Top Ten Tuesday: Books With Character Names in the Titles

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week's topic is books with character names in the titles.  For this one, I looked for titles with the full character's name on my own shelves, and I was able to find quite a few!

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The Secret Life of Violet Grant

The Confession of Katherine Howard

Daisy Jones & The Six

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

Which titles did you find?

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Romance Quick Reviews

Forrest For The Trees (Green Valley Heroes #1) by Kilby Blade (2021)

Fire Marshal Forrest and Park Ranger Sierra team up to investigate a series of fires in the national park and in the process start to see a different side to each other.  This book was kind of a mixed bag for me.  I felt like we kind of came in during the middle of the story, since some of the fires had already happened and the characters were trying to start the investigation.  The writing didn't always work for me; there was too much telling and not enough showing.  But, there were things I enjoyed.  I like learning about the ins and outs of working at a national park.  I also liked the growing relationship between Forrest and Sierra; there was this fun dichotomy of being attracted to each other while also being supremely annoyed by the other one.  It made for lots of sparks!  3 stars

Before and After You (Leffersbee #2) by Hope Ellis (2021)

 

Leigh has always had a crush on Walker, but he's been off-limits since he's Leigh's best friend's brother.  However, now that they're adults and running into each other all the time, the two might finally take a chance on love.  I really enjoyed this book!  Leigh and Walker are both really smart characters, and I loved their sassy, snappy banter.  Leigh especially felt like such a strong woman - she's been through a lot and she's not afraid to speak her mind anymore.  The story had a lot more than romance, though.  Both Leigh and Walker are facing obstacles in their careers, and I appreciated seeing that aspect of their lives on the page.  They also each have some major family issues to work through.  It made for a well-rounded story.  One of my few issues with this book is that while it's the second in a series, it's noted that it can be read as a stand-alone.  However, I really felt like I was missing a lot of backstory and development of the secondary characters, especially, by not having read the first book.  4 stars

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Can't-Wait Wednesday: Bloomsbury Girls

Can't-Wait Wednesday is hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and helps us spotlight upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating!

 

Bloomsbury Girls

Natalie Jenner

Expected publication date: May 17, 2022

The internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society returns with a compelling and heartwarming story of post-war London, a century-old bookstore, and three women determined to find their way in a fast-changing world.

Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:

Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances - most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.

Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she's been working to support the family following her husband's breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.

Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she's working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.

As they interact with various literary figures of the time - Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others - these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow. - from Goodreads

A bookstore setting in post-WWII London?  This sounds amazing!

Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.  This week's topic is new-to-us authors we discovered in 2021.  I always love looking back at the previous year and seeing what new authors I've added to my must-read list - there always seems to be a really popular author that I'm just reading for the first time!  Here's a list of just a few of the authors I discovered in 2021 and the book that got me hooked on them.

Abby Jimenez - The Friend Zone

Aly Stiles - Street Smart

Susannah Nix - Mad About Ewe

Jeanne Mackin - The Last Collection

Rachel Lynn Solomon - Today Tonight Tomorrow

Chloe Liese - Only When It's Us

Adriana Locke - Like You Love Me

Emily Henry - Beach Read

Ruth Reichl - Save Me the Plums

What authors did you discover in 2021?

 

 

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Blog Tour + Review: Shapeshifting

Thank you to Lisa Munley at TLC Book Tours for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour for Shapeshifting by Michelle Ross!  I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Shapeshifting

Michelle Ross

Published November 2, 2021

The fourteen spellbinding stories in Michelle Ross’s second collection invite readers into the shadows of social-media perfectionism and the relentless cult of motherhood. A recovering alcoholic navigates the social landscape of a toddler playdate; a mother of two camps out in a van to secure her son’s spot at a prestigious kindergarten; a young girl forces her friends to play an elaborate, unwinnable game. With unflinching honesty and vivid, lyrical prose, Ross explores the familial ties that bind us together—or, sometimes, tear us apart. - from Goodreads

Short story collections are not something I normally gravitate towards, but as a new mom, this collection of stories about motherhood intrigued me.  In Shapeshifting, Michelle Ross brings readers 14 stories that explore different aspects of motherhood and how it changes women.  The stories were all quite different, and I appreciated that.  Each focused on a different type of mother or different stage of motherhood.  I wasn't expecting the stories to feel so realistic or relatable, but some of them really were.  The tone of the stories was a bit more negative and bleak than I was hoping for, but it all did feel very honest.  Some of the stories missed the mark for me - either I felt like I wasn't totally "getting" the intention of the story or they ended too abruptly.  However, there were a couple standouts:

"After Pangaea" - This is the first story in the collection and was a great way to start off.  A woman is compelled to camp out in her car to make sure she's first on the list to get her son into a good kindergarten.  This story touched on how competitive parenting can be, but it also explored how as a mother, she is somewhat expected to do such things, however uncomfortable, for her children, while her husband is praised for doing what seems like the bare minimum at times.  She seems completely unappreciated, and I really felt for the character.

"Lifecycle of an Ungrateful Daughter" - This story is told in vignettes at different stages of the mother/daughter relationship.  The mother has certain hopes of what their relationship will be like, but inevitably she seems to be disappointed.  Motherhood is not what she thought it would be (at least in regards to this child), and although she tries her best, the gap between her and her daughter continues to grow over the years.  

"Three-Week Checkup" - I related to this story about a new mother, Deena, and her struggles to make it through each day.  I could feel her exhaustion and chuckled a bit at how she responded to the pediatrician's questions about the baby's habits.  Thankfully, my husband is way more helpful and involved than Deena's husband, but I still sympathized with her desire to test him and try to get him to help more with the baby.

3.5 stars

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Top Ten Tuesday: 2021 Releases I Didn't Get To

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's topic is 2021 releases we were excited to read but didn't get to.  I tend to read more backlist books than new releases, so there are a ton of 2021 books that I haven't gotten to yet - here's just a partial list!

Which of these should I start with first?

Quick Reviews: Amazon Short Stories

I came across these Amazon original holiday short stories, free for Prime and Kindle Unlimited, and thought they sounded so fun!  And even though the holidays are behind us, I wanted to review them anyway!

 

Model Home by J. Courtney Sullivan (2021)

 

Katie and her husband Damian host a popular home makeover show, but Damian wants to leave the world of reality tv.  Katie, however, is not ready to give up fame and fortune.  Can she convince him to stay?  At only 39 pages, this was definitely a quick read, but also a really fun behind-the-scenes look at the makings of reality tv shows and personas.  While their life appears perfect on the outside, Katie and Damian are struggling.  Katie loves the material things their success has gotten them, while Damian thinks his wife has changed too much.  I liked that Sullivan was able to incorporate a lot of backstory of how Katie and Damian got to this point, but the ending was lacking, at least for me.  It felt so abrupt and I was left wanting more.  3.5 stars

 

Oh. What. Fun. by Chandler Baker (2021)

 

Claire's three adult children are home for the holidays, and she is going above and beyond to make it perfect.  But when Claire disappears during the festivities, the kids are left wondering what's really going on in her mind.  This short story was so relatable.  I loved how the narrator was the collective voice of Claire's kids.  They don't seem to really appreciate or acknowledge all the work that Claire puts into making the holidays special.  They assume she does it because she enjoys it, and so they never offer to help.  Claire, though, has reached her breaking point, and I really felt for her.  I liked that we were able to get a bit of her perspective, too.  The writing is really snappy and fun, and the story moves along at a great pace.  Anyone who has stayed up late to perfectly wrap gifts or cook that special holiday meal, only to watch everything get demolished in 2 minutes flat, will definitely enjoy this story!  4 stars