Book Review: "Pretty Guilty Women" by Gina Lamanna

A little soapy, a little melodramatic, and tremendously thought-provoking, Gina Lamanna's Pretty Guilty Women feels like a non-Australian version of Big Little Lies.

Everyone has gathered at an exclusive resort and spa for the wedding of Whitney and Arthur. Whitney has invited her three best friends from college—Ginger, Emily, and Kate—even though they've not spoken much in all the years that have passed. (Especially Ginger and Emily, who still harbor a serious grudge from those carefree days of their youth.)

Emily is a barely functioning alcoholic, although she drinks to blot out the painful memories of events she wishes she could have prevented. When she meets a handsome man on the plane ride to the wedding she thinks there may be a chance that the week won't be all bad, but her eyes are opened pretty quickly.

Ginger married her college boyfriend and they have three children. The idyllic family life she dreamed of isn't quite the reality she has, and she finds herself barely hanging on at times. But she's determined that the wedding will be a chance for her to show off her family, even as they're all causing her to lose her sanity, especially her teenage daughter who seems to be maturing faster than Ginger can handle.

Kate is a successful lawyer, but all the money in the world can't buy the baby she wants more than anything. She and her handsome boyfriend are a beautiful couple on the outside, but multiple attempts to conceive have frayed their relationship to its core.

In separate encounters, the three women meet Lulu, a woman of nearly 70 years old who has been married five times, but who realizes her fifth husband may very well be the love of her life. But he seems to be hiding something, and she hopes it isn't that he's ready to end their marriage.

One night, a man is found dead. Who is he, and why did Emily, Ginger, Kate, and Lulu all admit that they're the one who killed him, and that they acted alone? Who are they trying to protect, and why?

Pretty Guilty Women juxtaposes the police interrogation of the four women and other bystanders at the resort with profiles of each of their lives and the challenges they face, and then the narrative starts to move toward the murder. There are lots of twists and turns, lots of events which lead to even more questions. While I didn't find the actual victim particularly surprising, the mysteries kept on coming.

I didn't love this quite as much as I hoped I would, as I usually enjoy books like these. I found the multiple narrative threads exhausting to follow after a while, and it took some time before things really came to a head. The book did touch on some very serious issues and raise some interesting questions, though, and Lamanna created some fascinating, flawed characters.

If it were still beach season, this might be the perfect beach book!

Book Review: "Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption" edited by Daniel Jones

Boy, did this book hit the spot so perfectly!!

"Because real love, once blossomed, never disappears. It may get lost with a piece of paper, or transform into art, books, or children, or trigger another couple’s union while failing to cement your own. But it’s always there, lying in wait for a ray of sun, pushing through thawing soil, insisting upon its rightful existence in our hearts and on earth."

A column that has appeared in the New York Times since 2004, "Modern Love" is an exploration of love in its many forms—romantic, familial, filial, platonic—and the way it is manifested both positively and negatively.

This book is a collection of those columns. Some hit more common themes—rebuilding after a relationship or marriage ends, the excitement and despair of dating, dealing with parental disapproval, getting a second chance at love.

Others are more unusual—the woman bringing her husband (soon to become her wife) to the first stage of gender reassignment surgery, the woman writing an "ad" of sorts to find her husband a new love after her impending death, the fears of a mother of a teenage boy with autism as he begins seeing girls in a romantic and sexual way.

The columns differ in length, style, tone, and topic, yet there is beautiful emotion in each one. Some made me smile, some made me cry, and some made me wonder just where these writers who shared such a moment of their lives are now. Some are written by well-known people (there's a column by Andrew Rannells he published in his own memoir earlier this year) and some are written by "everyday" people.

I devoured this book in a matter of hours, as it read like fiction. This truly was a special gem I’m so excited I stumbled upon. Perfect for those who love love, or the saps among us.

Book Review: "Wayward Son" by Rainbow Rowell

That feeling when you’ve been anticipating a book for over a year and it’s, well, lackluster...

Some background: a few years ago Rainbow Rowell wrote an amazing book called Fangirl. One of the main characters in that book wrote fan fiction about a Harry Potter-esque character named Simon Snow and his nemesis/crush Baz (think Draco Malfoy).

Rowell then wrote Carry On, which followed Simon and Baz, Simon’s best friend Penny, and their battles to save the magickal world.

This book is the sequel. It chronicles what happened after the events in Carry On, what it’s like to be the Chosen One when what it seems like you were chosen to do is all but done, and how to move on.

Simon and Baz are in love with each other but they’re reluctant to fully express it. And Simon has been so depressed and unable to do magick that it’s taking a toll on all of them. So Penny decides they need a road trip to America and they’ll go see an old friend, Agatha (Simon's ex-girlfriend of sorts), who’s in San Diego.

What they get is far much more than they bargained for. Their magick, their relationships, their lives will be tested by circumstances they would never have expected, as they try to rescue their friend and each other.

I love these characters. Simon and Baz make my heart melt and there were so many tender moments I loved between them. But those moments were fleeting, and their relationship is in such stress, that it was hard to enjoy the highs as much as I wanted to.

This book is narrated by five or six people, which also irritated me, because I didn’t feel enough of a distinction between their storytelling. And the whole storyline with Agatha really didn’t catch my interest until the end.

I’m disappointed but of course I've hyped this book up for a year, so it's partially my fault. This clearly has been written to set up a third book, which of course I’ll still read, because I love the way Rowell writes and I can’t get enough of Simon and Baz. Others have felt differently so if you’re a fan of the series give it a go and let me know what you think.

Book Review: "The Second Chance Supper Club" by Nicole Meier

Nicole Meier's new book is a story about reconnecting (with family and yourself), finding your path to happiness, and food. (Perhaps not necessarily in that order, lol!)

Julia is the host of a national morning show. She’s at the pinnacle of a career she’s fought so hard for, yet every day she’s pressured to be better, pick up more viewers, do something different. When that pressure becomes too much to bear, she takes a risk that winds up exploding in her face.

Licking her wounds she leaves NYC and her fiancé and heads home to Arizona and the comfort of her older sister, Ginny, despite the fact they haven’t spoken in years and Julia hasn’t visited at all since their parents died.

"This wasn't going to be easy, to face her present demons in the shadow of her past."

Ginny is struggling, too. Once a successful chef in NYC who left the culinary world to deal with her parents’ death, she also sacrificed her relationship with her partner and the father of her daughter, who refused to leave New York. She now operates a secret supper club from her house. It’s her passion but it barely breaks even, and it’s the cause of never-ending friction between Ginny and her daughter, Olive, who hates the pressure her mother puts on her.

Needless to say, Julia’s arrival reopens old wounds and brings secrets to light. But her presence also forces all three women to come to terms with their own struggles and desires.

It’s the mark of a great writer when they can hook you on a story for which you can pretty much predict the outcome. Meier does a terrific job immersing you in the story, creating characters you root for despite their flaws, and whetting your appetite at the same time. This was a quick read but a heart-warming one.

I’m a sucker for stories about family dynamics. Throw food in the mix and I’m so there!

Book Review: "The Infinite Noise" by Lauren Shippen

Sixteen-year-old Caleb Michaels is handsome, popular, and athletic, running back on his high school football team. But lately he's been struggling emotionally and he can't figure out why. It's almost as if he is drowning in so many emotions all at once and he doesn't know where they're coming from, but he's finding it harder and harder to take.

When an encounter with a classmate turns violent and he doesn't even remember the situation escalating, Caleb begins counseling. Through therapy he discovers there's a reason for his mood swings—Caleb is an Atypical, a person with enhanced abilities, and his ability is extreme empathy, meaning he feels the emotions of everyone else around him. While that is a difficult enough challenge for anyone, being an empath in high school is harder than anything, because what more is high school than a hotbed of emotions?

As he tries to navigate through the challenges posed by this newly discovered ability, Caleb keeps noticing that he's being consumed more and more by the emotions of one classmate in particular, Adam. Adam is smart, sensitive, a loner, who tries to keep to himself to avoid being bullied, yet he doesn't quite understand that doing so keeps him isolated from those who might be his friend. Even though Adam thinks Caleb would never want to be his friend, he does recognize elements of a kindred spirit that he hopes could someday blossom into something special.

In an effort to understand why Adam's emotions in particular affect him so, Caleb's therapist encourages him to become Adam's friend. This opens up both boys to more vulnerability than they're prepared for, and they realize that they have more in common than they could imagine. But at the same time, it also illustrates to Caleb that there's a danger in feeling too much, especially when you're in high school, where to survive, emotions need to be hidden more than anything else.

Lauren Shippen's debut novel, The Infinite Noise, is based on her popular podcast series, "The Bright Sessions." I'd never heard of that before but apparently Caleb and Adam's characters appear in that, although I didn't feel like I was missing anything when I read this. I loved the concept behind this book very much and found it tremendously creative.

I've said a number of times that I tend to be drawn to books that make me feel, so certainly a book about an empath would fit the bill! There was so much I enjoyed about the book, and I thought Shippen captured the emotional quagmire that is high school so perfectly. Her characters weren't too erudite or witty to be believed and their relationships felt natural.

The one challenge in reading a book in which so much emotion is expressed is that at times the pacing dragged a bit, because you tended to see the same things happen again and again. There were only so many times I wanted to see bullying and the characters being cruel and Caleb struggling with how to react. But other than that, and despite the somewhat-fantastical nature of this book, much of it felt truly genuine, particularly the interactions between Caleb and Adam.

NetGalley and Tor Teen gave me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

This book will publish September 24, 2019.

Book Review: "Pumpkinheads" by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks

What a terrific graphic novel!!

Deja and Josiah are best friends—at least from September 1 through Halloween, and at least while they’re working together at the pumpkin patch. (They don't see each other at all except during that period of time.) Tonight is the last night they’ll work together since both will head off to college next fall.

Josiah can’t imagine a world without the pumpkin patch. Deja doesn’t quite feel THAT strongly, but she’ll miss Josiah, and all the activity, and all of the great food. (Maybe especially the food?)

But tonight, Deja has a plan. It’s not going to be just a typical night. She’s gotten them a shift at a different post rather than the Succotash Hut, where they’ve worked the last three years. She’s determined that Josiah is finally going to talk to the girl in the fudge shop that he’s been mooning over for years. And she’s going to get all of her favorite foods.

Sounds perfect, right?

Of course, nothing quite goes as planned. Along the way they’ll run into a candy-apple-stealing punk, flee an escaped animal, say goodbye to old friends, explore what brought them together as friends, and come to some interesting realizations of their own.

This was so much fun, so charming, and had such a terrifically warm story, and the illustrations really made it feel like fall! Sometimes graphic novels are spare in their narration but this one really worked for me.

I'm a huge fan of Rainbow Rowell's (her new novel comes out 9/24 so I am super excited about that, too) and Pumpkinheads had so many of her trademarks, including a story that had so much heart. I read the book in one sitting and was sad that I was finished.

This is perfect for Halloween lovers and saps like me who love stories of friendship. But you probably shouldn't read this one on an empty stomach!

Book Review: "Bluebird, Bluebird" by Attica Locke

Brooding, atmospheric, and thought-provoking, this was a great read that totally sucked me in.

Darren is a Texas Ranger, a job over which he is constantly conflicted given that he is black and his home state isn’t known for their indulgence of racial minorities. He's kept at arm's length at work as well—trotted out when it's good for public relations but kept out of some sensitive circumstances.

When Darren responds to a call for help from a family friend, it gets him into trouble professionally, since he acted as a Ranger in a personal situation, and personally, since his continued work as a Ranger angers his wife.

A friend in the FBI suggests he head out of town and let the dust settle, and instead look into two murders that have recently rocked the small town of Lark. Both a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman have been pulled from the bayou waters a few days apart, and while some believe the murders are related to people getting involved with those they shouldn’t, the issues that are at play in Lark run much deeper than that.

In trying to figure out who and what was behind the murders, Darren unwittingly stirs up a hornet’s nest of old resentments, racial tensions, love affairs, the blending of bloodlines, and the need to keep secrets. But he also discovers that some of what is driving things forward in Lark hit closer to home than Darren wants to admit. He has to explore his own desire to keep working as a Ranger and decide whether he is willing to give his all to his marriage, given that his wife would rather him return to law school.

Bluebird, Bluebird is a great read. Attica Locke ratchets up the tension and introduces so many possibilities you don’t know what to think. Her characters all have some flaws and don’t pretend otherwise but they’re fascinating to read about. This is a book about love, family, race, loyalty, jealousy, and so much more.

At times the pacing was a little slower than I’d like but I still couldn’t get enough of this. Locke just released a second book featuring Darren, so I’m excited about that, too.