursing home, starts gambling on bridge games with the residents. “How My Light is Spent” follows an instructor at a community college and her short story writing class.

Some of my favorite stories in the collection were “Slow Learner,” which told of a woman’s fascination at the connection between her autistic son and her dying mother; “Your Better Self,” about a couple who get gifted a trip to a wellness spa by their late neighbor; “Syllabus,” a hilarious story written as a syllabus; “Spin,” in which four friends play a game with real-life implications; and the title story, in which a professional patient runs into someone she used to know.

As with most collections, not every story is a home run. But Schumacher creates such vivid characters, and I know I’ll have a few of these stories running through my mind for a while.

Book Review: "Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It" by Brooke Avelar

I believe the last few years have seen more phenomenal debut novels than ever before. I love reading books from my auto-buy authors, but I get so excited when the book I’m loving is a debut. Add this one to the list—it was great!!

“There were approximately one hundred and fifty boys in my grade at Manhasset Central Middle School. By the time I turned twelve, I had been in love with at least one hundred and twenty-five of them. If I didn’t have a crush, I didn’t see the point of getting out of bed in the morning.”

Phoebe is in love with love. She’s been reading romances since she was young, hiding the smuttier ones under her bed. In seventh grade she was more than ready for her first kiss—but the expectation led to anxiety, which led to, well, a disastrous reaction. Since that moment, getting close to a guy makes her so nervous that she usually cancels dates.

But now, a month from her 30th birthday, Phoebe is still a virgin. She’s determined to change that, so being the overly organized teacher that she is, she puts together a checklist on losing her virginity in 30 days. (And she laminates it.)

As she starts making her plans, she unexpectedly winds up with three potential suitors. There’s Finn, the hot new 4th grade teacher; Matthew, a former high school classmate with whom she competes in Wordle and Words with Friends; and then there’s her roommate, Jonathan, who has been one of her best friends since college. Will one of these men help her achieve her goal?

This was a fun book, with lots of banter between the characters. And while Phoebe’s plight is definitely amusing, I loved the way this book dealt with her anxiety and other mental health issues. As Brooke Averick says in her author’s note, we rarely see this side of a character in a romance, and I’m so glad that we did!

Book Review: "Dolly All the Time" by Annabel Monaghan

Annabel Monaghan is an absolute auto-buy author for me. Her characters are always so well-drawn, and her books have such an emotional richness to them. I’ve loved every one of her books, but Dolly All The Time may be my new favorite.

When a small fire occurs one night in her childhood home, Dolly and her teenage son Gus leave their lives in Boston and head back to her hometown of Whitfield, Rhode Island. Ever since her mother left their family when Dolly was 12, she’s been the one who has taken care of everything—for her father and her two younger siblings.

Dolly loves being back in Whitfield and quickly assumes the caretaking role once again. One day after working at the family’s fish house, she comes across Stewart Whitfield, the handsome heir to the Whitfield fortune. (Their hometown is named for his family.) Stewart’s car has a flat tire and he has no idea how to fix it. Dolly shows him how, and the press takes an impromptu picture of them, as Stewart’s engagement has just ended in a scandal.

Stewart is desperate to close the deal on his becoming the company’s new. The one drawback is that his parents think he’s too much of a workaholic to succeed. So Stewart asks Dolly to be his fake girlfriend, a challenge she accepts. Suddenly she is attending benefits and client dinners, and bringing out a whole different side of Stewart.

I’ve read tons of romances and rom-coms that have fake dating at their core. Even though the approach is familiar, the way the relationship between Dolly and Stewart unfolds is just lovely.

I absolutely loved this book. Not only were the main characters totally appealing, but the supporting characters rocked also. There was banter, steam, self-discovery, happiness, sadness, and humor. It was exactly what I needed!