Book Review: "The Epicenter of Forever" by Mara Williams

“Maybe joy and suffering are the same subjects brushed in different hues—not either or, but both and. Coexistent. They are lovers with clasped hands and entwined bodies. Maybe in order to have one, you must embrace, accept the other. The beauty is not in the ever after but in trusting the now.”

When Eden was growing up, she spent summers in the idyllic California mountain town of Grand Trees. It was a town that embraced nature and she loved the people who lived there.

But Grand Trees was also the place where her dreams ended and she dealt with a betrayal that shattered her family. Eden fled, vowing never to return. And apart from a brief appearance at a funeral, she’s kept that promise—until now. When she gets news that her estranged mother is suffering from Parkinson’s, she heads back there.

When she arrives, Eden finds her mother’s condition is worse than she thought. She also meets Caleb, her mother’s step-nephew and caregiver, who immediately blames Eden for all that transpired with her mother through the years. But despite her mother’s found family, she’s determined to try and rebuild their relationship, even if it means reopening old wounds.

While she is staying with her mother, Eden finds her relationship with Caleb changing from an adversarial one to a romantic one. Both have more in common than they realize. But the demands of her mother’s condition force Eden to make a choice: her family or her heart?

I thought this was so good. It’s a love story, sure, but it’s also about parental love and the fierce love of found family. I found Mara Williams’ use of imagery to be so powerful as well. ⁣

Book Review: "If You Can't Take the Heat" by Michael Ruhlman

A book primarily set in a restaurant? Written by an award-winning food writer and cookbook author? How quickly do you think I picked this up?

Cleveland, Ohio, 1980. Theo is a star athlete at his high school, and he’s looking forward to spending the summer practicing with his teammates. It’s the one bright spot for him, since his girlfriend broke up with him a few weeks ago.

And then tragedy strikes: while playing a casual game of football, he breaks his leg severely. He’s bedridden for weeks and he might never be able to play football again. With not much else to do, he starts watching Julia Child and Graham Kerr’s cooking shows, and he becomes more and more interested in replicating what he sees on television.

His friend Julia (with whom he’d like to be more than friends) gets him a chance to help out at Margaux, the fancy restaurant she works at. At first, Theo takes care of lots of prep work for Chef (while he’s on crutches), and he immediately realizes how at home he feels, even while he makes mistakes due to clumsiness or nervousness.

As Theo proves his worth and his skill, Chef gives him more and more responsibility. At the same time, he is dealing with wanting more from his relationship with Julia, and having to convince his parents he can balance high school and working at the restaurant. But when an incident occurs and Theo does what he thinks is right, it complicates things on all fronts.

I really enjoyed this and learned some new cooking things, too. At times I forgot Theo was only 16, and at other times it was obvious based on his decisions. I honestly could’ve done without the romance, but I was definitely hooked on this story.

Book Review: "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin

One of the most beloved books of the year is this sweeping story of friendship, love, grief, recovery, and video games.

Sadie and Sam meet in the hospital when they are 11 years old in the late 1980s. Sadie is visiting her older sister and Sam is recovering from one of several surgeries to repair his foot, which was crushed in a car accident. She finds Sam in the hospital’s game room and she is impressed with his skill at Super Mario Bros.

Even though Sam hasn’t spoken to anyone since he came to the hospital, he and Sadie strike up a friendship, mostly bonding over video games. She even comes to the hospital to visit him after her sister is released, and they spend a great deal of time together until an argument ends their friendship.

Years later, Sam spots Sadie on a crowded subway platform in Boston. He knows she’s a student at MIT, while he attends Harvard, but they’ve not seen each other since they were 13. But quickly it’s as if no time has passed, and that encounter is the spark that leads to their partnering on developing a video game.

The story follows them over the next 15 or so years, as they become famous video game developers, and deal with personal and professional ups and downs. Their friendship is tested time and again, with jealousy, misunderstandings, ambition, and tragedy affecting them. It’s a powerful and emotional story, which meandered a bit too much for me, but it definitely kept me invested in the characters’ stories.

While you don’t have to know much about video games to read this, it would help. But I enjoyed the portrayal of their creativity and genius, as well as the commentary about video games’ effect on society.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

Book Review: "Layla" by Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover's newest book, Layla, is a very different kind of love story.

Hoover is an author I might never have heard of were it not for Bookstagram. Since reading Verity last fall, I’ve read and loved a number of her older books and some subsequent releases. She’s definitely become one of my auto-buy authors. (I still have a ways to go with her backlist, which is great.)

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Layla, and was excited to see the raves coming in from folks. A paranormal romance at that? How cool! But hype is a fickle friend. This one was...not for me.

From the moment he sees her at a wedding, Leeds falls for Layla. (I love the names CoHo gives her characters!) The more time they spend with each other, the more they know they’re destined to be together forever. And then an unexpected incident occurs which leaves Layla fighting for her life.

After Layla recovers from her injuries physically, she still suffers from anxiety and other emotional issues, so Leeds takes her to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met, hoping they can recapture some of their initial fun and passion. But instead, strange things start happening and Layla’s behavior changes dramatically.

I'll stop my plot summary here, even though you can find more online, because I think it's better to let things unfold as you read.

Sadly, this book never really captured my interest. I don’t know if it was the pacing of the story, which I found slow, or the paranormal aspects, although I don’t normally have issues with those. I do love the way Hoover writes, however, and I love her willingness to experiment and push genres. There certainly were elements of the story I enjoyed.

I know mine is an unpopular opinion and in some cases an outlier, so if you give this a try, I hope you enjoy it!!

I won a copy in a giveaway on Bookstagram, so thanks to Montlake Publishing for the complimentary copy!

Book Review: "Black Diamond Fall" by Joseph Olshan

"It was real life now, maybe even real love, named hours before in a sort of fever, a shiny token tossed into a deep well that still glimmered from far below."

Joseph Olshan's new novel, Black Diamond Fall is both a mystery and a somewhat elegiacal look at the passions and uncertainties of love, the challenges of coming to terms with your own sexuality, how grief and anger can consume us, and having to come to terms with the end of a relationship that you don't think should end. While I believe the book works better when it concentrates on the latter issues rather than the mystery component, the mystery is core to the characters' emotions.

Luc Flanders is a student at a small Vermont college. He is a guarded, complex young man whose life was changed after he suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was a teenager. One night, after playing hockey on a frozen pond with his roommates, he realizes he lost something important to him, so he goes back to the pond to find it. He encounters someone while at the pond, and never returns.

After ensuring he didn't fall through the ice that night, everyone—Luc's parents, his roommates, his ex-girlfriend, even the police—can't figure out what happened to Luc, although many have their suspicions, especially once they find out Luc had secretly been in a relationship with Sam Solomon, an architect closer in age to Luc's parents than him. While many knew that Luc was hiding something, it is a surprise to find he had been hiding something so significant.

Sam struggles to deal with the police interrogation related to Luc's disappearance and their relationship, and he doesn't appreciate the scrutiny and suspicion from total strangers as well as people he knows well. Sam didn't want the relationship with Luc to end, didn't understand why Luc was so dead set against accepting the truth about his sexuality, why he wanted to give up a chance to truly love and be loved the way he had always longed to.

When the home of famed poet Robert Frost, not far from the college campus, is vandalized, the police investigating the incident discover some interesting links between this crime and Luc's disappearance. Are the two crimes connected? Will finding out who is responsible for the vandalism lead them to Luc's whereabouts?

When the book focuses on Luc and Sam and their relationship, and the way those around them must come to terms with it, it is beautifully written, poignant, thought-provoking, and at times, emotional. You can feel the conflicts that Luc is dealing with, torn between accepting who he is, giving in to love, or trying to live a "normal" life. You can also feel the strength of Sam's grief even though he knew inherently their relationship might not last.

I felt the mystery components were still compelling, but I wanted more Sam and Luc. However, the chapters narrated by Luc's mother and a police detective investigating Luc's disappearance are definitely readable, and you hope that everything will be solved to your liking, that none of the characters you've come to care about are responsible for any of the bad things that happened.

Joseph Olshan is an immensely gifted storyteller. His novel Clara's Heart was made into a late-1980s movie with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris, and I remember being utterly moved by Nightswimmer when I read it in 1994. I'm glad to see his talent is as strong as ever with Black Diamond Fall. While at times it feels like two books in one, the fact is, you can't stop reading either of them, and at the end, you're moved by the beauty of Olshan's writing.

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

Book Review: "Wolf in White Van" by John Darnielle

John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van is quirky and cool, tremendously creative and a little bewildering. How's that for a reading experience?

When Sean Phillips was 17 he suffered a disfiguring injury that left him near death. Even years later, people still stop and stare at him when they see him, and he lives an isolated life, practically estranged from his parents, and apart from periodic errands, he sees only his doctors and a visiting nurse who helps care for him.

While Sean was recovering in the hospital, he invented a role-playing game called Trace Italian, which leads people through a dystopian world full of violence, danger, and risk. Played through the mail, Trace Italian and several other games Sean invented have allowed him to live independently and exercise his creativity. But when two teenagers, Lance and Carrie, get a little too involved in the game and bring it into reality, Sean is forced to account for his game, and examine if he in any way encouraged their actions.

As he reflects upon Lance and Carrie's decisions, Sean also examines his life, and how he got to this point. He explores the impact his injury has had on his everyday existence and his relationships with his family and friends, and tries to determine what his future holds.

I'm not sure why, but I guess I was expecting a book along the lines of Ernest Cline's fantastic Ready Player One—a first-hand look inside of a role-playing game and how it affected both those who play and the creator. But while Wolf in White Van does touch on Trace Italian periodically, this is a far more introspective, brooding study of a deeply flawed and troubled yet sympathetic character.

I thought John Darnielle told a great story, and I really liked Sean's character. I just found that the book left me with more questions than answers. I was hoping for more of an understanding of why Sean did what he did (I'm being purposely oblique so as not to spoil the way the book unfolds), and also wished that the book had gone a little more in depth into his interactions with Lance and Carrie.

This is a book that requires a little patience because it takes a while for the story to take hold of you, but it's worth it. While I think people will have different interpretations of the events in the book, there will be little doubt that Darnielle is a great writer, and I look forward to seeing where his career goes from here.

Book Review: "The Black Hour" by Lori Rader-Day

It has been a while since I've gotten so engrossed in a book that I nearly missed my metro stop, but that happened when nearing the end of Lori Rader-Day's well-written and compelling The Black Hour. Luckily I looked up just as I realized where we were!

Dr. Amelia Emmet is a sociology professor specializing in the study of violence at a prestigious Chicago university. She is well-respected and driven. Then one day the unthinkable happens—a student shoots her and then kills himself. No one understands what drove the student to violence, although most are quick to believe it was something Amelia did, that perhaps the two had an illicit relationship that caused him to try and kill her. But Amelia never knew him, and has no idea why this student would shoot her before taking his own life.

Much to the surprise of her colleagues, Amelia returns to school 10 months later. She's struggling emotionally and physically, and isn't sure if she can muster the enthusiasm to teach again, but she needs to be back at work. Maybe she's a little dependent on painkillers, maybe finding out that her ex-lover has gotten married has thrown her for a bit of a loop, but she can handle it, can't she?

Nathaniel (Nath) Barber is a graduate student who comes to Chicago because he's obsessed with its violent history—Al Capone and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, to name a few. And he's a little too interested in what happened to Amelia, which leads him to become her teaching assistant. Nath has his own emotional issues, stemming from his mother's death and the end of a relationship, so he understands the darkness that might lead someone to take their own life. But he also begins to realize that Amelia needs more help than she's willing to let on.

Nath and Amelia begin to uncover the truth about the shooting, and catch the attention of an investigative reporter who covered the incident. Yet as they search for answers, they find themselves in an increasingly tangled web, one which forces them to plumb their own emotional depths and confront their own issues.

I had my suspicions about how Rader-Day would tie up The Black Hour, and I was mostly correct, but the fact that it was somewhat predictable (at least to me) didn't detract in the slightest from its appeal. I couldn't stop reading this book because I was completely drawn into the plot, and found the characters really appealing despite their quirks, so I wanted to know what happened to them.

This is a really enjoyable book—it's a well-written novel with some good suspense thrown in. I look forward to seeing what comes next for Lori Rader-Day. I'll be waiting.

Book Review: "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart

This was one crazy roller coaster ride of a book. And I mean that in a good way.

Cadence Sinclair Easton is the oldest grandchild of a wealthy family that owns an island off Martha's Vineyard. Each summer she and her mother, along with her two aunts and their families, join Cadence's grandparents on the island. But while the Sinclair family endeavors to project the image that life is perfect and everyone is happy, that is far from the case—Cadence's grandfather, the patriarch of the family, manipulates her mother and her two aunts into a King Lear-esque war over who should own which house on the island, and who should inherit much of the Sinclair family fortune.

Although family tension causes some strife, Cadence is happily ensconced in her own world on the island with her two cousins, Johnny and Mirren, and Johnny's best friend, Gat, who is the son of Johnny's mother's boyfriend. Gat is Indian, and although he wouldn't trade his summers on the island for anything, he strongly feels that the elder Sinclairs don't believe he is worthy of being a part of the family. But that doesn't stop Cadence from falling madly in love with Gat, the summer both are 15 years old.

One day Cadence wakes up in the hospital, the victim of a traumatic brain injury. No one really knows what happened to her, what caused her to be found shivering on the beach. Plagued by debilitating migraines, unable to remember much of what happened that summer, Cadence is tremendously depressed and longs for the companionship of Gat and her cousins, who appear to have abandoned her in the wake of the incident. It is not until she returns to the island two summers later than she can begin to confront them and try to understand what really happened that night—and what has caused everyone to refuse to talk to her about it.

The less said about the plot of We Were Liars, the better. This is a book with a lot of twists and turns you'll want to savor. It reads a bit like a movie or a cross between Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and perhaps One Tree Hill. While the characters are perhaps a little familiar, as are the emotions of young love, betrayal, and family turmoil, E. Lockhart imbues the story with a freshness, an emotion, that will keep you hooked.

I wanted to read the entire book in one sitting, and read it in a little more than a day. Don't read a lot of reviews before reading We Were Liars—give yourself the chance to experience it not knowing much about it. It's definitely a book that will keep you thinking.