Book Review: "Very Sincerely Yours" by Kerry Winfrey

The upcoming rom-com from Kerry Winfrey, Very Sincerely Yours, was just absolutely adorable.

When Teddy’s boyfriend ends their five-year relationship and asks her to move out of their home, it completely throws her for a loop. Sure, she’s spent most of her time doing whatever he wanted and trying to please him, but that’s what people in a relationship do, right?

She quickly finds out no one liked her controlling ex-boyfriend, but now she’s at a dead end of sorts. She enjoys her job working in a vintage toy store, but is that a real career? What does she actually want from life? What is her “thing”?

One thing she does enjoy is watching episodes of a local children’s television show, more because she finds the host, Everett, to be handsome and he seems to have all the answers. (She’s not the only adult female enamored of Everett—there are message boards of suburban moms talking lustfully about him.)

She decides to write Everett and ask for advice. It’s rare that he receives a letter from an adult that isn’t sexual in nature, so he’s excited. The two begin corresponding and it becomes a highlight for both of them, so they decide to take the next step and meet.

As Teddy searches for purpose, Everett is at a crossroads with his career and life, too. He's always known what he wanted to do, and he has an opportunity to expand the show. But has he sacrificed everything else in his life for the sake of his career?

Can two people unsure of what they want from life and their futures find a secure footing for happiness?

I really loved this. I’m a huge fan of Kerry Winfrey’s—she creates such unique characters who could be annoying in other people’s hands, but she makes their quirks endearing. Teddy and Everett's relationship and the story follows the path you might expect, but their flaws make everything a little more interesting.

b>Very Sincerely Yours was the perfect book to put a smile on my face and a tear (or two) in my eye!

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

The book releases 6/15.

Book Review: "Crying in H Mart" by Michelle Zauner

Crying in H Mart is a moving, thought-provoking look at grief and the complicated relationship between mother and daughter.

“Sometimes my grief feels as though I’ve been left alone in a room with no doors. Every time I remember that my mother is dead, it feels like I’m colliding with a wall that won’t give. There’s no escape, just a hard surface that I keep ramming into over and over, a reminder of the immutable reality that I will never see her again.“

Michelle Zauner, a writer and indie musician known as Japanese Breakfast, lost her mother to cancer in 2014, when Michelle was 25 and her mother was 56. Although they had had a difficult relationship through Michelle’s troubled adolescence and early adulthood, there was no question that she was going to fly home to Oregon to nurse her mother through her final days.

In this beautifully poignant memoir, Zauner recounts her relationship with her mother and its peaks and valleys. Her mother was Korean and her father is American, so Zauner struggled with identity and being caught between two worlds. At times she embraced and at other times she ran from her Korean heritage and the pressures of her overbearing mother.

But their relationship was best celebrated through food, such a vital part of so many cultures. Zauner talks about eating with such gusto, the memories of her mother making different dishes to mark different occasions or for special situations. She also recounts cooking for her mother and her family in the last months of her life.

Losing a parent is never easy; she lost her mother just five months after my dad died suddenly. While every person’s grief is unique and they deal in different ways, this book definitely hit me in the feels and made me think of my relationship with my dad, which had its own beautiful moments and challenges.

Don’t read Crying in H Mart on an empty stomach, especially if you’re a fan of Korean food! (My stomach was HOWLING.)

BookSparks, Knopf Books, and Michelle Zauner sent me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review as part of #SRC2021. Thanks for making it available!

Book Review: "With Little Means" by Raimo Strangis

Raimo Strangis' debut novel, With Little Means, is a thought-provoking book about the things we dream of and how far we’d go to make them come true.

“So, I ask you, would you give up all you have to go back and live the life you’ve always dreamed?“

Rai Starr once dreamed of being a musician. He and his band were on the verge of hitting it big when illness sidelined him. After a while, he was able to move on, and he found happiness as a chef, and built a beautiful family with his wife, Rachyl.

But years later, the dream he never achieved still resides in his memories. When he learns about Remarkable, a new reality show that uses special technologies to give people a second chance to go back into their past and actually achieve their dreams, he cannot wait to audition.

Of course, given his story, Rai is a natural for the show. But as he realizes the technologies the show uses may be more dangerous than he ever imagined, and he meets an actress along the way, he has to decide what is more powerful—the opportunity to finally become a star or having the life he’s come to love.

With Little Means was really thought-provoking and very creative. There are definitely paths in my life I wish I’d taken (or hadn’t taken), and I wonder what would’ve happened to me had things changed. Of course, that might mean other things might never have happened, so who knows?

Raimo Strangis provided me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks so much for making it available! You’ve given me so much to think about and created a great story!!

Book Review: "The Siren" by Katherine St. John

The Siren, Katherine St. John's newest book, really has So. Much. Drama.

The Caribbean island of St. Genesius is going to be the setting of spectacular drama, both on-screen and off. Megastar Cole Power has agreed to star in The Siren, a film written by his son, Jackson, and in a major casting coup, Cole’s ex-wife, Stella Rivers, has agreed to co-star. After their marriage fizzled, Stella had a long run of public breakdowns and incidents, visited a rehab or two, and is finally trying to get her career back on track.

Taylor Wasserman is producing the movie and hopes the success will help give her a second chance in the film industry after her ruthless father ruined her reputation with a scandal. But it won’t be easy—Cole has a reputation for being a manipulative womanizer, Stella is supposed to stay sober throughout the filming (no easy feat there), and then there’s Stella’s new assistant, who definitely seems to have secrets of her own.

As if keeping everyone’s egos and weaknesses in check isn’t difficult enough, there are challenges during filming. And then a hurricane is headed for St. Genesius. Will the film get made? Will anyone survive? What damage will the secrets that surely are hidden do to the film and its participants?

You know, I love good melodrama, and boy, The Siren had it by the boatload. It was full of secrets and lies and scandals and romance galore, with lots of possible scenarios as people’s schemes and lies and treachery start to see the light of day.

I wasn’t planning to read this because I was the only person on earth who didn’t love the author’s first book (The Lion's Den), but FOMO on Bookstagram is a powerful thing!! I liked this better for sure. There certainly were lots of twists I saw coming (kudos for the one I didn’t), but it was definitely a fun, soapy ride.

There’s no drama like drama on a movie set!!

Book Review: "After Happily Ever After" by Leslie A. Rasmussen

Leslie Rasmussen's debut novel, After Happily Ever After, is a poignant, thought-provoking look at a woman who wants more from her life.

Maggie used to feel important. She used to feel needed. She decided to leave her successful career as an editor when her daughter Gia was born and stay at home while she grew up, but now Gia is getting ready to go to college, and to say they don’t see eye to eye is a bit of an understatement. What happens when your daughter just views you as a chauffeur and errand-runner?

Meanwhile, her husband Jim, a therapist, is getting more and more distant. He barely wants to be in the same room with her, let alone have sex, and he doesn’t want to tell her what’s bothering him.

To top it all off, Maggie's father’s dementia seems to be getting worse, leaving her to deal with her mother and her brother, with whom she has complicated relationships.

So this is 45? When the only thing giving her any happiness is a flirtation with a handsome younger man at the gym, Maggie really doesn’t know which way to turn, or what her future might hold. But if she doesn’t know what she wants, how can she get it?

So many of us around a certain age have struggled with one or more of these issues, so After Happily Ever After has resonance and emotional weight to it. The characters don’t always make the best choices, and of course if they only said what they were thinking, things would be easier, but that’s just life.

I did feel the ending was a little abrupt, and I would have loved an epilogue of some sort to know what happened. But this is a debut novel that definitely didn’t feel like one, so can’t wait to see what comes next for Rasmussen!!

BookSparks and She Writes Press provided me with a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

Book Review: "East of Manhattan" by Amanda Johnson

What happens when you and your husband make a plan, and then everything changes? Amanda Johnson shows you one path in her upcoming book, East of Manhattan.

Clearly I’m in a New York state of mind with my second consecutive review of a book taking place in the Empire State! (I mean, my blog is basically a line from my favorite Billy Joel song, so what else would you expect?)

When Julie’s husband Scott took a job as a butler for a famous reality television star, they agreed it would only be for two years, and then they could start having a family and building a solid future together.

But when 35-year-old Julie is told by her doctor that she’s becoming “geriatric” from a fertility standpoint, it throws everything out of whack. Should they spend (a lot of) money to freeze her eggs like her doctor suggests, or is that just a scam, like Scott thinks it is?

As she starts to feel that Scott’s job is causing him to neglect her more and more, Julie wonders what that means for their future. And when Scott admits that maybe he doesn’t want to have kids at all anymore, it’s up to Julie to make some life-changing decisions in many aspects of her life.

I really liked Julie’s character and the way she ultimately took control of her life. She could’ve let herself be a victim in many ways but l’m so glad she didn’t. East of Manhattan was a fun book, and boy, it sounded like Scott’s job was a nightmare!! (Working for famous people often is!)

I enjoyed being part of the tour for this book. Kate Rock Book Tours and Amanda Johnson provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

East of Manhattan publishes 6/1.

Book Review: "Take Me Home Tonight" by Morgan Matson

In Take Me Home Tonight, Morgan Matson's new YA novel, when two best friends sneak out for a night in NYC, they get an evening they never imagined.

Kat and Stevie are best friends. They couldn’t be more different from each other in many ways, but they’re both theater kids, and their lives often revolve around the fall play and the spring musical. And they mostly tell each other everything. Right?

When Stevie’s plans to celebrate her 18th birthday in NYC fall apart, Kat decides that they should go into the city anyway. They’ll go see a play, go to the restaurant Stevie was supposed to, and have an incredible time. (Of course, Kat has an ulterior motive beyond doing something nice for her friend, but whatevs.)

So they sneak into NYC (their parents would never let them go to the city alone on a Friday night) and get ready for a memorable night. And that’s what they get, complete with family drama, a dog that likes to wander, broken phones, and even the possibility of romance. At the same time, they’ll have to confront their fears about the future and explore the rough spots in their friendship.

I grew up about an hour outside of NYC so I love stories that take place there, and as a theater kid, I stan books about them. This was a cute story, balancing serious and silly (there’s an awesome joke about Paul Rudd, whom I’m obsessed with). The characters aren’t perfect—Kat, in particular, is fairly ridiculous—but there is growth in their arcs.

While there definitely were some coincidences and situations that made me say “Really?”, the one thing that didn’t work for me in Take Me Home Tonight was a secondary plot line involving the girls’ other best friend, Teri. If it had been removed, I don’t the book would have missed it.

Having been a YA fan for so long I can’t believe this is my first Morgan Matson book, but I’ll definitely remedy that!!