Book Review: "With Friends Like You" by Amy Chozick

Wow, this book was wild! I honestly didn’t know what to expect but I couldn’t put it down. Thanks so much to Dutton and NetGalley for the advance copy!

Emily loves her infant son and can’t get enough of him. But she’s struggling with physical pain since his birth and the lack of sleep is taking its toll on her. She loves her husband, Roman, but he’s always working, so she’s mostly on her own.

As she takes the baby to playgroups and classes, she thinks about Daisy. Daisy was her college roommate—she gave Emily confidence and companionship, and Emily felt like they were soulmates. But when Daisy’s family stopped paying for college, she started dancing at a strip club and taking drugs, and soon dropped out. Not long after, Daisy disappeared from her life completely.

Emily has spent years trying to find what happened to Daisy. She obsessively scans pornographic magazines, travels to strip clubs, and even hires a private investigator, but to no avail. And then one day, Daisy reappears.

Daisy quickly reclaims her place in Emily’s life. She’s good with the baby and willing to watch him when Emily goes back to work. The two of them build a luxury refuge for mothers of young infants, with childcare specialists to watch the children and teach them language skills and music, while they relax, exercise, and take advantage of designer drugs, vibrators, and alcohol. But Daisy still maintains her air of mystery—she doesn’t talk about her past and doesn’t really share about what she does to make money. Will she disappear again?

There’s a lot more to this book than I can describe without giving anything away. I was completely hooked on the story and wondered how it would end.

This will publish 7/21.

Book Review: "The Best Little Motel in Texas" by Lyla Lane

This cozy mystery featuring the unlikeliest band of amateur detectives was such fun! I hope this is the start of a series.

Cordelia is completely shocked to receive a call from her old hometown of Sarsaparilla Falls, Texas. She and her mother fled the judgmental small town and rebuilt their lives in Dallas, and Cordelia hasn’t thought of the place—or of her childhood, getting her mother home from bars—in years.

It turns out her great-aunt Penelope (whom Cordelia didn’t know existed) passed away, and named her as the owner of the Chickadee Motel. Cordelia can’t imagine working at a motel, but apparently she can’t sell it unless the residents agree. So she reluctantly heads back to Sarsaparilla Falls to see what she’s been stuck with.

Much to her surprise, she finds out that the Chickadee isn’t a motel: it’s a brothel. The “residents” are Daisy, Belinda Sue, and Arline, three women who have been, umm, working with, the men in town for 40 or so years. (Mostly with their wives’ approval.) So Cordelia is the new madam.

The first thing she wants to do is get out of town and away from the motel. But when the town’s pastor dies in Daisy’s bed, and it appears he has been poisoned, Cordelia knows she needs to help her “chicks.” They begin their investigation in order to clear Daisy’s name, but they don’t realize what a tangled web they’ve stepped into.

I could only imagine what a film or television adaptation of this book would look like. Picturing the “chicks” in their outfits made me smile, and Cordelia was a fun character to watch develop. This really was a fun one!

Book Review: "The Boyfriend Subscription" by Steven Salvatore

A steamy, gay version of Pretty Woman? Yes, please!

Teddy thought he had it all—the perfect marriage and a dream career running an urban nursery in the middle of NYC. But he finds out that his husband played him for a fool, and then he lost his business, which devastated him even more. With no money or prospects on the horizon, he plans to head back home to New Orleans to live with his mother and start again.

Cole was supposed to be the heir to his family’s construction company, but his desire to live his life on his own terms alienates him from his family, especially his power-hungry father. But he achieves the success he dreamed of by founding VERSTL, an app which brings sex workers and consumers together to create content and connect with one another.

Teddy and Cole meet in a dive bar one night, when Teddy is drowning his sorrows and Cole is escaping immense pressure. VERSTL is about to go public, which will be a surprise to Cole’s family. But to attract an investor concerned about the sex work component of the app, Cole could use a more down-to-earth boyfriend.

And that’s where Teddy comes in. After their one-night stand, Cole offers Teddy a job to pretend to be his boyfriend. He’ll be compensated quite well, but he has to remember two rules: no kissing and no catching feelings. Hmm…wonder how that will go?

This was so enjoyable, super-sexy, romantic, and emotional. I loved the book’s treatment of sex work as well as the way it portrayed the inferiority complex many of us deal with. Cole and Teddy were a great couple, and Steven Salvatore is such a talented writer. I've loved their YA books, and I'm so glad to see they've moved into adult romance!