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Continue reading →: The Bright Years Shows How Painful—and Beautiful—Forgiveness Can Be
Authored by Sarah Damoff; Published April 2025; Fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It is rare, in a novel, to have the density of both pain and forgiveness contained in The Bright Years. It brought me to tears, and it brought me hope. In The Bright Years, Lilian and Ryan’s romance is full of…
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Continue reading →: Tension Thrums Throughout Those Empty Eyes
Authored by Charlie Donlea; Published 2023; Thriller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️ The first book I read by Charlie Donlea did not blow me away—but Those Empty Eyes more than made up for it. Just enough disparate threads, brought together in a stunning conclusion. The tension thrummed throughout the novel. Those Empty…
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Continue reading →: These Days is About as Calm as a War Novel Can Be
Authored by Lucy Caldwell; Published April 2025; Historical Fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️ To the extent that a novel about the events of World War II can be peaceful, These Days is that novel. It has its share of sorrow and violent attacks, but it also manages to capture the relatively quiet existence…
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Continue reading →: Terrestrial History Will Give You Climate Anxiety
Authored by Joe Mungo Reed; Published April 2024; Science Fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️ Terrestrial History is a look back from the future, giving the reader an excruciatingly comprehensive view of how climate change drives the human race off of earth. Trigger warning: It is almost certainly as anxiety inducing as…
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Continue reading →: Secretly Yours is Stereotypical Romance
Authored by Tessa Bailey; Published 2023; Romance ⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ Secretly Yours is everything that I was taught romance novels are. Full of tropes—inexperienced ingenue heroine, exceedingly competent hero, etc.—that may not be the most empowering for young female readers. It was also *very* spicy, almost gratuitously so. That being…
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Continue reading →: The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year Mixes Mystery, Romance, and Christmas
Authored by Ally Carter; Published September 2024; Mystery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ The strongest feature of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year has to be the balance between mystery, romance, and just the right amount of seasonal cheer. Despite reading it in the middle of summer, it did not feel…
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Continue reading →: The Paris Express Combines History with Edge of Your Seat Tension
Authored by Emma Donoghue; Published March 2025; Historical Fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️ The Paris Express somehow manages to capture both the vibes of the 19th century European railroad culture and the modern TV show 24. It had my attention from the first page to the last. The Paris Express follows…
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Continue reading →: Baggage Claim May Be Predictable, But It’s Full of Holiday Cheer
Authored by Juliana Smith; Published 2022; Romance ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ The truth is, I don’t expect much from Christmas-themed rom-coms. They almost always follow a prescribed formula and contain exactly the expected tropes. Baggage Claim delivers what it should: cozy Christmas-y scenes and a grinch whose heart grows three sizes…
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Continue reading →: Three Days in June Is About Ordinary Glorious Love
Authored by Anne Tyler; Published February 2025; Fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The two novels by Anne Tyler that I’ve read have been realistic about romantic relationships to the point of almost depressing. I’ll admit that I liked Three Days in June a little more because of the somewhat happier ending. In Three…
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Continue reading →: The Paris Understudy Will Make You Think About Collaborationists
Authored by Aurelia Thiele; Published September 2024; Historical fiction ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️ In a world awash with World War II historical fiction novels, The Paris Understudy stands out. I can’t say I’ve ever read a novel where the protagonist (Hero? Antihero?) is a French collaborator. In The Paris Understudy, Yvonne…
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