Book Review: "Luck and Last Resorts" by Sarah Grunder Ruiz

Sometimes love means letting yourself be vulnerable.

Nina learned the hard way not to depend on anyone else. And she’s done a good job of that for the most part—except for Ollie, who has been her on-again, off-again flame for nearly 10 years.

It’s been easy to avoid any real commitment, with Nina working as chief stewardess on a yacht and Ollie working as a sous chef at a restaurant. But when Ollie decides to return to working on the yacht, he comes with an ultimatum: if Nina isn’t ready to admit she loves him by the end of the charter season, he’s going back to Ireland.

It should be easy for Nina: she really only feels complete when she’s with him. But life—and emotions—are far more complex, and her fears and vulnerabilities keep her from admitting how she feels. And a secret they share could tear it all apart.

This follow-up to last year’s Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships is romantic, funny, sweet, emotional, and even a little steamy. Banter is one of my favorite things in a rom-com, and Nina and Ollie make it into an art form. But their chemistry and their feelings for one another work so well, too.

You could read this as a stand-alone but I’d totally recommend reading the first book, which I absolutely loved. I hope to see all of these characters again!!

Book Review: "Stay Gold" by Tobly McSmith

Being true to yourself may be the hardest thing to do, but it’s the only thing. That's the message at the core of Tobly McSmith's Stay Gold.

As a military kid, Pony knows about starting over all too well. Since things at his last school went a little off the rails when it was revealed that he was transgender, for his senior year at a new high school he’s determined things will be different. This time he’s decided simply to pass as a guy and not tell anyone the truth. No one in his life thinks it’s a good idea but he just wants to be normal, you know?

And then on the first day he locks eyes with Georgia, a popular cheerleader. He is instantly smitten.

Georgia feels that same connection when she sees Pony. But she’s a cheerleader, so she’s supposed to date a football player, even if her last relationship ended disastrously. There’s also a lot of things Georgia wishes she could do or say in her own life, but she doesn’t want to deal with the ramifications.

If Pony dates Georgia, how can he keep who he is a secret? Should Georgia follow her heart and mind or do what’s expected of her by her cheerleading teammates and best friends?

Stay Gold is a sweet book that is tremendously thought-provoking, and it raises a lot of questions. Do we have the responsibility to advocate for those like us, or can we just live our lives the way we see fit? Is it wrong to want to keep your own secrets or are you obligated to be open and honest even if that means opening yourself up to abuse or even harm?

While this book is relatively predictable in some ways, it also turns some stereotypes on their head. And of course, I won’t lie and say I didn’t tear up at the end!!

Stay gold, Ponyboy! (Yes, they touch on that, too.) And the Pride Reads keep on rolling...

Book Review: "The Knockout Queen" by Rufi Thorpe

Rufi Thorpe's newest novel, The Knockout Queen, is an unflinching, sometimes painfully honest look at two teenage misfits trying to find their way in the world.

Michael is a gay teenager who has been hooking up with men since he was 13. He thinks his septum piercing and his long hair somehow make him more invisible. Since his mother went to prison, he lives with his aunt in an old house amidst mansions in a California suburb.

Although he’s been spying on their house for a while, one day he meets his next-door neighbor, Bunny, who is his age. Even though it looks from the mansion she lives in with her real estate agent father that she has it all, Bunny has more than her share of problems. At 6’3”, she is taller and bigger than anyone in her class, which is good for her dreams of becoming an Olympic volleyball player, but not for being accepted by her peers, and her father is a bit of a hustler with a serious alcohol problem.

The two connect with each other, fellow outcasts trying to handle difficult family situations and maybe even find their ticket out. When Michael embarks on his first real relationship and it is discovered, nasty gossip ensues, which leads to a shocking act of violence that changes everything in both of their lives.

"...being true to yourself, even if it makes everyone hate you, even if it makes people want to kill you, is the most radical form of liberty, and when you make contact with something as electric and terrifying as the unadorned truth of yourself, it burns away so many other smaller forms of bondage you weren't even aware of, so you find yourself irradiated and unencumbered. That there is something holy in that kind of stubbornness."

The Knockout Queen can be brutal but it is tremendously astute in how it captures the feelings of those who want nothing more than to be accepted, be loved, yet can’t seem to succeed, especially among family and friends. Rufi Thorpe doesn’t pretend her characters don’t have flaws; she makes them real and complex and not always sympathetic.

The book hit a little too close to home for me at times, so while this wasn’t an enjoyable book per se, it was affecting and thought-provoking. I did feel like things got a little rushed toward the end, and I didn't quite get the closure I had hoped for.

One thing I know for sure: this was definitely not the look back at high school and early adulthood I was expecting!

Book Review: "How to Be Remy Cameron" by Julian Winters

Why didn’t books like How to Be Remy Cameron exist when I was a teenager?

“We have no control over what labels others give us, but we can define who we are by the ones we choose to give ourselves.”

Remy Cameron is a pretty likable guy. He’s a good son (even when his parents get embarrassing), he loves being a big brother, he’s a great friend, and most people admire his courage for coming out at 14.

Remy is a lot of things—he’s a teenager, he’s adopted (he’s African American while his adoptive parents are white), he’s gay and the president of his school's gay-straight alliance—but isn’t he more than just a bunch of characteristics? Yet when he gets an assignment from a teacher he believes is a crucial part of getting into his dream college next year, it throws him for a loop: he has to write about who he is and who he wants to be.

Why is answering that question so hard? Why can’t he see himself as more than the visible things others see him as? His inability to answer the question of who he is starts to affect everything—his schoolwork, his friendships, and could threaten his future. And when he becomes infatuated with a returning classmate struggling with his own identity, and meets someone who might know how he’s feeling, he doesn’t know how to process everything.

I really enjoyed this heartfelt, poignant, thought-provoking book. It’s so difficult to figure out who you are, particularly in high school, and Remy’s struggles both felt familiar and unique.

I’ve said many times before I wish that books like this existed when I was younger because it would have given me hope when I needed it most, hope that I would’ve found acceptance and happiness being true to myself. But I’m so glad these books exist today, because while life isn’t quite perfect, it’s certainly a more accepting world in many places, and you can more often live the life you want.

It's ironic that Becky Albertalli, author of Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda, blurbed this book, because How to Be Remy Cameron reminded me a little of that one, although I felt it had a little more emotional heft. But both are such great books for today's youth to read.

Julian Winters did a really great job creating characters I cared about who were more than typical high school stereotypes—in fact, he turned many of those on their head. This really was so sweet and it made me smile.

Book Review: "The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky" by Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky is a sweet, sexy, short romp about love and sex and planning a future together.

I absolutely LOVED Mackenzi Lee’s Montague Siblings Series, particularly The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. It was so unique, so fun, so romantic, and so poignant. Monty and Percy are easily one of my favorite literary couples in recent years.

This novella is an amuse-bouche of sorts, coming in at slightly over 100 pages. Here Monty, Percy, Felicity, and the crew of the Eleftheria are enjoying some R&R on the island of Santorini, and all are plotting their next move. While Monty and Percy’s feelings about one another are now out in the open, Monty finds himself nervous for the first time about the next steps in their relationship. Why does the idea of intimacy with Percy scare him when he’s always been a bit of a rogue? Why is he so frightened of Percy's wanting to plan a future together?

"I have never in all my born days been this clumsy about getting tangled up with someone. Perhaps it’s because it’s Percy, the first person with whom I’ve ever made it this far that mattered. Or perhaps it's because in the shadowy corners of my heart, I know I'm the sort of person you romp with for one wild night and then you climb out the window before I wake. The sort of person no one wants to be around unless there's some kind of reward involved, preferably of a sexual nature. Not the sort you bet all your chips on a life with. How long before he realizes that? And how much longer before he regrets wasting his first time on me?"

This is such a sweet, sexy story, complete with the ribald silliness that is a hallmark of these books. The craziness goes on a tiny bit too long, but ultimately, it’s just too darned short!! It’s certainly whetted my appetite for Lee’s next book in the series, which is due out in August 2020.

If you’re a fan of these characters and this terrifically fun, creative series, make sure you get your fix with this book!

Book Review: "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse" by Charlie Mackesy

This unforgettable book with the memorable title is a book about friendship, kindness, and self-esteem told in the most special of ways.

First there is a boy. He is alone. He comes upon a mole, whom it seems loves cake more than anything else. The mole becomes the boy’s friend and companion, his coach and confidante. The boy shares his fears, the mole shares advice and his love of cake.

When they meet the fox, it is caught in a snare. Instinctively both the fox and the mole know if the mole frees the fox, the fox should then kill it, but if the mole leaves the fox in the snare, it will die. Sometimes you can override your instincts, and the fox becomes a (mostly silent) companion on their wanderings. Then they meet the horse, who has hidden some of its special abilities for far too long.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse isn’t as much a story as it is a book of advice, encouragement, and lessons accompanied by whimsical hand-drawn illustrations. The advice and lessons are beautiful and meaningful, and the entire book is a genuinely heartfelt experience.

"What do you think is the biggest waste of time?"

"Comparing yourself to others," said the mole.

The book is written in a handwriting-type font so it’s a little difficult for even older eyes to read, so this is definitely a book that should be read together and shared. Almost every page has something special on it.

I really think this will be the perfect gift for those you want to share a message of encouragement or love with. It’s similar to Winnie the Pooh in its content but not so much in narrative or illustration. This will be one you won't be able to forget.

Book Review: "The Last True Poets of the Sea" by Julia Drake

Holy hell, I loved this book so much.

Violet and Sam Larkin’s great-great-great-grandmother Fidelia survived a shipwreck off the coast of Maine. Her arrival in the town of Lyric, and her subsequent marriage, are the stuff of legend. And Fidelia’s story has always made the family believe they’re survivors.

"I didn't even have a driver's license, but I was an expert in the art of catastrophe."

Yet as Violet becomes wilder, experimenting with drugs and sex, Sam’s emotional problems become more serious, and it’s clear neither is surviving that well. When Sam tries to take his own life, and Violet responds with inappropriate behavior, their parents send her to Lyric for the summer, the place where their mother grew up and Violet and Sam’s family used to vacation.

Violet’s goal is to become more invisible, which is hard to do when you’re beautiful, musical, and nearly six feet tall. Yet she shaves her head and tries to take up as little space as possible. Working at the town’s struggling aquarium and trying to find the courage to write to Sam, she meets a circle of friends who make her want to open up, even just a little. Among them is Liv, an amateur history buff who has been obsessed with the mysteries behind Fidelia’s shipwreck and what transpired when she came to town and met the man who would be Violet and Sam's great-great-great-grandfather.

Inspired by the desire to help Sam, Violet gets drawn into Liv’s obsession, and they decide to find the shipwreck despite the fact it never was found. Along the way Violet will realize where her heart lies and understand how worthy she is, and how much she needs to be seen.

This book was so beautiful and emotional and I loved it from the start. There’s so much to this story—the need to be loved and understood, family dysfunction, emotional issues, sexuality—and Julia Drake has done such a terrific job with it. Her writing is imbued with such rich emotion, her prose is poetic at times, and her characters are fascinating—they're layered, complex, and not entirely sympathetic.

While reading this book I was reminded of two of my favorite YA books, I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson and Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley. Both of those books, as well as this one, mesmerized me with their power, left me emotional, and touched my heart in an unforgettable way.

Spotlight/Excerpt: "The Magnificent Mrs. Mayhew" by Milly Johnson

THE MAGNIFICENT MRS. MAYHEW
by
MILLY JOHNSON
On Sale: July 29, 2019

Purchase Link:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Magnificent-Mrs-Mayhew/Milly-Johnson/9781982129781

About THE MAGNIFICENT MRS. MAYHEW:
Milly Johnson, the Queen of Feel-Good Fiction and The Sunday Times bestselling author, is back with a "glorious, heartfelt novel" (Rowan Coleman, New York Times bestselling author) about a woman trying to find her own place in the world, who through love, loss, and the kindness of strangers, discovers everything she needs in a village by the sea.

Behind every successful man is a woman.
Behind the fall of every successful man is usually another woman.

Sophie Mayhew seems to have the perfect life. The glamorous wife of a rising political star who is one step away from the highest position in the government, she matches her husband in looks, pedigree, and money. But he has made some stupid mistakes on his way to the top, and some of those mistakes are just now threatening to emerge. Still, this can all be swept under the rug so long as Sophie the Trophy plays her part in front of the cameras. But the words that tumble out of Sophie’s mouth one morning on the doorstep of their country house are not the words the spin doctors drilled into her head.

Bursting out of the restrictive mold that has been tightening around her since birth, Sophie flees to a small village on the coast, a safe haven from her childhood days, where she intends to be alone. But once there, she finds a community that warms her soul and makes her feel as if she is breathing properly for the first time in her life. Sophie knows she won’t be left in peace for long, though, so she must decide: where does her real future lie?

About MILLY JOHNSON
Milly Johnson is The Sunday Times bestselling author of numerous novels about the universal issues of friendship, family, love, betrayal, good food, and the little bit of that magic in life that sometimes visits the unsuspecting. Milly is a columnist for her local newspaper and is also an experienced broadcaster on radio and TV. She can be booked via the Women Speakers Agency for motivational speaking events. Milly is patron of several charities, including Yorkshire Cat Rescue and The Well at the Core. Her publishers call her The Queen of Feel-Good Fiction, and together they are aiming to spread as much joy as possible with every book published. Find out more at MillyJohnson.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @MillyJohnson.

Excerpt from THE MAGNIFICENT MRS. MAYHEW:

Chapter 1

DOORSTEPGATE, 11 A.M.

As Sophie stood in the middle of them all, the moment strangely crystalized for her, as if time had frozen solid and she was able to study everything at leisure, appreciate how odd it was to be surrounded by familiar people in the house she had lived in for eight years and yet still feel as if she had been dropped from a great height into a roomful of strangers.

She saw her mother seated, holding a cup of tea in one hand and the accompanying china saucer in the other, talking to her father, who was standing, one hand slotted stiffly in his jacket pocket; his default pose, as if he were a catalogue model. Mother was talking to him and Father had a polite smile of concentration on his face. Standing next to him, her parents-in-law, Clive and Celeste, looking serious and focused as if they were building up to jumping out of a plane. Sophie’s husband, John, deep in conversation with the top pick of his aides: Parliamentary Assistant (London) Rupert Bartley-Green; Senior Communications Director and Press Officer Len Spinks; Chief of Staff Edward Mayhew, who also happened to be John’s eldest brother; and Executive Office Manager (Cherlgrove) Findlay Norris. Between his two governmental bases and the office that looked after his investment and property portfolio, John had more staff than the POTUS, although there was an opening for a girl Friday (London) now, since his last one was currently enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame. The “people” of breakfast and daytime TV, and every program that attracted those the media chose to concentrate its temporary but brightest lights on, were no doubt already negotiating appearance fees with her “people.” Why is it always someone in that junior assistant/intern/researcher role who topples the boss? thought Sophie. Weren’t there enough cautionary tales of littered corpses to warn any man in a high-profile position—who really should know better—what dark and treacherous waters he elected to dip into when he chose a pretty, young, ambitious swimming companion? A pond with a hundred signs around it, all lit up with massive red neon lettering and strings of exclamation marks: warning. danger. come any closer and you’re a bloody idiot!!!!!

It would have been easy for the other woman to fall in love with her husband, though; if that were what it was. John could sell ice to the Eskimos, coal to Newcastle, toys to Santa, and all the other clichés. Charm personified, absurdly handsome, moneyed, intelligent, refined—oh yes, John F. Mayhew was the full package. Sophie could guess how quickly Rebecca Robinson would have become ensnared in his net, even thrown herself into it willingly, because she had done the same thing fourteen years ago, when she was eighteen.

She’d met him at the Christmas Ball when she was in her first year at Cambridge University, studying French, and he was in his last year studying business and politics. He’d been absolutely wrecked on champagne and told her he was going to marry her, before his friends dragged him off for yet more alcohol. She didn’t think much about it until Valentine’s Day, when their paths collided again at a private party. She spotted him long before he noticed her, which gave her the luxury of studying him unseen. He wasn’t her dream type at all, but he was extremely magnetic, and from the way he held himself, it was more than obvious he knew what his best qualities were. He was long limbed and lean, and she imagined him as a human equivalent of a well-bred racehorse, something pampered and valued. Greek-statue profile, midbrown hair that flopped into his eyes— and what eyes they were: puppy-brown, intense, seductive. Eventually, as if detecting the heat in her gaze, his eyes swept around to hers, locked, and she felt powerless, as if she were a hen and he a fox. He sliced through the banks of students that stood between them, mouth stretching into a killer smile, and when he reached her, said:

“Well, if it isn’t you again. Where have you been hiding yourself?”

And from that moment they were a couple. Sophie forgot all about swooning over the rugby player who was in her class, which was a shame because he would end up captaining England and was a thoroughly nice chap, but John F. Mayhew engulfed her brain and was all she could think about.

John F. was going to be richer than Croesus and prime minister one day, he said, and she didn’t doubt that he would be. She could easily forecast his future: top of the tree in his chosen profession, women would adore him, men would want to be him, magazine reporters would queue up outside his door to take photos of the beautiful home he lived in. His children would be perfect and well behaved. Maybe they’d be her children, too. Maybe this was the man her old headmistress Miss Palmer-Price told her would be the one to carry her along in the grip of his force field. The “F” stood for Fitzroy, he told her postcoitus in bed on the night he took her virginity. His great-great-great-grandfather— Donal F. Mayhew—and his best friend, Patrick, had decided to escape the great Irish famine by emigrating to America in the late 1840s. But an Irish heiress fell hook, line, and sinker for the strong and handsome—if impoverished—gypsy Donal and he changed his mind about going. Donal and his wife eventually moved to London, where his determination both to shake off the label of male “gold digger” and to better himself drove him to build up a fortune in his own right selling property, metal, alcohol, ship parts; anything legal or illegal to trade in order to make a profit. Across the pond, Patrick’s family’s fortunes improved with every generation, too. His great-grandson John F. Kennedy became president of the United States of America. The Kennedys, John said, had stolen the idea of using the “F” from the Mayhews, and in doing so had cursed themselves. As if he couldn’t get any more fascinating, traveler magic was thrown into the mix.

By April Sophie could not imagine living without John F. Mayhew; then in May she found that she’d have to, because he dumped her for the fabulously rich wild child Lady Cresta Thorpe. Sophie was heartbroken. John graduated with honors and spent a year touring the world with Cresta, who had dropped out of university, far preferring to indulge her habits of clubbing, cocktails, and cocaine. His life, so she gleaned from gossip, was shining and golden as hers slipped further into the dark and depressing. Her coursework suffered and she started self-medicating with alcohol to blot out the pain. She also realized that the girls she’d thought of as friends weren’t that hot in a crisis. She had never been good at gathering friends. The beautiful, insubstantial people were attracted to her, but the really nice people found her own good looks intimidating.

It took Sophie a long time to get over losing John F. Mayhew, partly because she didn’t have a group of hard-core pals to help chase him out of her heart. She buried her true feelings deep as she had been taught to at school, threw herself into her studies, never let anyone see how wounded she was. Her heart had just about healed by the time she graduated, give or take the scar he had left.

Months later, Sophie had been working as a temp at the London headquarters of the glossy magazine Mint when she heard that they were to run a feature on a young, successful investment banker, a high-risk taker and up-and-coming politician, at home in his recently acquired, stupidly expensive bachelor penthouse. His name was John F. Mayhew. Sophie’s heart started to race. She wangled it so she accompanied the reporter and the photographer, desperate to show herself off at her best to him: content, happy, preened, and perfect— unattainable and indifferent. Or so she thought.

He was overjoyed to see her, ridiculously so, and she was gracious enough not to dampen his delight with a long-overdue rebuke for dumping her so callously. He asked her out to dinner and she accepted, merely for old times’ sake, sure that if he asked to see her again, she would politely refuse, walk away, having shut the door firmly in his face this time.

He had never forgiven himself for the caddish way he had behaved, he said in Le Gavroche. He’d been glamoured by Cresta’s glitzy veneer, but it was mere infatuation. He hadn’t realized how much he felt for Sophie until he lost her. Sophie was in love with him all over again before the dessert menus had been delivered to them.

Six months after the photos of his bachelor pad had been published, John F. Mayhew had moved out and into Park Court, a beautiful, if run-down, country residence—a wedding present from his parents for himself and his new bride-to-be, the sublime Miss Sophie Calladine. She ignored that little voice inside her that warned her about the speed of all this, the worm burying into her happiness. Is this the real deal, Sophie, or are you just grateful to be loved?

To a woman starved for affection, the full spotlight of his attention was blinding, disorientating—of course she knew this. She had gulped it like air seeping through a hole in a vacuum. For that reason, it would be too easy to let that worm convince her that genuine love was not her primary reason for accepting John’s marriage proposal: but it was, it really was. It had to be said, though, that her heart was whooping considerably that she had also earned parental approval for her choice of husband, and she could even hear the echoes of applause from her old headmistress, nodding consent from the afterlife: I knew you’d be a credit to St. Bathsheba’s in the end, Sophie, like your sisters and your mother before you. But she did love him very much. Enough to have sacrificed her own wants and needs on his altar for the past eight and a half years. Enough to be standing here with her heart ripped open in this roomful of people who were looking at her to mend her marriage. Because by doing that, Sophie Mayhew would mend everything.

Book Review: "The Scent Keeper" by Erica Bauermeister

I'm honored to be part of the blog tour for Erica Bauermeister's incredibly memorable new novel, The Scent Keeper.

Scents provide some of our most potent memories, our strongest sense of time and place. It could be perfume or cologne worn by someone you love, a freshly baked treat from childhood, even the smell of the air after a rainstorm. Bauermeister's beautifully told book is an illustration of a life lived through embracing one of our strongest senses.

Emmeline lives in a cabin on a remote island with her father. It's a marvelous existence for a young girl—she has an entire island to herself to explore, and she and her father live off the land, enjoying all that nature has to offer. He teaches her how to use her senses more than anything else.

During the winter things get tough as food becomes more scarce, but she loves when her father tells her fairy tales and stories. In their cabin they are surrounded by little glass bottles which contain papers that have mysterious scents on them. Her father doesn't explain where they come from, or what the machine that creates these scent papers is, but he gives her powerful advice: "People lie, Emmeline, but smells never do."

But when she discovers the truth about the island on which they live, everything starts to change, and her father becomes more and more obsessed with the scent papers stored in their cabin, to the detriment of everything else, including himself. Without warning, Emmeline is suddenly thrust into the real world, forced to interact with people other than her father, and having to experience first-hand the violence, betrayal, and pain that people cause each other, willingly and unwillingly.

"There had been a time in my life when I had felt grown-up, capable. Now I was too scared of the world outside to leave the house. I stayed in my room mostly, telling myself the stories from my father's book of fairy tales. The girl in the red cloak, running through the trees. The genie waiting in the bottle, growing more powerful with time. The children, lost in the woods with only breadcrumbs to help them. I spoke the words in my mind, as if they could tell me how to navigate this place I'd found myself in, but the best they could do was help me forget. Still, I returned to the stories, wishing for something that would never come. An ending that had already happened."

When Emmeline learns the secrets her father kept hidden from her, she is determined to find out the truth about him and her background. She finds a world far beyond any she had imagined, where she can use her sense of smell professionally, and she finally feels like she belongs. But she also confronts one of her father's most powerful pieces of advice again, "People lie, but smells never do."

At first I felt as if The Scent Keeper was similar to Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing—a story of a young girl who is more in-step with nature than people thrust into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable world. And while there are elements of that in this story, this is also a book about the family we're born into and the family we choose, understanding what—and whom—to fight for, and how our senses give us insight into human behavior we may never recognize unless we let them.

I thought this was a fascinating and beautiful book, full of gorgeously lyrical imagery (how else could Bauermeister make you understand the scents that swirled around Emmeline and the other characters) and a powerful if familiar story of love, trust, family, and our relationship with the natural world. I enjoyed reading this book immensely, even when I wanted to shake the characters for not saying what they were thinking or feeling.

This is definitely a book that made me think about the connection between scent and memory, and how when I remember certain events or people in my life, I often associate a particular smell with them. The Scent Keeper is thought-provoking and memorable.

NetGalley and St. Martin's Press provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

This book will be published May 21, 2019.

I will be hosting a giveaway for this book on my Instagram page, at www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh.

Book Review: "Things My Son Needs to Know About the World" by Fredrik Backman

Over the last few years, Fredrik Backman has been one of my favorite authors, with Beartown, Us Against You, A Man Called Ove and And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer capturing my heart and winding up on my year-end lists of the best books I've read. So when I had the chance to get my hands on his new collection of essays, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World, I jumped on it, despite not having a child.

Once again, Backman's writing is imbued with tremendous heart, emotion, and utter charm. While he's certainly proven his ability to make his fiction utterly compelling from the very first page, this book proves his talent isn't exclusive to fiction, but you can see why his writing has made fans of so many of us.

In Things My Son Needs to Know About the World, Backman gives advice to his young son, about everything from love to finding the right friends to surviving a trip to IKEA. The essays are punctuated with humorous anecdotes of Backman's interactions with his wife, episodes where his parenting skills (and even his thinking skills) are called into question, and declarations of love for his wife and child.

"We want you to be better than us. Because if our kids don't grow up to be better than us, then what's the point of all this? We want you to be kinder, smarter, more humble, more generous, and more selfless than we are. We want to give you the very best circumstances we can possibly provide. So we follow sleeping methods and go to seminars and buy ergonomic bathtubs and push car seat salesmen up against the wall and shout 'the safest! I want THE SAFEST doyouhearme?!'"

These lessons are beautifully universal and have so much meaning. There's also a tremendous amount of humor in the book, humor derived from situations Backman has experienced, like getting a sofa for your first apartment. ("...buy your first sofa secondhand. Not from IKEA. Buy one of those brown leather monstrosities as big as the Death Star...Buy the sofa you want, not the sofa you need...Because sooner or later you'll fall in love. And from then on, every sofa you own will be one long compromise.") He provides advice to live by, all saturated in the immense love he has for his son.

I don't have children, but I found this book tremendously appealing anyway. While some of the essays are more traditionally male-centric, there is a lot of the book that would apply to daughters as well. Some chapters are funnier than others, there's a lot of talk about poop and other messes, and sometimes the essays meander a bit before circling back to the core point, but I enjoyed this.

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World will make a sweet Father's Day gift, particularly for a reasonably new father, although "older" fathers will probably enjoy this, too. I think more than one guy will wipe away a tear—perhaps only in private. I'm looking forward to Backman's next novel (perhaps another Beartown book?), but this is enough to tide me over until then.

NetGalley and Atria Books provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

This book will be published May 7, 2019.

Book Review: "Little Monsters" by Kara Thomas

"Girls are not princesses, and I know all the possible endings to the stories about the girls in peril. They're rarely happy."

After her troubled relationship with her mother became too much to bear, Kacey Young moves to the small town of Broken Falls, Wisconsin to live with the father she'd never met and his family—his wife, his 13-year-old daughter Lauren, and his stepson, Andrew.

It's hard to stand out as the new kid in a small town, so Kacey is grateful when Bailey and Jade take her under their wing. The inseparable duo became a trio, and they spend a great deal of time together. But it seems like Bailey and Jade don't share Kacey's satisfaction for quiet nights at home (which are a huge change from the turmoil-filled days and nights living with her mother), and they try to convince, even blackmail Kacey into sneaking out of the house with them most weekend nights.

"I really thought I could be a part of it, the day Bailey pulled up to the curb where I was waiting for Andrew after school and said, We're going to my house. I knew that it was an invitation to something much bigger. Two becoming three. But three is an uneven number. When there are three, someone always winds up out in the cold."

After a disastrous evening where the girls try to conduct a séance at an abandoned barn near the site of an infamous tragedy in town, Kacey is dreading having to go to the biggest party in town with Bailey and Jade, because she knows they'll make her pay for what they perceive to be her mistake. But strangely, they never text her about going, and she's both surprised and fearful that she was left out.

But the next morning, Jade calls because Bailey never made it home from the party, and she wants Kacey's help to try and find her. The more Kacey tries to find out what happened to her friend, the more she starts to look like an object of suspicion herself. And the more truth she seeks, the deeper she finds herself mired in a web of secrets and lies that make her question those closest to her, and she starts to wonder whether ghost stories can actually be real.

Little Monsters captures all of the emotions and intensity of teenage friendships, along with the mysteries and lies of small-town life, and the scars caused by family dysfunction and secrets. There are a lot of elements at play in this book, and Kara Thomas brought all of them together very deftly, making this a quick and utterly compelling read, even if it ultimately wasn't as surprising as I thought it might be.

I really enjoyed this book, and it reminded me of a Megan Abbott book with less cruelty and more twists. But that's not to say that Thomas' style or storytelling ability is derivative or imitative in any way—I love her voice, and I'm definitely going to read the rest of her books as well.

This is a riveting tale of friendship, jealousy, obsession, fear, family, and the things that happen when no one is honest with their feelings and fears. I couldn't get enough of it.

Book Review: "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

It's been said (although the provenance of the quote is questionable) that, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." While this adage holds true in many aspects of my life, in this case it applies to my penchant for reading tearjerkers yet being surprised when I'm sobbing (once again on a plane, no less).

Knowing that I'd probably cry, I still couldn't stay away from Five Feet Apart, even though the movie adaptation is supposed to be released this weekend, I think. I didn't just read this book, I devoured it, all in the course of a quick plane trip. And while it elicited the expected emotions, I really wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did.

Even though her cystic fibrosis has kept her from doing some of the things she has wanted, Stella has always taken control of her disease, at least as much as she possibly can. She's a big fan of to-do lists (she loves crossing things off) and she hosts her own video series about CF on YouTube. But no matter how much control she tries to take, she can't avoid frequent extended trips to the hospital—and try as she might, she can't protect everyone around her.

What Stella and her family are hoping for is a transplant. It won't save her life completely, but it will give her more time. However, in order to be eligible for a transplant, she has to protect herself from any possible infections or viruses, which means she can't get less than six feet from anyone else with CF, even her best friend, Poe, with whom she essentially grew up in the hospital. When they're both in the hospital together, they have to rely on texting, Skype, and talking through surgical masks and from doorways.

Will has been in and out of hospitals all over the world, and he's tired of it all, especially his mother's single-minded crusade to help him beat a dangerous bacterial infection. Who knows how much money she has spent on getting him in a new drug trial? Will is just waiting until he turns 18, so he can walk away from the hospital and the drug trial, and live (and die) on his own terms.

Stella can't stand to see anyone throwing away their shot at survival, no matter how limited time must be. Will's refusal to participate in his own treatment is something she can't control, and that angers and saddens her. She doesn't love his devil-may-care attitude, and he doesn't love her control-freak tendencies.

As their friendship deepens into something more intense, they face more obstacles than they can handle. They literally cannot get more than six feet from one another. Even a sneeze could infect Stella and knock her off the transplant list. But what is the solution? Is having to keep a physical distance from one another better than not having each other at all?

You probably can predict a good amount of what will happen in Five Feet Apart (although there are some sort-of surprises), but it didn't matter to me in the slightest. In a short number of pages I became totally invested in these characters and their lives, even though I knew ultimately there would be some sorrow involved. Yes, there were some similarities to The Fault in Our Stars but I didn't necessarily feel as if Will, Stella, and Poe were masters of sarcasm and wry observations as the characters were in the former.

This book is based on the screenplay of the movie, so I'd imagine there won't be much deviation, but again, it doesn't matter. I know I'll sob in the theater just as I did on the airplane (thank goodness the lights were off), and I'll think about how much I take for granted. And then I'll smile wistfully as I think about Will, Stella, and Poe.

Book Review: "The Sky is Everywhere" by Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson doesn't just write books—she creates dazzlingly beautiful, poetic masterpieces of words and images, which leave you breathless and shaken to your core, your mind spinning. Her second book, I'll Give You the Sun (see my review), still holds a place in my heart and my brain almost four years after I read it, and it made my list of the best books I read in 2014.

I've always wanted to read her debut novel, The Sky is Everywhere, but I've held back, because it made me happier knowing there was still one of her books I had yet to read. But after being a bit of an emotional wreck after seeing Love, Simon this past weekend (what an amazing movie), I thought why not just plumb my emotional depths? Once again, this book had me crying, exclaiming aloud at some of her words, and seriously wanting to applaud when I was done. (And I thought her second book was a tiny bit better than this one!)

"I wonder why bereaved people even bother with mourning clothes when grief itself provides such an unmistakable wardrobe."

Lennon—Lennie for short—is consumed with crushing grief after the death of her older sister, Bailey. Bailey, an aspiring actress, was larger than life, dramatic, a force of nature drawing everyone into the centrifugal force of her being. Lennie, more cerebral, a musician, was more than happy to play second fiddle to her sister, who has been her protector since their mother left them with their grandmother when they were little.

"He was telling us that Thoroughbred racing horses have these companion ponies that always stay by their sides, and I remember thinking, That's me. I'm a companion pony, and companion ponies don't solo. They don't play first chair or audition for All-State or compete nationally or seriously consider a certain performing arts conservatory in New York City...they just don't."

In the wake of Bailey's sudden death, Lennie is emotionally adrift, and amazingly, the only anchor she can find is Toby, Bailey's boyfriend, of whom Lennie was always a little bit jealous. Suddenly their relationship is overcome by intense longing and passion, something that Lennie has never felt before, yet she isn't sure whether she actually wants Toby, or if being with him is a way of preserving her sister. And when a breathtakingly handsome new boy, an immensely talented musician, comes to school, Lennie finds herself falling for him with an intensity she never knew possible, yet it is an intensity complicated by her feelings for Toby.

"I kiss him. I mean really kiss him, like I've wanted to do since that very first day in band. No sweet soft peck about it. With the same lips that just kissed someone else, I kiss away his question, his suspicion, and after a while, I kiss away the someone else too, the something else that almost just happened, until it is only the two of us, Joe and me, in the room, in the world, in my crazy swelling heart. Holy horses."

The Sky is Everywhere is a book about how we attempt to cope with crushing loss, and how we are often blind to how those we love are dealing with the same grief. It's a book about how love consumes us, bewitches us, makes us believe we are the only ones who have ever felt this way, and that it's okay to act impetuously, foolishly, carelessly with others' feelings.

At the same time, this is also a book about finally finding yourself after willingly standing in shadow for so long, about coming into your own and finding the courage to act, and about understanding how your past shapes your future. Nelson's storytelling fills you with emotion, makes you root for her characters, and just leaves you gasping with amazement at times because of her word choices and the feelings Lennie is experiencing. You want to hug her and protect her, yet you want to shake her, too, because of her single-mindedness as she ignores her family members and friends.

I hope Nelson has another book in store for us soon. Not everyone enjoys YA books as much as I do, but Nelson's books are so beautifully written, so intensely felt, that you're missing out. She is a talent that deserves to be experienced, and her stories deserve to be read.

Book Review: "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera

Well, what else would you expect from a book called They Both Die at the End?

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new."

—Steve Jobs

Shortly after midnight on September 5, Mateo and Rufus both get a call they've never wanted to receive. It's from Death-Cast, the company that lets people know they're scheduled to die sometime that day.

Mateo recently turned 18, and while he was too scared to go away to college, he has a lot of plans and dreams—he's going to attend school online, and hopefully become an architect some day. He's really only close to his father, who raised him, and his best friend Lidia, and he spent a lot of his life being too shy to do the things he imagined doing, to be the person he wanted to be, and live the life he knew he should. But that doesn't mean he's ready to die.

"Because I refused to live invincibly on all the days I didn't get an alert, I wasted all those yesterdays and am completely out of tomorrows."

Rufus is three weeks from his 18th birthday, and although his life has been marked by serious loss, he knows who matters—his foster parents, his two foster brothers/best friends, and his ex-girlfriend Aimee, who Rufus still can't believe has left him for another guy. In fact, when Rufus gets the call from Death-Cast, he's in the process of beating the crap out of Aimee's new boyfriend, even though that is totally out of character for him.

Both boys know they don't want to die alone, yet they know that they don't want their deaths to traumatize those they're close to. Using the "Last Friend" app, Mateo and Rufus meet. They're both very different—there's nearly no challenge that Rufus is afraid to tackle head-on, while Mateo spends so much time alone, fearing the unknown and worrying people will deceive or laugh at him. But when they meet, each vows to help the other live the best End Day they can—live it to the fullest, no regrets.

The boys will face some challenges, share secrets with one another that they've never told others, and deal with their fears, together. They'll say goodbyes to those they care about, and do things that they've always dreamed of. And at the same time, they'll both realize how much you can live in just one day.

Between this and The Immortalists (see my original review), my reading taste has skewed a little morbid lately. But while They Both Die at the End certainly is an emotional read, kudos to Adam Silvera for not making it as maudlin as I feared it might be. Did I cry? Well, of course. But I didn't feel like someone punched me hard in the feels repeatedly, which made me enjoy this more.

I'll admit I wanted a little more backstory into the whole Death-Cast thing, especially since this book takes place September 5, 2017 (ironically, the day Silvera's book was released). It saddened me that two young men were scheduled to die at such a young age, and I wish it took a little less time for Mateo to break out of his shell. But those minor quibbles aside, I really loved this book, the relationships the characters had with each other, and the message that life is uncertain, so why not live it to the fullest whenever you can?

With More Happy Than Not, History is All You Left Me, and now this book, Silvera has rapidly joined my list of authors I would follow almost anywhere to read their work. (That never avoids sounding stalkerish, but don't worry.) I love the way his mind works, I love the emotion, heart, and beauty he brings to his books, and I love the way he respects his characters, because it really shows.

You can always count on me to recommend books which will give you a good cry. They Both Die at the End is tremendously affecting and really unforgettable, and yeah, it will give your tear ducts some good exercise, too.

Book Review: "The End of Eddy" by Édouard Louis (author), Michael Lucey (translator)

"Words like affected or effeminate could always be heard in the mouths of adults around me: not just at school and not only by the two boys. They were like razor blades that would cut me for hours, for days, when I heard them, words I picked up and repeated to myself. I told myself over and over that they were right. I wished I could change. But my body would never obey me, and so the insults would start up again."

Eddy Bellegueule, a young man growing up in a poor town in northern France, is forced to confront how different he is from his peers at an early age. While he wants to be viewed as a man, as masculine, his voice is higher than most, his mannerisms are effeminate, he is unathletic (and not really motivated to try playing sports), and as much as he tries, he cannot hide his growing attraction to men. This spells disaster for a young man among lower class and working class people, whose favorite pastimes include drinking, getting into fights, fighting while drinking, and bragging about their sexual conquests.

The sad part is, the abuse Eddy takes isn't just at the hands of classmates or fellow townspeople—it comes from his own family, who don't understand how or why he is what he is, and are embarrassed that someone like him can be tied to them. While he hears his parents use racial and cultural slurs constantly, he also must get used to his father calling people (including him, from time to time) "faggot" and other derogatory names. It is a depressing life for Eddy; at times he tries valiantly to live along the margins and hopefully go unnoticed, and other times he tries to do what will help him "pass"—find a girlfriend, get into fights, attempt to have sex. But it is difficult for Eddy to escape his true identity.

"And yet I had understood that living a lie was the only chance I had of bringing a new truth into existence. Becoming a different person meant thinking of myself as a different person, believing I was something I wasn't so that gradually, step by step, I could become it."

The End of Eddy is nearly relentless in its brutal depiction of a young man coming to terms with his sexuality and his identity in an environment in which being different is not only discouraged but often met with physical violence and emotional abuse. This is an autobiographical novel, and Édouard Louis brings tremendous emotion to this story of a boy so desperate for approval and love from those around them that he is willing to destroy who he really is, just in the hopes that his parents and siblings would treat him differently.

This was a beautifully written but difficult book to read, because it was very bleak, but Louis treads carefully in not painting his characters as too black and white; you can see that Eddy's parents just don't know what to make of their son, and want to love him but want him to live an easier life, too.

At times, The End of Eddy was a little emotionally uncomfortable for me. It certainly brought back painful memories of adolescence, of desperately trying to be "normal" yet dealing with the slurs of people who wanted to label me because I was different. And of course, different isn't bad, but they didn't see that. But while this book is a tough read, it does sound a note of hopefulness as well, because sometimes the simple act of embracing who you are is what you need to combat those who try and bring you down.

I don't know if this is a book for everyone, but it definitely is one that will make you think and make you feel. It made me grateful that I am where I am at this point in my life, and while no one's life is 100 percent struggle-free, it truly does get better.

Book Review: "Good Behavior" by Blake Crouch

Blake Crouch blew my mind and threw me for a loop with Dark Matter (see my review). When I decided to read Good Behavior, a collection of three interlinked novellas, I wondered if lightning would strike twice for me when reading Crouch's books.

My verdict? Crouch really is one hell of a writer. While this book didn't quite take my breath away like Dark Matter did, he proved once again that he knows how to create some fantastic action scenes and ratchet up tension until you are absolutely dying to know what's going to happen next. And in Letty Dobesh, he has created a fantastically memorable character I hope we'll see again soon. (The adaptation of some of these stories, starring Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery, is currently airing, and Crouch provides some insight into the creation of the television show in this book.)

Letty Dobesh is fresh out of prison. She has a son she's not fit to see, a drug habit that she can't quite seem to shake, and while she needs to get herself back on the straight and narrow, she realizes more and more that she's happiest when she's in the middle of a scheme—or using drugs. The sad thing is, despite a few missteps, she's generally really good at being a criminal.

In "The Pain of Others," Letty has returned to her old pastime of robbing hotel rooms when she overhears a conversation between two men, one who has just hired the other to kill his wife. Letty is unsure what to do. Should she contact the police, despite the compromising position she was in when she heard the murder being agreed upon? Should she just walk out of the room when she can and pretend she heard nothing? Or should she try and warn the wife of what is imminent?

In "Sunset Key," Letty is offered a multi-million dollar scheme from an old friend and fellow criminal. A very wealthy banker has been found guilty of defrauding millions of people, and he has been sentenced to a long prison term. He'd like to spend his last night of freedom with a special woman, and Letty can be that woman—for a price. And in "Bad," Letty gets the chance to be part of a heist unlike any others, but it is far from what she expected.

Each of these novellas has a lot of twists and turns, and while you think you know how Crouch will wrap things up, you're not always right. The first and the third novellas in particular ("The Pain of Others" and "Bad") really threw me for a loop a few times. I don't know what it will be like watching the television adaptations knowing all I know, but I'm definitely going to have to see Letty in motion.

Don't go into this expecting Dark Matter or even the Wayward Pines series (which I've definitely added to my list). These are more straightforward crime stories than anything else, but they're still fascinating and utterly compelling. I'm seriously a huge Blake Crouch fan now, not that I wasn't before!

Book Review: "The Invoice" by Jonas Karlsson

How much would you pay for happiness, for special memories, for a reasonably pleasant life? Is a placid existence worth more than a turbulent, more passionate one?

In Jonas Karlsson's new book, The Invoice, the unnamed main character lives a simple life. He's a film buff, working part-time in a video store in Sweden, where he likes to talk to people about movies, although he rarely gets the chance. He has a few friends whom he sees periodically, but since a relationship ended some time ago, he has no one special in his life. Mostly his nights include re-watching his favorite movies, and enjoying pizza and/or ice cream. It's not an exciting life, but even though he doesn't have much money or promising career prospects, he's not unhappy.

One day he receives an invoice from an unknown national company. The invoice is for an amount of money he cannot even fathom, and it doesn't explain why he suddenly owes this money. He soon finds that he's turned a blind eye to something that's happening in Sweden—people are literally being billed for the expense of their lives, differing amounts based on events that have occurred throughout their lives, how happy they have been, etc. But what he cannot understand is how can someone with not much to show for himself owe the largest amount of money in the country?

This is a charming little fable of sorts, which raises some interesting issues about happiness and how people perceive our lives differently than we do. Are happy moments better than those which cause us to feel strong emotions? Should we really be financially responsible for how our lives turn out emotionally?

I thought this was a sweet book, but it never really engendered a great deal of excitement for me. (Which, perhaps in light of this book isn't a bad thing?) I kept expecting something big to happen, and although there were some lovely small moments, it just didn't wow me as much as I thought. But the main character is appealing in a sweet, befuddled way, and I thought parts of the book really were charming. An interesting idea to think about.

NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and Blogging for Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "We Are the Ants" By Shaun David Hutchinson

I stayed up until nearly 2:00 a.m. to finish this book and I cannot stop thinking about it. Honestly, I read a good amount of YA fiction, and a lot of it is tremendously well-written and emotionally evocative, but I've not been this blown away by a book since I read Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun, which made my list of the best books I read in 2014.

Seriously. This one was brutal and absolutely beautiful.

"Sometimes I think gravity may be death in disguise. Other times I think gravity is love, which is why love's only demand is that we fall."

For the last few years, aliens have periodically abducted Henry Denton. As if high school wasn't already difficult to deal with. The aliens don't tell Henry what they want from him or why they've chosen him, but apart from leaving him nearly naked in strange places all over his Florida town, they haven't hurt him too badly.

No one believes Henry's stories, except his boyfriend Jesse. But Jesse recently killed himself, and Henry believes he is to blame, or at least should have seen how badly Jesse was hurting. Everyone else in Henry's life, including his fellow classmates, taunt him and call him "Space Boy," making every day at school a living hell. And his home life isn't much better—his mother works more and more shifts as a waitress while her real dream is to be a chef; his older brother abuses him physically and psychologically nearly every day; and his grandmother, suffering from Alzheimer's, seems to have fewer and fewer lucid moments.

The aliens have given Henry an ultimatum: Earth will be destroyed in 144 days, unless Henry makes the decision to save the world. All he has to do is push a button. But does Henry want to save the world? Is the world really worth saving without Jesse in it?

"Most people probably believe they would have pressed the button in my situation—nobody wants the world to end, right?—but the truth is that nothing is as simple as it seems. Turn on the news; read some blogs. The world is a shit hole, and I have to consider whether it might be better to wipe the slate clean and give the civilization that evolves from the ashes of our bones a chance to get it right."

As the deadline draws closer, Henry searches for evidence that the world is worth saving—in the bully who wants to be with Henry in secret but terrorizes him in public; in Audrey, his former best friend, who used to be an enormous part of his life; in the new student who adds some mystery into Henry's life; and Henry's family members, each dealing with their own struggles. Sure, there are moments when life isn't so bad, but Henry has to decide whether humanity is worth saving or if letting the world end would also end his own emotional anguish.

We Are the Ants is a difficult book to read at times, emotionally. It seems incredible that Henry would allow himself to be treated the way he is by so many people, and that no one would put a stop to it, but the truth is, this type of thing happens more often than not in real life. He is such an incredible character—as are many of the supporting characters—that you root for them to be happy even as you begin to understand that maybe Henry's pain is too much for anyone to bear.

That's not to say that the book is a total downer. There were many moments that made me smile and laugh, and moments that touched my heart and made me even cry good tears (as opposed to the ugly ones I cried at other times). I haven't ever read anything that Shaun David Hutchinson has written before, but after this, rest assured I will. This is such an inventive, moving, beautiful book I feel utterly privileged to have read. I won't soon forget it.

Movie Review: "Carol"

Therese Belivet (a wide-eyed Rooney Mara) is a clerk at a New York City department store in the 1950s. She's not really certain what she wants out of her life, but knows there's more to offer than a job she doesn't really care for, and her earnest boyfriend, who keeps trying to convince her to go on a European trip with him.

When Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett), a New Jersey housewife, sweeps into her department, her glamour and attitude immediately captivate Therese, nearly leaving her at a loss for words. But when Carol leaves her gloves at the store, Therese sees it as an opportunity to once again interact with this woman who has inexplicably fascinated her in ways she had never imagined possible.

The two strike up a friendship of sorts, and it is soon clear that both are smitten with each other. While this has happened before to Carol, Therese can't seem to explain it, although for the most part she is willing to let Carol take the lead. But Carol's decision to pursue this relationship comes at great peril to her family—her soon-to-be ex-husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler), has filed a petition for sole custody of their young daughter due to a "morality clause." Carol must face the dilemma of whether to follow her heart or allow herself to be "cured" so she can spend time with her daughter. This leaves Therese, who had never imagined herself in this position in the first place, in emotional limbo, as well as uncertainty about the other facets of her life as well.

Blanchett is absolutely dazzling as a woman whose public bravado masks deep vulnerability and fear. As she tells a friend who says she hopes Carol knows what she's doing in getting involved with a younger woman like Therese, Carol replies, "I never did." While she has the same speech patterns as her character in Blue Jasmine, this isn't a woman putting on airs or reinventing herself—this is a woman who is trying to play the role expected of her but her heart keeps getting in the way.

My only exposure to Mara's talent was in her Oscar-nominated turn in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so to see her play someone reasonably subdued and timid at first, but whose courage awakens with her heart, was a true revelation. In this film, Mara has a clean-scrubbed freshness, similar to Audrey Hepburn's in Roman Holiday, and her eyes are so tremendously expressive, so they provide a dimension beyond her dialogue. Both Blanchett and Mara are immensely deserving of Oscar nominations. As Carol's former girlfriend and confidante, Sarah Paulson does a terrific job with her small-yet-pivotal role. While Chandler gets to play the heavy, he does bring more emotional depth to his character, a man who knows his wife was probably going through the motions but he continues to love her anyway.

Carol is beautifully filmed with exquisite attention to detail, in a way similar to director Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, another film which dealt with relationships that didn't fit the mold of society at that time, and how they affected those around them. I wondered where the plot would go, and was pleased with the way the story unfolded. More than anything, however, I realized that while our world is far from perfect, it is a hell of a lot better than the world of 1952, when Patricia Highsmith wrote the book upon which this movie is based. But Haynes treated this love story like any other, and that added to the film's poignancy. Truly excellent.

Book Review: "Hidden Bodies" by Caroline Kepnes

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for making it available!

Holy crap, this was one roller coaster ride of a book!

Last year, Caroline Kepnes' You pretty much hooked me completely, as it introduced New York City bookseller Joe Goldberg and his love/obsession with Guinevere Beck. That book was also a pretty wild ride, and a testament to Kepnes' writing talent as she made you care about a character whose actions weren't quite admirable. (To say the least...)

In Hidden Bodies, Kepnes brings Joe back, and kicks up the story a few more notches. After his relationship with Beck ended, Joe figured he was destined for a life alone. And then beautiful, quirky, mysterious Amy Adam comes into his bookstore and intrigues him pretty much immediately. They're on the same wavelength intellectually, the sex is mind-blowing, and her refusal to embrace any form of social media—where Beck's life was an open book—enamors her to him even more. But just as he's ready to propose, and completely leave Beck behind, Amy disappears, leaving Joe hurt, angry, and betrayed.

The clues Amy left in her wake leave Joe with only one option, no matter how odious it may seem to him—he decides to move to LA to find her. It's not long before Joe finds himself face-to-face with all of the quintessentially LA stereotypes he had only heard about—from the bookstore manager/aspiring actor/aspiring screenwriter to the aging comedian, the gossip columnist who just wants to be loved to the narcissistic talk show host. But try as he might, Joe cannot find Amy, and his obsession about finding her grows ever stronger.

But then Joe finds Love. Literally. Love Quinn, the do-gooder heiress to a grocery store fortune, steals Joe's heart and introduces him to a world of privilege and, well, love, that he never dreamed of. Joe knows that Love is his destiny, and if there are some bumps along the road to eternal happiness, well, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do to ensure he gets the life and the love he deserves, right? No matter what.

Even more in this book than in her first, Kepnes so fully occupies Joe's character in every way—intellectually, emotionally, sexually—that I had to keep reminding myself that this book was written by a woman. Even when the plot gets a little bit unreal from time to time, there is not a false note in Joe's character, and once again, I found myself rooting for him at the same time I was disgusted by him. I really had no idea how Kepnes would tie up the plot, and that doesn't happen for me with many books.

Is this a realistic book? I hope not. But it's utterly entertaining, and I was completely hooked from start to finish. I just let it devour me as I devoured it, caught between wanting to finish it quickly to end my suspense and wanting to savor it. This isn't a book for everyone, but if you like books about seriously flawed but fascinating characters with a penchant for sex, violence, and foul language, pick up these books. (And while you don't have to, I'd recommend starting with You, the first book in Joe's story.)