Sisters of Night and Fog by Erika Robuck

Violette is young, energetic, athletic, and smart. She is also half-British, half-French and staying with her aunt in France as the country is invaded during WWII. Quickly hustled away with her younger brother, she vows to return to France but her life is complicated. When she finally gets the chance to return with the Special Operations Executive, parachuting into France to help out with the Resistance, she is thrilled but knows that it means her child may grow up without a mother. 

Virginia is an American married to a Frenchman and living in France. When the country is invaded and then occupied, she could easily escape to Florida and sit out the war. But, she won't even entertain the idea. Philippe is everything to her. When Virginia and Philippe realize they can help with the Resistance by working to house soldiers who have been shot down or escaped from Germans, they are happy to have the chance to do their part.

Although they have very different lives, the two women cross paths when they're caught and imprisoned. But, will their fates be the same? 

If you hang around here much, you might recall that I took a writing workshop in August of last year and Erika Robuck was one of the guest speakers. She talked a little about Sisters of Night and Fog, at the time, although I don't think it had an official title, yet. The Invisible Woman (link leads to my review) was either about to be released or just had been and she talked about how she discovered the stories of Violette and Virginia during her research about Virginia Hall for The Invisible Woman. 

Although much of Sisters of Night and Fog has been fictionalized to fill in the gaps, their general storyline is based on the true stories of these remarkable women who risked their lives to fight the Nazis. 

I had trouble getting into the story, initially, but it was my problem, not an issue with the book. I wasn't in the mood to have my heart broken and a little piece of your heart is always shattered when you read about WWII. There was so much cruelty. But, there was a great deal of heroism, as well. and Sisters of Night and Fog is absolutely a story of women willing to lay down their lives in the service of others. 

Highly recommended - I can't say much more without giving away plot points and details that are best revealed slowly but while Sisters of Night and Fog is definitely heartbreaking, it is also uplifting and awe-inspiring to read about the courage of these two women and the people they worked with. I recommend reading it during a time when you're feeling like you can handle intrigue, tension, danger, and sadness. I was fighting depression hard this entire month (improving, now) so I kept picking the book up and setting it aside to read lighter fare but when I finally felt up to it, it was difficult to put down. 

I have a feeling Violette and Virginia will stick with me for a long time and I'd like to read more about them. Obviously meticulously researched and another beautifully written book by Erika Robuck, if a tiny bit overlong. Be aware that the book tells their stories from the beginning of the war to the end and their work was later in the war, so much of Sisters of Night and Fog feels like backstory if you're expecting to jump right into the action, as I was. Initially, I thought the book started too far back in time but I trusted the author's timing and it turned out that you really do need to understand where they came from.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy!

©2022 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Way We Weren't by Phoebe Fox

I don't think I've ever read a book quite like The Way We Weren't by Phoebe Fox. As a teenager, Marcie Malone found out she was pregnant just before graduation. Her boyfriend handled it well, suggesting that they should marry and deal with the pregnancy together. But, that meant giving up all of her plans. Marcie knew exactly where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do for a living and all that ended the moment she saw two pink lines.

Decades later, Marcie and Will are in their early 40s and have never had a child. The first pregnancy ended in miscarriage and they never managed to get pregnant, again, till now. But, the recent pregnancy wasn't as welcomed by her husband and ended in miscarriage, as well. On her way back to work after a few days off to recover from the miscarriage, Marcie inexplicably passes her exit and keeps driving, all the way from Atlanta to Florida. There, she is taken in by an elderly curmudgeon named Herman Flint who has his own issues to deal with. When Marcie ends up staying in Florida to consider her options, she slowly works her way into the heart of locals and eventually figures out why Flint is such an angry old man. 

As her stay in Florida keeps getting extended, she also meets a potter who is carefree, refuses to be boxed in by a traditional job, and encourages Marcie to return to her artistic roots. Will Marcie ever return to her career in hotel management and her husband? Or will temptation and frustration with a life gone in a totally different direction from her plans draw her away? Can Marcie help Flint resolve his own issues and start enjoying his life, again? 

There are some little side things happening that fill out this story. The turtles on the cover are relevant and there's a hurricane that hits the island where Marcie is staying. And, Marcie comes up with some creative ways to deal with a problem she encounters. 

Recommended - I found The Way We Weren't utterly engrossing. I couldn't wait to get back to it, each evening. My life went off the rails much like Marcie's, but for much different reasons. So, I could relate in some ways to her struggle. And, I think since it's not particularly graphic, women who've been through miscarriage and/or infertility will feel seen and understood when they read it, not doubly traumatized. So, I wouldn't say it needs a trigger warning. 

I did think the story took a slightly odd turn about 3/4 of the way into the book (and I had a few minor plot or detail quibbles — very minor) but I also felt like . . . OK, this was Marcie feeling her way, rocked by her recent loss and confused, trying to make a decision about who she was, who she wanted to be, where to take her life, next. So, while it seemed like there was a strange tack in the direction of the story, in the end it felt right because she needed that experience to help her figure out what's next. I loved this story and found it relatable and fresh. I'll be looking for more by Phoebe Fox!

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy!

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke

The Lighthouse Witches by C. J. Cooke tells three interconnected stories. In 1998 Liv, a single mother of three, takes an art commission to paint a mural inside a 100-year-old lighthouse on an island in Scotland. Since her husband died, life has been rough and she's barely been able to support her family. But, this job should keep her going for a while. 

The lighthouse has a hole that leads to a cave where people accused of witchcraft were tortured in the 17th century; and, superstition on the island runs deep. When a child knocks at her door, has Liv found a wildling? Wildlings are supernatural beings that take the place of children, allegedly due to a curse by the witches who were executed in 1662, and they have been accused of causing the deaths of entire families for centuries. 

In 2021, Luna receives a startling call. Back in 1998, her mother Liv and both of her sisters, Clover and Sapphire (Saffy), went missing. Now, Clover has reappeared and Luna is her only known relative. But, when Luna travels to Scotland from her home in Coventry, she is stunned to find that her little sister is the same age she was when she disappeared, rather than a 30-year-old woman. And, she has a mark on her leg that is known to be the mark of the wildling. Is Clover really her sister or a strange being that took her place? Is Luna in danger? 

There's also a third storyline that intertwines, but it's a lesser part of the story. In 1998, Saffy has found the grimoire (a book of magic spells, although it reads like a diary) of a man from 1662. Since there's little to do on the island and not a lot of reading material but Saffy is an avid reader, she reads the grimoire. It describes the accusations of witchcraft that took place on the island and the confessions and deaths of the women accused. 

Highly recommended - Creepy, atmospheric, fascinating, sometimes a little scary, well-written and very meaningful. I didn't find The Lighthouse Witches extremely scary but there were some violent and disturbing scenes so I was also a bit surprised not to have any nightmares at all while I was reading it. In the end, the really great thing about the book is that it has a very satisfying ending (in my humble opinion) and an exceptional theme, really an indictment of cruel misogyny, the author's point being that the world needs to stop persecuting women for simply existing. I loved the depth of meaning and will be watching for more by this author, for sure. 

I did have one issue with the book. The grimoire excerpts read like a contemporary diary to me. In fact, it took me a long time to figure out that that particular storyline took place in 1662 as it lacked a date label, although Saffy may have mentioned it being from that time period. I considered that a minor issue as she did a fantastic job of interconnecting the stories and eventually the time period does become clear, even if the language feels off. 

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy! 

As you can see, I was finally able to take an outdoor photo after a long, hot, wet summer. It's warmed back up but we cooled off for 3 or 4 whole days! Wow, was that fun. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck

The Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck is a fictionalized account of Virginia Hall's work in occupied France during about the final 6 months before the invasion of Normandy during WWII. Virginia Hall was an American socialite who helped build and support the French Resistance. 

During the time this portion of Virginia's story takes place, she's dealing with her own personal trauma and also post-traumatic stress after her Resistance network was betrayed and most of the people she worked with fighting the Nazis were arrested, possibly killed, although she's uncertain of what's become of her friends. After spending some time in the UK, she is back in France, rebuilding a Resistance network, calling for supply drops to support her recruits and the local Maquis living in a nearby forest, and helping to hold them back from sabotage efforts until she gets the signal that D-Day is coming, so that they can do the most damage to bridges and rail possible without time for reprisals. 

I recently read about half of A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, which is a biography of Virginia Hall, and I confess I was a little thrown at the beginning of The Invisible Woman because I hadn't come anywhere close to the dates in which this particular part of Hall's time in France took place. So, at first I thought the author had fictionalized a great deal. Then, I realized it was me that was off. It's been a couple of months since I set A Woman of No Importance aside so I was discombobulated, date-wise. But, once I realized the dates were off in my head, I found the story gripping and captivating. Virginia Hall was an incredibly heroic woman and I believe Erika Robuck did an amazing job of bringing her to life. 

Highly recommended - An engrossing story of heroism, danger, and the horrors of war. The only problem I had with The Invisible Woman was that I had difficulty keeping the characters straight because there were so many of them. It didn't occur to me to pull out my copy of A Woman of No Importance, which has photographs of many of the key characters, who were real. There is a lot of information to digest because of the complexity of working as a spy in an occupied nation during war but the author presents it well and I found the story fascinating and ultimately satisfying. 

Side note: I got to hear a little about Erika's writing process, yesterday, when she was a guest author in the online writing workshop I'm taking, this month, and I think it's of interest that she chose to write the novel in 3rd person because Virginia kept her story close and was such a private woman that Erika felt like she needed to keep a bit of distance. She believed Virginia Hall's personal preference probably would have been not to have her story told at all so it was necessary not to crawl into her head and tell her story in 1st person. I think that was a wise choice. 

Also, wow, I loved hearing about Erika's writing process. She is incredibly disciplined and I loved how she described the way the characters who need their story told come to her in an almost mystical way. It sounds like she has two more WWII stories under contract, one to be released in the spring of 2022. You can bet I will be putting them on my wish list as soon as I'm able. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Last Night in London by Karen White

The Last Night in London by Karen White is a contemporary/historical novel that goes back and forth between present-day London and London just before the beginning of WWII, in 1939, through the Blitz. 

Maddie has been asked to come to London to interview an elderly woman who goes by the name of Precious and just happens to be distantly related to Maddie. Precious was a model in the late 30s to early 40s and the article Maddie writes will be paired with an exhibit at the local Design Museum that will include clothing and accessories Precious saved from her time as a model. The editor in charge is a college friend from when Maddie was studying in England and Maddie will be staying in the spacious Marylebone Road flat in which Precious lives, which is owned by the family of the editor's cousin, Colin, whom Maddie has avoided in the past. 

In 1939, we get to know Precious and her best friend and roommate, Eva. Eva's real name is Ethel Maltby and she is from Yorkshire, the daughter of a laundress and a drunken abuser, while Precious is an American. Eva has an ear for accents and has decided to reinvent herself. In her new persona as Eva Harlow, she meets Graham and falls madly in love. But, Graham is high born and it will be difficult enough for his parents to accept Eva as the daughter of a deceased doctor and his wife. They would absolutely force him to reject her if they knew the truth. 

In the present day, Precious is a bit cagey but says that Graham and Eva disappeared in 1940 and she would like to know what happened to them before she dies. Her heart is failing and she probably doesn't have much time left. While Maddie gathers information and sifts through the various articles of clothing that have been preserved, she also tries to unravel clues about the elusive Eva and figure out why someone's image has been cut from many of the photos that she's able to obtain from Colin's mother, which were kept by Graham's sister, Sophia. 

Meanwhile, as Britain watches Hitler's every move and prepares for war, someone finds out Eva's secret and threatens to tell Graham and his family if she doesn't do as he says. 

In the past, what will Eva do when she is threatened? What became of Eva and Graham? And, in the present, what does Precious know that she's too tight-lipped to share? Will Maddie be able to figure out the mystery of Eva and Graham? What do a sterling silver cigarette case, an address, the deliberately damaged photos, and some unopened envelopes have to do with their story? 

Highly recommended, especially for London and WWII aficionados - A nice, twisty story with a fantastic setting. There were things I absolutely loved about The Last Night in London and a few that didn't feel quite right or consistent with the beginning of the book but in general I loved it once it got going. For example, there's a prologue that takes place during the Blitz that's extremely exciting just before you get into the tale of Maddie and Precious. I need to go back and read it because it doesn't feel like it entirely matched up with the ending. But it was one of those dangling carrots that kept the pages flying and I loved that. I also thought the beginning was ridiculously over-plotted. Too many connections that were unnecessary or hard to buy into. But again, once the story got going that didn't matter one bit; the connections were irrelevant apart from how Maddie's past melded with her present and and the distant connection between Maddie and Precious was only relevant in their mutual turn of phrase and understanding of Southern ways. 

There's also a bit of silliness that leads Maddie to push away Colin. It's a bit of a spoiler but it's something that affects my own life and I just thought it was . . . well, not a very good reason for the heroine to keep doing the, "Come here, go away, go away, come here," thing. And, I did figure out the surprise twist early on. I looked at some earlier reviews of books by Karen White and found that I tend to find her stories predictable, but again, that just didn't matter because I really did enjoy the twists and turns to the story. 

But by far the thing I loved best about The Last Night in London was the setting. I adore London and the familiarity with places mentioned made this read almost comfy to me. In fact, most of the book takes place in the flat in which Precious lives, which is located in an apartment complex called Harley House on Marylebone Road, a real building that I stayed in with a friend whose father lived there. His employer paid for yearly visits from the family members who remained in the US and she invited me to tag along, one year. It was one of the best experiences of my life so revisiting the area through fiction was amazing. It was the Harley House setting that tempted me to accept the book for review and I'm so glad I did. The Last Night in London is by far the best book I've read by Karen White and I think her experience living in Harley House is part of the reason it's so good; her knowledge of the area really shines through. 

I was so excited about The Last Night in London being set in Harley House that I got in touch with the friend whose father lived in Harley House and she was every bit as excited as I was. Her stepmother, who lived in the flat for many years, is also planning to read it. I'm happy to say it was worth recommending to them!! 

Husband and I stayed in the Marylebone area (on Baker Street), a handful of years ago, and Harley House was just around the corner so we sought it out. I thought it looked like the road had been widened but the building looked just the same and I took a single photo: 

It's a big, beautiful building that borders Regent's Park. Some of the windows of my friend's father's flat opened onto the side shown, which is right next to the Royal Academy of Music. It was summer and we kept the windows open so in the morning we'd awaken to beautiful music. 

Many thanks to Berkley Books for the advanced and finished copies and for the excuse to write to my childhood friend. We have emailed sporadically and met up a couple times but it never hurts to find an excuse to contact an old buddy! 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Prisoner's Wife by Maggie Brookes

In The Prisoner's Wife, Izabela is a Czechoslovakian farm girl and Bill is a British prisoner of war. It's 1944 as the story opens. Bill is one of a half dozen prisoners brought to help with work on the farm where Izzy lives and works with her mother and younger brother and it's love at first sight when Bill and Izabela's eyes meet. Izzy finds ways to get closer to Bill and starts learning English so she can communicate with him better. And, then they secretly marry, deciding to run away with the hope that they can meet up with the partisans and join the resistance against the Nazis.

Thinking the Russians are coming soon and Izzy will be safer dressed as a boy, Bill cuts her hair and she dresses in her older brother's clothing. But, when they're caught and sent to a prison camp for soldiers, every moment is fraught with danger. How will Izzy keep her secret from the Nazis? If she's caught, she will undoubtedly be thought a spy and shot.

Based loosely on a true story, in The Prisoner's Wife, Maggie Brookes has created a harrowing tale of love, danger, and the horrors of war, a story in which a woman's identity is kept secret with the help of courageous men willing to risk their own lives to keep her alive.

Highly recommended - I don't use the word "harrowing" lightly. I found The Prisoner's Wife a difficult and exhausting read because the vast majority of it is about the couple's time in a prison camp, a work camp, and then taking a "long walk" to keep the prisoners from joining up with the Russians when they close in on the prison camp. It was gripping but nerve-wracking enough that I had to occasionally take breaks, walk away and do something like step outside to feel the breeze or paint or just goof online, and then I'd return to the book. I don't know why I found this particular story so much harder to read than other WWII stories. I've been reading them all my life, after all. Maybe it was because I cared about the couple and so desperately wanted them to survive. At any rate, after the long march I felt frostbitten and hungry and sad for the lives lost, in awe of the danger people are willing to face to help each other and a little sad at the interplay of good and evil, a thing that never changes. A moving tale that I'll be thinking about for a long time.

One side note: The story is told using alternating viewpoints. One chapter will be told in 3rd person (Bill's viewpoint but not his voice) and the next in 1st (from Izzy's viewpoint). I did find that a little bit jarring but it was never what I would call problematic. The shifts just interrupted the flow a bit. I presume the purpose was to tell both sides of the love story, male and female, and in that way I do believe it was effective.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy!


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

Just a quick note: I received an ARC of The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany and it has an April, 2020 release date printed on the cover (the reason I just read it in late April). I noticed the release date listed at Goodreads is November of 2020. So, I looked at Amazon and, sure enough, the release date is now November. I presume this is pandemic-related. It would be crazy to wait till November to review it, though, and it can be pre-ordered if you're interested so . . . I'm going to go ahead and review. 

The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman is about a family curse. Hundreds of years ago, a young lady in the Fontana family saw her sister kissing her beloved and cursed all second-born sisters in her family to never find love. Since then, not a single second-born female has married and some have met tragic ends when they found love.

Now, Emilia has been offered a chance to break the curse. Emilia leads a quiet life, working as the baker in her family's New York deli with her father, sister, and grandmother (nonna). She wears glasses and plain clothing, pulls her hair back in a ponytail, and doesn't even bother trying to find men to date since a tragedy in her college years convinced her the curse is real.

When her great aunt Poppy invites her on a trip to Italy, Emilia is tempted but her nonna is adamant that Aunt Poppy is evil and Emilia is to have nothing to do with her. Poppy says she is going to meet the love of her life on the steps of Ravello Cathedral on her 80th birthday and the curse will be broken. After hearing Poppy's claim that the second-daughter curse will be lifted, Emilia decides to go. Her cousin Lucy, another second daughter, accompanies them. Lucy is Emilia's opposite, the kind of girl who is trying way too hard to find love and failing. But, she's willing to go for the sake of having the curse lifted, as well. It will be fun. Poppy is spirited and upbeat, unlike her dour nonna.

Did Aunt Poppy really fall in love over 50 years ago? What happened and why didn't Poppy and her lifelong love marry? Will Poppy's true love show up at the cathedral or is Aunt Poppy hanging onto false hope? Is it really possible to break the curse or did Poppy just want company on her last trip to Italy? Will Emilia and Lucy ever find love or is the curse real? And, will the two women learn that their belief in the curse has kept them from being their true selves?

So many questions.

Highly recommended - Oh, my goodness, I loved this book. I closed it feeling like I'd spent a week or two in Italy and if not for the pandemic, I'd be ready to hop on a plane. The story goes back and forth between Poppy's tale of how she met the love of her life and they were separated to present day New York and Italy and there are lots of surprises. I loved it that I would think "this is going to happen" and then, nope, plot twist. I love a good road trip type of book (not really road trip but journey, I guess) and found that I couldn't wait to sink into The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany, each night, while I was reading it. I put it in the "great beach reading material" category because it is such a fun, escapist read, knowing the beach or other vacations may not be an option for any of us, this year. It's great for when you want to travel mentally, whether you can do so physically or not.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy. I absolutely loved this story!


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey

In The Big Finish, 88-year-old Duffy Sinclair lives in Centennial, an assisted living facility. Centennial is one of only two such homes in his area and the better of them by far. His roommate, Carl, is a man Duffy looks up to. Carl's a good person while Duffy has a history. But, when Carl's secret granddaughter, Josie, shows up and asks to stay at the nursing home with them, Duffy is flabbergasted. There were supposedly no secrets between him and Carl.

And, now Duffy's life has suddenly become much more complicated than making it to the right room for meal time or activities and catching the bus for an outing to Walmart. Now, he has to worry about the fact that a young lady wants to stay with them, breaking the rules. Duffy is determined not to be a rule-breaker because he doesn't want to end up at the other nursing home, a place where they care less about you and people go to die. One resident has already been kicked out of Centennial for a slight infraction and the new owner is remodeling her room, hoping to make more money from a future tenant.

When Duffy finds out Josie has a secret of her own, he offers to help. Duffy faced the same life-long challenge till a little over a decade ago and he knows the struggle. But, having Josie around is causing more trouble than even Duffy imagined. Will Duffy end up at the dreaded other home, Simmons, where people go to die? Will he be able to help Josie? And, will anyone be able to help her find her path?

Recommended - There is so much more to The Big Finish than I expected. Josie shows up with a black eye and no shoes so you know something is off. But, the more Duffy discovers about Josie, the more he becomes determined to help her and, maybe, in the process redeem himself. I don't want to give too much away because I liked slowly discovering what Josie's problem was and what was up with her, so I'm going to leave this review a bit on the vague side but I found The Big Finish immensely entertaining.

Duffy is a wise-cracking old curmudgeon but he has a bigger heart than he wants to admit. The friendships between Duffy and Carl, the residents and Josie, Anderson and Nora (both caregivers) and everyone are all wonderful. And, the ending is stirring and uplifting. A very entertaining, rollicking read about living life while you can. I did think the book started out a bit slowly but it's worth it to put up with the slower bits at the beginning. Eventually, as you get to know the characters and their dilemmas, it becomes more fun and there's even a little excitement at the end and a comedy of errors feel to what happens to Duffy throughout.

Many thanks to Berkley for the review copy!


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

Until she was eighteen, Rose Gold Watts thought she was extremely sick. She was tiny and weak, needed a wheelchair, couldn't keep food down, and went with her mother from doctor to doctor seeking answers. Then, someone helped her figure out what was going on. Her mother was making her sick. Patty Watts was a good actor. She was persuasive, an inveterate and skilled liar. She preyed on the weaknesses of others, even doctors, slyly suggesting possible ailments and quickly disappearing when a doctor became suspicious.

Patty went to prison for 5 years for abusing her daughter. Now, she's been released. Rose Gold is the only person she can possibly stay with. Their relationship has improved, recently, and Rose Gold now has a baby. She's more mature now and willing to take her mother in, although she has a few strange habits that Patty doesn't understand.

Rose Gold has had a hard time adjusting to adulthood, having missed out on her childhood and interaction with others. In flashbacks, slowly moving forward through time to when Patty is released from prison, the reader finds out what's happened to Rose Gold during the time her mother's been imprisoned. And, in alternating chapters, the tension builds as Patty plots her revenge and observes her daughter's weak points.

Throughout Rose Gold, Patty slowly worms her way back into Rose Gold's affections. But, what is Rose Gold up to? Why does she lock her door, even when she leaves the house? Is Rose Gold what she appears to be?

Highly recommended - The only reason I didn't give Rose Gold 5 stars (I gave it 4) is because there are so many yucky people in the book. Occasionally I found myself wishing someone, somewhere would do something kind and good for Rose Gold and eventually that happens, but even the nicer characters have their bad side. That made it a slightly squirmy, uncomfortable read.  Both characters are unreliable in their own ways, though, and that unreliability really made the pages fly. Rose Gold is an "I just have to know what will happen" kind of book, so very compelling and gripping. Even though it's clear that Patty was making Rose Gold ill and deserved her jail sentence, her internal monologue is confusing enough to cast doubt. Squirmy or not, Rose Gold was wonderfully tense and the ending is incredibly satisfying. Read this one when you're ready for a fast-paced, creepy and suspenseful read.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy!


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton

First, a clarification before I review this book: I said And They Called It Camelot is a fictional biography about John and Jackie Kennedy, a couple days ago. That's not entirely accurate. As you can see from the words on the cover, it says And They Called It Camelot is a novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Most of the book, however, does cover her years with JFK. There's a little bit before she started dating him and then it focuses on what it was like to date a Kennedy with the presidency in his sights, deal with things like his back injuries and her miscarriages, and become a very young First Lady with two small children. Jackie's story is told in four parts and the fourth part is the shortest, skipping ahead, little by little, to the final chapter in 1977.

So, what did I think of this story? I liked the learning experience. I knew JFK was known for having multiple affairs. I knew Jackie had at least one miscarriage while she was First Lady and I think I was aware she'd had a couple of others. I didn't know the details, though — how often JFK left his wife for months, hanging out in Europe with other women; how many miscarriages Jackie had and how far along she was. These things were much more severe than I realized. It was also interesting getting a glimpse into events like the election and why people thought it unlikely JFK would win; learning about what was important to Jackie as First Lady and how her past job keeping an upscale home informed the way she remodeled the White House; reading about her life after the loss of her husband to an assassin. I learned a lot! That's what I loved best about the book. It's also a very smooth read.

The only things I didn't like about the book were more about preference and personal viewpoint than anything else. I'm increasingly finding that I have a great deal of difficulty suspending disbelief when it comes to fictional biographies. I'll skid to a halt thinking, "Would he or she really have thought this way?" or wondering if the dialogue is anywhere near reality. I still can enjoy a book with those questions running through my head, but I'm leaning toward reading more biographies that include primary source documents within the text, in the future. I know not every biography is 100% accurate because there's always a little bit of the author's or historian's viewpoint involved and some things can only be guessed at, but I'm finding I prefer to actually see the words of the people I'm reading about. Also, this book made me kind of hate JFK. I've long known of his affairs but seeing it through Jackie's eyes was immensely painful.

Recommended to a specific audience - I enjoyed And They Called It Camelot especially for the learning experience and particularly recommend it to anyone who has a fascination for Jackie Kennedy Onassis and/or those who enjoy historical fiction or historical biographies. While I'm back on a buying ban, And They Called It Camelot piqued my interest enough that I'd probably hop online and order some books about the Kennedys and the Sixties (always a favorite time period to read about, anyway) if I wasn't avoiding purchases.

Fun side effect of reading this book: There are quite a few descriptions of Jackie's outfits, events they attended, people they knew, the interior of the White House, etc. I spent a lot of time looking up photographs of those things. It always adds a little dimension when photos of the subject matter are readily available.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy of And They Called It Camelot!

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell Mystery #5)

In A Murderous Relation, Veronica and Stoker have been called from Cornwall to London. One of Queen Victoria's grandchildren, Prince Eddy, is caught up in what could be a tremendous scandal. Veronica and Stoker are tasked with retrieving a gift given by Eddy, aka Prince Albert Victor, to someone of ill repute. Meanwhile, London is being terrorized by a vicious killer, not yet known as Jack the Ripper. Are the two related?

OK, confession. It's 1:00 AM and I have not finished A Murderous Relation, so I'll tell you what I think of it, so far, and then return to finish up, later.

I love the main characters, as I did in the first Veronica Speedwell book I read, A Dangerous Collaboration (#4 in the series). Veronica is smart, clever, and knowledgable. Stoker is a little more distant in this book than he was in the last and I'm finding his diminished role somewhat disappointing. But, every now and then he'll say something that makes me smile and I love the interaction between the two of them.

However . . . and this is a big however . . . I absolutely hate the setting of this book. A Dangerous Collaboration was set in a castle on an island off the coast of Cornwall and it was partly that setting that made the book so much fun. In A Murderous Relation, Veronica and Stoker are undercover to try to find the gift given to Aurore, the woman whose home is like a playground for perverts (she doesn't like to think of it as a brothel). And, that is so not my thing. I anticipated much less of the . . . scenery, I guess you could say? I didn't realize so much time would be spent on descriptions of people doing icky things. I'm finding that it creeps me out so thoroughly that I keep setting the book aside. I haven't decided whether or not I'll finish it, so I'm going to leave this review open-ended and report back on Friday. If I decide to abandon the book, I'll say so. If I continue, I'll finish with a recommendation line. I'm going to sleep on it.

Fiona Friday will be moved to Saturday to make room for my Friday update on the book.

I received a copy of A Murderous Relation from Berkley Books for review. Thanks! My apologies for the delayed ending to this review. I shall return.

UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE on Friday!!!

It's Friday morning and I made my decision to continue reading A Murderous Relation, yesterday, after sleeping on it. I decided I liked the characters too much to give up on them merely because of the location in which the storyline had ended up. And, I also figured they couldn't stay in the brothel, forever. Excellent decision! Not long after I began reading, Veronica and Stoker discover a body, try to escape from the brothel, and things get really exciting and tense (the way I like them). At that point, the pages began to fly. I don't want to give away any plot points but a character from a previous Veronica Speedwell book (which I have not read) shows up every bit as villainous as before but this time with an unexpected sidekick.

Highly recommended - If you are squeamish about scenes in a brothel, I recommend a little skimming to get past that bit, which went on longer than I was able to tolerate on Wednesday evening but ended quickly, after I picked the book up again. However, I wouldn't skip anything because the story builds on each incident and slowly becomes a little more complex than just rescuing a Prince from his self-made scandal by stealing a jewel. It also becomes much more dangerous, to the point at which the question becomes, "Will anyone get out of this alive?" And, then, other things happen. At any rate, there are some heart-pounding action scenes, which I love, and Stoker's role picked up enough to satisfy me. I closed the book thinking, "I need to go back to the beginning of the series." I like Veronica Speedwell and Stoker, the way they sort of spin around each other without landing (Will they? Won't they?), the vocabulary (always looking things up while reading this series, including photos of historical characters who make appearances), and the time period. Loads of fun and I'm so glad I returned to the book.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin

Rooney was about a thousand years old and still regarded women through a prehistoric filter where you told them the way it was going to be and they said, "Yes, dear," and went to iron some socks. 

~p. 171

In The Antidote for Everything, Georgia Brown is a urologist and a bit of a rebel with her nose ring and discreet tattoos. Jonah, her best friend, fellow doctor, and the man she considers her only family, is gay and a little flamboyant with a tendency to sink into the occasional deep depression. As The Antidote for Everything opens, Georgia gets unwelcome news during a surgery and there are hints that something is amiss with Jonah. Then, Georgia flies off to Amsterdam and, after saving a life on the plane, finds herself madly attracted to her patient and having a nice little European fling.

When she returns, Georgia realizes that things are even worse than she suspected. Jonah's transgender patients, some of whom are her patients as well, are being told they can no longer be treated at the clinic and the administrators are trying to find a way to get rid of Jonah, as well. In fact, it looks like they may have grounds for firing him. Is there any way Georgia can help Jonah salvage his job and restore their transgender patients to their healthcare providers? Is it really legal to refuse to treat people who are transgender? What's going on with drugs that have been disappearing from the clinic? Is it possible Jonah has a drug problem Georgia doesn't know about?

OK, hmm. There are a lot more questions than that and then, of course, the simmering, long-distance romance between Georgia and Mark (the airplane patient), both of whom experienced similar losses early in life. The farther you get into The Antidote for Everything, the more complex the plot becomes and the more harrowing the events. Taken as separate ideas, I liked much of what this book is about. I liked the wit and humor (as in the quote above). I liked the three main characters. I liked the fact that it touches on a hot-button topic (discrimination against LGBTQ), and I thought the element of romance felt realistic. There's a lot to admire in The Antidote for Everything. The author is a doctor and her writing is sharp. She even managed to find a surprisingly large number of LGBTQ sensitivity readers to make sure she got it right.

But, I found the book was not as cohesive as I'd have liked it to be. I thought Kimmery Martin handled the emotions of attraction and how finding commonalities feeds into the magnetism between two people very nicely. But, the fact that Georgia and Mark spent most of their time on separate continents and because of that the romance was just an element threaded through the main story bugged me, for some reason. It sometimes felt like Mark was almost an afterthought. I also felt like the book made me a little too angsty. I'm not LGBTQ, but I have a lot of friends who are and the fact that our government is currently weakening anti-discrimination laws and removing rules or guidelines to stop discrimination is incredibly frustrating, primarily because it makes no sense to me. Why would someone be offended if their renter is gay? Why would anyone feel like baking a cake is participating in a wedding? They're just transactions. On that note, the pain of rejection is something I thought the author handled especially well.

Off my soapbox.

Recommended - A timely topic, great characters, and much to discuss. I didn't fall in love with this book, but I liked it a lot and I think it would make a good book club selection if you're not afraid to tackle religious freedom vs. discrimination.

Update: I totally forgot to thank Berkley for the review copy. Thank you!!! I will seek out more by Kimmery Martin.


©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

In 1982, Viv Delaney leaves home to get away from her anxiety-ridden mother and start a new life. Her intent is to go to New York City but she quickly runs out of money and ends up working in the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. It doesn't take long before Viv starts to notice strange things: a strong smell of smoke, the frequent appearance of a woman who is both angry and terrified, a little boy, doors that fling themselves open, and a couple of hotel guests who seem more than a little shady. When Viv hears about the strange deaths that have taken place in the area, seemingly unconnected and mostly unsolved murders of young women, she starts investigating. Are the deaths really unconnected or did the police miss something? Is there a serial killer in Fell? Who are the ghosts that haunt the Sun Down Motel and why? What are they trying to tell her? Will she discover the answers before it's too late?

In 2017, Viv's niece, Carly arrives at the Sun Down Motel full of questions. What happened to her aunt Vivian, who disappeared while working at the Sun Down Motel in 1982? Is she dead or alive? Why was the investigation into her disappearance given up so quickly? If she's alive, where did she go and why didn't she ever contact her sister, Carly's mother, who has since passed away?

Following in the footsteps of Viv, Carly sets out to find answers. She gets a job at the Sun Down Motel, finds a roommate, and begins asking questions. But, the ghosts of the past are still haunting the present. Will Carly be able to figure out what happened to her missing aunt? Is her disappearance connected to the murders of young women that took place in Fell around that time? With a little help from a man with a troubled past, Carly starts digging. But, the only person who wants to talk about Aunt Vivian is seriously creepy.

Highly recommended - Ohmygosh, what a fantastic mystery/suspense with wonderful characters, genuinely suspenseful writing, and plenty of scare-your-socks-off moments. At one point while I was reading The Sun Down Motel, I realized that I was so tense I was sitting on the bed bolt upright, taking quick, shallow breaths. Very few suspense books truly grab me and hold on the way The Sun Down Motel did. I particularly recommend The Sun Down Motel to anyone who loves paranormal elements as the ghosts (if a little heavy-handed in the number of appearances) are among the most believable I've read.

Weird side note: I guessed what happened to Viv about halfway through the book but it actually didn't matter. It was just a guess and I had to know the answers. The book held onto me fast and I madly flipped pages. In fact, The Sun Down Motel gripped me so thoroughly that I had to warn my husband I wasn't coming up for air till I finished. He shrugged and went off to do outdoor work. I have no idea what he did, I was so immersed. The Sun Down Motel is going into the favorites pile, for sure.

Many thanks to Berkley Books for letting me join in on this tour and providing the book.

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley

I planned to finish my 2019 reviews before barreling into 2020 but You Were There Too says it was released on the 7th (that's today as I write but will be yesterday when you read this) so I'm going to go ahead and review it and I'll continue to interject reviews of more recent reads if there's a genuine reason like "Fresh release!" or "I have to say something right now!"

You Were There Too is the story of Mia. Since high school she's occasionally had dreams that feature the same man. Sometimes they're good; often they're nightmares. In her everyday life, Mia is happily married to a surgeon named Harrison. Mia and Harrison have recently moved to a small town called Hope Springs from Philadelphia after Harrison lost a child in surgery and he felt like he needed a change. Mia is struggling with the move and her desire to have a baby, which keeps ending in miscarriage.

Then, one day something bizarre happens. Mia sees the man she's been dreaming about for so long. And then she's introduced to him. Oliver is the brother of a patient whose life Harrison saved, and she feels like she's known him forever. Eventually, Oliver admits that he's been dreaming of Mia, as well. But, what can it possibly mean? In their search for answers, Mia and Oliver become friends. Mia's very open about their friendship with Harrison, but at the same time she's developing a surprisingly deep and meaningful friendship with another man, fault lines have emerged in her loving marriage. Mia works hard at making it clear that she can't be with Oliver, and yet she can't deny to herself that she feels attracted to him.

What will become of the friendship? Will Oliver and Mia step over the friendship line and into romance? What about Harrison? Something is a little off about him but Mia can't put a finger on it and with the rift in their marriage growing, will she be able to help him? Will Mia and Oliver figure out what their dreams and nightmares mean? Or is something about to happen that can't be prevented?

Highly recommended - Ohmygosh, I loved this book. The author kept me guessing all the way through and I loved the way she handled the relationships, the confusion, the questions about marriage and what love can or cannot overcome. There's a shocking prologue at the beginning of the book so you know that Oliver's and Mia's dreams clearly are psychic in some way, but not who Mia is with when tragedy strikes.

This is actually the only book I've ever read that has attempted to address the concept of psychic dreaming and I loved it in part because I am an occasional psychic dreamer, myself. I could relate to Mia's obsession about what it all meant, although I've never heard of two people dreaming about each other and that's far from my experience. I have dreamed about things that happen before the news breaks. Not long ago, I started sharing stories of my psychic dreams (and a couple of what I call "waking visions" because I wasn't asleep when they occurred) with a friend and I realized there were so many of them that it would take a while to share them all with her.

As to meaning . . . I don't know that there is any meaning to those dreams that have come true for me, although a couple of them have felt like warnings. That's one of the questions in You Were There Too. Are Oliver and Mia being warned about something to come? If so, is there anything they can do to prevent something bad from happening? What about the dreams that are not nightmares but the opposite? Do they mean Mia should give up on her marriage and that she really belongs with Oliver? Why do Oliver and Mia both have this strange mix of dreams? It's a really intriguing set of questions and I loved this book so much that I will absolutely seek out more by Colleen Oakley.

I received a copy of You Were There Too from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks! I'm excited to have found a new author who kept me riveted until the wee hours of the morning (although I didn't appreciate the way I felt the next day).

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Vox by Christina Dalcher

In the world of Vox by Christina Dalcher, extremist Christians have taken over education, politics, healthcare, the banking system, and government in general in the United States. A televangelist is in a position of power in the government and the "separation of church and state" no longer exists. Dr. Jean McClellan didn't see it coming but her grad-school roommate did. While the earliest movement toward the far right was slow, things moved quickly after the latest president moved into office and women have been forced to stay quietly married at home, choose a mate, or face the consequences.

Change came quickly: the job losses, the wrist trackers, and the silence. Women in the America of Vox are no longer allowed to work, control money, or speak more than 100 words per day. The punishments for disobedience and aberrations (like homosexuality) are severe.

But, then something happens. The president's brother has been injured in a ski accident and the part of the brain that was Dr. McClellan's area in her research is the part that he's damaged. Suddenly, people are begging her to return to her work to find a cure. She's only interested under certain conditions. But, she knows that as soon as her work is done, she'll be back to subservience and quiet. And, there's something fishy going on. Did someone know the president's brother was going to suffer an injury? Is there more to the job than meets the eye?

Jean knows that she needs to find the answers but she also needs to try to drag out her research long enough to find a way to keep from returning to the circumstances of the past year. Will she be forced to rush a cure and return to being locked in silence, unable even to use hand gestures to speak? Or, will Jean and her friends and fellow researchers find a way to end the silence?

Highly recommended - I was so gripped by this book that I didn't want to set it down, the night I opened it. The result was a book in the face. Oops. I finally had no choice but to turn the light out because I kept falling asleep. But, I picked it up as soon as possible and finished it, the next day. Funny, since I'd seen mixed reviews and was concerned. I would never have guessed it would end up on the favorites pile. Good surprise! I did think there was a little bit of convenience to one particular plot point, and after I closed the book another plot point started to make very little sense, on reflection, but . . . who cares. I loved it.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy! And, yes, I agree with the cover quote saying Vox is "sure to beg comparisons" to The Handmaid's Tale. I did occasionally think of Margaret Atwood's own dystopian version of a women-suppressing, mysogynistic society. Christina Dalcher's world, though, is unique. I never had the sensation that she was borrowing from Atwood in any way.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street by Karen White

Melanie Trenholm has always seen ghosts and she lives in a house with spirits, at least one of whom comes only when needed. Now, in The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street, the most recent release in a series full of mystery and paranormal elements, Melanie has recently discovered a dark presence in her stepdaughter Nola's room, seen a man in old-fashioned clothing where an archeological dig is going on around her cistern, and smells the scent of roses always left by the ghost of a woman she helped to release in the first Tradd Street book.

Marc Longo is back to annoying her, as well, and now he's searching for a new treasure (this time, a French treasure brought to the continent by the Marquis de Lafayette), trying to foist his way into the Tradd Street house with a film crew, and determined to one day own the place. His brother Anthony now owns the other estate associated with the Tradd Street home, both of which had the same owner in the past. Anthony was conned into taking on the estate when his brother discovered the original treasure he sought was not there. Now, Marc is convinced that there's a connection between the mausoleum at the estate Anthony now owns and the bricks in the cistern at Tradd Street. But a presence in the mausoleum is keeping them from investigating.

When Melanie and others in her circle check out the mausoleum and some documents Marc stole, they find pieces of a puzzle. Meanwhile, Melanie and her sister, Jayne see several new spirits from the Revolutionary War era at Anthony Longo's home and Anthony is having frequent accidents. What do bricks, peacocks, and the warnings of ghosts mean? Can Melanie unravel the mystery in time to have a relaxing Christmas with her family?

First, a little background on my own reading of the series. I've only read the first book, The House on Tradd Street, prior to this one. When The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street was offered to me, I thought it was the perfect excuse to read The House on Tradd Street, which had been sitting on a pile in my library for years. Had I not recently read that first book, I would have been completely lost. Christmas Spirits stands alone well enough if you're familiar with at least the main characters but I would not go into the series in the middle. At the very least, you need an introduction. Fortunately, while a lot has happened and many new characters have been introduced, I had no trouble at all catching up on the general events of the books I've missed.

Recommended but not a favorite - If you have read and enjoyed past Tradd Street books, you'll probably love this one, as well. It is much like the other book I read, although obviously I can't speak for the rest. I remember there was a lot going on The House on Tradd Street and the same is true of The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street. There are a ton of different elements to the story. Christmas, by the way, is more of a backdrop than a feature. While Melanie and Jack are facing some immense challenges caused by Marc's intervention in their lives, as well as working to unravel the mystery and stay a step ahead of Marc as he chases down the same paths, Melanie is also involved in preparations for a "progressive dinner" for the Christmas season (I had to look that up -- it's a meal where each course is served at a different house). There are other preparations, like buying presents and gathering for a family photo, but they're really secondary and you could be forgiven for occasionally forgetting Melanie and Jack even have small children.

There are almost too many characters in the story -- many of whom were introduced in various novels as the series has progressed. I had a little difficulty getting them all straight in my head and I'm not sure all of them were necessary to the plot. In the end, though, it was ultimately satisfying how the mystery was wrapped up and the problems I had with the book were the same ones I had with The House on Tradd Street: there's a bit too much going on, the writing is wordy (tight writing with few wasted words is my personal preference), and I find Melanie annoying. Those are really a matter of individual taste, not commentary on the storyline, though. I liked the story's complexity so I still recommend it to those who have an affinity for paranormal stories.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy!

Fiona Friday will be on the wrong day, once again, this week. Tune in tomorrow for your weekly cat fix!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Passengers by John Marrs

The Passengers by John Marrs is set in the near future. There are five defined levels of driverless cars, from Level 0, in which the driver performs all tasks, to Level 5. Soon, all cars will be Level 5, totally autonomous with no manual override and no steering wheel. As the day begins, the author introduces readers to 8 characters who are boarding fully-autonomous cars. Some of the characters are uncomfortable with the lack of manual override; some are fine with it or even appreciate the freedom to read or do other tasks instead of paying attention to the road. The setting is England.

In Birmingham, there is a court in which the responsibility for autonomous automobile accidents is decided and Libby Dixon has jury duty. Libby was the witness to a horrific accident and knows how such cases can turn out. Now, Libby will have to share her opinion about similar cases between autonomous cars and pedestrians or other vehicles that are not autonomous. She has her suspicions that not everything is on the up-and-up in this court.

Back to the 8 passengers. After all the passengers have been on the road for a while, a hacker takes over their cars, one by one, and claims that he will crash them into each other in about 2 1/2 hours. Soon, the passengers will all be dead. But, he's taken over the airwaves. Now, the people in the autonomous accident court and viewers across England have no choice but to choose one person to live. The hacker provides proof that there is no way to rescue the occupants of the autonomous vehicles.

What's the hacker's objective? Will anyone survive?

Recommended - I had some minor issues with this book, the main one being that it was just a little too far-fetched for me. Some of the victims were chosen at random, according to the hacker. But, he knew intimate details about the lives of most of them and chose to only release partial information, just enough to make them all look guilty of something. In the end, I understood the point the hacker was trying to make. It's really a book about how a small percentage of people controls the vast majority of what happens to the population, how limiting information available can provide a skewed viewpoint, and how difficult it is to get all that across to the populace. I think that's the theme, anyway. I don't want to give away what's being manipulated and why he's trying to draw attention to it because that would ruin the story, but I will say that I found the book a little awkwardly written yet difficult to put down. And, the one thing I loved best about it was that the author managed to keep surprising me. I have a tendency to guess what's going to happen in a suspense, so I always appreciate an author who can surprise me.

I received a copy of The Passengers from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review. My thanks to Berkley! I've already picked out the person I'm going to pass this book onto and I can't wait to hear his thoughts.

While I was in the midst of reading The Passengers, a friend wrote a comment to me on Goodreads to tell me John Marrs is one of her favorite authors. I love it when that happens!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Layover by David Bell

When Layover by David Bell opens, Joshua Fields is in the hospital with a concussion and a police officer says, "Tell me where she went." You have no idea who the woman in question is, nor how Joshua ended up fighting with another man. It's a typical prologue beginning, teasing you with what's to come so that all the way through the book you're aware that there will be a final conflict that lands Joshua in the emergency room.

Then, Joshua's story returns to the beginning. He alternates chapters with Detective Kimberly Givens, the officer questioning him in the ER. Givens is under pressure by her town's mayor to find a missing man but really just wants to spend time with her daughter, who is on a school break.

Joshua Fields is a real estate developer who travels constantly and is terrified of flying. He carefully times the ingestion of his anti-anxiety meds so that he'll be calm and maybe even sleep off his flight but will be awake and able to function when he reaches his destination. On this day, he's headed to Tampa. But, then he decides to stop in a bar before going to his gate and there he meets a mysterious woman.

Morgan has a hat and sunglasses on indoors. She's clearly nervous and is unwilling to leave her bags for anyone to watch, even for a quick visit to the bathroom. At first, she really doesn't want to have anything to do with Joshua, but then she opens up to him and he doesn't want the acquaintance to end, even after seeing her described on TV as a missing woman.

On impulse, he changes his ticket from Tampa to Nashville to follow her. Why is Morgan traveling incognito? What is she hiding and why is she thought to be missing? How much of the story Morgan has told Joshua is true? And what, if anything, does Morgan have to do with the disappearance of another missing person?

Recommended - Layover is a fast-paced, rollercoaster ride that had me sneaking in pages whenever I could find a spare moment. There are some plot points that are a little disappointing — a bit lame, at first appearance — but I was enjoying the book enough that I decided I'd just wait and see whether those things were misleading. Morgan is an unreliable character, so parts of the story she tells Joshua (which sound shrug-worthy) seem likely to be more complex than they appear. Is she telling the truth or is there a more sinister reason for her disappearance?

One of the things I like best about Layover is that Joshua does stupid, impulsive, even unconvincing things, and yet there is still some logical action on his part. He's not afraid to get the police involved, trusts his instincts and acts accordingly, and he's always cognizant of the fact that his father, with whom he works, will be worried when he doesn't check in, yet he still manages to lose track of time and forget to return calls. In other words, he's a much more believable and likable character than most. I often have trouble with characters who decide not to get police involved when it appears their lives may be in danger. I liked Joshua because he seemed so normal. I gave Layover a 4/5 at Goodreads and I will be looking for more by David Bell.

I received a copy of Layover from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review and it was absolutely what I needed at the moment I picked it up. Thank you!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman

"That was luck. I've seen you play a hundred times, and that was the first time I've seen you beaten." He paused. "Well, apart from the semifinal last year."

"Oh, you saw that?"

He blushed deeper. "Yeah. We got knocked out in the semis, too. By the Spanish In-quiz-ition." He grinned. "Nobody expected it."

~p. 142


In The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, many readers will find a kindred spirit. Nina is the only child of a single, traveling photographer. Mostly raised by a nanny, she's introverted, organized, a lover of books and trivia, and a bookstore clerk who takes great joy in the many bookish activities that she hosts. She's on a trivia team, in a book group, and happy with her quiet life alone.

Then, Nina's well-organized life becomes crowded with new people when she falls for one of the members of an opposing trivia team and finds out she has a large, extended family by way of a lawyer who informs her that her father has passed away. Can Nina fit all the new people into her carefully ordered life? And, what will happen to her when the landlord of the bookstore in which she works decides that he's got no choice but to find a new tenant?

Highly recommended - Ohmygoodnessgracious, I loved this book. Nina is the kind of people a bookish person can't help but love to read about. She reads avidly, loves storing up facts, has a cat, makes frequent references to books, characters, and movies, and has serious anxiety issues. Mostly with people. People are really scary. The only complaint I have about the book is that just about everyone Nina interacts with is equally witty. She may not think she's a people person but she has quite a rapport with just about everyone. But, at the same time, that makes the book a light-hearted, smart, amusing, and engaging read. I adored the witty banter. It made me happy. Totally a five-star read.

I received a copy of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill from Berkley Books in exchange for an unbiased review and it's going on that favorites list I mentioned yesterday. Wow, two 5-star books read in less than two weeks! How often does that happen? I'm going to want to press this one into the hands of a lot of people.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim

Natalie Tan and her mother once butted heads in the same way that her mother, Miranda, did with her own mom, Natalie's laolao. Miranda didn't want to work in her mother's restaurant and, later, she didn't want to send her daughter to culinary school. Now, Miranda is dead. A phone call from her neighbor Celia informs Natalie and she rushes home for the funeral.

Natalie's dream was to open a restaurant. But, when her mother refused to help pay for culinary school, Natalie went out on her own. For years she has traveled the world, learning to cook but unsure enough of herself that she has kept running away — even running away from love. Now, she is back in her mother's apartment, over the empty restaurant her laolao ran until her death. And, Natalie is well aware of the opportunity. The restaurant is hers, now, and she has her grandmother's recipes. She doesn't have much money but she believes in her ability to cook and wants to make a go of it.

When Natalie is told that she must solve the problems of three people before attempting to open a restaurant, she cooks for three of the neighbors. But, then everything goes wrong. What can Natalie do to salvage the situation? Will she ever be able to open a restaurant? What happened on the day of her mother's death that caused Natalie's agoraphobic mother to run outside? And, what became of Natalie's runaway father?

Recommended - I had a lot of trouble getting into Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune, at first. The writing style is a little stiff and uneven. But, I loved the touches of magical realism (when Natalie cries, her tears turn to crystals, which she gathers up and puts in bowls; and, the food she cooks has magical effects, as well) and I found that author Roselle Lim kept surprising me. Just when I thought I was certain I knew what was going to happen next . . . plot twist! I love being surprised, so that's the main thing I appreciate about Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune. There are little things that are predictable, but the main plot points kept catching me off-guard. I also loved the San Francisco Chinatown setting and the way the author brought all the threads of the story together so beautifully, in the end. So, while I found the writing style a little rough, the denouement and the surprising elements of the story won me over.

Note: Recipes are included but they don't contain measurements. This is something that apparently used to be common because my grandmother's recipes often didn't contain measurements. Don't tell my sister but I threw away a bunch of them because I'm the kind of cook who follows measurements. My husband is the kind who tosses things together by feel; lack of measurements wouldn't have bothered him if he'd had any interest in her recipes, but he didn't. I did keep the recipes that were special to me — don't worry, I didn't throw them all away.

I received an ARC of Natalie Tan from Berkley for review (many thanks!). True confession: I adore that cover. If I hadn't received a copy to review, I probably would have chased it down based on the cover alone. And, I may do that, anyway. The Reader's Guide was not included in the ARC and I'd like to read that bit of extra material. After such a perfect ending, I wanted to know more about the author.

Updated to remove title error: 6/21/19 

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.