Book Review: "The Ghost Variations: One Hundred Stories" by Kevin Brockmeier

Kevin Brockmeier's The Ghost Variations is a quirky and creative book.

⁣ ⁣ Happy Halloween, y’all! Hope your day has been or will be as spooky and fun as you want it to be. I know I’ll be handing out candy later and trying not to eat as much as I give out. (“Trying” probably being the operative word.)⁣

⁣ I’m not a fan of horror or ghost stories. I used to read Stephen King’s early stuff but somewhere down the road I got tired of being frightened, lol. So while so many of you have accumulated the creepy and witchy reads this month, I’ve stuck to my usual stuff.⁣

⁣ But then, thanks to my Bookstagram friend Deedi, I saw this. (This is the second "Deedi made me do it" book I've read in about a week.) I love the concept—100 ghost stories, each just a few pages. However, these aren’t traditional ghost stories, these are more thought-provoking, poignant, esoteric in nature, and they touch on a variety of subjects. If there’s haunting to be done, no one’s really upset about it. (Even the ghost who spends every day of her existence being asked if she’s going to Toledo.)⁣

⁣ I loved the concept of The Ghost Variations perhaps a bit more than the execution, and like any collection of stories, some are stronger than the others. But if you want an interesting twist on traditional ghost stories, curl up with this one!⁣ ⁣

Book Review: "Doubting Thomas" by Matthew Clark Davison

Matthew Clark Davison's debut novel, Doubting Thomas, is beautifully written and thought-provoking.

Thomas is an openly gay elementary school teacher at a progressive private school in Portland, Oregon. In a school and a city where many kids have same-sex parents, Thomas’ sexuality is far from an issue—it’s an asset to many, and one the school boasts proudly.

Until the day he is accused of inappropriately touching a male student, an accusation he’s ultimately cleared of. But the damage is done. He is forced to resign from the job he loves and is shunned by those who liked him, his every move and every word questioned and overanalyzed.

At the same time Thomas is dealing with the accusations and their aftermath, he is reeling from a recent breakup, and one of his brothers is facing a health crisis. Thomas rallies to support his brother as relationships change and dynamics shift, both within his family and among his friends. He needs to figure out how to chart his future without teaching.

This is a powerful story of finding yourself, of finding the strength to rebuild your life after it falls apart through no fault of your own. It’s also a story of family dynamics in the midst of crises, of finding allies and discovering those you can depend on. It’s a different story than I expected but it really blew me away.

My thanks to Amble Press for the complimentary (and signed!) copy, and thanks to Davison for the gift of this book.

Book Review: "The Wedding Crasher and the Cowboy" by Robin Bielman

Sweet romance, beautiful setting, and cowboys? Yes, please. I'll take The Wedding Crasher and the Cowboy for all three.

The last thing Kennedy was expecting was a drunk, late-night call from her soon-to-be-married ex, saying that he isn’t sure he wants to get married. Kennedy knows that his fiancé is the right one for him. She has only one choice: grab her best friend Andrew and head to the picturesque California town of Windsong to crash the wedding and convince Reed to get married.

And there she comes face-to-face with HIM. Maverick Owens. Her college nemesis and academic rival. They competed for everything, and he used to call her “Shortcake.” Of course the wedding festivities would take place on his family’s ranch, and of course he’s gotten more handsome since college. He knows she wasn’t invited to the wedding and is keeping his eye on her…

Crashing a wedding isn’t easy when your best friend is an actor with a crush on the best man, and he keeps telling guests more outlandish stories about him and Kennedy. To top it off, Kennedy and Maverick keep getting thrown together. But for some reason, it doesn’t seem to bother either of them as much as it should, although both have their guardrails way, way up.

Can sworn enemies find their way to something else, something more serious? Can Kennedy convince Reed to get married without her cover getting blown? And will they all survive the hoedown?

I thought this was just so much fun and so romantic. And I always live by the philosophy, “save a horse, ride a cowboy.”

My thanks to TLC Book Tours, Entangled Publishing, and Robin Bielman for inviting me on the tour and sending me a complimentary advance copy of the book as well as some great swag!! I could definitely see this as the start of a series—some of the supporting characters are just fantastic!

Book Review: "Top Secret" by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

With Top Secret, my favorite duo delivers again, with a super-hot, M/M, enemies-to-lovers, frat romance.

Keaton is a football player and fraternity member at Darby University. When his girlfriend suggests she’d like to have a threesome with another guy, Keaton is far more intrigued than he thought he’d be. And when he starts chatting with a potential participant on a hookup app, he realizes he may be more interested in the other guy than his girlfriend is.

Luke is one of Keaton’s fraternity brothers, who has to work multiple jobs just to stay in school. His decision to challenge Keaton for fraternity president is more out of economy—he’d get a free room—than actual desire to run the fraternity. But speaking of desire, he’s intrigued by this guy he’s been chatting with on a hookup app who is looking for someone to join him and his girlfriend in a threesome.

Hmm...

Bet you know where this one goes!! Even though it’s predictable, I loved the combination of steam, romance, and strong character development. Keaton starts realizing more about himself and his need to take control of his life rather than let his father dictate what he should do. He knows what he wants most, though—if only he can convince the other person.

I cannot get enough of Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy’s books. They’re compulsively readable and they leave me with all the feels and a little red-faced from the steam.

Book Review: "Sidelined" by Kara Bietz

Sidelined is a sweet YA book about rekindling old friendships, football, and life in a small town.

Sometimes a legacy is a tough thing to live up to—or live down. Julian Jackson has lived his whole life in the small town of Meridien, Texas. Now it’s his senior year of high school and he’s captain of the football team.

He feels a lot of pressure—he has to get a scholarship in order to leave town, attend a good college, and pursue his dreams, but he’s also expected to come up with a series of colossal pranks against his team's biggest rival. It’s a tradition the town lives for. But he’s worried the pranks could go awry and his whole future could be destroyed.

The last thing he expects is for Elijah Vance to return to town. Elijah was his best friend and teammate, and there was a brief minute where it looked like they could be more than friends. But then Elijah and his family left town suddenly and he didn’t say goodbye to Julian. It’s been three years since then.

Elijah is nervous about returning to Meridien after all this time, and he’s even more nervous about seeing Julian. Can they recapture their friendship—and is something more possible?

But first, both must confront the legacies their fathers left behind. Julian’s dad was the football hero, destined for great things, while Elijah’s was a pariah. But legacies aren’t always accurate.

I enjoyed this sweet story a lot. I loved that this was a small, working-class town in Texas, and no one cared that the captain of the football team was gay. There was A LOT of focus on the whole prank thing (a little too much, IMHO), but it was actually the catalyst of an interesting thread in the story.

Another example of why I love YA books so much!

Book Review: "Once Upon a Wardrobe" by Patti Callahan

Patti Callahan's new book is utterly magical and beautiful.⁣

⁣ I’m a firm believer that sometimes whether or not we like a book depends on what’s going on in our lives and where we are emotionally, as much as anything else. And sometimes a book comes along at just the right time.⁣

⁣ The latter was the case for me in reading Once Upon a Wardrobe. I recently found out that one of my closest friends had decided to end his fight against multiple illnesses and go into hospice. That news, and subsequently saying goodbye to him, hit me hard. This book was just the balm to help with those emotions.⁣

⁣ Megs Devonshire is a fiercely intelligent young woman on scholarship at Oxford. She loves figures and equations, but she loves her younger brother George even more. Eight-year-old George has been ill since he was born, but the doctors don’t expect him to see his ninth birthday.⁣

⁣ What George loves more than anything is a good story. He is utterly captivated by a brand-new book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and he dreams of being transported to a magical land like that. When he learns that the author of this book, C.S. Lewis, teaches at Oxford, he convinces Megs to seek the man out and ask where Narnia came from.

⁣ ⁣ When Megs connects with the man and his brother, “Jack” Lewis regales her with tales of his childhood and the magical places they created. But while he never quite answers Megs’ question directly, what he gives her and her brother is something even more special.⁣

⁣ I loved this so much. It’s sad but hopeful and just utterly beautiful!!⁣ ⁣

Book Review: "Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family" by Hannah Howard

In Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family, a food writer pays tribute to the women in the food industry who served as role models or mentors, juxtaposed with key events in her life.

As I’ve said before, I’m totally obsessed with food and cooking (and eating, of course), so when I see a memoir by a chef or food writer (or eater, lol), I, well, devour it. I enjoyed Hannah Howard’s last book, Feast, so I was really excited for this one.

The food industry has always been male-dominated, so Howard thought it was important to highlight the women she has met through her career—chefs, cooking teachers, restaurant/cafe owners, cheese makers, food purveyors, buyers, etc. But while each anecdote is important, Howard also shares her own struggles amidst these profiles.

She discusses what it’s like to be a woman in the food industry who has struggled with an eating disorder, and spends a significant amount of the book addressing the challenges she and her husband faced with having a child. It’s a powerful look at how even when you work in a fascinating field that people may envy, you still can face real problems.

Howard imbues her work with a great deal of emotion, and those who have struggled with fertility and/or eating disorders may find some of the book triggering. I would have liked more food-related content (I have a one-track mind), but this was an interesting read!!