Book Reviews

The Letter from Briarton Park

By Sarah E. Ladd

Summary

In regency era England, orphan Cassandra Hale receives a letter informing her that a gentleman there has information about her origins and family history. However, when she arrives at Briarton Park looking for this man, she comes to find that he had passed away more than two years earlier

Determined to find out more about her past, Cassandra decides to stay in the local town of Anston, and continue digging. On her journey of self discovery, she meets with many people-not all of whom she can trust.

My Thoughts

Plot

While this book is somewhat a mystery, it’s really a slow burn regency romance-and I’m all for that! Having read many books set in this time period, The Letter from Briarton Park is a great example of how to do regency romance well. I was engaged through the entire story, even though it was obvious how the romance would end. I still wanted to know who the bad guy was, and there was never enough information to figure it out ahead of time, so I was often just as lost as the characters, and I LOVED it. I also loved the concept of a strong female character in regency England who understood her power as a woman while also understanding how society at the time worked.

Format

While I listened to this as an Audiobook, I’m pretty sure I would have enjoyed this just as much as a physical book. The narrator was fantastic, and the pacing was great.

Writing

Sarah E. Ladd is just a super engaging writer. She seems to have this ability to know exactly what to say next to keep the reader on their toes-or else she just has an awesome editor…Regardless, I thought the writing was great. The only thing that felt a bit awkward to me was how often she had the same people using the same descriptions of the same people. Like Mr. Warrington kept describing the curve of Cassandra’s nose in the same way, and it got a bit stale. The next thing that I wasn’t fond of is that I didn’t really get the understanding of distance. Briarton Park is obviously not in the town proper, but I never could get a good feel for how far away it was. That could also just be because I’m American and distance between places is normal. I don’t know. Third, I think the book got lost somewhere between mystery and romance. The mystery was well done, but for a lot of the book I was thinking ‘just kiss him/her already!’

Characters

Cassandra Hale: Unfortunately, Cassandra was probably my least favorite character in this book. I don’t think that that had anything to do with the writing or development, I just think that women of that time period had very little agency afforded to them. She kept telling herself to trust nobody, but would then give excuses as to why she would trust x or y person. I think she was well written, I just couldn’t like her.

Mr. Warrington: I liked Mr. Warrington a lot. I just struggled with how difficult it was for him to stand up to his mother-in-law. I mean, it was obvious that he liked Cassandra. He had his girls best interests at heart. Why couldn’t he just tell the bat to get over herself? That being said, he was an incredibly sensitive character, which I think is often lacking in male leads

Rachel: I loved this girl. She was so fun and spunky. She had had so much loss in her life, and now was looking for anyone to give her attention. It just took some gentle guidance to put her back onto the right path. She is the stereotypical teenager, and yet based in a period where society is totally different. It made her very relatable

Mr. North: I thought North was superbly written. It was very obvious from the beginning that he had a motive, but nobody really knew what that motive was. I thought that his interactions with the other characters were done in such a way that it was always very hard to get a read on him-which made him all the more intriguing.

Betsy: Since so many of the characters in this book are upper class, I am super excited about Betsy. She is a character who has seen both sides of money, so understands the ins and outs of high society, but is not currently wealthy. She was a great addition to the entire story.

Mother-In-Law: Oh my goodness was this woman a bitch. I mean, I get it, but she was a total PITA. She was so concerned with trying to control Mr. Warrington that she made everyone around her miserable-including herself! I think she was a great addition to this cast of characters, because she showed the readers way more about familial structures, and acceptable propriety in the time period. She was also just a great foil.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. Does it have flaws? Yes. But it was definitely an entertaining read. Rounding down to 3.5 stars.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Verity

By Colleen Hoover

The good thing about sins is they don’t have to be atoned for immediately.

Colleen Hoover, Verity

This book. Oh my goodness this book. SPOILERS

Summary

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer who is about to lose everything when she receives a call from her agent. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity, would like to hire Lowen to complete Verity’s last few books after Verity has been injured. He also invites Lowen to spend a few days at their house in order to review Verity’s notes.

Once Lowen arrives, she sets herself up in Verity’s office and is beginning to try to piece together the mass of papers when she discovers a manuscript. The problem was, this manuscript was not a draft of the next fiction bestseller. It was an autobiography.

Lowen is quickly engrossed in the manuscript-page after page of terrifying admissions about Verity, her relationship with Jeremy, and how her twins died. Lowen decides to keep this manuscript a secret from Jeremy in an attempt to save him from more heartache. But as their feelings for each other intensify, Lowen starts to notice that something in the house is not as it seems.

Verity, who it appeared was unable to move unaided, was turning her head to look at Lowen. Items that Lowen was sure she saw started to disappear. Verity appeared at the top of the stairs unaided. Was Lowen going crazy?

After Jeremy and Verity’s remaining child is injured, Lowen decides to give Jeremy the manuscript to read. He is incensed and immediately goes to Verity’s room to confront her. It is in this confrontation that it is revealed that Verity is not in fact injured, but had been faking it. Jeremy can not control his rage, and with the help of Lowen, kills his wife.

Months later, Lowen is pregnant with Jeremy’s child, they have moved out of state, and are returning to the old house to finish emptying it before their baby is due. When emptying Verity’s room, Lowen discovers a hidden space in the floor that hides a missing knife, photographs, and a letter written from Verity to Jeremy.

This letter details how the autobiography was a writing prompt to help Verity get into the mind of the villain for her books, that her children’s deaths were truly accidents, and why she was pretending to be so severely injured. It also details how Jeremy was already aware of the manuscript, and had attempted to kill Verity before her accident.

Not knowing what to make of this letter, Lowen decides to return it to the space under the floorboards, never to speak of it again.

My Thoughts

Plot

Like I said at the beginning of this post…This book. Oh my goodness this book. I finished this book in the matter of a few hours. It was creepy in so many ways. Like I finished the book, turned to my husband, and said “this book is fucked up. Amazing, but fucked up.” Do I think that the plot was believable-not particularly. I mean, professionals would have been able to tell if Verity was truly injured-also there are certain actions that humans do instinctually that Verity was able to train herself to not do. That being said, to me, it didn’t matter if the plot was believable because the book was so engaging.

One thing to note is that there is A LOT of sex in this book. I don’t mind smut books, but I don’t think that that is really what this was. I think that the sex scenes were there specifically to aid in character development, further the plot, and explore the relationship between Jeremy and Verity, and Jeremy and Lowen. If these scenes were removed, the book would have fallen flat.

Format

I read this book as a physical book rather than an audiobook. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it as much as an audiobook, but it’s much easier to decide if a physical book would be better than to decide if an audiobook would be better. Since I have no real frame of reference, I can’t say if one would have been better than the other. That being said, this book is just over 300 pages and I was able to read it quite quickly.

Writing

Colleen Hoover is a goddess when it comes to writing. This book was engaging the entire way through. I just kept turning pages. One of the things that I loved was how obvious it was when we were in a section of the manuscript vs a section happening in real life. The way the characters spoke was just so different. Her descriptions were so jarring-making the reader feel as uneasy as Lowen did throughout the book. I loved her description of the house-it was just enough to make it seem imposing without being terrifying. And when describing Lowen’s interactions with Verity, I felt like I might be going crazy too! While I normally hate unreliable narrators in stories, I think this one was done quite well, because you never knew who to believe throughout the entirety of the book.

Characters

Normally I break the characters up into individuals to talk about them separately, but I would consider this book an ensemble cast. If one character was not strong, the entire thing would have fallen apart. Lowen, you could tell, was kind of drifting through the world. Jeremy was falling apart. Verity had the mind of a child-or a psychopath-or a loving mother…you never quite know. I thought that each character was developed super well-and especially considering that by the end we aren’t sure of what’s true, I like how the basis of the characters stayed the same regardless of their actions. The side characters were even great. I really liked Alice, the nurse, and Crew was an adorable little boy. The agent (whose name I forgot) I wasn’t fond of, but was still written extremely well.

Final Thoughts

I thoroughly loved this book. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone and everyone who likes thrillers, unreliable narrators, or just wants something amazingly fucked up to read. Five stars.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Jackaby

By William Ritter

Happiness is bliss – but ignorance is anesthetic, and in the face of what’s to come, that may be all we can hope for our ill-fated acquaintances.

William Ritter, Jackaby

Summary

Abigail Rook, recently arrived in America, finds tenuous employment with local psychic detective R.F. Jackaby. She is quickly plunged into a new to her reality, where trolls, banshees, ghosts, and more are very very real. In her first case with Jackaby, they are investigating a murder that is not quite as simple as it seems. Jackaby swears that something human-like but decidedly unhuman is behind it. They then meet a man in another apartment in the building who is being plagued with mournful songs that only he can hear. Turns out there is an Irish Banshee in the building, singing a lament for his death-which becomes murder 2. Jackaby and Rook are taken in by the police, and questioned as to their involvement, and are imprisoned as the banshee becomes murder 3. With the help of some begrudging police partners, Jackaby and Rook must save the town.

My Thoughts

Plot

I appreciate that this plot was something slightly new and different. I feel like a lot of books now are realistic or fantasy, but not magical realism. I liked where the author was going. However, I figured out who the bad guy was about 1/3 of my way into the book, and was just waiting for the reveal. Slight description changes or introducing characters later/differently would have resolved this entirely. I kept reading because I wanted to know if the villain was human or supernatural, not because I wanted to find out if I was right-I knew I was right. The ending also felt super rushed in some ways, and dragging in others. I ended up being more confused than I was engaged. Some pieces of lore especially, I think should have been more fully explained prior to the ending.

Format

I listened to this as an audiobook. One of the things I struggled with was the accents that the reader gave to the characters. It was kind of off-putting and I would have much rather she just read them straight. The fake eastern European was probably the worst. Also, the speed at which Jackaby’s character spoke was so slow, even listening at 1.5 speed.

Writing

This book is not an adult book. It is definitely written for a younger YA audience. I wasn’t aware of this going in, so I was expecting a lot more. There was a lot of exposition, which isn’t necessarily bad, but at times it was distracting. The writing style was OK. It was engaging enough, but I found myself lost in some parts, wondering if I missed something, and realizing that I didn’t.

Characters

R.F. Jackaby: To be honest, I really didn’t like Jackabys character. I think the intention was to make him seem a bit aloof to things that were not supernatural. But instead, he came across as pretentious and arrogant. I was expecting some sort of redemption at the end, and just didn’t get that. I did like that he didn’t really care that others thought he was crazy, but the fact that he was always talking down to Abigail didn’t work for me.

Abigail Rook: The entire story was told through the eyes of Abigail. I did enjoy her coming to terms with the fact that the supernatural was actually real. However, for someone who was supposedly very observant, I don’t understand how she did not figure out who the bad guy was beforehand. She was a sweet character, and she was definitely developed-I just wish she was developed differently.

Jenny: Jenny was one of my favorite characters in the book. While not a main character per say, I thought she was cute, funny, and intelligent. I liked her spunk. I wish I knew more of her backstory, since I felt that a lot of it was missing.

Douglas: My other favorite character of the book, Douglas was a man turned into a duck who decided he did not want to turn back into a man. If I were turned into a duck, I think I would feel the same way. He wasn’t your average duck though, understanding English, and still having some human mannerisms. I thought he was a great (though ultimately unimportant) addition to the story.

Inspector Marlowe: I wish I could have liked Inspector Marlowe. He kind of reminded me of Inspector Mallory from the Father Brown TV show. Ornery, and not liking the assistance, but secretly knowing that Jackaby was a good guy. But I just didn’t get that. I felt annoyance rather than humor, which made for an only OK character

Charlie Cane: I was really rooting for Charlie. I wanted him to be so much more than he was. I was hoping that he would have more character development. His twist was a bit less noticeable than others in the story, but I just couldn’t get 100% behind it. I also don’t think that some of the decisions made for this character were necessary. I get that it helped forward the plot towards the end, but surely there could have been other options.

Final Thoughts

I really wanted to love this book, and I did through like 70% of it. But the ending just completely ruined it for me. 3.5 stars

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Malamander

By Thomas Taylor

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but that doesn’t mean cats shouldn’t be curious.

Malamander

Summary

Malamander is a middle grade book published in 2019. It is a quirky, creepy fantasy story that is extremely entertaining for kids. Malamanders main character is a young boy named Herbert Lemon, who works as the “lost-and-founder” at the Grand Nautilus Hotel in Eerie-On-Sea. Normally, his job consists of reuniting lost pieces of luggage with their owners, but when a young orphan named Violet stumbles into his storage room chased by a hook handed man, Eerie-on-sea becomes slightly more eerie!

Violet has no idea what happened to her parents. She lost them at the hotel when she was a baby-and since Herbert is the “lost-and-founder” it makes sense that he would help her find them. She thinks they went in search of the legendary Malamander-a magical being that is said to lay an egg that makes all your wishes come true. Violet and Herbert, with the help of the locals, set off on an adventure to not only solve the mystery of her parents but the Malamander too!

My Thoughts

Plot

I really enjoyed this book. I could see how the plot would be engaging for the intended age group. While predictable in some places, I don’t think that it took away from the plot. This story was part adventure, part fantasy, part mystery, part comedy-so I think it had a bit of something for everyone. I was thoroughly engaged throughout the entire thing. I thought the pacing was great, and was very age appropriate.

That being said, this is a solid middle grade book. I would not age this book down. There are themes, characters, and events that I don’t think would be good for an advanced younger reader. This isn’t a bad thing, it just has a very distinct audience.

Format

I read this book, and I do think that you will gain more from reading than listening to this book. That being said, I don’t know if an audio version even exists. The reason that I think you should read this book is for the illustrations. Interspersed throughout the story are pen and ink illustrations that add to the overall whimsy of the book. They really make the characters come to life!

Writing

You really get a feel for this book from the writing. It’s almost like you can smell the rotting seaweed and taste the saltiness in the air. Taylor has great command of pacing, which made this book feel like it went by in a blink, when in fact it is a longer read. The one thing that I would say is that until I heard Herbert talking about Pokémon cards, I thought that the book was based in maybe the early 1900s? But obviously not.

Characters

I thought the characters were a lot of fun. Obviously Violet and Herbert were more developed than some of the secondary characters, I think that the lack of information about the secondary characters actually added to the intrigue. For most of the book I couldn’t tell who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. This made for very fun reading. Unreliable narrators always make a book engaging. I would have to say that my favorite character in the entire story though, was Mrs. Hannover. She owned this odd bookshop with an animatronic monkey that told you what book to read next-and the monkey was always right. The bad guy, Sebastian Eel, I think fits with his name. Throughout the book you can tell he’s a slimy character.

I also love that Violet is written as a strong, black 12 year old. The thing I especially like about this fact is that she was never judged for her color. Herbert and the other characters welcomed her no matter what.

Final Thoughts

This was one of those books that when I finished, I couldn’t stop talking about. I would recommend it to every kid who liked adventure stories. Is it perfect, no. But for a kids book, I loved it. Five stars

Rating: 5 out of 5.

To be or not to be…a reader of Shakespeare

Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare? To be honest, I don’t particularly care. That’s not what this post is about. Rather, this post is about being a reader of the plays and poems attributed to the man.

English, as a subject, was not readily taught in schools at the beginning of the American educational system. In higher education, men were taught the classic languages-greek and latin mostly. The expectation was that these students would be able to memorize large amounts of information, and would one day be fit for public office. Until the 1800’s, Shakespeare was considered appropriate for pleasure reading and the theater, but not for study. For many reasons, over time, this mentality shifted.

My first introduction to Shakespeare came in 1994. I was three years old. Given, I didn’t know it was Shakespeare until I was much older. But for those of you who say that The Lion King doesn’t count as Shakespeare (it totally does), I read my first abridged play in 8th grade and my first non-abridged my freshman year of High School. Can I just tell you, I absolutely hated it. Like LOATHED Shakespeare. He used words that I didn’t understand, and iambic pentameter was confusing. I couldn’t understand why people thought he was this amazing playwright.

I held onto this belief until my first year of college. Between my first and second year I participated in a short-term study abroad in England. I wasn’t planning on going to England, I wanted to learn about World War II in Prague, Czechia. But since most people weren’t history geeks like me, Prague got canceled and I decided I wanted to visit England regardless of the class that was being taught. So that’s how I got roped into watching 11 plays in 13 days.

It was in these 11 plays that my opinion of Shakespeare drastically changed. Before we left for England, we had to read 4 plays-As You Like It, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and Winters Tale. I diligently read all 4, attempting to figure out the plot while muddling my way through college level analysis. When I tell you I failed miserably, that is an understatement.

But then I got to London and everything changed…

OK, not really. There’s way more to it than that.

I am going to use one play as a perfect example of this-As You Like It. Basic plot: two girls run away into the forest for reasons, one dressed as a man. They meet the love interest of the one dressed as a man, but he doesn’t recognize her. Shenanigans ensue. Girl loses her disguise and they fall in love. The End.

The first time I read this play, I hated it with a passion. I couldn’t get passed the idea that Orlando didn’t recognize Rosalind. To me, Orlando was an idiot, and I couldn’t become invested in the story because of that. Trust me, if you have read it, you will agree with me.

Then, I saw the play before I left for England. Hated it. Then, I saw the play in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Hated it. THEN, I saw the play at the Globe Theater and I fell in love. As You Like It was crass and bawdy. Orlando was sarcastic AF and Rosalind was a strong woman. I couldn’t stop laughing. I didn’t want it to end. THIS is how Shakespeare was meant to be.

Once I had that experience with Shakespeare, there was no turning back. Later on in college, I actually took another Shakespeare class just for ha-has. When I read Shakespeare before, I was afraid of it. I thought it was written for people smarter than me. Now when I read Shakespeare, I look for the jokes. I look for the political commentary. I look for the wordplay. When Shakespeare was written, it was written to be entertainment, not highbrow literature.

So that was a super duper long way of saying Shakespeare is actually fun. But also, Shakespeare was never designed to be read. It was meant to be watched. When taking Shakespeare at school, I found that listening to the audio while reading was actually super helpful. Sites like LibriVox allowed me to hear different speakers for different characters.

But the Ah-Ha moment for me was watching a fantastic documentary which included a bit from Ben Crystal discussing original pronunciation, or “OP”. This sealed the deal for me. I will never be able to look at Shakespeare the same way.

So to answer the larger question…to be or not to be a reader of Shakespeare. I say yes. You should be a reader of Shakespeare. But not because Shakespeare will make you smarter, or because Shakespeare is fancy. But rather, you should read Shakespeare because it is truly entertaining.

My All-Time Favorite Middle Grade Books

As a former children’s librarian, I have spent many hours around children’s literature, and have picked my favorites over the years. Since children’s literature is a very broad subject, I am limiting this list to middle grade fiction-or books that are written for grades 4-6ish. I would like to say these are in no particular order, but that would be lying. The first book is my favorite. The rest, it depends on the day. How many of these have you read?

Gone-Away Lake
by Elizabeth Enright

This Newbery Honor title published in 1957 has been a favorite of mine since around 1999, when I first read it in a book club between fourth and fifth grade. I fell in love with not only the story but the easy summer vibe. One of the things that I think makes Gone-Away Lake such a special book is that it’s told from the point of view of a young girl who can hold her own with the boys and likes exploring! This book is about friendship and adventure, and is a great story especially if you have children of multiple ages all wanting to read the same story. It also has beautiful pen illustrations interspersed throughout!

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
by Betty MacDonald

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was one of my early favorites. The titular character lives in a house built 100% upside-down, and is extremely knowledgeable about children despite having none of her own. All of the parents call her to help them with their poorly behaved kids, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle happily obliges. Each chapter is a separate child with a separate “cure” which makes this book great for bedtime reading-as each problem gets resolved at the end of the chapter. One of my favorite cures is the “Won’t Take a Bath Cure”, where Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle instructs the parents to let the little girl get as dirty as she wants, and then secretly plant radish seeds into the dirt while she sleeps. We can all guess what happens next.

The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin

Winner of the 1979 Newbery Medal, The Westing Game was my first real introduction to mystery books. I mean, I had read Nancy Drew, but I wasn’t invested in solving the case the same way. I really love how all the clues are laid out for you if you pay enough attention. I love that Raskin shows a wide range of ages and races, with the protagonist being a tomboyish girl named Turtle. Some people have put this book in the ‘didn’t age well’ pile, but I firmly disagree. The characters do have prejudices, and do make assumptions of others, but that’s just it. It’s the characters making the assumptions not the author. And throughout the short read, these characters learn to overcome their prejudices, learn from their mistakes, and become better people.

When Stars are Scattered
by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

Moving away from books published well before I was born, When Stars are Scattered is a semi-autobiographical fictionalization of Omar Mohamed and his brother Hassan’s time in a Kenyan Refugee Camp. Published in 2020, it’s also a graphic novel, which makes a topic that could easily be depressing and overwhelming much more palatable for young readers. While this title is much longer than the previous ones, its format makes up for the size. With beautiful illustrations, and an even more beautiful message, When Stars are Scattered will pull at the heartstrings of all who read it.

In My Father’s House
by Ann Rinaldi

While only mentioned one time on this list, Ann Rinaldi was, hands down, my favorite author during my middle grade years. A historical fiction writer whose main characters were always young women, her stories spoke to the budding historian in me to learn more about American history. In My Father’s House follows Oscie Mason through the entire Civil War. Oscie is a proud southern girl who knows little about the politics that are about to change her life. A beautiful coming of age story, I will always have a copy of this title on my bookshelf.

The Lost Apothecary

By Sarah Penner

“To me, the allure of history lay in the minutiae of life long ago, the untold secrets of ordinary people.”

The Lost Apothecary

All right-I need to preface this review with the following: I read this book last year, but am reviewing it to make sure the blog has some content at the beginning. There isn’t going to be too much of a summary of the plot since I read a library book and don’t have it for reference anymore.

Now that that’s settled…

Summary

The Lost Apothecary is a historical fiction novel of sorts. A portion of the book is based in modern day London, while the rest is based a few centuries before. The book follows 2021 Caroline, alone on her 10th wedding anniversary. She and her husband are having some problems. While roaming the streets she comes upon a group of people going mudlarking. (Mudlarking is where you go down to a river at low tide and look for very old objects that had been discarded in the river long ago.) While with this group, Caroline finds a small apothecary bottle with the image of a bear etched onto it. This prompts Caroline to channel her inner historian to learn the history of the bottle and why it was thrown into the river.

200+ years earlier, Nella uses her knowledge of herbs to create potions specifically for women. She has two rules with these potions…1) the potion must never be used to harm another woman, and 2) both the murderer and victims names must be written in her ledger. For years, Nella has flown below the radar of Scotland Yard-but a chance encounter with a 12 year old girl puts everything in jeopardy.

My Thoughts

Plot

Ok, so I LOVED this book! The format of the plot is not particularly new. The dual time period books are very Fiona Davis. However, I really appreciate that the two main characters are not related, and how the story in the past does not directly affect the story in the future-meaning the outcome of one is not dependent on the other. I also loved the idea of a murderous woman apothecary. At that time, women apothecaries were not looked upon well. And an apothecary that catered predominantly to abused women was just so interesting. I was engaged the entire time!

Format

I listened to it as an audiobook, which I normally only do on my commute, but I just couldn’t stop. I think I finished this book in like 2 days. Like normal, I did read it on a faster speed, but that had nothing to do with the narration.

I loved the distinct voices of the different characters. In some audiobooks it is not always clear when different characters are speaking-especially if each chapter is in a different characters voice. But in this book, I could easily follow which time period we were in and who was talking just by the timbre of the voice.

I did buy this book in print recently, and I’m considering reading it again. I expect I will love it just as much.

Writing

Like I’ve said in other places in this review, I was thoroughly engaged in the entire book. I kept going because I wanted to know what happened next. As someone with a history background, I appreciated a lot of the references-but those references were not so obscure that people without the background would be lost.

One of my favorite parts of the writing was the different voices. Not only did the narrator do a great job, but the author also. Even just the way each character formed ideas and sentences made them so distinct. This is a skill many writers lack since they write with their own voice.

Characters

Caroline-I loved Carolines development throughout this book. She started out so miserable and really grew into herself through her adventure. She had so much strength and passion, that I was always rooting for her!

Nella-What can be said about the murderous apothecary other than I so related to this woman on so many levels. She was almost like a feminist locked in the late 1700s, supporting women who were in awful situations and putting herself at risk in the process. As we move through the story, it becomes clear that there is a reason for Nella’s behavior. But regardless of that, I never saw her as a villain or even as a bad person. I think that is what makes Nella’s character so unique, and it brings up an interesting conundrum. If good people do bad things for good reasons, are they actually a bad person?

Eliza-Eliza is an interesting character in that she was almost not a character. If things had not gone wrong, Eliza would have just been another name in Nella’s register. But since things obviously did go wrong, Eliza becomes the downfall of everything. But she has such a good soul-and while it’s the situations that make everything difficult for her, it’s how she handles them that make her a compelling character

Final Conclusions

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 4 stars.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Lost and Found Bookshop

By Susan Wiggs

“You’re never alone when you’re reading a book,” Mom used to say.

The Lost and Found Bookshop

Summary

Natalie Harper had a job she couldn’t stand. But the job was stable and predictable, so she stayed…until one fateful day when she received news that would change her life. Her boyfriend and mother were both killed in a plane crash, leaving Natalie alone to care for her ailing Grandy and the struggling bookshop.

Natalie’s plan was simple: sell the bookshop and go back to her old job. But when it turned out that Grandy was technically the sole owner of the store and he wasn’t going to sell, Natalie had to find another path. First, she quit her job to return to the shop full time. Second, she hired a handyman (Peach), who happened to be the father of one of the shops most loyal young customers, to help with all of the building repairs. Lastly, she tried to drum up some interest in the bookshop in an attempt to save it from disaster.

Natalie, Peach, Grandy, and their friends find hidden artifacts, make new friends, and find love, all in an effort to save The Lost and Found Bookshop.

My Thoughts

Plot

I had been in a reading slump for a bit before picking up this book, so I had been looking for something quick and easy to read. Boy was I in for a surprise. This novel was much sadder than I had ever expected-not that that is necessarily a bad thing. Natalie losing her mother and boyfriend, Grandy forgetting, maybe losing the bookshop?

For me, the most difficult part was Grandy forgetting. I recently lost my Grandfather, and my Grandmother has dementia-so she sometimes forgets he has passed. Just like with Grandy, every time we tell her that Pop is gone, her heart breaks all over again.

Was I worried about them losing the bookshop? Not really. I would place this book pretty squarely in the chick-lit genre, so picking it up, I expected everything to work out in the end. That wasn’t a deal breaker for me though, since the joy of reading this type of book is the journey more than the destination.

And the ending-I feel like everything was wrapped up in a neat and tidy little bow way too quickly. I was left feeling like the last little bit was super rushed when the rest of the book kind of dragged.

Format

For this title, I did listen to the audiobook at 1.5 speed. For me, all audiobooks read extremely slow, so I speed up everything. Emily Rankin read the audiobook, and she has been the reader on many other books I have listened to. Her voice is easy to listen to, and she is good at portraying emotion in her voice. I have no issues with format.

Writing

I felt that this book was pretty predictable. Early on, Natalie calls an author’s agent and was told that he wasn’t available to do a book signing for 2 years-at that point, I knew he would come into play at some point. When they introduced Peach, I knew he would end up with Natalie. For some readers, this might be a turn off. For me, it’s hit or miss. In this case, I wanted something short and predictable. Some readers might take pause at the language in this book-but in my opinion, those people need to get over themselves. If you want a clean book, then go read some Amish fiction, not a chick-lit title where you will expect at least one sex scene. There were also some descriptions in this book that didn’t make sense to me. For example, there are comments about how in shape Natalie is, but never once do we see her even attempting exercise. The same is true for Peach-though his could be explained away by his job.

Characters

This book should have been a character driven book, and I was mostly disappointed. The exceptions to this disappointment are Grandy and Dorothy. In the sections from Grandy’s point of view, I could really feel his pain, confusion, and fear with knowing he is forgetting things. I felt you could really see the world from his eyes. And Dorothy-don’t get me started on this adorable little girl. She was spunky and resourceful, and a great side character.

The rest of the main cast of characters were sub-par for me.

Trevor-Trevor is portrayed as this Adonis of a character that swoops in to save everything. Do I think he was poorly written? No. But because of the predictability of the book, I knew he wasn’t going to last. His perfectness was a weird turn off for me too. Like, from the moment he was introduced, I was waiting for the shoe to drop.

Peach-A sexy handyman/walking encyclopedia/divorced father/avid reader? What can this man not do? Well, except tell Natalie that he likes her for like 98% of the book. His name comes from his military service/his Georgia birthplace, and it kind of sucks. And he’s obviously attracted to Natalie, but sometimes it seems almost creepy when he is in the bookstore. I mean, you know he and Natalie are going to get together in the end, but there was never a point where I was rooting for them.

Natalie-OK, so this girl was so confusing. On one hand she is described as a toxic boss, but then on the other she is described as this sweet, caring individual. She starts the book pretty full of herself, and you would expect that over the course of the book she learns to not be, but that just doesn’t happen. She is proud of Grandy for returning the found items to their owners-but she shouldn’t be surprised since he’s already done it at least one other time in the book. She dates Trevor even though throughout the book she finds herself continuing to be interested in Peach. She doesn’t take the time to get to know people, and doesn’t seem to take the time to care about the people she already does know.

Final conclusions

I mean, I finished the book, which means it did what it was supposed to do. Would I recommend it to others? Probably not. 2.5/5

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.