A story about celebrity, self-discovery, and being true to oneself, Christa Comes Out of Her Shell is weighed down by its overly-quirky narrative stylings. Ultimately, though, it’s a decent story about figuring out who you are and how much of you belongs to the world. Christabel – Christa – Liddle has settled into a life…
I love spicy food, and I once spent eight months working in the High Arctic, so when I saw Dani Redd’s novel The Arctic Curry Club, I had to pick it up. The premise is an interesting one, too. Maya Reed-Kaur’s boyfriend Ryan has got a job doing research on polar bears, so she goes…
The Girls We Sent Away is loaded with the realistic, sad stuff of life. It’s the kind of novel a post-Roe v. Wade world needs, but a couple of factors keep it from being an DIK. It is the summer of 1964, and North Carolina native, astronomy fan and high school junior Lorraine Delford seems…
Well, this is one heck of a fun read, but it’s also a poignant and wonderful one. The Husbands is a surreal, sprightly and delightful sci-fi-ish romcom that takes a look at what happens when one woman is beset by a bunch of possible futures – and future husbands. Lauren Strickland comes home slightly buzzed…
The Philadelphia Heiress is very typical of its genre. You get some soapy romantic conflict, you get some exotic locations, and you get a love triangle. The book is somewhat hampered by dull prose, but, overall, it’s a decent work of fiction. It is 1924, and Helen Montgomery’s whole social life is based around the…
Sisters with a Side of Greens sparkles with personality and wit. The chronicle of two sisters who have nothing (but really everything) in common, it captures two personalities at loggerheads who crackle and clash in beautifully realistic ways. Years ago, Rose Tillman and Marvina Nash planned on opening a soul food restaurant – a plan…
I was excited to pick up The Phoenix Crown because I had read books by both authors before and thoroughly enjoyed them. I expected that combined, they would write a stunning, richly historical tale, but alas, that was not the case. 1906. This may very well be Gemma Garland’s last chance. A soprano who has…
Expiration Dates is filled with lovely prose and – though it is grounded in a world of magical realism – it is bare-bones real and honest about the life of its imperfect protagonist. I was bugged by a few things in the narrative, but it still has something important to say, even though I found…
The Beatles famously sang, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” The Underground Library is the book form of those cheery, uplifting lyrics, showing, through the lives of three young women, that a little help can make all the difference. 1939: Sofie Baumann doesn’t want to go to London on her own….
The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West is a lovely, heart-tugging and exciting novel that fictionalizes a real-life air race that was loaded from top to bottom with disasters and drama. We are presented with two timelines. In 1987, sculptress Wren Summers finds herself landing on The Big Island. Her father disappeared years ago, her relationship…
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