Book Review: "Society of Lies" by Lauren Ling Brown

“How often, in the world, is silence what allows horrible people to get away with their crimes?”

Maya arrives at Princeton for her 10-year reunion, with her husband and young daughter in tow. She’s nervous and excited, but in addition to the reunion, her younger sister Naomi will be graduating as well. But not long after arriving, Maya learns that tragedy has struck: Naomi has been found dead.

While the police believe that Naomi’s death was an accident, Maya is immediately suspicious. And the more she talks to Naomi’s friends, the more questions arise about what could have happened to her. It’s not long before Maya realizes that her sister kept a lot of secrets from her.

Naomi looked up to her sister and wanted to follow in her footsteps. But that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Maya discovers that, like her, Naomi became a member of one of Princeton’s most exclusive eating clubs, as well as the secret society within the club, which could open doors to an incredible future of possibilities.

However, Naomi was also digging into some mysteries around the club and the powerful people involved, not to mention the death of a student 10 years ago. She discovered that her sister was somehow involved in that incident, but she’s determined to uncover the truth.

I’m a fan of dark academia stories. I enjoyed the discussion about privilege and prejudice, not to mention how racial and cultural differences strike at the heart of a purposely diverse group. For me, the book moved sooo slowly. While it’s told in multiple narratives, the voices are nearly identical so I had to keep reorienting myself to whose story each chapter was.

Book Review: "For Your Own Good" by Samantha Downing

What a crazy, twisty, addictive thriller Samantha Downing's newest book, For Your Own Good, was!!

I love it when a book I’ve been highly anticipating by an author I love lives up to every expectation and then some. Downing has done it yet again!!

The Belmont Academy is a highly prestigious private school. Parents expect their children will ultimately get accepted to an Ivy League school. Sure, they’re demanding of their children and the teachers, but that’s what it takes to get results, right?

Teddy Crutcher was (finally, as far as he's concerned) named Teacher of the Year at Belmont and couldn’t be more proud of this recognition. He’s a stickler for his students following the rules and doing good work, and won’t tolerate any deviation—he doesn’t care if the students are privileged and their parents ask him to be lenient. He may make some enemies but it’s in his students’ best interest.

When a series of deaths start occurring at Belmont, the campus is rocked, but it doesn’t really affect Teddy. He just wants to see that the right person gets punished, no matter who that is.

I have nothing more to say because the beauty of Downing’s tightly wound plot is best seen as you let it unfold, little by little. You think it’s all straightforward and it’s really not—that’s what I love about the way she writes. It kept me guessing, wondering just what would come next.

Many of you know I have an uneasy relationship with thrillers because I really need them to surprise and wow me. For Your Own Good did that and more. I love Downing’s books My Lovely Wife and He Started It) and I can’t wait for the next one!!

NetGalley and Berkley provided me a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks so much for making it available!!

Book Review: "The Fortunate Ones" by Ed Tarkington

Ed Tarkington's new book, The Fortunate Ones, was a great book to start off 2021 with!

Charlie was growing up in a poor neighborhood in East Nashville with his single mother, and didn’t really think about what more life could offer. But when his mother gets him a scholarship to The Yeatman School, an exclusive private school, his life changes tremendously. Suddenly he realizes the ease by which people of privilege move through the world, seemingly impervious to problems and rules and consequences.

He quickly is taken under the wing of Archer Creigh, and the Haltoms, an affluent family. His relationship with Arch is part friendship and part hero worship, and he becomes a surrogate son to the Haltoms—a relationship complicated when they try to bring him and his mother even further into their circle.

But as Charlie is about to step into a life he could have only dreamed of, he realizes how tired he already is of the secrets and subterfuge that characterize the world of privilege. Yet too often, Arch’s magnetism pulls him back, so ultimately he has to decide whether he wants to live a life he is now expected to or one he wants to, and what implications that may have on his relationships with family and friends.

The Fortunate Ones was a great coming-of-age novel, one that almost felt like a book written years ago when stories were simpler, but with a modern touch. It’s a story of friendship and love, loyalty and family, privilege and responsibility. No one is 100 percent likable but how many people really are?

I’m a big fan of Tarkington; his first book, Only Love Can Break Your Heart was excellent, too. This story had me hooked from start to finish.

I was pleased to be part of the blog tour for this book. Algonquin Books provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

The book publishes 1/5/2021.

Book Review: "Admission" by Julie Buxbaum

Julie Buxbaum's new YA novel, Admission, is a fictional look at the recent college admissions scandal.

Chloe doesn’t love school. She enjoys spending time with her friends and all the perks of going to an exclusive private school, but schoolwork doesn’t come easy to her, and her grades and SAT scores reflect that. She doesn’t know what she wants out of life or if she even wants to go to college.

Her mother is a B-list television actress and her dad is a wealthy businessman, and they want Chloe to go to a good college. So they hire a special college counselor to help Chloe with improving her test scores, strengthening her applications, etc. And when she gets in to the school of her dreams, she’s excited and relieved.

But the next thing she knows, the FBI is swarming her house and arresting her mother for being part of a massive college admissions bribery scandal. This threatens Chloe and her dad, too, and there’s a chance she could even be prosecuted.

Suddenly everything Chloe has held dear is in ruins. It forces her to confront her privilege, and come to terms with what she actually knew about the whole thing, and what she did about it. But more than that she needs to understand why her parents felt they needed to do this for her. Did they think she’d fail otherwise, and would that be embarrassing for them?

"Under all this lies the terrible quicksand of fear. What if they are right? What if it's true that we are terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad people? If I allow myself to dip my toes into that idea, that I am not actually the hero of my own story but a villain, I quickly find myself neck deep."

Even though this book has a very ripped-from-the-headlines feel I was really hooked on it. It’s crazy to read about the strings that get pulled for families with money, putting others at a disadvantage. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic but this still was an interesting story about how blind we are to our privilege. It also was entertaining to see how “the other half” lives.

NetGalley and Delacorte Press provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

The book publishes 12/1/2020.

Book Review: "Intimations: Six Essays" by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith's new collection of essays, Intimations, may be short, but it packs such a punch.

“Talking to yourself can be useful. And writing means being overheard.”

This is another book I read because, as I like to call it, "Bookstagram Made Me Do It" — my second this week, in fact! I have three friends to thank for this one.

Intimations is a 100+-page collection of short essays by Smith. I’m a fan of her fiction and don’t normally read essays very often, but I was fascinated by her take on our world as it has been affected by COVID-19.

Her essays fascinated me, serving as a source of amusement and inspiration as much as they made me think. She talks about the compelling need to always be doing something that has been exacerbated even more since the pandemic. She talks about anger, privilege, race, relationships, economics, psychology. She even touches on why so many writers love addressing the question of why they choose to write.

But it is the essay that serves as the postscript, “Contempt as a Virus,” that was the most impactful for me. In it she equates COVID with the plague of racism, particularly following the murder of George Floyd. In just a few pages she communicates so powerfully.

“Has America metabolized contempt? Has it lived with the virus so long that it no longer fears it? Is there a strong enough desire for a different America within America?”

If you’re looking for a thought-provoking piece, this is a book for you. Smith is donating all the royalties to charity, so you’re doing a good deed, too, in purchasing this.

Book Review: "Party of Two" by Jasmine Guillory

One of my go-to authors, Jasmine Guillory, is back with Party of Two, another fun, sexy, and timely rom-com!

Olivia has just moved back to California from NYC so she can open a law firm with her best friend. While staying at a hotel until her place is ready, she meets a handsome man at the bar. He looks vaguely familiar, but she figures he must be an actor or something. (It is LA, after all.)

They talk and joke and flirt all night, and she definitely feels the attraction to him, but they go back to their respective rooms at the end of the night instead of getting together.

It’s not until she turns on the television that she discovers she spent the night flirting with Max Powell, the junior senator from California. (Also known as the "sexy senator.") She’s not really interested in dating, but when he pursues her with cake, she gives in fairly quickly.

They really enjoy being together although they keep their relationship secret given his high profile. While he’s impulsive and a little arrogant, Max is highly committed to social causes close to Olivia’s heart, not to mention he’s sexy, smart, and fun. Both can’t help but fall in love, although Max falls quicker and more intensely.

When they decide to make their relationship public, and Olivia’s past becomes news, things start to go awry. She’s not sure she wants her life on display and she’s not sure if Max is really right for her. But can they move on without each other?

Guillory’s books are just so engaging and romantic and sexy (there’s some pretty serious steam in a few places) so they’re just fun to read. While each book features a minor character from a previous book, each can be read as a stand-alone. (But they're all really good, so you don't want to miss any of them.) This book really felt timely, too, with conversations about privilege, sexism, and racism, which felt natural, not forced.

And now the wait begins for Guillory's next book!!

Book Review: "More Than Words" by Jill Santopolo

What happens when you start to discover the person you most admired, the truths you most believed in, aren’t what you thought? In Jill Santopolo's More Than Words that question is examined in great detail.

Nina Gregory is the third-generation of the famed Gregory family, owners of two of New York City’s most celebrated hotels. Her father—and her mother, when she was alive—were treated like royalty in the city, and Nina has been raised in that life, to know she’ll take over the company someday. She was always expected to behave the proper way, as if the spotlight was always on her.

Someday may be coming sooner than later, as her father's cancer has returned. She’s worshipped him all her life, and lived her entire life the way he has wanted her to. She's studied what he wanted her to, dressed the way he thinks she should, even dated (or not dated) the men he deemed appropriate. Now she’s in love with her childhood best friend, Tim, whom her father loves as if he was his own son, and whose family is closely intertwined with theirs and the hotels.

But why is it that Nina seems to feel more excitement for her current job as a political speechwriter? And why does any attention from the mayoral candidate for whom she works send her heart racing when she simply feels safe with Tim?

When her father dies, it feels as her world has been torn out from under her, so it makes sense she should lean on Tim and be with him, just as her father always wanted. And she loves Tim, so it makes sense, right?

But as she finds out things in her father’s life and business weren’t what she believed, it leads her to question everything, especially the person she’s become and the love she deserves. She's no longer interested in automatically doing everything she's always done, and that threatens some in her life, especially Tim.

Jill Santopolo sure knows how to tug at the heartstrings, much as she did in her last book, The Light We Lost. This is a well-written book with some serious steam, and it’s pretty compelling. It’s also poignant and emotional and a little predictable, too. Definitely had me hooked though!!

Book Review: "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid

This was a thought-provoking novel I didn’t want to put down.

Emira is nearly 26, that crucial age when she’ll be dropped from her parents’ health insurance. While most of her friends have started making their own paths career-wise and life-wise, she works as a babysitter for the wealthy (and white) Chamberlain family. She knows she needs a better, more stable job but she really enjoys taking care of their young daughter, Briar.

Late one night Emira gets a call from Mrs. Chamberlain. They had an incident at their house and she asked Emira if she could take Briar to the gourmet grocery store down the street until the hubbub dies down. Emira was at a party so she’s dressed a bit provocatively and she may have had a drink or two, but she agrees to help the Chamberlains.

While at the grocery store, she is questioned by security who think she kidnapped Briar, since they're not of the same race. The incident escalates until she has to call the Chamberlains to verify she is, indeed, the babysitter. While someone videotaped the whole incident, Emira doesn’t want any part of the trouble that releasing the video could cause, even if she might benefit because she was clearly the victim of discrimination.

After the incident, Alix Chamberlain becomes a little obsessed with making sure Emira feels comfortable in her job. Alix tries to build a sort of friendship with her babysitter, giving her gifts, offering her more hours, trying to serve as a combination mentor/big sister/best friend. Emira, who has begun dating a new man, wants to find a better job, but doesn’t want to leave Briar. And when a strange connection between Emira and Alix is discovered, it sets an odd chain of events in motion which will cause ripples in everyone's lives.

Such a Fun Age is a fascinating look at issues of class, race, privilege, motherhood, struggling to find your own way, and relationships. These characters aren’t always likable, but I really enjoyed this book. I think it would be a great pick for book clubs (and I saw this morning that Reese Witherspoon just chose it as her latest book club pick) because it really would be a great source of discussion and conversation.

Kiley Reid is tremendously talented, and this book feels really self-assured for a debut novel. Not a bad book to start 2020 with!!