Fortune Favors the Duke (The Cambridge Brotherhood #1) by Kristin Vayden

Quick note: The cover image says Fortune Favors the Duke is a book in "The Cambridge Brothers" series and Goodreads says it's the first in "The Cambridge Brotherhood" series. Since the hero of this book attended Cambridge and his only brother has passed away, I think "Brotherhood" is likely the correct name of the series and that's why I chose to put it in the title line. Hope that's correct. 

Catherine Greatheart and the new Duke of Wesley have something in common: the loss of his brother and her fiancé, the former Duke. Six months have passed and the loss still stings. The new duke, Quinton, misses his brother and is not thrilled that he has been thrust into the management of an estate when he was perfectly happy working as a professor at Cambridge. Catherine actually loved her fiancé in a time when one is more likely to make a match based on money than love and is tired of the pity but not entirely ready to resume her social life. 

When Catherine's grandmother insists that the time has come for Catherine to return to society, she does so reluctantly and is surprised to find friendship offered by Quinton. Meanwhile, Catherine's grandmother and the woman who would have been her mother-in-law have become close and would like to see Quinton and Catherine become a couple. But, when Catherine and Quinton begin to realize that their friendship has grown into something bigger, they must take care. Society may frown upon the new duke taking the place of the former and think Catherine a money-grubbing social climber. 

After disaster strikes and Catherine is no longer allowed to run her grandmother's estate, what will happen? There's definitely something fishy about the fellow who has been named the trustee for the estate and the bitter old woman he has named as Catherine's companion and chaperone. If Quinton marries Catherine, will he be betraying his brother's memory?

Neither recommended or not recommended - I liked Fortune Favors the Duke but . . . there are several buts, actually. There were a few historical anachronisms that bugged me ("And so it begins," a very modern phrase, for example, and women were always swatting the men — in a time period when people barely touched). I was also skeptical that Catherine would be considered a social climber or made a pariah if she married Quinton. Social climbing was pretty much the modus operandi of young women in Regency England, after all, and matchmaking seldom about love. However, in spite of these things, Fortune Favors the Duke is a sweet story, I loved the relationship between Catherine and her grandmother, and I found the building affection between Quinton and Catherine believable and lovely. So, I liked the story and I'm glad I read it, although it's not a favorite.

My thanks to Sourcebooks for the review copy!

And, a further note: This is my very last recently requested review copy (I do have plenty I didn't get to in a timely manner). Last week I received an email saying an unsolicited ARC is on its way to me and that's fine. I will be happy to read and review any unsolicited books that arrive, providing they appeal to me. The goal is to read almost exclusively off my shelves. A few exceptions will be nice, actually. And, apparently, I'm still fine with reviewing so I'll carry on, although we'll just have to see how much I feel like writing about future reads. 

I've just finally printed out my list of 2021 Reads and am working on narrowing down my favorites for a Year in Review post, so that's still forthcoming and I'm thinking that I may try to continue the blog but maybe mix things up a bit and write beyond just book reviews. I have, for example, a few books I want to donate but I'd like to keep the marked quotes so I may occasionally do quote posts. Anyway, it's all up in the air and just call me flighty. I'll figure things out but I'm very much looking forward to some changes, this year. 

©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.

Lost Love's Return by Alfred Nicols

This will just be a quickie review because I don't like to say much about books that I didn't love. Lost Love's Return by Alfred Nicols is a book I bought after a friend begged me to read it (the author is a friend of her family) and then she chose it for our F2F book group's selection. I didn't go to the meeting and have only actually been once since before the pandemic but I read it so I could share my thoughts with her. 

Lost Love's Return is about an American soldier named Peter who is injured during WWI. He and a British nurse, Elizabeth, fall in love. But, when he's shipped out without time to tell her he has to leave or give her his address and he realizes he doesn't know how to get in touch with her at all — doesn't even actually know the name of the hospital where she works — they completely lose touch and he ends up in a loveless marriage back home, an ocean away from her. 

Decades pass before he's able to track her down with the help of his son. What will Peter find when he finally reunites with the love of his life?

Neither recommended or not recommended - OK, so my personal opinion is that Lost Love's Return brings nothing new to the table. There is no new insight about WWI and the love story is both predictable and one that's been done, before. Having said that, there was a point that I found myself enjoying the story and it has high ratings at Goodreads. So, I wouldn't tell anyone not to read it. There's a sweetness to the romantic storyline; it's just nothing new or special, in my humble opinion. Also, I was a little frustrated by the fact that all of the men who were main characters were tall, strong, blond, and handsome but most of the women were either unattractive or highly self-critical, except for Elizabeth. And, the men kept getting women pregnant. It was just a little trite in that way and felt like a total guy book, to me. I also thought there were a few problems with the British English but that's not necessarily something that will jump out at everyone. I opted not to rate the book at Goodreads but now that I've had time to let it marinate, I'd say it's . . . average? Not horrible, not great, just OK. 

©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.

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

I had mixed feelings about South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. So mixed, in fact, that I couldn't talk myself into rating it at Goodreads. 

South of the Border, West of the Sun is told in first person from the viewpoint of Hajime, an only child who feels out of place until he meets Shimamoto, who is also an only child. They remain playmates and friends for years, till his family moves away and they lose touch. Over the years, Hajime meets (and sleeps with) many women but Shimamoto has a special place in his heart and he even follows a woman who looks like her and has her same limp, at one point. He marries, has two children and his jazz bar becomes a success. He's mostly content. 

Then, Shimamoto reappears in his life, having seen an article about his jazz bar. Hajime is every bit as drawn to her as he was when they were young. She is different, more beautiful, no longer limping, and mysterious. There are questions she won't answer, things he doesn't know about her. Will Hajime stay faithful to his wife? Or, will he leave her for Shimamoto? 

Meh - I still don't feel like I can rate this book. I found it compelling enough to finish and I think that's mostly down to Murakami's writing. He does know how to suck you in. But, Hajime is kind of a yucky person. He's selfish when it comes to women, taking what he wants from them but giving little in return. You can't really root for him. And, Shimamoto's mysteriousness made her feel more like a vague outline of a character than one with color and depth. She was so incomplete that I closed the book unsure whether she was real or a figment of the main character's imagination. 

After a week and the decision that I'm definitely not going to rate the book, what most stands out for me is the feeling I'll forget about it pretty quickly. The one thing I really loved about the book was the use of motifs. But, here I must confess that I didn't know the word "motif" as it relates to literature. I'm probably the last to find out about this but OK. Here's what google told me after I read about the book and the word "motif" came up.

What is a motif in literature? 

Motif is a literary technique that consists of a repeated element that has symbolic significance to a literary work. Sometimes a motif is a recurring image. Other times it's a repeated word, phrase, or topic expressed in language. 

In South of the Border, West of the Sun, there are a large number of words or motifs that are repeated: rain, the color blue, and looking out at a graveyard are a few I recall. I don't always know what various images stand for in literature (so I often end up looking them up — I looked up crows as a metaphor when they appeared in a particular scene, for example). 

This may be simplistic on my part but I'd rather an author show or tell me what he's on about. And, yet, I thought the use of motifs was effective. So, while I didn't love the book, primarily because of Hajime's selfishness, I don't regret having read it. And, good grief, you could spend loads of time reading everyone's analysis of this book.

Some bits of information I found helpful:

The ‘South of the Border’ of the title refers to the popular 1939 song recorded for a film of the same name. As children Hajime and Shimamoto used to listen to a Nat King Cole recording of it (although in reality, Cole never recorded the song). Not knowing it refers to a trip to Mexico, Shimamoto used to wonder about what magical place lay south of the border. “Something beautiful, big and soft”. The ‘West of the Sun’ refers to a form of hysteria Shimamoto says afflicts people living in Siberia, possibly similar to Piblokto, where for no reason they abandon their life in difficult conditions and wander westward, usually dying of exposure.

--from We Need to Talk About Books

And, from Google:

"South of the Border", meaning a life of convention, possibility, and ultimately, disappointment, and "West of the Sun", meaning taking a step beyond reason, and in doing so risking everything [...]

Clearly, I'm going to need to read more Murakami. I've mostly read his short stories and nonfiction. I'll try to tackle one of his longer novels when I can fit it in. 

©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 Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox

1846. Sophronia Carver was widowed 4 years ago. The townfolk of Pale Harbor think she's a witch and a murderer so she's exiled herself with only two servants and a part-time helper in her sprawling Maine home, Castle Carver. When bodies begin turning up, Sophy is blamed. But someone is dropping strange clues and threats on her doorstep, clues that only a person who knows literature can unravel. 

Gabriel Stone's wife was deep into transcendentalism before her death and Gabriel feels obligated to become the man she wanted him to be. So he has taken a job as a minister in Pale Harbor, even though he knows little about the philosophy and is ill prepared to guide others. 

When Sophronia and Gabriel meet, she is hesitant to let her guard down after an abusive marriage but he is smitten. When the small town has more than its share of bodies showing up and the threats against Sophy continue, will Gabriel be able to help figure out who is tormenting Sophy and killing the locals?

Meh - I don't know . . . I probably don't recommend this but I finished it so I'd say it depends on whether or not you like romance. After reading The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox, I was hoping for another good Gothic read but The Widow of Pale Harbor was really a romance, first and foremost, and the mystery was a bit weak so it was slightly disappointing. I guessed who was guilty early on and the witch thing was a bit of a tease. Still, I liked The Witch of Willow Hall so much that I'll give the author another chance. 

A friend sent me this copy of The Widow of Pale Harbor and we discussed it after I finished. We felt about the same. Her opinion: "The cover was the best thing about the book." I do love that cover. 

©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 Binding by Bridget Collins

In the world of The Binding by Bridget Collins, bookbinding is a magical art that one is born with. A binder is a person who takes someone's memories, puts them in book form, and wipes those memories away. If done badly, binding can turn someone into a bit of a zombie. There are also fictional books but the real books in The Binding (those that are filled with memories) are considered bad by most as they're about the terrible memories that people want to forget, often horrific things like being raped.

Taking away bad memories doesn't sound inherently bad, so when I read the book description for The Binding, I was intrigued and hoped to find it a story filled with magic and hope. Instead, the book really focuses on an LGBTQ romance (not what I was expecting, in other words). The magical binding process is actually secondary and there's really nothing positive about it. Instead of learning to live with memories, stopping bad people from doing bad things, and making the world a better place, binding is primarily used to abuse people in this story, particularly to allow one very bad man to continue abusing the girls in his employ.

I was feeling reading-slumpish and nothing at all was grabbing me when I went roaming around the house, grazing on various books to see if anything would hold my attention. The Binding was the only book that really managed to hang onto me and I appreciate it for that. It broke a dark spell. But, while I loved the beginning and the idea of the story, I found that the farther I got into it, the more I was dismayed by the fact that it was filled with darkness without light, terrible people (so many truly awful characters), and pure melodrama. Someone was constantly being hit by waves of nausea or dizziness, vomiting, blacking out. At the beginning, when the main character was recovering from a fever, it made sense to me. But, I really did grow weary of the melodrama, particularly the vomiting. Ew.

I also was irritated by the profusion of incomplete sentences in dialogue. People often do start a sentence and then stop, interrupting themselves or others in mid-thought. But, again, it was a conceit that was overdone to the point that I started to snarl at the characters to finish their %@*$! sentences. Similarly, the binder Emmett is sent to apprentice with, Seredith, is a character I expected to train him in the art of bookbinding. Instead, she gives Emmett busy work and keeps saying she'll get to the real teaching, later. The incomplete sentences in dialogue and the fact that Seredith keeps putting off the training gave the book a fragmented feel that I found annoyed me.

Neither recommended nor not recommended - Disappointing. More an LGBTQ romance than a fantasy and I believe the book requires trigger warnings for rape, abuse, and suicide. I peeked at Goodreads to see what the average rating is because I was curious how other people felt. It has a 4-star rating, so there are clearly plenty of people who enjoyed this book. Since I've found that Goodreads reviews are generally lacking in spoilers, I recommend flipping through a few reviews before making a decision whether or not to read The Binding. While I gave the book a low rating and found myself thinking I probably should have abandoned it, I will say that the ending was absolutely perfect and just what I'd hoped for. So, I'm glad I held out for the ending, even if the book didn't work for me, in general.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of The Binding from HarperCollins for review. Many thanks!


©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 Power by Naomi Alderman

This is going to be another one of those book reviews in which I confess to being the odd reader out. The Power has so many things going for it. It's a favorite of President Obama! Margaret Atwood wrote a positive blurb! It won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction! It's dystopian!

And, I confess to loving the first 100 pages. It was gripping, unique, the writing is sharp, I was fascinated by the characters. I could barely put the book down. Then, it began to slip and here is probably where my opinion diverges from that of a lot of people who know and appreciate good writing. I didn't like the direction it took. It's not that the writing became any less tight or exceptional. Naomi Alderman is an excellent writer. But, the book didn't fulfill my personal hopes for a world in which the patriarchy is subdued by the sudden acquisition of physical power on the part of women. So, I acknowledge that The Power is an excellent piece of writing but one I grew to dislike because of the direction the author chose to take. It's a taste thing, not a writing thing.

Neither recommended or not recommended - Since I think the one thing I disliked about this book was its direction and the violence that came of the choice on the part of women to abuse power when it came into their hands, I would never tell anyone not to read The Power. But, it wasn't for me.

Incidentally, I decided to skip the synopsis because this one is everywhere, but I'd really like to know what my readers think about how I normally handle reviews. This is something I ponder, now and then (especially at the beginning of a new year). I like to write a brief synopsis -- admittedly, I am often not as brief as I'd like to be -- because when I go to a blog to read someone's thoughts, I don't necessarily know anything about the book they've opted to review. You, the blogger, may be my introduction to a book. I want to know what the story is about before you tell me your thoughts about it. Like everyone else, I hate spoilers. So, when I write a synopsis, I try to avoid them, but I've occasionally been informed about my failures.

Opinions? Thoughts?

©2018 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 Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

I guess the first thing you need to know about this book (and maybe the only one, from this blog) is "Everyone liked it better than meeee!" No idea why that's true, but I'm often the odd reader out.

The Last Mrs. Parrish tells the story of a young woman who has chosen a wealthy man as her target for marriage. Amber wants to be wealthy. She has done some research, chosen her target, and studied up on his world and how to work her way into it. Amber buddies up to Daphne Parrish intending, of course, to take her place and using her friendship to determine the individual weaknesses of husband and wife. Will Amber succeed at luring the fabulously wealthy and handsome Mr. Parrish away from his wife Daphne and becoming the next and last Mrs. Parrish?

The book is told in several parts. Part 1 is told from Amber's POV and Part 2 from Daphne's. When you're in Daphne's point of view, things begin to change. You've only seen the marriage from the outside. Daphne's recollections are every bit as shocking as Amber's. While Amber has been studying them, transforming herself, even reading the books they read, she doesn't know what's really going on behind closed doors and you'll begin to wonder, "Who is really being played?"

I found the plotting clever, once I got to the second section and realized what was going on, but I found the first section so hard to buy into that I almost didn't make it that far. The dialogue was particularly flat and lifeless. I only stuck the book out because of a friend's gushy review. In the end, I liked The Last Mrs. Parrish enough to not think of the reading as a waste of my time, but I didn't consider it exceptional in any way. I thought the characters were far too easily manipulated, for one thing. But, it was the atrocious dialogue that killed the book for me.

Neither recommended or not recommended - It's worth noting that just about everyone else seems to love The Last Mrs. Parrish and it is, in fact, a pretty clever idea. But, I was unable to suspend disbelief and gave it an average rating. The positives were the plotting and the quick pace, although there were times I felt bogged down by dull dialogue and disbelief. The book improves after the first section because the second part is where the bones of the plotting are slowly exposed. "Oh," you'll say to yourself. "I had no idea." And, you'll wonder what's going to happen, but you might not care -- at least, I didn't. I think part of my problem was that there's nobody to really root for, possibly because the dialogue makes everyone sound like an automaton. They're not witty characters, although they're intelligent in their own ways.


©2018 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.

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

When I received my shiny, pretty copy of Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich from HarperCollins, I didn't notice that the cover is a glossy ultrasound image. It was only when I went to add the book to my current reads that it became clear. So, what does the storyline have to do with the cover image? The protagonist, Cedar Songmaker, is 4 months pregnant at the opening of the book.

Future Home of the Living God is set in a dystopian near future. Climate change has altered the environment and the human race has stopped evolving and begun to slide backwards at an alarming rate. Pregnant women are being seized by the government. What is happening? Scientists have not been able to figure out why humans are losing ground, have no idea how to reverse the problem. And, people are beginning to panic.

Because she wants her child to be born as safe and healthy as possible, Cedar has decided to seek out her birth parents to learn about her family's medical history. Meanwhile, her adoptive parents have disappeared and the father of her child eventually reappears in her life. Will Cedar be able to remain hidden from view until after the baby arrives? Will the baby be normal or a less evolved creature? How will she and the child hide after its birth?

Those questions were enough to keep the pages turning and I really liked Louise Erdrich's writing, but I had some issues with the world building. As I was reading, I expected the usual peeling of the onion, plot-wise. I presumed that the author would make it clear, for example, why the societal structure was going to pieces, why there was a run on banks, why people would panic and go all Lord of the Flies. I understood why a pregnant woman might be in danger because The People in Charge might feel that it might be necessary to come up with some sort of breeding program that necessitated keeping the healthiest, most intelligent, closest-to-normal babies separate from those who were reverting to a more primitive form. That seems like a pretty obvious concept in a world where the opposite of evolution is taking place. But, I never felt like there was enough basis for such a complete collapse of the societal network, primarily because I couldn't buy into the concept that evolution could reverse itself so quickly that people would worry that soon they wouldn't be human at all.

Neither recommended or not recommended - I have mixed feelings about Future Home of the Living God because there was a great deal that I liked about it but I felt like there were too many pieces missing. Sure, panic could cause things to go blooey, but evolution is such a slow process that a sizeable cross-section of humanity doesn't even believe it exists. The idea that it could reverse itself at such speed just didn't work for me. And, yet, I loved the characterization, the setting, the use of the heroine's Native American heritage, and the way the book made me think. So, it was definitely not a waste of time and I'm glad I read it. I just closed the book feeling a little unsatisfied because I didn't feel the questions the plot was structured around were suitably answered.

I still have a copy of Louise Erdrich's last book on my TBR piles. I started LaRose and was enjoying it but set it aside because I had too many books going at once, last year. Even though Future Home of the Living God didn't entirely work for me, it has definitely made me want to return to LaRose. Erdrich is clearly an excellent writer and I always, always appreciate the use of Native Americans in literature as I feel they're underrepresented.

©2017 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.

Goodnight, Little Bot by Karen Kaufman Orloff and Kim Smith

Goodnight, Little Bot by Karen Kaufman Orloff and Kim Smith is a book about a little robot's going to bed routine. There are some similarities to the human litany (take a bath, read a book) and some charming differences (plug in to recharge, comb your circuits). It's a simple book that contains nothing overly surprising or unique beyond those few differences between a robot's routine and that of a human child but the illustrations are super cute. I'm a fan of robots and I enjoyed the illustrations more than the story, itself.

I was slightly bothered by the fact that the robot is shown snacking on batteries, since children do put dangerous things in their mouths. While I personally wish that had not been put in the book at all, I'm also aware that there's a way to overcome that problem, by playing a game relating to food. "Ew, we don't eat batteries. Yuck! What do we eat?" Talking about foods that are acceptable versus batteries or other things a robot might be shown munching on . . . I don't know, nuts and bolts? . . . could also lead to doing similar with the other differences between robot and human routines.

Neither recommended or not recommended - Love the illustrations and it's always nice to have a few bedtime stories that are just about the routine, itself, but apart from the cool robot pictures there is little that I found outstanding about Goodnight, Little Bot and it seriously bothers me that the robot is shown eating batteries. They're tremendously dangerous. If you're willing to use the robot's eating habits as a lesson, though, it's definitely a terrific visual experience.

©2017 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 Hidden Light of Northern Fires by Daren Wang

Joe Bell is close to one of his final stops on the Underground Railroad when he's discovered by two men in search of escaped slaves for the reward money. After Joe is badly hurt in a confrontation and injures one of his pursuers and a beloved dog, he makes his way to Mary's house.

Mary Willis is college-educated and has very liberal opinions for a young woman. She's been hiding escaped slaves in the family barn for some time when Joe shows up, injured and feverish. Because of his confrontation with the "copperheads" and the injuries they sustained, there are two very angry men who want to find Joe, not to mention his owner, Yates Bell. It will take special courage and subterfuge to nurse Joe back to health and help him escape to Canada.

Mary's brother, Leander, has never learned to accept responsibility. Expected to work on the family farm, instead he spends much of his time drinking and hanging out with friends at the shack he built. When he's sent to town to manage his father's lumber business, he is not particularly successful. Then he meets Isabel. His problems are compounded after she introduces him to opium and convinces him that she can help him make a fortune.

When war breaks out, the young men of Town Line all sign up for the army, led by Leander. Back home, Confederates are helped to escape to Canada, where they're able to regroup and return to war; and, Town Line becomes the only town in the Union to secede.

What will happen to Joe and Mary? Will Joe's lengthy stay get them both caught? When Leander joins the army, will he finally become disciplined? What will become of the many slaves who are escaping to the North when the people of Buffalo, New York begin to clash with them over concern that the influx of strangers will mean the loss of their jobs? Will the Confederates of Town Line be able to do serious damage to the Union?

My thoughts . . . 

That was quite a big synopsis because there are quite a few threads in The Hidden Light of Northern Fires. I skipped at least a couple of the subplots. At the beginning of the book, the story is almost exclusively about Mary, her part in the smuggling of slaves to Canada, and Joe. I'd say at least 1/3 of the book is primarily about them, although there is a bit of set-up regarding Joe's owner, Yates, and Harry, the man whose dog is killed.

But, as The Hidden Light of Northern Fires progresses, the number of different threads grows. Some, I didn't fully understand. Why, for example, does Isabel choose to have Leander join her posh but drug-addled life? What is her purpose? Did she plan to just use and discard him?

There were also some characters who disappeared early on and reappeared toward the end of the book. One writes letters home but is otherwise not spoken of till his return.

At the beginning, I could barely stand to put down The Hidden Light of Northern Fires. I liked Mary, her father Nathan, Joe, and Charles (a family friend). I cared about what would happen to them. Leander was simply a wastrel - the Branwell Brontë of the Willis family. Henry is a dubious character. I never knew quite whether to love or hate him. And, there are a number of simply despicable people - a parson who doesn't mind helping the Confederate escapees who go through and finds ways to get free labor and easy money, a Marshall without a conscience, a Confederate spy who is not past cheating the people he lures into "business".

Eventually, the quantity of violent characters and the body count started to wear on me. The book centers on some historical events, like the secession of the town, the riot between Irish dock workers and freed slaves, and the secret connections that helped both Confederates and escaped slaves make their way to Canada. Those were interesting but the violence tired me and by the last third of the book, I began to just want to get the reading over with.

Recommended? Not recommended? I just don't know. I loved both the beginning and ending. I liked the setting and the fact that I learned something new (that there was a single city in the North that seceded from the Union). I liked the fact that two of the characters who appeared unredeemable actually turned out okay in the end. And, I liked the overall storyline until that last 1/3 or so. But, I found the last 75-100 pages utterly exhausting because of the violence and the sheer quantity of nasty characters. I rated the book 3.5/5 and have considered knocking it down to 3 stars, which would be an average read. But, The Hidden Light of Northern Fires was so promising in the beginning, grabbed me so hard, and ended well enough that I'm not sure I can talk myself into penalizing it too much for the parts I disliked.

©2017 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.

Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

This is going to be one of those reviews that I quickly bury because I really don't like writing overly negative reviews and this one is going to lean negative (but I'll mention the positive and try to keep it as balanced as possible, no worries).

Same Beach, Next Year is about two couples who become lasting friends. Adam and Eve were lovers, way back in high school, but both are happily married when they and their spouses vacation in the same condominium complex in South Carolina. Adam's wife Elyse notices the looks that pass between the former lovers while Eve's husband Carl is too busy flirting with Elyse to pay much attention. The two couples become fast friends after Carl, a doctor, puts his doctoring skills to use when one of Adam and Elyse's twins is injured. For twenty years they vacation together while weathering the trials that come of parenting and living near their extended families.

Then, one day Adam and Eve are at their respective condominiums alone. Adam sees a light in Eve's place and goes to check it out, staying to talk late into the night when he finds that all is well. Elyse and Carl find the two asleep on Eve and Carl's sofa in the morning and both Elyse and Carl go ballistic, believing the two must have slept together. Their marriages crumbling, Carl leaves Eve and Elyse takes a long-desired trip to Greece to visit the family she hasn't seen since her childhood. When tragedy strikes, will Elyse and Carl find it in their hearts to forgive?

Okay, let's start with the positive: Same Beach, Next Year has good bones. Unfortunately, that's about all I can say I liked about the book, the fact that "stuff happens". It's got some interesting plot points. The problems with Same Beach, Next Year are, in my humble opinion, manifold. One is the lack of distinction between the two viewpoints: Adam's and Elyse's. When you're in Elyse's head, she is thinking about her life - the meals she cooks, the children and her husband and how perfect their life is, descriptions of various home interiors, her thoughts about the people around her. And, guess what? Adam is all about Elyse - what a perfect cook and hostess she is, how lucky he is to have her, blah, blah. He doesn't think like a man; he sounds exactly like a mirror image of Elyse.

My second problem with the book is that there are a lot of throw-away lines. For example, at some point Elyse thinks it would be nice to try for a little girl. But, then nothing happens. There is never a discussion between Adam and Elyse about having a third child and the line fits absolutely nowhere in the plot. She never becomes pregnant, never thinks about a third child again. And, this:

I had prepared an early supper of spaghetti with tomato sauce and lots of grated Asiago cheese instead of Parmesan. ~ p. 52

WHAT? I don't know how long I stared at that sentence, just wondering what the author was trying to say. Parmesan is what you're supposed to eat on spaghetti? Is she trying to tell me how to eat my pasta? What is the purpose of "instead of Parmesan"? Incidentally, "Maybe a girl would come to us?" is on the next page. I probably should have put the book down, at that point. But, I used to really enjoy Frank's books and continued, thinking it would undoubtedly improve. Nope. The throw-away lines continue. Late in the book, Elyse muses about social media ("a colossal waste of time") and one of the women says, "Wow," when another mentions that an elderly character gets all of her clothing from consignment shops. Just "wow", whatever that means. Are we supposed to frown upon her for not buying new items? Are they saying they're impressed at how well she chooses her clothing? I don't know.

Neither recommended or not recommended - The ratings at Goodreads are high and I confess I was never Dorothea Benton Frank's best audience, even though I enjoyed some of her earlier titles. I'm not a big fan of Southern fic; I simply liked them for the change of pace. If you like Frank's books, especially her recent work, you may enjoy Same Beach, Next Year. It's a "beachy" read, very brain light. I was disappointed with the last Frank book I read but thought she deserved one last chance. I will not read another book by this author, but I do think the book is well plotted and interesting things happen. It's just a very awkward read with a lot of meandering detail, the romance between couples is not very convincing, the heroine's world is too perfect, and I never really did like any of the main characters. It was not for me.


©2017 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'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein

I don't particularly like writing negative reviews, so I'll keep this one as short as I can and be sure to tell you what I liked about it . . . which wasn't much, but you know. I try.

You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein was recommended to me when I asked for feminist title suggestions on Twitter. I looked it up and found that the reviews were mostly positive and the blurb claimed it was funny. At the time, I was coming off two depressing books in a row, The Handmaid's Tale being one of them, so "funny" was definitely appealing. And, it did start out well. Klein described herself as someone who never quite grew out of the tomboy stage, coining the term "tom man" to describe a grown-up tomboy.

But, then the essays segued into what the author, a comedian, is apparently known for (I was unfamiliar with her): tales of her sex life. There is probably very little I like less than reading about someone's sex life and I have, in fact, skipped a lot of books that were described as humorous for just that reason (even though I enjoy humor). I don't even like fictional sex scenes unless, of course, what happens in the bedroom is relevant to the plot. I'm not a prude; it's just a personal preference. So, the fact that a good portion of You'll Grow Out of It is dedicated to stories about various boyfriends was a guarantee that I wasn't going to love the book. Had I known about Klein's style of comedy, I would have avoided it entirely.

Having said that, I thought the book had its moments. I enjoyed reading about Klein's search for her wedding dress. I think most married women can probably relate to that experience in some way. I also loved it that she compared that particular shopping experience to the feeling she gets when she tries to explain why she doesn't find Brad Pitt appealing - primarily because I don't find Brad Pitt appealing and nobody gets that. I also occasionally enjoyed her descriptive capacity. If she'd avoided using it on body parts, I would have appreciated it even more.

Neither recommended or not recommended - Not for me, but as I was reading You'll Grow Out of It, I thought of a couple friends who would probably enjoy it. If you dislike reading about someone else's sex life, avoid it. I also found the "not a girly girl and not attractive" theme somewhat disingenous. Klein had a lot of boyfriends, plenty of girlfriends to call or get drunk with when a relationship ended, and an affection for designer clothing. Those all sound pretty girly to me. Also, I looked her up. The wedding dress she said her friends turned their nose up at was gorgeous and so is she. Once you've seen what the author looks like, the whole concept of being not girly enough just seems ridiculous.

Again, I laughed a couple times and enjoyed her descriptive capacity to a certain extent. So, while this book is not for me, I would not tell people not to read it. I would say it depends entirely upon your taste in memoirs/essays. I would also definitely not classify this book as a feminist read at all because it doesn't deal with feminist issues, unless you consider "not looking girly enough" an issue. I do not. To me, feminism is about everyone, women included, having the same rights in work and in general daily living. While in some professions that may apply to such issues as dress code (forcing women to wear high heels, for example), that didn't appear to be the case.

©2017 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 book that made me pause to think about reviewing: Modern Girls by Jennifer Brown

I haven't had to deal with this particular dilemma in quite a while because I've become so brutal about stopping and actually giving away books that don't work for me that almost no book gets a rating below 3 out of 5 stars, these days (at Goodreads) or a neutral or "not recommended" rating, here, but this book really made me pause. I was sucked in enough to finish the book -- I just didn't like where the author took me. I can't remember the last time I felt so dramatically conflicted about whether or not I should even write a review.

The photo above is a pun . . . on the thought of pausing before I decided whether or not to review. Pause, paws. I know it's bad.

I adore the cover of Modern Girls and it's very fitting because one of the two main characters is a young, working woman. Also, I'm a sucker for a red dress cover:

I wrestled with whether or not to even put the title in my subject line because I don't want to draw too much attention to a book that I gave a very low rating. The writing itself is not bad -- too detailed, perhaps, but it flows very well. The more I think about it, though, the more I believe the problem was a matter of expectation versus reality. When I agreed to review Modern Girls, I knew it was the story of two women dealing with unexpected pregnancies against a backdrop in which WWII is on the horizon. I did hope the WWII aspect would become prominent as the story progressed because WWII is my absolute favorite historical setting. However, by the time I got around to reading, I had pretty much convinced myself that Modern Girls was a WWII book -- even though I knew it began with the focus firmly on the two pregnancies because this reading was my second attempt.

*****SPOILER ALERT!!! Skip down to the END SPOILER line if you plan to read Modern Girls, soon!!! THERE ARE DEFINITELY SPOILERS*****

Here's the deal: Dottie and her mother Rose are both pregnant. Both pregnancies are unexpected. Dottie's pregnancy is absolutely going to disrupt her life permanently if she doesn't hurriedly marry or miscarry. She is very talented with numbers and has an excellent job but it's the 1930s, a time when women are expected to give up their positions when they're "in a family way" and a time when pregnancy before marriage is not only shameful but damaging to the entire family.

Rose, on the other hand, is 42 and well aware that she hasn't given her youngest child the attention he deserved, instead leaving that to Dottie. Rose has lived through a lot of pain. She's experienced at least one miscarriage (herein lay one writing problem: from one point in the book to another, it seemed like the number of miscarriages and/or pregnancies changed) and lost one of her twin boys. Can she deal with starting over again at her age?

About 1/3 of the way in, I really thought Modern Girls would be a good book for discussion because the concept of abortion is brought up and that's heavy territory. Some groups couldn't handle that divisive a topic but I do believe the book group I'm in would be able to discuss it (if a bit loudly) without everyone going home hating each other. In the 1930s, of course, abortion was not legal in the United States and that meant what we used to call "back alley" abortions -- which were costly and dangerous because there were no guaranteed safety standards in some random abortionist's illegal office or living room or . . . wherever abortion was done. Many Americans want to return to making abortion illegal, of course, and the fact that making abortion illegal doesn't make it simply go away makes the topic ripe for discussion, emotional though it is for both sides.

Several other things were happening in the book, by this point. Rose's brother is stuck in Poland and unable to get a visa. Dottie's boyfriend is a devout Jew (they're all Jewish; the difference is that he is more devout than some of the other characters) and she believes the only way to salvage her pregnancy is to seduce him but he's said he wants them both to wait till marriage. The father of Dottie's child has a decent job and comes from money but is a playboy. Meanwhile, everyone is into politics, so there are always discussions about what's happening in Europe going on. I thought the talk of politics, the brother stuck in Poland, and eventually the playboy father's decision to work in Paris (a Jew working in France in the 1930s certainly seemed like set-up for a deeper plot change) all hinted that at some point the wheel was going to turn, Dottie would end up in Paris -- probably working to save her uncle -- and there would be danger! Nothing is more exciting in a book than placing the characters' lives in danger, right? But, no.

****END SPOILERS!!!! It's safe to read, now!****

While I did not like where the book took me, I confess to making assumptions that others clearly have not. Modern Girls really is just what it seemed in the first 1/3 of the book. It's a story about two women of different generations dealing with the same dilemma: unwanted pregnancy. That's it. When only 1/4 of the book was left (I hope you like fractions; I'm really throwing in the fractions), I realized there was no way the book was going where I thought it was going to go. So, then I had myself convinced that it must be the first in a series and it was going to end on a cliffhanger.

Well, it ended in a way that didn't feel complete to me -- actually, at a point where I would have been happy for the book to begin -- but it wasn't until I began to read the author interview at the back of the book that I realized it was a stand-alone as I'd originally thought.

Neither recommended or not recommended but not for me - Modern Girls is a book many, many people have told me they loved and my low rating at Goodreads (2.5/5 - rounded up to three stars but mentioned as a 2.5 in the review) will not hurt the author. There are more positive reviews than negative. So, that's the main reason I felt a little wary of writing about the book at all. It works for a lot of people and I don't want to put off potential readers who might really enjoy the book. I think, though, that I'd have been happier knowing that the WWII aspect would never become dominant. If you like a dilemma about unwanted pregnancies but don't mind the WWII setting remaining a backdrop rather than a central issue, you'll be fine. It's more of a character-driven book than a plot-heavy book and I favor movement of plot over relationships, in general. Modern Girls just wasn't the book for me.

©2016 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.

Black Run by Antonio Manzini

Black Run by Antonio Manzini
Released in the U.S. in April, 2015 (formerly published in Italy)
Published by Harper
Mystery/Crime Novel

Black Run is the first in a series of mysteries by an Italian author, featuring the crime-fighting skills of Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone, a detective who has been banished from Rome and now works on a small police force in the Italian Alps.

In the small town of Aosta, a man has been run over by a snow cat preparing the ski trails for the next day. The body is so badly damaged that it's a challenge to even locate all the pieces but the coroner and Schiavone quickly find enough evidence to prove that the victim was murdered. With very little to go on and a pushy magistrate and police chief who want answers quickly, Schiavone puts his skills to work.

There are some interesting details to the mystery and I absolutely loved the setting but I found the writing a little stiff and Schiavone unredeemably nasty. In some ways, he reminded me of British author Oliver Harris' shady detective hero, Nick Belsey, but I thought Belsey (in Deep Shelter, particularly) showed glimmers of hope for redemption and some semblance of morality, whereas Schiavone is just vile. His reason for having been banished from Rome is revealed but there's no real explanation of his uncomfortable marriage, at least near as I could tell. There are hints that his wife knows everything he's done and has some compelling reason to stay with him but without any real pretense at a relationship remaining. But, her appearances are minor enough to reveal little.

The mystery itself was fairly satisfying, although I sometimes had trouble understanding how the deputy police chief came to his conclusions and I absolutely did not like the way the author dragged out the dramatic arrest toward the end of the novel.

Neither recommended or not recommended - It's notable that I'm certain I got Black Run by mistake. I'm not a big fan of mysteries and choose them carefully; it's rare for a mystery description to really grab me. I got two in the same envelope, neither of which I recalled requesting. So, I think my requests must have been mixed up with someone else's.

However, I do read the occasional mystery-slash-crime novel and I was in the mood for a change of pace. I liked Black Run for the fact that it was so very different. The setting was unique, vivid, evocative. I liked reading about the cold when I'd been outside painting in the heat. It was refreshing. Also, during the time I was reading Black Run, I had vivid dreams of mountains and bickering Italians, which was surprisingly fun in spite of the fact that they were nightmares. I disliked the detective enough that I doubt I'd read another book in the series but I don't regret the time spent reading Black Run so I gave it an average rating. I would particularly recommend the book to mystery readers who don't mind a particularly dark and slimy protagonist.


©2015 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.

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
Copyright 2014
Riverhead Books - Fiction
Source:  ARC sent by Publisher

It was snowing when I got off the bus at Flax Hill. Not quite regular snowfall, not exactly a blizzard. This is how it was. The snow came down heavily, settled for about a minute, then the wind moved it -- more rolled it, really -- onto another target. One minute you were covered in snow, then it sped off sideways, as if a brisk, invisible giant had taken pity and brushed you down.

~ p. 13, Advance Reader Copy of Boy, Snow, Bird (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

As for Flax Hill itself, I was on shaky terms with it for the first few months. Neither of us was sure whether or not I genuinely intended to stick around. And so the town misbehaved a little, collapsing when I went to sleep and reassembling in the morning in a slapdash manner; I kept passing park benches and telephone booths and entrances to alleyways that I was absolutely certain hadn't been there the evening before. 

~p. 15, ARC

It was a windy morning, and the wind pushed me, and the road dragged me, and the tree branches flew forward and peeled back and broke away, and their scrawny trunks hugged each other.

~p. 59, ARC

Imagine having a mother who worries that you read too much. The question is, what is it that's supposed to happen to people who read too much?  How can you tell when someone's crossed that line?

~p. 90, ARC

I have a relationship to Boy, Snow, Bird similar to the heroine's feelings about Flax Hill at the beginning of the novel, a bit shaky.  As usual, I went into the reading without bothering to learn much beyond what I'd read at the time I accepted the book for review and mostly forgotten by the time I opened the book. I did know the title was a list of character names and I was aware of the basic storyline. I'm not entirely sure what I expected of the book but the description of young Snow, with her dark hair and lovely skin, and the book jacket comment describing Boy as an evil stepmother made it clear that Boy, Snow, Bird was in some way based on "Snow White".  I have a feeling I was anticipating something a little magical, a bit dreamy with elements of fantasy. That may explain my disappointment.

Warning!!  This review may contain spoilers.  Skip down to the recommendation line (highlighted in bold) if you are concerned.  

Boy is the name of the protagonist, an abused young lady whose father is a rat catcher in New York City. She knows nothing at all about her mother, only that her father is angry and dangerous. Although a young man named Charlie loves her, she escapes the city as soon as she's able and ends up in Flax Hill. There, Boy eventually falls in love with and marries Arturo Whitman, the father of beautiful Snow, a girl with thick, beautiful hair and dark eyes who instantly charms everyone. When Boy gives birth to their daughter, Bird, the Whitman family's secret comes to light.  They're pale blacks living as whites. Bird is clearly a black child and Boy is blonde and fair.

Boy sends Snow away, I presume because she can't bear the contrast between the two children. That was never entirely clear to me. I also never quite understood why Boy rejected Charlie, a man who truly loved her and went out of his way to show her how much he cared, for Arturo, a man whose affection was lukewarm at best. There was a moment I thought the author tried to explain it away but I just couldn't wrap my head around the concept. Did she feel like she didn't deserve Charlie? Was he too much a part of her early life?  I just don't know.

The book is written in three parts and the first portion, between descriptions of the rat catcher and the abuse of Boy, almost convinced me the book was not for me.  And, yet, now and then a strange, beautiful or just unusual sentence would jump out at me and the uniqueness of the author's style kept me going.

Unfortunately, I really feel like I would have been better off not finishing Boy, Snow, Bird. The second section's tenor was entirely different as the viewpoint changed from Boy's to Bird's. The beginning had made my skin crawl at times and unsettled me, yet there were sparkling moments. The second section was flat and lifeless.  The third is just bizarre, as a plot twist involving a transgendered character is tossed into the mix and then . . . the story ends.

In some ways, I felt like I "got" what the author of Boy, Snow, Bird was trying to accomplish. I understood the theme: The color of your skin changes the way people view you. But, I was disappointed that what began as uncomfortable yet oddly intriguing writing degenerated. And, I am completely clueless about the purpose of the transgendered character. Does the fact that the character is transgender change how Boy felt about that person? I think so. But, because the trans element was tossed in like an afterthought, even treated as if the change of gender were a mental illness as opposed to realistic feelings of gender identity, the ending just left me with question marks hanging over my head, tickling my skin. I felt like I had to brush them off my arms and step on them, then move immediately to another book to cleanse my mind. I also think the cover description of Boy as an "evil stepmother" is misleading. She doesn't mother Snow at all; she just sends her away.

Neither recommended nor not recommended - I gave Boy, Snow, Bird a 3-star rating but I've waffled over whether or not that was too high. My general feeling upon closing the book was, "What the hell was that?" I got something out of the story and yet I was confused and irritated by the ending. I think at the time I closed the book I felt like the beginning held too much promise to give the book less than an average rating. And, yet, since the ending was so immensely disappointing, I wonder if that may have been a mistake. Either way, I don't feel like I can give a recommendation or tell you to avoid it. There is something unusual about Helen Oyeyemi's writing. While I didn't love this particular story, I would not avoid her writing in the future. There are hints of possibility that are not to be ignored.

Cover thoughts:  I love the cover. The background color and juxtaposition of evil and good images (snake and rose - probably to represent Boy's treatment of Snow and Snow's innocent whimsy) make for a dazzling combination.

Because I'm gettin' old: I noticed one historical anachronism. Boy arrives at Flax Hill in 1953 and within a decade or two, one of the characters refers to a Mr. Chen as "Asian" rather than the word we used in my childhood, "Oriental". Seeing mistakes like that makes me panic about my own writing. It must be difficult to get everything right when writing historical fiction. 1953 wasn't even all that long ago, although -- just so you know -- it was before my lifetime, thankyouverymuch.

©2014 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.

I'm Nobody by Alex Marestaing

I'm Nobody: The Lost Pages by Alex Marestaing
Copyright 2013 
Mymilou Press - YA 
Source: Litfuse Publicity for tour

I have to make a quick comment, up front, that I'm not sure I actually am posting on the correct day because I've got the tour date for I'm Nobody in my calendar on one date and a note to myself in my inbox with a different date. So, I picked the one that worked best for me. Apologies if that's incorrect.

Brief synopsis:

Caleb Reed has suffered from crippling anxiety since the death of his sister. To help him recover, his parents pulled him out of public school thinking homeschooling would help him calm down. Instead, 7 years on, his issues have grown worse. Now, he won't even leave the house.  His parents think he's crazy but they have no idea how to help him. When Caleb notices a light coming from the old, abandoned house across the road, he is terrified. But, then a former classmate shows up at his house and mysterious notes begin to show up outside his door. 

At first, Caleb thinks the notes are from his former classmate but they're signed by a different name. Is it Iris, the young girl who has taken an interest in Caleb and wants to film a documentary of his life, or is his sister trying to contact him from beyond the grave?

My thoughts:

Unfortunately, I'm Nobody was a DNF for me. I made it to page 70 out of 215 pages.  It's important to note that I've had a bad run recently, with a couple books (not yet reviewed) that I'm convinced I should not have bothered to finish. So, I'm a little more prone to give up on a book, at this point.  Having said that, there were two reasons I stopped reading. The first was that the book never really grabbed me and sucked me in. I thought Iris had a good heart and I cared about what was going to happen to Caleb, but I kept setting the book aside -- sometimes in mid-sentence -- and walking away from it.  I also found the sentence structure incredibly awkward and frustrating. I've got that uncomfortable condition known as "editor brain" and the entire time I was reading I'm Nobody, I kept halting to restructure sentences in my head. 

I do think at another time, I might have finished the reading of I'm Nobody. While the writing style would still have annoyed me any other time I picked it up, I do think the characters were interesting and if I had the just a touch more patience, who knows? I might have enjoyed it.  At this moment, it was not for me.

Neither recommended or not recommended - There were things I liked about I'm Nobody, but clumsy sentences and impatience kept me from finishing the book. I would not, however, warn anyone but those who can't bear awkward sentences away from the reading. I like the idea. The book just didn't capture me.

©2014 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.