This has sat on my TBR list for ages, probably since it was first published in 2020, and I have no reason for not having picked it up earlier other than the fact that five books are added to the ‘to be read’ list for every one I read. I start with this sad saga…
Category: Book Reviews
My Brilliant Friend
I once saw this book ranked at the top of a “Best books of the 20th century” list by publishers and editors. That’s a large claim in its own right, let alone a list created by people within publishing. While I tend to be skeptical about these lists (my parents will tell you I was…
All the Colors of the Dark
This book blew me away — spoiler for the final rating — and I wasn’t sure it would. While some of the chapters follow what would be considered a standard format, there are many chapters that are short, short to the point of being a page or two long. At first this break from the…
The Life Impossible
If you’ve been here long enough, you know I like a bit of mystical fiction, and I certainly don’t shy away from it. I read Matt Haig’s earlier novel The Midnight Library, which I really enjoyed at the time so was excited to see what his other novels might be like. Grace Winters is a retired…
We All Live Here
Before we get into this, I think it’s important that you know I am a big Jojo Moyes fan. That woman has not written anything I don’t like (yet). Reading a Moyes novel for me is less about being blown away by profound literary prowess and more about how she makes me feel, which is…
The Indigo Heiress
It’s been a wee while since I’ve delved into historical fiction, and before you think the use of “wee” is a reflection of my almost-five years in Scotland, it is but a clever way of alluding to the setting of this novel. While it starts on a Virginian plantation, much of the story is actually…
Trust
No one does high society in the 1920s quite like Helen and Benjamin Rask. He’s an introverted and eccentric businessman whose wizardry at the stock market has people praising his acumen and decrying him as a villain preying on people’s misfortune in equal measure. She’s the belle of the ball, a philanthropist whose goal in…
First Lie Wins
I’ve been meaning to write this review for quite a while now, which I think is quite a recommendation in itself because it means the novel has stuck with me enough to still review (and still want to). I would classify this as “cozy thriller”, for any of my easy-going, “no intense reads for me” readers out…
We Solve Murders
I want to start by saying I enjoy a “cozy crime”, so before you think that this review is influenced by a snobbery for what counts as good crime fiction, it is not. Now that we have the preliminaries out of the way, I must admit that Osman lost me with this one. I read…
The Most Fun We Ever Had
In a recent conversation over book types someone said “I don’t really enjoy the ones that are just about relationships” which is about the exact moment I realized that’s most of what I read. The Most Fun We Ever Had is no exception. Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson share a love that nauseates their children…