Category: book review

Book Review:   Icon and Inferno, by Marie Lu

Image belongs to Macmillan.

Title:  Icon and Inferno     
Author:  Marie Lu
Genre: YA        
Rating:  4 out of 5

A year has passed since superstar Winter and secret agent Sydney Cossette went undercover – on a dangerous mission to bring down the baddest man in London.

Winter hasn’t stopped thinking about Sydney since, and she’s been trying not to think about him

Family secrets and nasty newspapers has Winter desperate to re-enter the secret world. And it’s not long before he gets his chance.

Sydney is back, and this time the mission goes right to the heart of the United States of America. A rescue gone wrong, an assassination attempt – and the return of an old flame – puts Winter right back into the action . . . and into a country on the brink of chaos.

And when a murder accusation has Sydney on the run, suddenly it’s not just a life at stake, but all-out war.

I hadn’t read the first book in this series, but that didn’t really cause a problem—although I think it would have been better to read it. I enjoyed these characters and everything they had going on and loved the chemistry between Winter and Sydney. Lots of action, of course, and a bit of mystery about what was happening. This was a quick, fun read.

Marie Lu is a bestselling author. Icon and Inferno is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.)

Sundays are for Writing #283

This was a tough writing week. It was a tough week in general. I had to alter my Monday-Friday writing schedule, and just now finished up my fifth fiction session for the week. I also wrote one book review, The Seaside Sisters, by Pamela M. Kelley.

Happy writing!

Book Review: The Seaside Sisters, by Pamela M. Kelley     

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:   The Seaside Sisters
Author:  Pamela M. Kelley      
Genre: Fiction      
Rating:  3.5 out of 5

One summer can change everything.

Brooklyn-based Hannah is a bestselling author struggling to write her second book after personal losses. Her older sister, Sara, still lives in Chatham, Cape Cod, where they grew up, and is married with four children. Once a dedicated librarian, Sara dreams of reviving her love affair with literature, but instead, she is stuck with too many family responsibilities and a fizzling marriage.

When Hannah gets the chance to retreat to her aunt’s oceanfront house in Chatham for the summer, it seems like just the thing to get her creative juices flowing. And she’ll be able to spend more time with Sara, who is eager to find her way back into the workforce, to do something rewarding and book-related. The pair will spend the summer making friends, rekindling romance― especially Spencer, an old acquaintance from high school-turned very hot grump― and opening themselves up to the magic of books and the beach.

This…felt very conflict-free to me. Hannah’s storyline did, anyway. It felt almost placid, with only token obstacles thrown up, and Hannah’s “romance” basically didn’t take place at all. They hated each other. They became friends. There was no sign of attraction between them except for one almost-kiss. Then, poof. Hannah’s sister and her aunt had much more conflict in their relationships. This wasn’t a bad read, it was just so-so.

Pamela M. Kelley is a bestselling author. The Seaside Sisters is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  Barely Even Friends, by Mae Bennett

Image belongs to Alcove Press.

Title:    Barely Even Friends  
Author: Mae Bennett         
Genre: Romance        
Rating: 4 out of 5  

Bellamy Price has just been offered the job of a lifetime: lead contractor on the restoration of the mysterious and sprawling Killington Estate. If she meets the owner’s ridiculous timeline, she’ll finally make a name for herself in this male-dominated industry. But when she rolls up her sleeves, slips on her suspenders, and shows up at the crumbling mansion, Bellamy finds the estate very much occupied.

After a traumatic car accident that left his parents dead and himself injured, Oliver Killington, heir to the Killington empire, took up residence as the grumpy caretaker of his grandfather’s mansion. None too pleased by the presence of the hammer-wielding woman who’s moved into his house, Oliver tries to block her at every turn.

But when Bellamy discovers Oliver’s facing his own ultimatum from his grandfather, the two form a cautious truce, which leads to flying sparks that are definitely not from faulty wiring. As Bellamy restores the gleam to the Killington Estate, she’ll have to decide if the walls she’s built around herself are worth knocking down to make space for someone else.

This ended up being a cute read! I like the grumpy/sunshine trope—if it’s done well and Grumpy doesn’t come across as a jerk—and this one was done well. Bonus points for the body positivity message. Bellamy was a lot of fun, and her voice was so relatable it made me laugh. Her developing friendship with Oliver, as well as the secondary characters, made this a fun read.

Barely Even Friends is Mae Bennett’s debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of Alcove Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review:  All’s Fair in Love and War, by Virginia Heath

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:   All’s Fair in Love and War    
Author:  Virginia Heath        
Genre:  Romance       
Rating:  4.5 out of 5

When the flighty older sister of former naval captain, Henry Kincaid, decides on a whim to accompany her explorer husband on an expedition to Egypt, he finds himself unwittingly left in the lurch with her three unruly children and her giant, mad dog. With no clue how to manage the little rascals, a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all of his attention, and no idea when his sister is coming back, Harry has to hire an emergency governess to ensure that everything in his ordered house continues to run shipshape. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice’s School for Girls prepared to pay whatever it takes to get a governess quick sharp to bring order to the chaos.

Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgina Rowe does not subscribe to the ethos that children should be seen and not heard. She believes childhood should be everything that hers wasn’t, filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional educational ethos. Their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, however, is another matter entirely…

Like all of Virginia Heath’s books, this was a fun and cute read. Georgie really made me laugh several times, and I loved how she interacted with the children. Henry was great, too. I think I enjoyed his flasher incident at the party the most, as I can only imagine how mortifying this would have been for him. This is definitely a fun weekend read.

Virginia Heath is from London. All’s Fair in Love and War is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: Better Left Unsent, by Lia Louis    

Image belongs to Atria Books.

Title:  Better Left Unsent  
Author: Lia Louis   
Genre: Romance  
Rating:  4 out of 5

So many ways to torpedo your career and your love life…So little time.

Two years ago, thirty-year-old receptionist Millie Chandler had her heart spectacularly broken in public. Ever since, she has been a closed book, vowing to keep everything to herself—her feelings, her truths, even her dreams—in an effort to protect herself from getting hurt again.

But Millie does write emails—sarcastic replies to her rude boss, hard truths to her friends, and of course, that one-thousand-word love declaration to her ex who is now engaged to someone else. The emails live safely in her drafts, but after a server outage at work, Millie wakes up to discover that all her emails have been sent. Every. Single. One.

As every truth, lie, and secret she’s worked so hard to keep only to herself are catapulted out into the open, Millie must fix the chaos her words have caused, and face everything she’s ever swept under the carpet.

First of all, can you imagine if this happened to you? I’d have to quit my job and move away where no one knew me. I almost stopped reading about 20% in because I wasn’t totally invested in the story, but…I really liked Jack. He was great! I loved how supportive of Millie he was and how he treated her. That was well-worth reading!

Lia Louis lives in the U.K. Better Left Unsent is her newest novel.

Book Review: Savor It, by Tarah DeWitt   

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title:  Savor It    
Author: Tarah DeWitt       
Genre: Romance        
Rating:  4 out of 5

Summer won’t last forever.

Sage Byrd has lived in the coastal town of Spunes, Oregon (not to be confused with Forks, Washington) her entire life. She’s learned to love her small world, with the misfit animals on her hobby farm, and her friendships with the town’s inhabitants. But when her 5-year relationship ends and her ex, town-golden-boy Ian, suddenly gets engaged, Sage needs a win―something that will convince everyone to stop pitying her all the time, and to put Ian in his place. The Festival of Spunes, the town’s annual summer competition, would be the perfect opportunity. She just needs a partner.

Fisher Lange was a hotshot chef in New York City until the loss of his sister left him numb, grieving, and responsible for his teenage niece Indy. When Fisher loses his Michelin star along with his love of cooking, his boss sends him and Indy to Spunes on a much-needed summer sabbatical to consult on a restaurant opening. But when clashes with the townspeople threaten his last chance to redeem himself and a kiss with his new neighbor Sage leads to dating rumors, a strategic alliance might just be the best way to turn things around.

A deal is struck. Sage will improve Fisher’s image in the eyes of the town and remove the roadblocks he is facing with the restaurant, and Fisher will be Sage’s partner for the competition. But as their pact quickly turns into steamy rendezvous, emotional wounds begin to heal, and the pair tries to savor every moment, they start to realize that summer is racing by much faster than they would like…

This was a cute, sweet read. I don’t even like small towns, but I enjoyed this setting. Sage had me in stitches several times with her internal monologue, although Fisher occasionally got on my nerves a bit. Their chemistry was great, and I loved how they grew as individuals while their relationship grew, too.

Tarah DeWitt is an author, wife, and mama. Savor It is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Sundays are for Writing #281

This has been a solid writing week: I got in five fiction sessions and two book reviews, Loyally, Luke, by Pepper Basham and The Way of the Hermit, by Ken Smith. That last book was a surprisingly interesting read to me, and I really loved the descriptions of the Scottish wilderness.

Happy writing!

Book Review: Loyally, Luke, by Pepper Basham  

Image belongs to St. Martin’s Press.

Title: Loyally, Luke    
Author: Pepper Basham        
Genre:  Romance      
Rating:  4 out of 5

Dear Reader,

My name is Luke Edgewood, and there are few things in life that I require. Mainly black coffee. And flannel. And lots of solitude. And my dogs, Chewy and Indie. What I don’t need is romance, so I have no plans to change my thirty-year-old bachelor status anytime soon.

But my youngest sister thinks that by accepting a short-term construction job in the small European country of Skymar, I’m going to follow along in her footsteps and discover my own romantic adventure. Nope. Bah humbug. The End. This time, her rom-com-movie senses are totally wrong.

Or maybe not. Because I’ve met a Grace Kelly look-alike who is annoying . . . until she isn’t. But she is impossible. As in, nothing can happen between us because she is a literal princess. Even though that’s easy to forget when we’re working together to restore a castle-like orphanage in a secluded mountain town and “forced proximity” includes a small closet, a secret one-hundred-year-old journal, and the tactile memory of an off-limits royal in my arms.

Basically, the whole situation has turned into an ooey gooey magical snow globe of romantic tropes complete with cute kids and an actual ball. Now, even my sentences are starting to sound like mush. Ugh. Send high levels of testosterone my way—I’m going to need it.

Loyally,

Luke

Honestly, the format of the book—a solid chunk of it is text message transcripts and emails—aggravated me enough that I almost stopped reading early on, but then I got a grip and pushed through. This was a sweet read, and I loved how faith was just a part of the characters’ lives without it being made a big deal out of. This was a quick weekend read and would be a good vacation read.

Pepper Basham lives in North Carolina. Loyally, Luke is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Book Review: The Way of the Hermit, by Ken Smith

Image belongs to Hanover Square Press.

Title: The Way of the Hermit
Author:  Ken Smith        
Genre: Biography/Memoir     
Rating: 4 out of 5   

Subconsciously, I pressed myself into the loch’s banks as that summer inched forward. We’d got off to a rocky beginning, but I started to see Treig in a different way. There was something about this land that told me just to hold on a while longer. It might’ve been just a whisper at the time, but I knew it was definitely worth heeding. I just knew that was it. This was the place.

Seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as “the lonely loch,” where he lives off the land. He fishes for his supper, chops his own wood and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit.

From his working-class origins in Derbyshire, Ken always sensed that there was more to life than an empty nine to five. Then one day in 1974, an attack from a group of drunken men left him for dead. Determined to change his prospects, Ken quit his job and spent his formative years traveling in the Yukon. It was here, in the vast wilderness of northwestern Canada, that he honed his survival skills and grew closer to nature. Returning to Britain, he continued his nomadic lifestyle, wandering north and living in huts until he finally reached Loch Treig. Ken decided to lay his roots amongst the dense woodland and Highland air, and has lived there ever since.

This was a fascinating read! Despite having approximately zero interest in roughing it or surviving off the land, I was engrossed in reading about Ken’s adventures in the wilderness. The storms he survived sounded terrifying! His descriptions brought the Scottish Highlands to life, and I have nothing but admiration for this man and his life choices.

Ken Smith has lived off-grid in the Scottish Highlands for 40+ years. The Way of the Hermit is his story.

(Galley courtesy of Hanover Square Press in exchange for an honest review.)