Book Review: "The Name Game" by Beth O'Leary

Happy Pub Week to Beth O’Leary’s newest book! She’s rarely one to write a simple romance, and this book is no exception. Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the advance copy of this one!

Charlie Jones is desperate for a fresh start. She’s been dealing with grief and feels at odds with her life, so she applies for a job as manager of a farm shop on the remote English island of Ormer. When she gets hired, she’s excited to begin again.

Jones (as he’s called) is trying to get sober and put a painful breakup behind him. Taking a job as farm shop manager on Ormer is the perfect way to do so. But when he arrives to start his job, he is shocked to discover that another Charlie Jones believes the job is hers.

Chaos ensues between the two Charlie Joneses. Neither is willing to give up the chance for a new life, but the owners of the farm can’t afford to pay for two managers. So the Charlies strike a deal: they’ll both work at the shop for half of their salary, and after two months, the owners will decide which Charlie gets the job. Each is skeptical of the other but also recognizes how broken they both are.

The book progresses as two separate streams of correspondence. Charlie writes in a journal, while Jones sends himself emails. Of course, a spark starts to gain heat between them. And then there’s a massive twist which shakes everything up (and it confused me, I must admit).

O’Leary’s first book, The Flatshare, is one of my favorites, and that, too, is told via correspondence. I don’t feel this book has the warmth of the former, and I don’t know that I believed in the romance between the characters. (And while the residents of Ormer are quirky and cantankerous, I didn’t like them much.)

Book Review: "Someone Else's Shoes" by Jojo Moyes

Caution: unpopular opinion ahead.

Ever since picking up Me Before You a number of years ago and dissolving into an emotional puddle, Jojo Moyes has been an auto-buy author for me. I’ve loved a number of her books and I was eagerly anticipating the release of this one. But to say this one didn’t work for me would be an understatement.

Sam has been struggling to keep afloat. Her husband has been depressed for a while but doesn’t want to get help, or do much of anything more than lay in bed or stare at the television. He's certainly not trying to look for a job. And ever since her employer was bought by a larger company, she’s had to deal with a sexist boss who’s never satisfied with her work.

Nisha has lived a life of luxury, traveling the globe with her wealthy husband. Until one day her husband decides it’s time to find a younger woman and he files for divorce, cutting Nisha off completely–no clothes, no place to live, no money. All she has is a fancy pair of custom-made Louboutin high-heeled shoes. But she doesn’t even have those anymore, because someone mistakenly walked off with her gym bag, leaving a nearly identical one behind.

When Sam realizes she has inadvertently picked up the wrong bag, she is horrified. But when she puts on Nisha’s shoes, a more confident Sam emerges. She understands that it’s up to her to change her life. This is the story of how one action changes lots of things, and how friendship can get you through anything.

This book was so much longer than it needed to be. At times, it was hard to figure out exactly what the book wanted to be. Toward the end it veered into silliness and I honestly didn’t like either of the main characters–or some of the supporting characters–very much. But others have loved this, so maybe I was just cranky?

Book Review: "After I Do" by Taylor Jenkins Reid

What happens when love fades? That's the question at the core of After I Do.

When Lauren and Ryan meet in college, they fall for each other right away. Their relationship is full of fun, passion, and love, so it’s only natural they get married after graduation. They become a part of each other’s families and their own family, with their dog, Thumper.

But somewhere along the way, they’ve started getting angrier at one another, not enjoying each other’s company, not having sex. They honestly don’t even like each other, and it’s not one thing causing these feelings, it’s a combination of things. So one night, with their marriage at the breaking point, they decide to go their separate ways for a year. They can see other people, do whatever they want, and in a year, hopefully they’ll be ready to try again. The only catch is they’re not to contact each other for the full year.

At first, Lauren can’t believe she’ll survive without her husband. Can’t they just put more work into their marriage? But the more time they spend apart, she realizes that they took each other for granted, took their love for granted. And as she sees herself as a person separate from Ryan for the first time, she needs to decide what’s important to her relationship-wise. Can she and Ryan truly be happy if they start again, or has their chance at love and happiness passed?

Taylor Jenkins Reid brings such poetry and emotion to her books. This story was all-encompassing, a look at love when it’s hot and when it goes cold, the way we are so inexorably connected to one another, and how we must find ourselves and each other in order to make a relationship last. This was a truly thought-provoking book. It made me smile and, of course, it made me cry.

With completing After I Do, I’ve read the last of her books. I’d been holding on to this one for so long because I didn’t want to be without any TJR books, but I couldn’t resist. Now I have to wait until her next one comes out!

Book Review: "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me" by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

First of all, it's Laura Dean, not Laura Dern, lol. But Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is a beautifully drawn graphic novel about how all-consuming relationships can be when you’re young.

Freddy doesn’t know what to do. Her girlfriend, Laura Dean, is cool and super-popular, and Freddy is decidedly not. And while things between them are great sometimes, a lot of the time Laura isn’t a good girlfriend. (Or that good of a person, really.) She routinely doesn’t show up for things, cancels plans on a whim, and has this penchant for kissing other girls.

Oh, and they keep breaking up. (Well, Laura keeps breaking up with her; Freddy just whines and complains to her friends.) But every time Laura decides she wants Freddy back, she comes running.

Freddy’s friends are tired of the whole thing, so she writes to a noted advice columnist. But in the meantime, she starts to realize that while she’s in a bad relationship, it doesn’t give her an excuse to be a bad friend and/or a bad person, both of which she’s been lately. And maybe Laura Dean is the cause of all of that.

Will she find the backbone to do the right thing? How will she know what the right thing is? Will Laura Dean wise up and treat her right? Will Freddy’s friends forgive her?

This was so enjoyable and poignant. It so captured the myopia many of us have had in the midst of an intense relationship, particularly when it’s with someone who might not treat you well. It also reflected that our friends may be fighting their own battles and we don’t even notice.

I’ve really been loving graphic novels over the last year or so, particularly LGBTQ-related ones. There’s so much talent out there!

Book Review: "The Ash Family" by Molly Dektar

Berie is unsure of what path to follow with her life. She seeks something more meaningful, something more essential, but she hasn't any idea of what that is until she meets enigmatic Bay at a bus station near her home in North Carolina. Bay promises Berie the life she's been imagining, on a farm cut-off from the rest of the world, where they live communally, fully off the grid.

"This was the real world, he explained, and if I stayed I'd get a real-world name to replace my fake-world one. He said I would come to understand that there was no definite self: in the Ash family there was no selfishness, so there were no possessions, no children, no couples."

Bay tells Berie that she can stay for three days or the rest of her life. The Ash Family Farm seems to be the solution she needs, so she changes her name to Harmony and settles in. And as different as life on the farm is from anything else she's experienced, anything else she's been used to, she finally feels a part of something, and begins making friends.

But like anything that seems perfect, life on the farm isn't quite that. More and more, Harmony starts to question things that are happening to her friends. She knows she needs to leave yet this is the first place she's truly felt she belonged, so can she ignore the warning signs she sees? When does belief change into brainwashing, when does devotion turn to fear?

The Ash Family is an interesting exploration of life in a cult, and how, once you begin to see things as they really are, you sometimes can't seem to decide between whether to stay or whether to go. Do we pay attention to the truth in front of our own eyes, or do we disbelieve the things we see? Is the feeling of belonging enough to overcome the misgivings we have?

There was an underlying sense of tension in this book that Molly Dektar really teased out quite well. While I found certain things about the book frustrating, such as a lack of character development in some cases, and not as much weight to the plot as I wanted, I was taken in particular by Dektar's evocative use of imagery. Her description of things was so vivid, poetic almost, that I felt like I could see things she mentioned very clearly.

This book reminded me in some ways of the independent film Martha Marcy May Marlene, starring Elizabeth Olsen and John Hawkes. That movie, too, talked about a cult with an enigmatic leader, and also left me with more questions than answers. But even with its shortcomings, this is an interesting story, one that will definitely keep me thinking long after I've moved on to other books.

NetGalley and Simon & Schuster provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

This book will be published April 9, 2019.

Book Review: "The Music of What Happens" by Bill Konigsberg

Whenever I read a YA rom-com featuring LGBTQ characters, I feel so happy that kids today have these books to read, to see that finding someone to love doesn't have to be a dream they'll have to give up because of whom they're attracted to.

At the same time, I can't help but be a tiny bit bitter that these books didn't exist when I was a teenager, because I certainly could have used that encouragement instead of having no role models or examples to look toward.

Bill Konigsberg's The Music of What Happens is sweet and funny and romantic, but it's also poignant and deals with some serious issues as well.

Max is an athlete. He's tremendously easy-going and never appears to let anything faze him. His closest buddies are totally cool with him being gay, as is his mom.

Jordan is highly strung, a talented poet who doesn't believe he's worth much of anything. He totally wants a boyfriend but doesn't think anyone would find him attractive or interesting enough to have a relationship with him (or even sex), so he spends most of his time hanging out with his two girlfriends, whom he calls his "wives."

"The world will make you vulnerable. If you're acting like you're not, that's what you're doing. Acting."

Max and Jordan's meet-cute is at a food truck. Jordan and his mother have just resurrected his father's food truck for the first time since he died, and they're desperate to make it work, since they're in significant financial need. But neither Jordan nor his mother know the first thing about food trucks, or cooking, or food safety, and Max arrives at the counter just as Jordan's mother begins melting down. So Max, who likes to cook, volunteers to help save the truck—and, perhaps, their lives.

The last thing Jordan wants is to spend the summer with a dude bro like Max, but of course he realizes Max is far more complex and sensitive than he leads anyone to believe. As the two of them strive to take the food truck world by storm, they start enjoying each other's company more and more, and they don't let any truck-related setbacks get them down. But deep down, both boys are struggling—Max with a painful secret that confuses even him, and Jordan with his having to parent his mother, who is in a destructive spiral that could hurt them both.

"I think about the half notes of dissonance, between what I hear and what someone else hears, and those moments where the world is so cold, and when someone reaches their hand out to you. In those symphonic, connected moments where another soul joins you and feels what you feel, and you can breathe again. Like right now."

The Music of What Happens may not surprise you and it may not break new ground, but it's utterly charming and just so wonderful. I love the fact that Konigsberg avoided the typical drama when a character reveals to their peers or their family that they're gay, and instead just began from a place where it wasn't a big deal to those around them, the way life should be.

I believed in these characters. They felt authentic and dealt with real problems, and I totally believed that the two would fall for each other. I also believed in their struggles, the things about their friends and family that bothered them but they never spoke up about, and the unique perspectives each brought to their own lives and their burgeoning relationship. If there was any false note, it was Jordan's mother, who seemed to fade in to cause chaos and then fade out again.

This is the first of Konigsberg's books I've read and I absolutely loved it. I need to go back and read all of his earlier books because I love the openness of his storytelling and the complete charm of his characters. They're funny without being stand-up comedians, they're sensitive and romantic.

I hope that there are kids out there who feel encouraged by books like The Music of What Happens. The YA genre continues to be so rich with talented writers tackling important issues with humor and grace, and showing that no matter whom you love, your love story can come true. Don't we need more of that?

Book Review: "The Stranger Game" by Peter Gadol

You're in a public place and a person or group of people catches your eye. It may be the way they look, their actions, things they're saying, but you just can't stop yourself from surreptitiously watching them. You don't want to get caught, but you can't look away, and you (and perhaps even a companion) imagine who these people are and what they're doing. When they get up, or leave the area where you've been watching them, you may even be (more than) slightly interested in following them, but you know it's too risky, or even foolish.

Take this at least one step further and you have the crux of Peter Gadol's enigmatic new novel, The Stranger Game.

After a few weeks with no contact, Rebecca comes to the realization that her on-again, off-again boyfriend Ezra has disappeared. She can't figure out where he would have gone without any warning, even though their relationship was in one of its odd periods. But he left without giving notice to his job or paying his rent, so she starts to wonder whether something has happened to him.

When she reports his disappearance to the police, they don't seem concerned in the slightest. They suspect Ezra is off playing "the stranger game," a cultural phenomenon which seems to have gripped society. In the game people choose someone to follow (unbeknownst to them), and while the initial objective of the game was to get as close as possible and follow for as long as possible without getting caught, it seems the game has transformed, becoming more complicated and, in some cases, sinister.

In order to see just what type of craze has affected Ezra, Rebecca tries the game. She is almost immediately sucked in, and it starts to affect other aspects of her life. At times she even has trouble distinguishing between who is playing and who is not. She meets Carey, a handsome and mysterious man who awakens her emotions, which have been hidden away for so long. But Carey also draws her further and further into the game, and she doesn't know whom to trust—or where she is safe.

"And then I wondered how many kinds of games people played with strangers every hour every day. We were, each of us, isolated creatures who ached for proximity, for intimacy with others, but who also out of primal self-preservation insisted on and maintained a safe distance. These stranger games we invented shuttled us somewhere halfway between stations of affinity and detachment, but more often than not we ended up at the latter destination. It was a miracle anyone ever connected with anyone. Most of the time we were cast back into our own longing."

To borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill, The Stranger Game is, "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." I love the basis on which Gadol built his novel, as I am one of those people who is fascinated by people-watching and wondering about the dynamics between groups I see in public. However, I felt that as the book progressed, the twists became more and more confusing until I, like Rebecca, wasn't sure what was real and what was artifice, part of the game. And while I'm okay with suspending disbelief when I read, I just found the whole premise a little unlikely.

Gadol has always been one of my favorite writers. His earlier books—The Mystery Roast, Closer to the Sun, The Long Rain, Light at Dusk, Coyote, and Silver Lake were all really fantastic, and he is one of those authors for whom I've waited a long time for a new book. As always, his use of language and imagery, and his ability to evoke emotions and connections is superlative. I just wish I liked this book more—despite the interesting concept, it just didn't gel for me.

Looking forward to the next one, however!

NetGalley, HARLEQUIN — Trade Publishing, and Hanover Square Press provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!