“Sea of Charms” by Sarah Beth Durst is her latest fantasy and part of a series of books set in a fantasy realm, each of which easily works as a stand-alone novel. Each one is a romance, and each one is filled with magic, magical creatures, flying cats, and lots of magical love. This novel focuses on a character we met in “The Enchanted Greenhouse,” Marin, a woman who has a magic sailboat and delivers supplies to the various islands that make up the Crescent Islands Empire.
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In “Mist and Malice,” the second book in Rachel Howzell Hall’s exciting “Haven Thriller” series, the action starts right up where the first book ends. For those who haven’t read the first book, it could be confusing. I would definitely suggest reading this novel after reading the first one because a lot of the backstory of the characters is delineated in “Fog and Fury,” the first novel.
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“Enormous Wings,” the new novel by Laurie Frankel, should come with a warning: This book will make you angry on behalf of women who are treated as second class citizens and denied their rights. But in addition to feeling anger, the story of Pepper Mills, a septuagenarian who has recently moved to Vista View Retirement Community in Austin, Texas, will have you smiling as you admire her spunk and her wry sense of humor, and, of course, the incredibly ridiculous situation in which she finds herself enmeshed.
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“The Last Mandarin” is a gripping, high-octane rollercoaster ride as authors Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung keep the danger on the front burner with tension that doesn’t abate until almost the last page. From the White House to Beijing, from noodle shops in Hong Kong to the necropolis of the first emperor of China, the jockeying between world superpowers is mind-bending.
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“The Right to Remain” is author James Grippando”s twentieth Jack Swyteck novel and my first experience with the author and his protagonist, criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck. And the very good news is that Grippando makes the reader so aware of all of the characters’ strengths, flaws, beliefs, and concerns that we get to know them well during the course of the novel and don’t for a moment miss the backgrounds provided in the first nineteen. As a stand-alone legal/suspense piece of work, it’s a riveting page-turner from beginning to end.
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“The Calamity Club” by Kathryn Stockett is many things: it’s a riveting historical fiction, it’s a powerful narrative about struggles to survive during the Depression, it’s a shocking glimpse into the treatment of women during the 1930s, and it’s about the different ways women fight to survive in a world that’s filled with oppression, denigration and condescension.
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When we think of letters, and perhaps especially “last letters,” we think of heartfelt correspondence between people sharing ideas and emotions. We don’t usually think of the board game Scrabble and the letters we use when playing that game. The main characters in “The Last Letters of Sally and Walter” meet at an independent living community when Sally decides to try attending the Scrabble club one evening.
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“Mad Mabel” is a magnificent novel. Usually, after reading a story that is engrossing, that has unexpected twists, and that really packs a punch at the end, writing the review is easy. I like to say about a great novel, “The review practically writes itself.” So while I think this is a brilliant novel, and I believe it would be a fabulous choice as a book club read, the review for this complex story is not writing itself. There are so many layers to Mabel’s story that delicacy is required so as to not spoil the novel for those who have not read it.
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When one gets to a “certain age,” it’s a kick to read novels, especially murder mysteries, in which the main character is also a person of a “certain age.” And in Leonie Swann’s very clever “Miss Sharp Investigates” series, Agnes Sharp and her fellow pensioners, who all live together in Sunset Hall, her large home, prove that age is no deterrent to fighting crime.
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Well-written, gripping historical fiction like “The Hired Man” takes us back to another place and time and allows us to experience that setting through the eyes, and usually meticulous research of the author. Sandra Dallas takes us back to Colorado in 1937, during the time of the Dust Bowl, when instead of rain falling from the sky, dirt blew in from neighboring states blanketing the ground and covering everything with layers of dirt and grit. Thanks to her careful, detailed descriptions we can almost feel the grit in our mouths and eyes as a storm blankets the town with dirt.
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“Dog Person” is Camille Pagán’s ultimate love story. It’s a story about all kinds of love, and maybe, most of all, it’s a love story about the love we feel for our dogs and what they bring to our lives. But it’s not “just” a dog story (funny thing, when I was typing this review, without thinking, I wrote “Dog Story” as the title). This lovely, heartwarming, heartbreaking, beautifully conceived novel is about love in all its permutations; a mother’s love, our love for our animal companions, our love for our partner, our love for our parents (or not), our love for our friends and family, and our love of reading and finding safe spaces in which to read.
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In “How Simi Got Her Groom Back,” author Sonali Dev uses a cute and clever title to draw us in and make this novel appear to be a delicious romcom. And it is a romcom, but like many wonderfully written novels in that genre, it’s so much more than “just” a romantic comedy. While we read about Simi and her sister Rupi, we are reading about their really tragic childhood, their sisterly bond, human trafficking, the difficulties of immigration, the perils of life in India, and the wonders of a loving family.
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