Category: Book review

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

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Title: Writers & Lovers
Author: Lily King
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Literary fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

After reading Five Tuesdays in Winter I vowed to read more of Lily King’s works, starting with Writers & Lovers — a novel narrated by Casey Peabody, who is struggling to get by as a waitress while she writes her first novel. The story begins with Casey grieving the loss of her mother and continues as she tries to sort out her writing, her job, and her relationships.

I devoured this book and loved following along with Casey’s journey, including the very real moments of uncertainty and the painful moments that validated my own experiences (casual misogyny, anyone?). The ending felt a little too good to be true, but Casey’s voice swept me up and carried me through it. This is a beautifully written story portraying the internal conflicts that hit us at that time in our lives when we feel like we should have it all figured out but we’re still just muddling through.

Intimacies by Lucy Caldwell

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Title: Intimacies
Author: Lucy Caldwell
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Short stories, Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

Intimacies is a collection of fiction short stories about young women, mostly young mothers, unveiling the many layers of the women’s experiences as they go about more or less mundane parts of life. Despite not relating personally to many of the women’s lives (I’m childless by choice) I was captivated by their stories.

I love how Caldwell often uses settings or moments that seem relatively unremarkable — driving on the motorway, sitting on a plane, getting a drink with a coworker, sitting on the terrace in the evening — to reveal more significant aspects of the women’s lives or the human experience. For example, “All the People Were Mean and Bad” tells the story of a mother connecting with her neighbor on a plane, but it left me thinking about whether people are inherently good or bad, the impact of small acts of kindness on strangers, and how we decide which relationships to nurture and which to let go of. It’s no wonder that story won the BBC National Short Story Award, or that I enjoyed almost all the other stories in the collection — each of them felt easy to read and yet full of ideas that I pondered well after I closed the book.

Embassytown by China Miéville

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Title: Embassytown
Author: China Miéville
Format: Audiobook & eBook
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆

This book took my love of linguistics, anthropology, and science fiction and wound them together into an intricate story about the inhabitants of a colonized world where the native Language can only convey truth.

I have never experienced a book that did quite what Miéville did here: not only make semiotics a central part of a novel but also drop you into it in a way that’s almost like participant-observation in a new country, with a definite sense that something is going on around you but you have no clue what. I loved the slow unraveling of the story as it picked apart and made sense of the people, the history, the culture, and the place (and its technologies), although there are some points — including details about Language and its restrictions — that remained fairly handwavy.

This is not an easy or light read, as it touches on topics like colonialism, oppression, war, indoctrination, cultural contact, authenticity, and relationships. But if you’re willing to wade through the heavy moments and sit with the confusion, it’s a fascinating exploration.

The Visitors by Caroline Scott

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Title: The Visitors
Author: Caroline Scott
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Historical, Romance
Rating: ★★★★☆

This was a gorgeous post-World War I story about Esme Nicholls, a war widow and housekeeper who visits Cornwall with her employer for the summer and discovers a beautiful landscape, an eclectic group of veterans, and a possible future for herself.

I was initially drawn to the story by the immersive descriptions of the Cornish landscape, flora, and fauna — all things that blew me away when I did a walk along the coastal path from St. Ives to Penzance, the area where this book takes place. As the chapters went on I became fascinated with the characters and their stories, especially Esme’s struggle between her past and her future and Rory’s reflections on his time in the war.

There’s a twist that comes about halfway through the story, and even though I saw it coming I still felt the impact. This is definitely a character-driven story (where Cornwall feels like another member of the cast of characters) full of self-discovery and the journeys we take to overcome grief and embrace life.

The Physician’s Daughter by Martha Conway

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Title: The Physician’s Daughter
Author: Martha Conway
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Historical, Romance
Rating: ★★★☆☆

This was primarily historical fiction — the story of Vita, a young woman after the U.S. Civil War who dreams of becoming a doctor — with a bit of romance that develops as Vita grapples with the expectation that she should set aside her career ambitions and become a wife and mother.

My interest in historical fiction began with books like this: books with intelligent, strong young women in different tumultuous periods of U.S. history trying to discover themselves while also dealing with what was happening in the world around them. I loved all of details that arose from the research that Conway clearly put into this book, and both Vita’s and Jacob’s experiences felt real and compelling (my only research-related criticism being the epigraphs, which repeatedly pulled me out of the story by including texts published after the time when the story took place and even a fake publication).

I was a bit put off by the moments where the perspective shifted mid-scene (maybe just personal preference), and I felt the balance of the story was maybe heavier on the self-doubt than it needed to be, with a lot of time spent on Vita’s worrying and not as much time as I’d have liked on her growing confidence (and the challenges faced) after she fully committed to her path. That said, I loved the way the story slowly layered on scene after scene of struggle to help me empathize with Vita and Jacob’s journeys, from their doubts and fears to the sense of hope and triumph at the end.

Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

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Title: Talk Bookish to Me
Author: Kate Bromley
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Romance
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

This was the kind of debut novel that started out surprisingly well and then turned into a bit of a nightmare for me. I wanted to rate the author higher for her potential, for how the book started (multi-faceted characters, engaging style, enough detail to feel real without bogging down the plot), but I was too disturbed by the way everything played out to recommend this book.

Kara’s backstory gave me a stomachache, but in the sense that it felt very real and well-described — I empathized with her and Ryan’s past a little too much for comfort, and was eager to see how they handled it. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like that past was really handled at all, with Kara and Ryan seeming to forgive and forget too easily until the final conflict when everything blew up … and then was patched up after a long period of self-reflection and with a sort of “we’re meant for each other” attitude that I felt was both unrealistic and kind of gross given their history. I would have much preferred to see a romance where Kara had this backstory and then worked through her hangups with a new love interest, rather than a second-chance romance with someone who I didn’t feel earned his second chance.

Gentleman Jim by Mimi Matthews

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Title: Gentleman Jim
Author: Mimi Matthews
Format: Audiobook (library)
Genre(s): Romance, Historical
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

This book was a disappointment, which surprised me given that I’ve found several of Matthews’ other books very pleasant (The Matrimonial Advertisement, The Siren of Sussex, and The Work of Art).

The blurb promised some amount of mystery, danger, and revenge; however, I found the whole thing so predictable that I was just waiting for each plot point to arrive so I could get through the story. The biggest mystery ended up being why this version of the cover featured a dark-haired man!

I don’t want to share spoilers, so I’ll avoid specifics and just note that in addition to a dull plot I found the characters incredibly flat and cookie-cutter: an earnest, loyal woman; a mysterious, ambitious viscount; a nasty rival; a grandfather with questionable motives; a friend with zero personality; and so on. I can generally forgive a predictable plot if it has interesting characters, and I can forgive shallow or Pollyanna-ish characters if they’re thrown into an intriguing plot, but this really let me down with nothing to dig into.

Audiobook Review

I’m adding a separate note about the audiobook format — in part because I wonder if the format skewed my experience of the book, but also because there were some elements I specifically wanted to mention. I was pleased with Alex Wyndham’s work on the dialogue and character voices. That said, the rest of the narration was really tedious, with repetitive prosody for almost every single sentence. It kind of killed my interest by the end and had the tendency to make me zone out while listening. If you’re still interested in this story, I’d recommend picking up the book version.

A Wicked Kind of Husband by Mia Vincy

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Title: A Wicked Kind of Husband
Author: Mia Vincy
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Romance, Historical
Rating: ★★★★☆

One of the most reliable ways to discover new authors you might like, in my experience, is to get recommendations from authors you already love — so when I got a peek at KJ Charles’s TBR pile and spotted a new-to-me name, I immediately grabbed a copy of one of Mia Vincy’s books (the only one of hers at my library).

I was intrigued from the outset: This book has main characters from Warwickshire (a county north of London, which includes industrial Birmingham, rather than the South, which is so commonly a setting for this genre) who have been in a marriage of convenience for two years, yet who literally don’t recognize each other when they meet by chance in London. Cassandra and Joshua are both intelligent and the challenging spark that appears between them develops into a fascinating dynamic as they get to know each other and their histories come to light.

Having a story begin with an already married couple shifts the usual will-they-won’t-they conflict into a question about how they will reconcile their needs and expectations and shape their marriage for the future, and the way it plays out feels consistent to the characters even as they grow over time. This was a witty, emotional, satisfying regency romance and I’m looking forward to reading Vincy’s other Longhope Abbey books.

Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey

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Title: Love Her or Lose Her
Author: Tessa Bailey
Format: eBook (library)
Genre(s): Romance
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

I picked this up as an easy travel read (for the plane/train) after seeing a friend enjoy a number of Tessa Bailey’s books; sadly, I think her writing isn’t for me.

The book centers on Rosie and Dominic Vega, a married couple that has drifted apart after Dominic returns home from active military duty. I was really excited to see a romance about an established, married couple — I’m always interested in exploring realistic challenges that arise in long-term relationships. But we’re mostly told about their individual backstories and issues rather than shown them, and although they don’t resolve their problems instantly there’s a sense that the only real challenge is to identify what’s wrong in their relationship (as if it doesn’t take time and practice to work through insecurities and communication issues after they’ve been identified). Add to that a fairly plain, repetitive writing style, magically perfect sexual chemistry, and flat supporting characters, and I just couldn’t stay engaged in the story.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

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Title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: V.E. Schwab
Format: eBook (library)
Genre(s): Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★☆

What does it mean to belong to someone else, and what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? After making a deal with the darkness, Addie finds that her wish to be free makes her something of an outcast — and spends the rest of her unnaturally long life defying the limitations of the deal.

Although at times I got frustrated by the short chapters and shifting timeline of the story (which frequently flips between past and present), I enjoyed how this presented Addie’s many overlapping layers: her young naïve self, her longing for connection, her sense of wonder, her anger and frustration at her circumstances, and her stubborn insistence not to give up or give in. I also appreciated the juxtaposition of the other main characters, Luc and Henry, who are very different and yet very similar — in their looks but also in how Addie is drawn to them while she also struggles with her relationship with each of them.

I loved following Addie’s journey (both internal and external) over the years and found the ending gleefully satisfying while at the same time very open and unfinished, in the best way.