Book Review: The Dying Of The Light

Author: Robert Goolrick

Publication Date: July 3, 2018

Publisher: Harper

From the author of the bestselling A Reliable Wife comes a dramatic, passionate tale of a glamorous Southern debutante who marries for money and ultimately suffers for love—a southern gothic as written by Dominick Dunne.

It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .

Diana Cooke was "born with the century" and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that her parents had only one asset, besides her famous beauty: their stately house, Saratoga, the largest in the commonwealth, which has hosted the crème of society and Hollywood royalty. Though they are land-rich, the Cookes do not have the means to sustain the estate. Without a wealthy husband, Diana will lose the mansion that has been the heart and soul of her family for five generations.

The mysterious Captain Copperton is an outsider with no bloodline but plenty of cash. Seeing the ravishing nineteen-year-old Diana for the first time, he’s determined to have her. Diana knows that marrying him would make the Cookes solvent and ensure that Saratoga will always be theirs. Yet Copperton is cruel as well as vulgar; while she admires his money, she cannot abide him. Carrying the weight of Saratoga and generations of Cookes on her shoulders, she ultimately succumbs to duty, sacrificing everything, including love.

Luckily for Diana, fate intervenes. Her union with Copperton is brief and gives her a son she adores. But when her handsome, charming Ashton, now grown, returns to Saratoga with his college roommate, the real scandal and tragedy begins.

Reveling in the secrets, mores, and society of twentieth-century genteel Southern life, The Dying of the Light is a romance, a melodrama, and a cautionary tale told with the grandeur and sweep of an epic Hollywood classic.

This novel reads just like a Southern Gothic novel. As a fan of Flannery O’Connor, I am all for Robert Goolrick’s writing style. This was the first novel of his I have read, but it will not be the last. These characters and the Southern manor backdrop transported me to another world and made me want to watch Gone With The Wind a million times on repeat. The characters come with their own secrets and mysteries, and this is what makes them exceptional. I am a stickler for a good southern belle, being one myself, and Goolrick delivers in this aspect big-time. Goolrick’s writing is as beautiful and passionate as a sweeping, Southern mansion and this novel has definitely inspired me to go and check out his other works.

It begins with a house and it ends in ashes.

The memory of the Civil War still hung over them all like a shroud, as present as yesterday, and the Great War stabbed at the heart of the great families as sure as a bayonet.

It seemed the walls of her house, Saratoga, were lined with portraits of heroes of the life’s blood of America itself, and now only she was left, the last Cooke, her sex a disappointment to everybody. 

Girls in her situation were marrying dukes and earls and even princes because the royals lived in these big piles they couldn’t afford to heat. But these were rich girls, the awkward daughters of the new robber barons. She was poor. They had lived by their wiles and an aristocratic condescension even the rich girls couldn’t muster.

This story is rich in plot, characterization, and beautifully written prose. The manor, Saratoga, feels like a character in itself and will reel you in with its detail, secrets, love, and loss. I love books that inspire me to go looking for more – more from the author, the era, and the genre. This was a truly great read!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Harper in exchange for my honest review***

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Debut Review: Baby Teeth

Author: Zoje Stage

Publication Date: July 17, 2018

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bonds in award-winning playwright and filmmaker Zoje Stage’s tense novel of psychological suspense, Baby Teeth.

Afflicted with a chronic debilitating condition, Suzette Jensen knew having children would wreak havoc on her already fragile body. Nevertheless, she brought Hanna into the world, pleased and proud to start a family with her husband Alex. Estranged from her own mother, Suzette is determined to raise her beautiful daughter with the love, care, and support she was denied.

But Hanna proves to be a difficult child. Now seven-years-old, she has yet to utter a word, despite being able to read and write. Defiant and anti-social, she refuses to behave in kindergarten classes, forcing Suzette to homeschool her. Resentful of her mother’s rules and attentions, Hanna lashes out in anger, becoming more aggressive every day. The only time Hanna is truly happy is when she’s with her father. To Alex, she’s willful and precocious but otherwise the perfect little girl, doing what she’s told.

Suzette knows her clever and manipulative daughter doesn’t love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna’s subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and Alex apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger…

This is one of the creepiest books I have read in a long time. The story follows Suzette, who loves her daughter but is dealing with a lot of health problems herself and her daughter’s tricks are becoming more and more sophisticated. Hanna is a sweet, innocent child in the eyes of her father, but he doesn’t realize just how much Hanna wants her mother out of the picture so she can be raised by him alone. Hanna, right from the start, tries to plot against her mother – she plans to fatally harm her. This was difficult to read and Hanna was a hard character to read about because no part of me wanted to imagine or believe that a small child can be this devilish. I wasn’t a huge fan of Suzette either. She came off as selfish and self-centered, but then would feel bad about Hanna’s character or unhappiness. She was a confusing and hard character to follow.

Baby Teethis going to be one of the most talked about books of the year. I feel like its sole purpose was to terrify and shock the reader – and it did just that! Sometimes I felt like I was reading a Stephen King novel – Stage was brave and bold with her writing – she did things that were uncharacteristic of a debut author. I was intrigued by her writing and the thought processes she must have had while writing this book. I cringed at times, I was frustrated at times, but ultimately, I was creeped out. I loved that I got to see Hanna's perspective as well as Suzette's. If Stage set out to write the eeriest book of the year, she did just that!

“It was hard to pour endless love into someone who wouldn't love you back. No one could do it forever.”

“Now that she knew the name of the game - Scare Mommy - she should be able to defend herself. But goosebumps rose on her skin, even under the heat of the water, when she thought about her creepy daughter. The whites of her eyes. Her ability to sneak up on her as she slept.”

“We had an accident--'

Suzette cut Alex off. 'Hanna's trying to kill me.”

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Author: Ottessa Moshfegh

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Publisher: Penguin Press

From one of our boldest, most celebrated new literary voices, a novel about a young woman's efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.

Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn't just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.

Moshfegh’s latest novel follows our unnamed narrator who is a twenty-something New Yorker who has decided that she wants to escape the next year of her life by taking enough pharmaceutical drugs to put her to sleep for that long. She lost her parents at a young age and speaks about a childhood that was often less than idyllic. She feels alone, unsatisfied, and is left a rather large inheritance that is more than enough to get her through a year of sleep. 

The narrator is witty, unique, somewhat weird, and far different from anything I have read this year. At times, I didn’t know whether I should like her or dislike her, and I think this is part of what helped the book hold its charm. 

Mosshfegh’s writing is humorous at times, clever, and astonishing. I did not anticipate this novel making me ponder my own life and my own thoughts as much as it did. At first, I thought that the entire premise seemed strange, but then I felt that I caught on to what Mosshfegh wanted readers to reflect upon as they read. I never thought this book would give me pause and cause me to feel so many emotions through a nameless narrator. I did not understand her actions or many of her thoughts, but I think that is what makes this book so astonishing.  

I had started “hibernating” as best I could in mid-June of 2000. I was twenty-four years old. I watched summer die and autumn turn cold and gray through a broken slat in the blinds. My muscles withered. The sheets on my bed yellowed, although I usually fell asleep in front of the television on the sofa, which was from Pottery Barn and striped blue and white and sagging and covered in coffee and sweat stains.

I can’t point to any one event that resulted in my decision to go into hibernation. Initially, I just wanted some downers to drown out my thoughts and judgments, since the constant barrage made it hard not to hate everyone and everything. I thought life would be more tolerable if my brain were slower to condemn the world around me. 

I was plagued with misery, anxiety, a wish to escape the prison my mind and body. 

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Penguin Press in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: Eat Cake. Be Brave.

Author: Melissa Radke

Publication Date: July 17, 2018

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

My name is Melissa Radke, and there is a very real chance you have no idea who I am or why I wrote a book. But admit it, you're curious! 

Even though millions of people seem to like watching my videos bemoaning the trials of parenting, marriage, French braiding, faith, and living life as an anti-aging female, you may still be wondering who let me write a book. 

I mean, books are written by people who have been interviewed by Gayle King and say things like, "You see, Gayle, I was having a root canal and I literally died in the chair. I saw heaven. Also, when I came back to earth I could speak Mandarin."

Yeah, that didn't happen to me. No Mandarin. Though I have been known to break out in song! (My voice was once described as a "ray of light in a dark world" . . . but I think my dad was being a little dramatic.) Although if Gayle King were to ever ask me I would tell her: "I wrote this book between taking my kids to the local pool and picking out flip-flops at Old Navy, and the only metaphysical moment I experienced came right after I looked directly into one of those mirrors with 10x magnification." 

I wrote this book because when I turned 41 I made a decision to be brave. To live brave -bolder and freer. You see, I thought our lives were supposed to change when we turned 40...but mine didn't. Yet every piece of it changed when I turned 41; when I set out to prove that it wasn't too late for me, that careless words wouldn't stunt me and rejection would not stop me. And maybe, just maybe, it will take you reading about the journey I took to finding my sense of self-worth in order for you to rightfully believe in yours. This book is about how all the years of my life led up to the one that changed it. So, cut a big slice and raise a fork...

Here's to bravery. 

Here's to courage. 

Here's to cake.

(And not the crappy kind, like carrot.)

In her opening pages, Melissa Radke tells readers that they have probably never heard of her before but that by the time they read her story, they will love her. How right she was! I feel like Melissa Radke is my new best friend. She is funny, relative, encouraging, and completely loveable! I could not believe how I found myself nodding, crying, laughing, and saying, “Yes, honey!” as I read her story. Radke talks about the life experiences that led up to her decision to be brave and live her life relentlessly. She uses her wonderful sense of humor to connect to her readers, and it really did the trick. This book is a must read this summer!

I wrote this book for two people, and two people only. You and me. 

Do away with the HAPPY 40^TH! party paraphernalia. Throw out all the black napkins and toss the FABULOUS AT 40 banner. Contact the party stores and the event planners. Believe me when I tell you, forty is not the issue. Don’t bother throwing anyone a happy fortieth. They’ll be fine. It’s forty-one you need to focus on. 

Who I was may in fact no longer be who I am.

2018 has been a very eventful year for my reading. I have really started to get into non-fiction, particularly memoirs. When memoirs are this real and emotionally gripping, I vow to read hundreds and hundreds more. This would be a great start for someone who is just starting to get into non-fiction. Radke takes readers through every emotion in a short 293 pages. I look forward to more from Melissa Radke!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Grand Central Publishing in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: The Summer Wives

Author: Beatriz Williams

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season—an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off the New England coast . . .

In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society.

But beneath the island’s patrician surface, there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel’s privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he’s determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph’s enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end, Miranda’s caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop’s hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two decades.

Now, in the landmark summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its surface, the Island remains the same—determined to keep the outside world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself, and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda’s stepfather eighteen years earlier. What’s more, Miranda herself is no longer a naïve teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice for the man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.

Beatriz Williams continues to be one of my favorite authors. Her newest story, The Summer Wives, follows Miranda, in alternating timelines, as she tells us the story of Winthrop Island and the Families versus the Islanders. Miranda, as a young girl, fell in love with a Portuguese lobsterman, which of course was frowned upon by her rich, affluent parents. You find out early on that there was a murder on the island and Miranda’s lover, Joseph was involved. I won’t go any further than this, but know that this is not a murder mystery.

I felt that this book was a very powerful character study of Miranda Schuyler and how her life evolved and changed during one summer. We do get to meet and know other characters, but Miranda is the shining light in the story. Part of the story is her coming-of-age story and the other part is her realizing the mistakes she made in her life and what really mattered after all. I loved the look into Miranda’s life as a young girl on the island. She was carefree, naïve, and totally impressionable. I loved watching her experience the island and learn what love meant to her. She was an amazing character to follow.

Beatriz Williams is a born writer. She can transport readers to beautiful worlds, usually years and years before our own. Her writing is rich and full of intense passion between characters. I felt as if I was walking around Winthrop Island alongside Miranda and I found myself really enjoying her descriptions of the island and the lives of all who inhabited it during the summer. When you read Williams’ writing, you can immediately tell that she does her research regarding life in the 20’s, 30’s, 50’s, or whatever era she is writing in. Her prose is powerful and will completely transport you to the world of the characters you are reading about.

“There's something about the smells of your childhood, isn't there? ... You still remember those small sublime joys with an ache of longing because there's no getting it back, is there? You cannot return to a state of innocence.”

“They love a little excitement at the Winthrop Island Club, and don’t let them tell you any differently.”

“Most mornings, there were roses of various colors, white and pinks and yellows and occasionally even red. I remember they were not always fragrant – each variety of rose has its own personality, you know, and some are bred for looks alone – but occasionally, like the day of the moon landing, the twentieth of July, their perfume so saturated the air, sultry and delicate all at once, I thought I was drunk. I buried my face in the middle of the bouquet, disregarding the possibility of thorns, and – as I did every morning – I looked around for some sign of my clandestine scent left hanging in the air, or the movement of some swift body in the boxwoods.”

Although this is not my favorite Beatriz Williams novel, you can never go wrong with her stories. She is a very talented writer and I will never stop reading her stories. They are perfect for summer – light, but deep enough to keep you invested and draw you in from start to finish. I cannot recommend Beatriz’s stories enough – she truly has a way with words!

***A free copy of this book was provided by the publishers at William Morrow in exchange for my honest review***

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Debut Review: Suicide Club

Author: Rachel Heng

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

In Rachel Heng's debut set in near future New York City―where lives last three hundred years and the pursuit of immortality is all-consuming―Lea must choose between her estranged father and her chance to live forever.

Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever―if she does everything right. And Lea is an overachiever. She’s a successful trader on the New York exchange―where instead of stocks, human organs are now bought and sold―she has a beautiful apartment, and a fiancé who rivals her in genetic perfection. And with the right balance of HealthTech™, rigorous juicing, and low-impact exercise, she might never die.

But Lea’s perfect life is turned upside down when she spots her estranged father on a crowded sidewalk. His return marks the beginning of her downfall as she is drawn into his mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful individuals and rebels who reject society’s pursuit of immortality, and instead choose to live―and die―on their own terms. In this future world, death is not only taboo; it’s also highly illegal. Soon Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known, but who is the only family she has left in the world.

Rachel Heng’s debut is a chilling near-future dystopian story where population decline has led to strict Sanctity of Life laws and systems to extend life ever longer. What makes this story so utterly unsettling is that it is in fact believable in a future era. This book left me feeling as if something was missing or lacking. The premise is wonderful and Heng’s writing is beautifully lyrical, but I did not feel as invested in the characters as I would have liked to. 

Lea and Anja are the two main characters we follow. Lea being the main protagonist, but it was the story of Anja and Lea’s father, who sparked feelings in Lea and made her reflect over her life, that I was more interested by. Anja’s backstory gives her character more spunk and her actions felt more realistic, whereas I spent so much time trying to understand Lea because I felt that she was underdeveloped.

Heng’s writing was phenomenal. She can write a dystopian world like nobody’s business. Dystopian storytelling is not anywhere near my favorite thing to read – but, boy, was I captivated by her words and descriptions. I found myself reading, rereading, and re-rereading Heng’s prose – her thought process must be astronomical, as I know her imagination is. I will read whatever she puts out next because her writing is that picturesque.

"Something has to change. In being robbed of our deaths, we are robbed of our lives."

"Someone once said that death was the best invention life had to offer."

“Before they turned milky and white, her mother’s eyes had been the color of the sea. A clear, cold gray, the color of ice on a freshly frozen lake. When Anja looked in the mirror now, all she could see was her mother’s eyes staring back at her. Her mother’s eyes, her mother’s sharp nose, her mother’s pale salmon mouth.”

“Everyone was born with a number. They ran the tests immediately after birth. A simple swab of a wailing throat, parents waiting, hands clasped nervously, for the moment that would define the rest of their child’s life. Sometimes the results came out as a mother held the baby in her arms for the first time, staring into its liquid, barely human eyes.”

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Henry Holt and Co. in exchange for my honest review***

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Release Day Review: Give Me Your Hand

Author: Megan Abbott

Publication Date: July 17, 2018

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

A life-changing secret destroys an unlikely friendship in this "magnetic" (Meg Wolitzer) psychological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of Dare Me.

Kit Owens harbored only modest ambitions for herself when the mysterious Diane Fleming appeared in her high school chemistry class. But Diane's academic brilliance lit a fire in Kit, and the two developed an unlikely friendship. Until Diane shared a secret that changed everything between them. 

More than a decade later, Kit thinks she's put Diane behind her forever and she's begun to fulfill the scientific dreams Diane awakened in her. But the past comes roaring back when she discovers that Diane is her competition for a position both women covet, taking part in groundbreaking new research led by their idol. Soon enough, the two former friends find themselves locked in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to destroy them both.

Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2018 by Cosmopolitan, Book Riot, and Entertainment Weekly

Give Me Your Handfollows a friendship between Kit and Diane, who have a lot in common, from being runners to pursuing their love of science. Then, the beautiful and mysterious Dr. Severin comes to their school to talk about her lab work and what it means to perform studies and to do research, and this is all the girls need to dedicate themselves to their goals and pursue their scientific studies. Then, Diane shares a dark secret with Kit, one that Kit can't get out of her mind - one that's eating her alive, but eventually Kit gets past it and they both graduate and move on with their separate lives.

These two women, through Abbott’s writing, present a story that delves into some deep issues that women face today: career ambitions, workplace hardships, and the power, destruction, and jealously that can be female friendships. 

The ever-elusive secret that Diane dropped on Kit is the focal point that starts this story. Abbott writes a slow burn thriller that is filled with deep and complex characters. I am a character driven reader and I love a good secret. Once the secret is revealed, readers will be glad they stuck around – all bets are off at this point and the action continues into an impending explosion. What I love best about this novel by Abbott is the way she gets into the warped mind of teenage girls as the girls become friends and bond over similarities and common interests – readers travel and grow with Kit and Diane, secrets, friendships, thrills and all!

“It's that powerful, this thing we share. A murky history, its narrative near impenetrable. We keep telling it to ourselves, noting its twists and turns, trying to make sense of it. And hiding it from everyone else.”

“Now that I'm caught up in it, I feel a whiff of panic. This is Diane. And just as before, we are thrown together, and just as before, we want the same thing. A prize, dangling.”

“By telling me, you trapped me," I say through my teeth. "By telling you," she whispers, rain still glistening on her, "I was free.”

“She had done this thing to me, burdened me with this vile, howling thing. And now it shuddered in me always and I'd felt I might have to live with it forever. I was right.”

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Little, Brown and Company in exchange for my honest review***

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Debut Review: All These Beautiful Strangers

Author: Elizabeth Klehfoth

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Publisher: William Morrow

A young woman haunted by a family tragedy is caught up in a dangerous web of lies and deception involving a secret society in this highly charged, addictive psychological thriller that combines the dishy gamesmanship of Gossip Girl with the murky atmosphere of The Secret History.

One summer day, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions.

Years later, seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s "it" crowd.

Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s—the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood.

As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.

This thrilling mystery and coming-of-age story moves back and forth in time, straddling between 2007 and 2017. The majority of the story follows Charlotte “Charlie” Calloway as she strives to solve her mother’s sudden disappearance ten years earlier. Charlie’s life is in full swing as she is a junior at a prestigious school known as Knollwood Prep. She is soon invited to join an illicit, secret society known as the A’s. She is a spoiled, rich, entitled teenager who has a jaded view of the world. She was perfect to guide me through this debut novel.

Boarding school. Secret society. Ten-year unsolved mystery. You really cannot go wrong with this mix. The mystery is introduced quickly and will keep readers hooked until the big unveiling. I thought I had a few things figured out, but Klehfoth truly is a talent in writing mystery. Klehfoth writes unlikeable characters and gives them an air of mystery that readers will find thrilling and hard to part with. There is suspense, action, and such intensity beyond your wildest imagination. This book is meant to hook readers from page one.

We held each other’s secrets. It was a bond that could make us, just as surely as it was a bond that could destroy us all.

But now, all that connected us was the ghost of my mother. Strangely, that was all that separated us, too.

Together, we took a breath, and together, we extinguished the flames.

Do you know those books where you just read the first couple of pages and you know that you will hate to eventually part with it? That was this book for me. There is something in this debut novel for everyone to read and love. There is suspense, spoiled, rich, and posh characters, a mystery that I thought was so well-written, a prestigious, alluring setting of a boarding school and a secret society that seems very Pretty Little Liarsmeets Gossip Girl.This one is perfect for a warm summer day. I am so excited to see more from Elizabeth Klehfoth!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at William Morrow in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: Spinning Silver

Author: Naomi Novik

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Publisher: Del Rey

A fresh and imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the bestselling author of Uprooted, which was hailed as “a very enjoyable fantasy with the air of a modern classic” by The New York Times Book Review.

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.

But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love.

Channeling the vibrant heart of myth and fairy tale, Spinning Silver weaves a multilayered, magical tapestry that readers will want to return to again and again.

Naomi Novik is a master storyteller. Her intricate sentences and melodic musings read like a song and fly off the pages, whisking you into a world that is far different from your own. Both novels I have read by her I would consider to be masterpieces. She creates many characters, three main leading ladies, following many different narratives in one novel, but you will find yourself loving and rooting for each of the characters and their ambitions and their heart’s deepest desires. 

Spinning Silver is a tale of powerful magic and of debts owed and paid; it is a story about women who refuse to accept the callousness of the men who seek to suppress them; it is a story about the power of found families and the deliberate choice to protect the ones you love. The world is beautiful, magical, a little dark, and full of so much hope. I loved how connected the characters turned out to be – connected mostly by magic. The atmosphere and fairy tale vibes that bring to mind the murky, mysterious charms of a Brothers Grimm story.

“With a demon wanting to devour me, I was feeling inclined to be devout . . .”

“He would only shrug and look at me expectantly again, waiting for high magic: magic that came only when you made some larger version of yourself with words and promises, and then stepped inside and somehow grew to fill it.”

“I did not really need Magretta to tell me that love had caught my father like an unwilling fish, and having slipped the hook he had been glad to forget he had ever been on it in the first place.”

I think there are not enough good Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale retellings out in the world and I am happy to say that this was a perfect mix of fairy tale retelling and whimsical fantasy world. Novik took bits and pieces of the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin and weaved them into the story in different and surprising ways. Everyone wants to write the Beauty and the Beast retelling or the Cinderella retelling, but how often do you see a Rumpelstiltskin retelling done this well?! Novik’s writing is simple and uncomplicated but still paints a picture of complex, intriguing world with ease. This fantasy gets a huge thumbs up from me. 

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Del Rey in exchange for my honest review***

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Book Review: The Perfect Couple

Author: Elin Hilderbrand

Publication Date: June 19, 2018

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

From New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand, comes a novel about the many ways family can fill our lives with love...if they don't kill us first. 

It's Nantucket wedding season, also known as summer-the sight of a bride racing down Main Street is as common as the sun setting at Madaket Beach. The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom's wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate.

But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.

A summer wedding where the maid of honor is found dead?! Say no more – I’m there. Plus, this is Elin Hilderbrand’s first take at a murder mystery/thriller. Hilderbrand is the Queen of Summer Reads and now she wrote my favorite kind – a mystery. This mystery leans more towards contemporary drama, but it was still very satisfying and would be the perfect novel for the beach. I thought that it might be an easy mystery to solve. I was wrong. Completely wrong. It was a thrilling ride.

If you have read Hilderbrand before, you know that she loves writing in Nantucket. Her settings are always to die for, but I felt that this book had something more than so many of her others. There’s a lot of glitz and glamour in Elin’s descriptions. The décor, the scenery, the parties, and the descriptions of food are enough to make anyone want to see the shores of Nantucket for themselves.

This wedding, this union of two families on the most festive of summer weekends, is clearly something that’s meant to be.

A phone call before six on a Saturday morning is never a good thing, although it’s not unheard of on a holiday weekend. 

All she had to do was make it through the next three days.

The things parents do for their children!

This book is told through multiple viewpoints and has flashbacks as well as present day scenarios. I was so intrigued from page one. I love Hilderbrand’s characters; she can always make me feel invested in their lives. Each of them face different struggles and trying times, on top of dealing with a dead body on the day of the wedding. There are situations discussed that are pretty heartbreaking but there are also moments where you will laugh out loud. It truly is the perfect summer beach read!

***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Little, Brown and Company in exchange for my honest review***

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