Book Review: The English Wife by Lauren Willig

The English Wife by Lauren Willig /  ★★★.5

Summary: Bayard, from the esteemed Van Duyvil family, is found with a knife in his chest, and his wife, Annabelle, goes missing, presumed drowned, on the night of their Twelfth Night ball. The press goes wild with rumors, but Janie, Bay’s sister, teams up with an unlikely reporter to uncover the truth.

It wasn’t the big decisions that set the course of one’s life; it was the slow accretion of all the little ones.

This book was a fun mystery! It was a relatively quick, dramatic read, and if you’re looking for something dark, yet entertaining, this is a great book to pick up. I loved the format- it jumps around in time and switches between the POVs of our main character, Janie, who is trying to solve the mystery of her brother’s death and sister-in-law Annabelle’s disappearance, and Annabelle herself, and the events leading up to that fatal night. I love the un-chronological reveal of information, and the guessing game this book had me playing. It was definitely full of twists and turns.

I think the thing that docked this book a star was that I simply wasn’t fully invested in the characters. The romance – though fitting with the style of writing and with the drama of the story – was a bit theatrical for my taste. I liked the characters, but no one really made me care deeply about how the whole story played out, and I really just wasn’t invested in the romance. Some parts of this book were also a bit draggy, and descriptions and dialogue were a bit kitschy,  but for the most part it kept me interested.

This is a book that really keeps you guessing. Except! While I wouldn’t describe this book as being predictable, about halfway through I took a stab at randomly predicting who I thought the killer might be- and ended up being right. So in the end, while I didn’t love this book, it did leave me feeling satisfied and somewhat victorious.

Book Review: Human Acts by Han Kang

Human Acts by Han Kang / ★★★★★

Summary: In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre.

I grasped your hand and tugged you forward, toward the head of the column, while you muttered to yourself in blank incomprehension, our soldiers are shooting. They’re shooting at us. I pulled you toward them with all my strength, opening my throat to sing while you seemed on the point of tears. I sang along with the national anthem, my heart fit to burst. Before they sent that white-hot bullet driving into my side.

Book Review: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang / ★★★★☆

Summary: Rin defies the odds and passes the Keju, a prestigious test that gets her a spot in Sinegard, the nation’s most prestigious military school in the nation. From there, she continues to work her way to the top and discovers she is capable of things beyond what she thought possible. When a terrible war against a nearby country begins, Rin is pulled into something more deadly than she ever would have expected, and goes to impossible lengths to avenge her people.

I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible.

Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid / ★★★★★

Movie star Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the story of her life, of her rise to fame and fortune, and of her seven marriages. She chooses unknown journalist Monique Grant to do the job, and no one is more surprised than Monique herself. As Evelyn’s story unravels, however, the connection between them begins to unravel, in a story of tragedy and love.

Movie stars are movie stars are movie stars. Sure, we all fade after a while. We are human, full of flaws like anyone else. But we are the chosen ones because we are extraordinary.

Book Review: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah / ★★★★☆

Summary: Leni Allbright’s father, a restless and violent former POW in the Vietnam war, likes to move their family around the country, and is never able to hold a job for long. When they end up in Alaska, it’s just remote and wild enough to seem like the perfect resting place- until winter comes, and Leni learns what it means to be  truly resilient, for both herself and her mother.

Leni had seen all of this before. Ultimately, it didn’t matter what she or Mama wanted. 

Dad wanted a new beginning. Needed it. And Mama need him to be happy.

So they would try again in a new place, hoping geography would be the answer. They would go to Alaska in search of a new dream. Leni would do as she was asked and do it with a good attitude. She would be the new girl in school again. Because that was what love was.  

Book Review: The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James / ★★★★☆

Summary: In 1950, Idlewild Hall boarding school is a place for girls no one wants. There, Katie, CeCe, Sonia, and Roberta band together in misery, fear and close friendship until one of them mysteriously disappears. In 2014, sixty four years later, Fiona is determined to finally put together the pieces of how her older sister was murdered and dumped on the old, abandoned grounds of Idlewild Hall. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure looms in the background…

The police don’t have all the answers, and neither does the government. The people are where you find things. Like those records you just found. The people are the ones who keep the memories and the records the powers that be would rather erase. 

Book Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee / ★★★★★

Summary: Pachinko follows a Korean family through the 20^th century, beginning with an unplanned pregnancy in the 1900s that ignites a story filled with struggle, war, discrimination, and unexpected blessings.

“You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.”

Book Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (The Winternight Trilogy #1) /★★★★★

Summary: Vasilisa is a creature of winter and nature. When her father brings home a stepmother who forbids her family from honoring household spirits, and a priest arrives who teaches her happy village to fear, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on gifts she has long concealed to protect her family.

You are. And because you are, you can walk where you will, into peace, oblivion, or pits of fire, but you will always choose.

Book Review: The Absolutist by John Boyne

The Absolutist by John Boyne / ★★★★★

Summary: Tristan Sadler personally delivers a package of letters to the sister of the deceased Will Bancroft, a man he fought alongside during World War I. But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan’s visit. As Tristan recounts the past, the true nature of his relationship with Will and the burden he has kept hidden surrounding Will’s death is reluctantly revealed.

And if I don’t see him, I will convince myself that he has been picked off in the last few hours and I will throw myself over anyway, an easy potshot for the snipers, for what is the purpose of continuing if he does not?

Book Review: You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins / ★★★★☆

Summary: It’s the 1970s and Tara and Sonia move from India to London and finally, to New York City, where they work on acclimating themselves to American culture while their mother resists. Flash forward to their daughters living in the 21^st century, who have their own – different – problems to face.

And then I catch sight of my reflection. My watery face does look like my mother’s, but I remember the old man who gave us directions. I look closer at the water. I, too, can see the Das family imprint there now. I’m Baba’s girl, too, and nothing will change that.