Queenie is, quite simply, the best novel I’ve read this year so far. The publicity describes the book as Bridget Jones meets Zadie Smith, but I’d go a step farther – this is an original voice with something fresh to say about the lives of young black British women struggling to maintain their racial and…
Lisa See – novelist of well-researched and sometimes amazing, sometimes infuriating novels like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, China Girls, Dreams of Joy and Shanghai Girls – returns with The Island of Sea Women, a beautiful and heartbreaking tale about two lifelong friends who become part of the legendary all-female diving collective known as…
I’d been hearing great things about Anissa Gray’s début novel The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls for almost a year before I finally picked it up. It was one of those books I really wanted to read, but at the same time, I hated the thought of not having it to look forward…
Laura Trentham’s The Military Wife is a poignant, gently moving story that explores the various facets of military life as faced by the families of servicemen and women, who have to deal with challenges just as complex and difficult as their enlisted loved ones. It’s an entertaining and informative story in which the author examines…
The story of three sisters who are dumped by their boyfriends/husbands in the same week, California Girls is Susan Mallery at her most interesting – but the novel also suffers from flaws which make it difficult for me to rate it more highly. Finola Corrado, Ali Schmitt and Zennie Schmitt couldn’t be more different in…
Falguni Kothari’s The Object of Your Affections isn’t an easy book to define. It’s the story of best friends who embark on a journey that will change their lives in unimaginable ways. It’s a quiet story that focuses on the inner development of its characters rather than on the high drama that fills the pages…
Every once in a great while, a book comes along and punches me right in the gut. It sounds unpleasant, and in a way, I suppose it is, but it’s also the best way I can describe my visceral reaction to certain very powerful stories such as Yara Zgheib’s début novel, The Girls of 17…
Lynda Cohen Loigman’s The Wartime Sisters checked a couple of my book-catnip boxes. As you’ll know if you’ve followed my reviews for any length of time, I absolutely adore books that take place during the Second World War. I also really enjoy reading about the close but messy relationships shared between sisters. I don’t have…
Jill Santopolo follows up her runaway hit The Light We Lost with More than Words, the story of both a love triangle and the grieving process. Nina Gregory has always been close to her father, Joseph, who raised her alone after her mother died when Nina was eight. She’s buried herself in her work at…
Forget You Know Me is the latest offering from author Jessica Strawser. It’s a book that can’t be easily categorized, but it’s one I’m definitely glad I picked up. Molly and Liza used to be the best of friends. In fact, there was once a time when neither woman could imagine life without the other…
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