Reviews – Page 11 – Books Dani Likes

The High Season by Judy Blundell

Happy July Kittens!

This week I’ve got a great beach read for you! Judy Blundell is going to take you to the shores of the Hamptons and put you in the mood to sit by the water and read for hours. This book is already out, so grab a copy before you hit the beach. I hope you love it!

Title: The High Season

Author: Judy Blundell TheHighSeason

Author Website: http://judyblundellbooks.com/

ISBN: 9780525508717

Publisher: Random House

Publication Date: May 22, 2018

Genre: Literary Fiction

Buy the Book: Amazon Barnes and Noble

The High Season is Judy Blundell’s first work of fiction for adults, following on the success of her 2008 National Book Award for Young People for What I Saw and How I Lied. The story follows Ruth Beamish, her sort-of-but-not-officially ex-husband, and their daughter Jem, through a summer season on a small island off the Hamptons called North Fork. The Beamish family has a beautiful perfect summer home on the Fork, but in order to afford the upkeep on the house, they have to rent it out every summer while they move to less-than-perfect accommodations. This summer, their renter is a socialite named Adeline Clay. At first, Clay and her stepson Lucas staying at the house seems like the answer to a prayer. They pay for the entire summer up front and Ruth enjoys the solvency, but as the summer goes on, not all is well on North Fork. Ruth begins to face bitter battles at work, her daughter is being secretive about a new boy in her life, and her once-friendly ex-husband is spending a lot of time with Adeline when Ruth needs him. What is going on here? Is she losing everything that matters to her to this interloper from the city? She already gave up her house, what else will she lose to Adeline? And can someone as average as Ruth defy someone as powerful as Adeline and survive unscathed?

This was a beautifully written story about friendship, love, and the curve balls life can throw our way. At the heart of the story is Ruth, affectionately called Ruthie, who finds herself at the mercy of circumstances that she cannot control and certainly does not deserve. This story had me ready to cry at a moment’s notice. The story alternates between Ruthie and several other characters on the island for the summer, including her daughter Jem and her co-worker Doe. Jem is a teenaged girl learning her own lessons about love and friendship and she will have a lot of growing up to do as the summer progresses. Doe, real name Dora, is an aspiring social-climber who is willing to cross ethical lines to pull herself up in the world. She comes to have a hand in almost every storyline in the book, and despite her less than true north moral compass, you come to root for all of the underdogs in this story, and she is one of the best.

The High Season has everything you could want in a summer release: drama, love, betrayal, high society, and rogue inflatables. Stick with it as the story builds in complexity, and you will be rewarded with an extremely satisfying conclusion.

Disclaimer: I received this title from the publisher through the BookishFirst program in exchange for an honest review.

My Rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

I so desperately wanted to give 5 glasses of lemonade for this one, but there are enough curse words to stop it from gaining the kind of recommend-ability that librarians need to be able to recommend a book to anyone and everyone. Nonetheless, this book has a little bit of everything for everyone and will be a solid option for potential beach readers everywhere.

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Hello Kittens! This week I’ve got a treat for you in Rebecca Serle’s The Dinner List. We’ve all pondered the question of who we would like to have dinner/a conversation with, dead or alive, but most of us have probably not had those people show up to our birthday dinner. The concept on this one was original and there were plenty of emotional twists to keep the story moving at a good pace. This one is great for those who enjoy an emotional read with protagonists in their 30s…and also fans of Audrey Hepburn (are there non-fans of A.H.? Is that even a thing?). You’ve got a bit of a wait until this one gets published in September, but go ahead and add it to your TBR list now.

Title: The Dinner List

Author: Rebecca Serle

Author website: https://www.rebeccaserle.com/

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Publish date: 09/11/2018 (projected)

ISBN: 9781250295200

Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

To be honest, I first fell in love with the concept for this book. The main character, Sabrina (yes, like that one), makes a list of people she would want to have dinner with, dead or alive, at the urging of her best friend Jessica. She doesn’t think much about it, really just doing it to keep Jessica from forcing her to make a dream board, but then, several years later, she enters a restaurant for her 30^th birthday, expecting to see only Jessica, and is surprised to see an extra 4 guests. Seated before her are her ex-fiancee, her deceased father, a beloved former professor, and Audrey Hepburn. I immediately made my own list, just in case.

What follows is an emotionally fraught story about love, forgiveness, and growing up. Over the course of the night, the story of why all of these people have gathered here is revealed, with chapters rotating between a decade in the past and the current dinner. The story of the dinner party is equally as interesting as the retelling of the past, in fact, at times it reads like two completely different books, which could be jarring for some readers. I thought the story was taking a predictable course, but then a surprise twist about ¾ of the way through absolutely changed how I viewed everything about the main subplot regarding Sabrina and her ex, Tobias. By the end, it was late at night and I was in tears. It was just that good.

Comparisons have been made between this book and Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter, but I think this story was a little less obtuse than Sweetbitter was, which for me made it a more pleasant read. The Dinner List has a writing style that is introspective, but fairly simple, which leaves it open to a wide audience. For those readers who have never experienced magical realism before, I think this would make a great introduction.

Disclaimer: I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

For The Dinner List, there are a few bedroom scenes. Nothing too steamy, just your now-somewhat-typical 20s relationship.

The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne

Hello Kittens!

I have for you this week a novel of psychological suspense from an established author. This one has been out for a little while and it has been stalking my TBR pile for months. I don’t remember a lot of fanfare when this one came out, but a few blogs mentioned it and I saw it in a few of the trade reviews and I am so glad that I gave it a try. It gave me goosebumps, and I had to put it down at one point because I started hearing noises around the apartment (it was my cat, the scamp). Enjoy!

Title: The Marsh King’s Daughter

Author: Karen Dionne The Marsh King's Daughter

Author Website: http://www.karen-dionne.com/

Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York

ISBN: 9780735213005

Release Date: June 13, 2017 (hardback) April 17, 2018 (paperback)

Genre: Psychological Suspense

Buy the Book: Amazon Barnes and Noble

The Marsh King’s Daughter will appeal to those of you who love stories that feel like they were ripped from the headlines. I can remember staying glued to the television when they found Jaycee Dugard, and this story fed that inner desire to know as much about these types of kidnappings as possible. Our narrator for this story is Helena Pelletier, and at first glance she seems like a reserved but otherwise normal wife and mother living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but this is a woman who is keeping secrets from everyone. Helena is enjoying a day out with one of her daughters when she hears news that would be welcome to most people: her father is in town. The problem is that she receives this news via a radio alert because her father has just escaped from a maximum security prison where he is serving a life sentence for crimes committed against Helena and her mother.

The authorities are desperate to find her father, but so is Helena, so she can send him back to prison herself. As she hunts him through the swamps of the Upper Peninsula she will confront her conflicted past relationship with the man that most of the world views as a monster. Think of this story as Emma Donoghue’s Room with an adult narrator and several adventure sequences.

Helena is a gripping character and the ways she attempts to rectify her former life with her current one will keep you engaged throughout the story. There is a fair amount of space spent describing the natural characteristics of the swampland that could read a little dry if it’s not your thing, but it definitely helps the reader get into the proper desolate mindset.

This is a solid story with a plot that could be off-putting to some and absolutely gripping to others. You may think you have it all figured out, but Dionne throws in the perfect number of plot twists all the way to the end and Helena is a far more complex character than it at first appears.

No disclaimer: I got this one from my local library and you should too!

My rating:

lemonade_icon 3 glasses of lemonade= a book that you could recommend to coworkers and friends you don’t know very well.

Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris

Hello Kittens! Today I present for your reading pleasure, a novel of psychological suspense that is going to have you hooked until the last page. It came out a few days ago on the 19^th (which was a big pub date for a lot of titles that I’ve read recently). This one kept me engaged for two days of very enjoyable suspense. I am a big fan of this genre, and I especially love to find a new author. I am going to be adding B.A. Paris to my automatic TBR list from now on. Without further ado!

Title: Bring Me Back

Author: B.A. Paris

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

ISBN: 9781250151339

Pub Date: 06/19/18

Genre: Psychological Suspense

Buy the Book: Amazon Barnes and Noble

What an amazing psychological suspense novel! I think readers of this genre are going to love this one, but it is going to have a broader appeal because it lacks some of the gore and graphic detail that many titles have been trending towards in the last few years.

Bring Me Back is the story of Layla and Finn…and also of Ellen and Finn. A short time into their intense relationship, Finn and Layla go on vacation together and on their way back Layla disappears without a trace. Finn has trouble getting the police not to suspect him or murdering Layla, but once he convinces them, he spends years wondering about what happened to Layla, often envisioning the worst and blaming himself.

But then, almost a decade later, he meets Ellen, Layla’s older sister, at a memorial service to mark the anniversary of Layla’s disappearance. Ellen is extremely different from Layla, and their relationship progresses at a slower pace, but they are soon engaged. As they overcome the gossip of people who think their engagement is improper, Finn and Ellen began finding items that remind them of Layla. It seems Layla may be back, and neither of them knows how to feel about it. Neither of them can figure out why Layla won’t come out in the open so they can all deal with this, and the story takes a sinister turn when Layla’s symbols and messages start to turn against Ellen. It’s possible the town gossips aren’t the only ones who don’t approve of this wedding. But what does Layla really want from Finn and Ellen? Where has she been all this time? And what will answering those questions cost them all?

This was a fast-paced story, rich in details that had me hooked from the first few chapters. At 304 pages, this is a quick read that I got through in less than two days. While I thought I had the major plot twist figured out about halfway through the story (and I did), I was still dying to get through the rest of the story to find out how all of the threads came together. This is some of the best psychological suspense that I have read in a while. I had never heard of B.A. Paris before this, but I will definitely be going back to read her earlier novels, Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown. There’s just enough violence, with a little gaslighting mixed in to make you question Finn’s sanity and Layla’s, with multiple perspectives extremely well-represented.

Disclaimer: I received access to an e-galley of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My rating: This genre isn’t for everyone, but there’s not really any gore and no swearing (at least none that I remember) so I give it:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.

The Art of Escaping by Erin Callahan

Hello Kittens!

Today I’ve got an upcoming YA novel for you from an author making her solo debut. This one has a fun concept and loveable characters that will put you right back in a high school state of mind. It is being published tomorrow, on June 19th, so abracadabra and enjoy!

Title: The Art of Escaping

Author: Erin Callahan The Art of Escaping

Author’s Website: https://erinpcallahan.com/

ISBN: 9781944995652

Publisher: Amberjack Publishing

Publish Date: 06/19/18

Genre: Young Adult

Buy the Book: Amazon Barnes and Noble

Remember that weird kid in high school who liked magic? The one who everyone avoided and refused to make eye contact with? The Art of Escaping is the story of that kid’s life…if that kid had actually been a really cool, witty teen girl named Mattie who was into Jazz Age history and could perform death-defying stunts.

This book did what I think all the best realistic YA fiction should do: it reminded me of high school. Specifically, the dialogue was so witty, direct, and current that it was hard not to imagine these characters as anything but friends.

My one criticism, if you can call it such, is that despite Mattie’s awesomeness, in my opinion, Will with Two L’s gets the best lines.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is that is is a YA novel that does not focus on romance too heavily. This story acknowledges some of the other pressing issues in teen’s lives.

The pacing is fairly quick, covering a span of several months in less than 350 pages. The backstory is complex and there is a moment when you are reading excerpts from Akiko’s diary where you are going to be very confused if you pay attention to chronology, but this blip is explained shortly thereafter in a fairly convincing manner, but with a twist that changes how the reader will view these diary entries going forward (I even went back and re-read them).

I don’t think we get enough of the character of Miyu, a fascinating recluse who suddenly isn’t shut in anymore, but the truth is that the story is not about the adults.

I was also a little surprised that Harry Houdini’s story was not featured more prominently in this, given that he was mentioned in several of the blurbs I read before digging into the story. He feels like more of a footnote in the story structure, but anchors the history of escapology for those of us who are less familiar with the art form.

Disclaimer: I received an electronic copy of this book from BookishFirst/the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

lemonade_icon 4 glasses of lemonade= a book you could recommend to a book group or anybody who reads. You might find controversial subject matter, but it is handled delicately.