1.) Homecoming by Kate Morton
Kate Morton is an auto-buy author for me and her genre is my reading sweet spot. I love her books! They are true pleasure reads. Her books are always atmospheric, immersive, and propulsive. This is the perfect book for summer reading.
From Goodreads:
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia. Sixty years later, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital. Nora has always been a vibrant and strong presence: decisive, encouraging, young despite her years. When Jess visits her in the hospital, she is alarmed to find her grandmother frail and confused. It’s even more alarming to hear from Nora's housekeeper that Nora had been distracted in the weeks before her accident and had fallen on the steps to the attic—the one place Jess was forbidden from playing in when she was small. At loose ends in Nora's house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora's bedroom, she discovers a true crime book, chronicling the police investigation into a long-buried tragedy: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through the book that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime—a crime that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…
Homecoming is historical fiction meets mystery meets true crime. The setting is in Australia but the timelines alternates between 1959 and 2018. This multigenerational mystery saga covers 60 years of the Turner family's secrets, tragedies, and lies. This is a book to savor especially as the mystery of what happened to Isabel Turner and her children builds slowly through the dual timelines, multiple POVs, and backward storytelling. There is even an novel within the novel. I loved it all. Kate Morton did a great job creating an interesting way to have the story unfold.
The imagery is beautiful. Morton describes the flora and fauna in Australia and not one but two beautiful old estates with secrets to tell to perfection. The story is transporting. The times, the places, and the characters. There was a fantastic and interesting array of characters in both timelines. Their complex family dynamics kept me turning pages. This 500 plus paged book is a rich slow burn. I enjoyed it immensely.
My Rating: Captivating. A great summer page turner.
2.) The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan
This was my book club's pick for July 2023. This is my 2nd Jennifer Ryan novel. I read The Kitchen Front a year ago and thought that it was okay. I much preferred this book. It is actually Ryan's debut novel and was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Awards.
From Goodreads:
In the idyllic village of Chilbury change is afoot. Hearts are breaking as sons and husbands leave to fight, and when the Vicar decides to close the choir until the men return, all seems lost. But coming together in song is just what the women of Chilbury need in these dark hours, and they are ready to sing. With a little fighting spirit and the arrival of a new musical resident, the charismatic Miss Primrose Trent, the choir is reborn. Some see the choir as a chance to forget their troubles, others the chance to shine. Though for one villager, the choir is the perfect cover to destroy Chilbury’s new-found harmony. Uplifting and profoundly moving, THE CHILBURY LADIES’ CHOIR explores how a village can endure the onslaught of war, how monumental history affects small lives and how survival is as much about friendship as it is about courage.
I know. I know. Another WWII historical fiction novel. There are so many. But this one surprised me. I actually really loved it. Don't be put off by the title which sounds like a bit of a snooze. I found The Chilsbury Ladies' Choir to be just as charming and delightful as the blurb makes it out to be. The novel has a bit of a lighter take on the somber topic of WWII.
the war has just begun and the story is told from five different points of view of five very different women who are left behind to manage the home front while the men go off to fight. The women are of varying ages: older women, young adults, teenagers, and a Jewish refugee child. They are all members of the Chilsbury Ladies' Choir. Their stories are told through their letters, journal entries, and a few newspaper articles. I loved the epistolary format but it is the cast of extraordinary characters that made the novel unputdownable for me. Kitty was my favorite but I loved them all even the dastardly Edwina Paltry. I highly recommend listening to this on audiobook. The characterizations are fantastic and music is included which gave the story a wonderful mixed media touch.
The author does an excellent job of writing this story in a warm and funny way despite the mix of sorrow and grief that comes as the characters face the realities of life during wartime in a small English village. It was inspiring to see our beloved characters challenge traditional societal norms as they contributed to the war effort and endured loss. I loved rooting for all of them as they changed, grew, and found their inner strength all while supporting and taking care of one another.
The tender themes of friendship, grief, resiliency, and hope interspersed with dry wit was the perfect combination. I was fully engaged. I was sad to see the story end with five more years of war ahead of the women and their long-term futures still unknown. I loved this endearing story of friendship. It had great heart! It would make a wonderful BBC series!!
My Rating: 5 stars!
3.) Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
This book was raved about by one of my favorite bookstagram follows, @maryreadsandsips. She said that is was spooky and fun but not scary. That is just the level of spookiness that I prefer. I wanted a quick and propulsive fun summer read.
From Goodreads:
On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son's death--but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules...Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son's bedroom, she's perplexed. She's never heard of it before, but soon learns it's a tiny island off of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow's home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island. After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: this place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: they wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: close your curtains at night. High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island's twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She's been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders' beliefs are a sham. But are they? Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow's brother Harper comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth--that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined--he is determined to blow the whole thing open. If he can get out alive...
I loved the premise of the story and the 1994 loop. 1990s nostalgia is a thing! It definitely had a fun vibe. I also really enjoyed the way that the story unfolds through the POV of siblings Willow and Harper through emails, text messages, letters, interviews etc. That was really fun. There were parts that were genuinely creepy. The Mother Olga story for one. Unsettling. Unfortunately it was the ending that didn't do it for me. I felt like it was a lot of page-turning build up and then just...meh. I give it an A++ for the cover which is awesome but overall the ending was weak.
My Rating: Disappointing.
4.) The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
I've read two other Emily Henry books and loved both of them. She is an auto-read author for me. This book sounded really fun! It had great ratings and many of my friends loved it! It sounded like perfect summer reading!
From Goodreads:
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
I love a friends-to-lovers trope in my romance novels. It is one of my very favorite romance plots. I eagerly dove into this book at the start of summer. And then... I just could NOT get into it. I tried. Over and over again. I tried it in book form and I tried it on audiobook. I took it with me on two different vacations and STILL couldn't get into it. I was so bummed!! I liked both characters but the set-up and start of the book was SO SLOW. I was 100 pages in and still not hooked. I was so close to DNFing the book but my friends told me to keep reading! So many people love this book. It won the Goodreads Best Romance Novel of 2021 for heavens sake so I kept trying and it messed up my summer reading. I got behind it and couldn't get around it. Finally through forcing myself to keep reading and alternating between the book and the audiobook I finally got into it but it took a LONG time.
My other problem was that the book counts down 10 summer vacations. By the 8th summer I was getting bored and wanting the story to resolve. This book is definitely a slow burn. Perhaps too slow but I liked the characters of Alex and Poppy. I liked their dynamic. I was rooting for them. But for whatever reason the pacing just didn't work for me.
Once I was into the story I enjoyed it. I was happy with the storyline and how it resolved. Was this rom-com a bit overrated? Perhaps.
My Rating: Good but took some time getting into.
5.) Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons
From Goodreads:
In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying. After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her? The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.
I read this near future sci-fi while on a road trip. I was intrigued and pulled into the story right away. This is a crime mystery with a mind-bending sci-fi twist. It was fast-paced and kept me turning the pages. I was forever questioning who that main character could trust. I thought the ethical, philosophical, religious, and legal questions that were posed were fascinating. The ending got a bit convoluted (and a bit cheesy at one point) but it is the first book in a series so maybe book #2 will flesh things out a bit more. I enjoyed the book for what it was...a fun fast-paced vacation read.
My Rating: Good (ish) but better than okay.
6.) Out of the Corner by Jennifer Grey
Celebrity memoirs are palate cleansers for me. They are great books to read in between other books. I was curious to read Jennifer Grey's memoir. I wanted the scoop on her infamous nose job and all of the details on Patrick Swayze, Dirty Dancing, and all of the other 80s gossip. She was engaged to both Matthew Broderick and Johnny Depp!! Tell me ALL about it! This seemed like a good book to wind down summer. It was!
From Goodreads:
Jennifer Grey takes readers on a vivid tour of the experiences that have shaped her, from her childhood as the daughter of Broadway and film legend Joel Grey, to the surprise hit with Patrick Swayze that made her America's sweetheart, to her inspiring season eleven win on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Throughout this intimate narrative, Grey richly evokes places and times that were defining for a generation--from her preteen days in 1970s Malibu and wild child nights in New York's club scene, to her roles in quintessential movies of the 1980s, including The Cotton Club, Red Dawn, and her breakout performance in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. With self-deprecating humor and frankness, she looks back on her unbridled, romantic adventures in Hollywood. And with enormous bravery, she shares the devastating fallout from a plastic surgery procedure that caused the sudden and stunning loss of her professional identity and career. Grey inspires with her hard-won battle back reclaiming her sense of self from a culture and business that can impose a narrow and unforgiving definition of female worth. She finds, at last, her own true north and starts a family of her own, just in the nick of time.
This had all of what I was hoping for and more. Grey definitely shares all of the gossipy details on her famous upbringing, celebrity friends, love life, 80s movies, and nose job drama. It was all there. Did this book make me a fan of hers? No. Was I able to put her book down? Also no. I just kept turning the pages. It is definitely candid and sometimes cringey. She delves deep into her relationship with Matthew Broderick...including naming the actresses with whom he cheated on her. Yikes. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes info on Dirty Dancing, Patrick Swayze, Red Dawn, a little Ferris Bueller (I wanted more), and Dancing with the Stars. So good!
Jennifer Grey has lead a life of privilege and it shows. She tells you over and over again with no apology. A little rich girl who was entitled and coddled and is the definition of nepo-baby but it certainly made for some interesting reading. There are also some truth bombs and then loose ends. Grey draws no conclusions from some of the information that she drops on the reader so I'm not sure what we are supposed to glean from them. She leaves a lot of ambiguity at times. Despite all of that I liked this name dropping, gossip filled, celebrity tell-all, that's a fast read with great 80s nostalgia.
My Rating: Interesting.
7.) Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
Another memoir but this time it is from the world of reality tv. Having watched 19 Kids and Counting back in the day and now with all of the information that has come forward since then...Josh sexually abusing the younger girls and his criminal history...several of the daughters cutting ties with their faith... I was curious to hear more about what was *really* going on.
From Goodreads:
Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting , Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married. But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore. For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members—they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.
In this quick read memoir, Jill tells her story of growing up Duggar and gives a lot of behind-the-scenes details about her childhood and the tv show. She doesn't shy away from tackling difficult topics and her complicated relationship with both her faith, having grown up in the Christian Fundamentalist IBLP sect, and now with her family. Particularly her father. Jim Bob is NOT likeable. At. All. Jill isn't as critical of Michelle, her mother. I think she feels like Michelle is also a victim of IBLP ideology and Jim Bob.
This is not a salacious tell-all but rather Jill's side of the story. It is clear how hard she is trying to be fair to all involved and yet still relate the facts. She talks honestly about the manipulation, abuse, gaslighting, and hypocrisy that she has suffered from both family members, IBLP, and quite frankly from being on a TV show. Having your life on display for the whole world would be incredibly difficult especially when going through trauma. Jill discusses the abuse she suffered from her brother Josh and its aftermath but without going into great detail or sharing stories that are not her own. I felt like she tried very hard to share her side of the story without causing any further pain to her family.
Jill went into detail about what it was like to be raised in an IBLP fundamentalist sect. It was very interesting insight into that group. I felt for Jill as she started deconstructing her toxic patriarchy and harmful ideologies. I had sympathy as she attempted to disentangle herself from her past and tried to move forward with her husband and children. Extremes of any kind can be so damaging whether it is religion, controlling parents, family estrangement, or reality TV. The truth is not always comfortable especially as you are exposing greed and abuse and yet she does it in a way that doesn't feel vindictive.
Jill seems to genuinely want relationships with her parents and siblings but needs her boundaries respected and what happened to her validated. Family discord and estrangement isn't easy and talking about it is even more difficult. Family relationships can be complicated, painful, and private. I appreciated her honesty and candor. I felt that she handled those topics well. I applaud her ability to move forward with hope while maintaining her faith in Jesus Christ. I hope that her siblings are able to do so as well.
My Rating: A quick read.
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