I’m Very Late to the Party

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves

A lot of you have probably read this book, given that it was first published 24 years ago, but I’m new to the world of Detective Investigator Vera Stanhope and I had to share my excitement with you.

Three women have taken on the assignment of helping to prepare an environmental impact statement for a company that wants to build a quarry in a picturesque area not far from a small village in Northumberland, England. The people who live in the village have vehement feelings about the quarry, both for and against. The quarry will provide jobs for people in the area, but it will also blight the landscape with belching industrial buildings, roads, and lots of noisy trucks.

While the women are conducting the environmental survey, they agree to stay in a small cottage very close to the proposed site of the quarry. This will make it easier for them to get out early every morning or to go out late in the afternoon or evening to do their work. Nearby is a farm, owned by Dougie and Bella Furness, which abuts the proposed quarry land.

Rachael, the leader of the trio, is the first woman to arrive at the cottage. Bella Furness is a good friend of hers and she looks forward to an evening of catching up before the project work begins. But when she goes looking for Bella, she finds, to her horror, that Bella has killed herself. It’s inexplicable. Why would Bella have willingly left her husband to fend for himself? He is disabled and requires around-the-clock care, which she has provided lovingly and willingly. Why would she have left the farm, which was the most important thing in her life after Dougie? And why would she leave behind a cryptic note that explains little?

Bella’s death is the catalyst which ignites a series of events that leads to more death and unanswered questions.

Enter Vera Stanhope, a detective investigator with a sharp tongue and a mind of her own. This is a woman who does not suffer fools gladly. She knows all the seemingly-unrelated deaths are connected somehow—she can feel it—but she needs the evidence to prove it. Through good, old-fashioned detective work and asking the right questions, Vera gets to the bottom of the mystery and the shocking reason behind all the deaths.

I love Vera Stanhope. She’s feisty and opinionated and smart. People listen to her because she demands it and because, more often than not, she’s right. She makes things happen and isn’t afraid of stepping on toes and making people uncomfortable to get the answers she needs. But she’s also a woman with a history, and little by little, the reader learns more about Vera’s unique background as the story progresses.

Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope books are so engaging that they’ve been made into a television series (beginning in 2011). Again, because I’m apparently at least a dozen years behind the times, I’ve never seen the shows. Rest assured that’s going to change. Soon.

I plan to read every book in the Vera Stanhope series. Have you read them? Have you seen the shows? What did you think?

I would recommend The Crow Trap to anyone who loves a great British police procedural and anyone who loves a spunky female main character.

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St. Patrick’s Fray, book 7 in the Juniper Junction Cozy Holiday Mystery Series, will be released on Friday! Here’s a look at the cover and the blurb, and a link for you to preorder your copy. The paperback edition will be released very soon.

Lilly could use a little luck o’ the Irish…

When a business tycoon winds up dead shortly after unleashing a scathing and humiliating criticism of Lilly and her jewelry designs, Lilly finds herself under suspicion of committing murder. And though she has an alibi, the only person who can confirm it is a two-month-old baby.

To make matters worse, Lilly’s shop is the target of a shocking St. Patrick’s Day smash-and-grab robbery by an unlikely and frightful assailant. The real horror, though, comes after the robbery, when Lilly and her husband become the targets of an extortionist who’s willing to go to frightening lengths to get what he wants.

Can Lilly turn her luck around before the killer strikes again and she loses the people most dear to her?

Get your copy here!

https://books2read.com/u/3R0PkR

A Gripping Icelandic Mystery

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason

This is the first book in Arnaldur Indridason’s acclaimed Inspector Erlendur series. You may remember how much I enjoyed Ragnar Jonasson’s Icelandic crime novel Snow Blind (you can read my review here). After I posted my review of Snow Blind, one commenter recommended I check out Indridason’s books. I’m glad she did, because the book was excellent. In fact, at the time of this writing, I’m almost done with the second novel in the series.

In Jar City, the reader meets Inspector Erlendur of the Reykjavik police department after he is called to a dingy basement flat to investigate the death of its only occupant, an old man by the name of Holberg. Two young boys living in a flat above Holberg discovered the body. Holberg died from a head injury inflicted by a heavy ashtray; there is no clue to the identity of the killer except a note found with the body. The note states merely, “I am him.” Hidden under a desk drawer in the flat is a photograph of a gravestone. There is no indication where the grave might be or who is buried beneath it.

What follows is a riveting story of Erlendur’s quest to find out everything he can about Holberg’s past, why someone would have wanted to kill him, and who that person might have been. Erlendur and his team of two other detectives discover Holberg, who was a lorry driver at the time of his death, hides a chilling and violent history. A long-ago associate of Holberg’s has also been missing for years, and Erlendur believes he knows where that person might be. Holberg’s death, the missing associate, and the photograph of the grave are all somehow connected, but the detectives struggle to obtain answers from witnesses and victims who are reticent to talk.

Erlendur’s attempts to solve the murder are interspersed with accounts of his life outside the police station, which is also quite bleak. He is a loner, a divorced man in middle age who left his wife and children when the children were very small. He has a tempestuous relationship with his adult daughter, who, like her brother, is drug-addled and scarred from Erlendur’s abandonment.

Geographically, Iceland is not technically part of Scandinavia (which includes Denmark, Sweden, and Norway). Culturally, however, Iceland (along with Finland and the Faroe Islands) is often considered part of the Scandinavian region. This may explain why Icelandic fiction is so similar to Scandinavian fiction. Consistently recurring themes mirror the weather: dark, bleak, and chilling. This is a highly atmospheric book that takes Erlendur and the reader from the docks of Reykjavik to Iceland’s Genetic Research Centre to the opulent home of a well-known researcher.

The author’s prose is direct and sparse in a way that lends a layer of authenticity and depth to the motif of darkness and gloom. If the prose were flowery or verbose, the reader would find it jarring and incongruous.

Please note: this book is not for everyone. It is gritty and fierce. It covers subjects including rape, graphic murder, and childhood disease and death. There is plenty of foul language.

I do recommend the book to anyone who likes a disquieting, atmospheric mystery that doesn’t hold back when it comes to difficult topics. I listened to the audiobook version of the story and I couldn’t imagine a better narrator than George Guidall.

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From time to time I share with my readers news of my friends’ releases and sales. For the most part, I haven’t yet read the books. If I have, I’ll be sure to tell you.

This week my friend CeeCee James has a new book out. The Curious Case of Emily Lickenson is the first book in the Emily Lickenson Cozy Mystery Series and you can grab a copy for 99¢. Click the link below to read more.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQD2F2LP

Spellbinding Historical Mystery

Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March

Happy 2023! I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

Out with the old….

Last year I had a hard time keeping up with the schedule of reviewing and recommending a mystery every Tuesday. There were two reasons for this. First, I didn’t feel I could recommend some of the mysteries I read. And when that happened, I felt pressure to read another one so I could recommend that one, and I didn’t have time for it. Second, I read lots of other things, too, and since this is a mystery blog, there were weeks I didn’t read a mystery and I would have nothing to recommend come Tuesday morning. I hope I’m making sense.

In with the new…

Thus, my goal this year is to review and recommend a mystery every other Tuesday. My blog posts will alternate with my newsletter, which also goes out every other Tuesday.

So without further ado, my first recommendation of 2023 is Nev March’s beautiful and engrossing mystery, Murder in Old Bombay. This is the first book in March’s Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries (no, not that Lady Diana).

Full disclosure: I have spent time with Nev on several occasions. She is an absolute delight. We belong to a couple of the same writing groups, we have had dinner together, and we have attended at least one reading together. But she doesn’t know I’m writing this review, and everything I say here is the truth. If I didn’t love the book, I wouldn’t recommend it.

When the book opens, we meet main character Captain Jim Agnihotri, a young man recovering from serious wounds sustained in battle. The British maintain control over much of India, and many Indian people harbor deep resentment toward the British. Captain Jim is caught between two worlds: his mother, who died when Jim was very young, was Indian; his father, whom Jim never knew, was British. This was a time in history when one’s pedigree and the color of one’s skin mattered very much, so Jim doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere.

While still in the hospital, Jim has little to read except newspapers and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. When he reads a newspaper story about the deaths of two women from a high-society Bombay family, he is struck by the horrific manner in which they died and by the sorrowful dignity of the man who lost his wife and his sister in the tragedy.

When he is finally released from the hospital, he takes a job as a journalist and one of his assignments is to interview the man whose wife and sister died. When Jim meets the man, Adi Framji, he is immediately drawn to Adi’s calm demeanor, intelligence, and determination to prove to himself and society that his wife and sister did not commit suicide, as the public has been told. The Framjis are an upstanding Parsee family and Jim has an instinctive notion that someone who means the family harm is behind the deaths. It is important to note that Parsees are a subset of the Indian people, having fled persecution in Persia centuries before. They are a relatively small part of the population, so they keenly observe the custom of marrying within the group—this will come into play later in the book.

Adi hires Jim to help him find out what really happened the day Adi’s wife and sister fell from the top of the university clock tower in broad daylight. As Jim soon discovers, his investigations have threatened someone (or more than one!) and that person intends to stop Jim at all costs.

This story is filled with British Raj history, excitement, and well-paced twists and turns. The author describes Bombay and the Indian countryside in vivid color. There’s enough romance to satisfy even the most jaded reader. More importantly, the main character’s pedigree forms the basis of a fascinating and unsettling look at racism and the social structure at that time in Indian history.

And, of course, there’s the mystery. The whodunit weaves complex (in a good way!) and dastardly motives to bring forth a page-turner that will have readers rooting for the Jim as he makes his way forward at a time when personal and professional stagnation might have been the destiny for people with his parentage. Readers are treated to a graceful and powerful arc of Jim’s character as he moves from self-loathing to self-confidence. And the ending…well, it’s highly satisfying. No spoilers.

I loved this mystery and I would highly recommend it to other lovers of historical mystery. I am looking forward to the second book in the series, Peril at the Exposition.

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Death in Iceland

Snow Blind by Ragnar Jónasson 

I have been hearing for some time that I need to give Icelandic and Scandinavian fiction a try, so I finally took the plunge and read Snow Blind, Book 1 in Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series.

Let me paraphrase what’s coming for the #TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) folks here: I will be reading more Icelandic and Scandinavian fiction, beginning with book 2 in the Dark Iceland series, Night Blind.

Snow Blind is the story of Ari Thór, a theology-student-turned-police-officer who moves from Reykjavik (starting here, I’m not putting the accents over the words because WordPress isn’t allowing it and I. Just. Can’t.) to Siglufjordur, a small town in the remote north of Iceland where the winters are long and dark and the residents seem to know everything about everyone.

Note my use of the word “seem.” Because when a well-known elderly writer in town dies under suspicious circumstances and his death is closely followed by another bizarre and violent occurrence, the residents are suddenly afraid and it quickly becomes clear they don’t know everything about everyone.

As the newcomer to a town where families go back generations and new faces are greeted with guarded suspicion, Ari Thor has his work cut out for him. He’s the rookie cop on the town’s very small police force and he needs to prove to his boss and the residents of Siglufjordur that he is smart and capable. It isn’t easy—he suffers from claustrophobia and now he’s stuck in a town where winter consists of constant darkness and tons and tons (and tons, and tons…) of snow with only one very treacherous road in or out. He’s left behind a serious girlfriend in Reykjavik and she’s unhappy with his decision to take the job. His new boss shifts on a dime from being fatherlike and kind to gruff and angry when Ari Thor suggests the old writer’s death wasn’t an accident.

This book says “Thriller” right on the cover, but I wouldn’t call it a thriller. I would call it a suspense novel. Here’s why: the reader knows certain things that Ari Thor doesn’t know; the story starts with a crime and circles back to it toward the end of the book; and the killer isn’t known until the final reveal near the conclusion of the story.

But with that being said, it’s a thrilling book. Ari Thor puts himself in harm’s way more than once to prove that he’s the right man for the job, and there are times when he’s in danger and the reader wonders how he’s going to fare. There are red herrings aplenty (pun intended—herring? Iceland? Get it?), and I was kept just off-balance enough to keep reading until way past my bedtime because I needed to know whodunit.

The characters in the book are complex and three-dimensional and the plot moves at a nice clip. I am already looking forward to book 2 in the series and I’ll be checking out other Icelandic and Scandinavian authors, too.

I would highly recommend Snow Blind to anyone who loves dark fiction and a clever mystery set in a desolate but beautiful place with plenty of atmosphere and tension.

Another Christie Classic

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

There’s a reason Agatha Christie is the best-selling mystery author of all time. She’s that good.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the fourth Hercule Poirot novel, and features the inimitable Belgian detective at his best. He’s moved to the town of Kings Abbot to pursue the growing of vegetable marrows, but soon finds himself embroiled in the investigation of a most perplexing murder. There are suspects aplenty, so Monsieur Poirot’s famous little gray cells are put to the test in sussing out the culprit.

The characters in the book are expertly drawn, as one would expect from Dame Agatha, and each of them harbors a secret (some more shocking than others). M Poirot makes it his mission to uncover each character’s secret, and he does so (as he does in all his appearances in Christie’s stories) with an abundance of well-earned self confidence and faultless logic.

The solution to the mystery of who killed Roger Ackroyd lies in that faultless logic, and it makes the path to figuring out whodunit especially fun for readers. Many of you have no doubt read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (as I have, but I’m on a mission to reread all the Christie novels) but I urge you to read it again and pay special attention to the way in which Christie lays out the clues. It’s ingenious. Even more ingenious is the twist at the end, one of the most famous plot twists in modern literature.

The British Crime Writers’ Association has voted The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever written. I wholeheartedly recommend it to every reader who appreciates a good mystery.

Do You Know what BSP Means?

A Traitor Among Us by A.M. Reade

BSP means Blatant Self-Promotion and I am not above doing it.

It’s not often I highlight my own books on my blog, but because A Traitor Among Us was released two weeks ago, I thought I’d share one of the reviews with you. I’d also like to remind everyone how important reviews are to authors—they figure prominently in the algorithms used by book retailers in advertising and in choosing the books which those retailers promote to their legions of readers. If you’ve read A Traitor Among Us and haven’t left a review, I encourage and ask you to do that. It’s easy! Just a few lines about why you liked the book is enough. Thank you in advance!

I hope you enjoy this review as much as I did:

“A beautifully written Revolutionary War era mystery, told from the point of view of a young woman, which really sets this novel apart from others. The story unfolds through thoughts and narration as if the characters were speaking to us from the 1770s. Etta Rutledge, the main character, is a strong and capable young woman with quite a lot of responsibilities helping her family run an inn. Her words and thoughts completely immerse us in the Colonial era, and give us a fresh voice and a new perspective on life in Cape May County, NJ. I truly loved this main character, Etta, and how she interacts with her sweet and vulnerable sister Prissy, who has a disability (I am happy to read more disabled characters in books), and it’s clear there’s a strong protective bond between the sisters. The brothers are also well portrayed, and we immediately care about Etta and her family and friends. The Rutledge family owns the tavern and inn, the central place in the story, and what a fascinating place it is. Ms. Reade [sic] describes it well from the ambiance to the drink, food, and talk. The dialogue is plain style, as befits the times, and the author clearly researched everything and makes us feel as if we are right there in the 1770’s. The Rutledge inn is where Loyalists and Revolutionaries gather, and as the war looms, the suspense builds when a body is found, and then another. Etta’s courage during a turbulent time is amazing as she tries to find the murderer as the war threatens to break apart her family. We care about Etta and are drawn into her life and the lives of those close to her. A wonderful story, and I look forward to continuing to read many more books in this wonderful new series!”

Thanks to “Mondi” for the review! I appreciate it so much!

As usual, I’ll close this post with a recommendation. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical mysteries, mysteries set in the American colonies, or tales set during the Revolutionary War.

Twisty and Heart-Pounding

The Secrets We Share by Edwin Hill

This book takes place in two time periods—1995 and the present day. The reader first meets Natalie Cavanaugh as a 14-year-old girl in 1995. She has a younger sister, Glenn, and they live in a mostly-undeveloped development in a Boston suburb. There’s only one other house that’s been built so far; it belongs to the Sykes family and it’s right next door to Natalie’s house. At the beginning of the story, all we know is that Natalie has a secret that causes her stomach to hurt. We know the secret by the end of the first chapter, but I’m not going to spill it here.

Fast forward to the present day, and Natalie Cavanaugh is a detective who never strayed too far from the suburb where she grew up. Glenn lives nearby and is a wife, mom, baking blogger, social media influencer, and soon-to-be cookbook author (though not necessarily in that order).

When Glenn’s daughter, Mavis Abbott, finds a dead body (one who obviously did not die of natural causes) on her way to school, Natalie is assigned to the case before anyone realizes she’s related to Mavis. Mavis’s discovery of the body sets in motion a heart-stopping chain of events that reaches back into the past and keeps everyone in the present day in an icy-cold grip of fear.

There are so many things to love about The Secrets We Share. The first is Natalie Cavanaugh. She’s tough, but she’s got some serious issues of her own and they make her a vulnerable and sympathetic character. She’s got a lot riding on this case, and not just because her niece is at the center of it.

There’s also Glenn, the sister who seems to have everything…but as they say, you never know what goes on behind closed doors. She’s the polar opposite of Natalie and always has been, but the sisters share not only a fierce (if not always obvious) love, but also something that keeps them tied to the past.

There’s Angela White, Natalie’s boss and a strong, take-no-nonsense woman in her own right. She’s the one who trusts Natalie’s detective instincts but not necessarily Natalie’s personal judgment.

There’s Zane, Natalie’s partner and mentee, who keeps Natalie on an even keel when she would go off half-cocked. Zane is also a fan of Glenn’s baking blog, so he has things in common with both sisters.

Best of all, there are the twists. So. Many. Twists. Everyone in this book is harboring secrets, and the way the author unravels these secrets is the reason I was up late into the night to get to the last page. Edwin Hill has a way of keeping a tight rein on the reader’s interest and absolute NEED to find out whodunit.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a fast-paced thrill ride of a story, with tons of suspense, tons of intensity, and a jaw-dropping ending.

New Look, New Blog!

I’m back! It’s been a while since my last post, and I’ve spent a lot of time these past months thinking: it’s time to take this blog in a new direction.

Beginning in the next few weeks, I’m going to focus more on reviewing and recommending crime fiction and mysteries, as the new subtitle of the blog suggests. It’s my niche, it’s where I’m most comfortable, and crime fiction is one of my favorite topics. I’d like to shine a spotlight on the mysteries I enjoy and share them with others, and my hope is to attract like-minded people who love to read.

You’ll probably see mysteries from a range of subgenres here: historic, cozy, Gothic (the three subgenres I write in), domestic suspense, traditional, and true crime. From time to time I may include author interviews, as I did on my former blog.

I hope you’ll accompany me on this new adventure, and I hope you’ll invite your mystery-loving friends.

Cheers

Amy M. Reade is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of historical, cozy, and Gothic mysteries. A former practicing attorney, Amy discovered a passion for fiction writing and has never looked back. She has so far penned fourteen novels, including three standalone Gothic mysteries, the Malice series of Gothic novels, the Juniper Junction Holiday Cozy Mystery series, and the Cape May Historical Mystery Collection. In addition to writing, she loves to read, cook and travel. Amy lives in New Jersey and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. You can find out more on her website at www.amymreade.com. 

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Reading Round-Up: October Edition

It’s been another great month of reading! I hope you’ll take a look at the titles I share this month and add your own to the comments.

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The first book I finished this month was Murder on Astor Place, Book 1 in the Gaslight Mystery Series by Victoria Thompson. This is an historical mystery set in New York City around the turn of the twentieth century and features main character Sarah Brandt, ex-socialite-turned-midwife who is compelled to help solve the mystery of a young woman’s death shortly after meeting the girl under stressful circumstances. I am going to read every one of the Gaslight Mysteries! Read my review here.

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Next up was Alice by Bibibana Krall. If you receive my newsletter, you may remember that Bibiana is one of the authors who makes up the BookEm YouTube team, of which I am a part. With that being said, Bibiana writes paranormal stories in a way that makes me feel like I’m right there, watching the scenes unfold in front of me. Read my review of this remarkable paranormal tale here.

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If you like ghost stories, this one is for you. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill was apparently made into a movie some years ago, but I had not heard of it until just last week. I read this story with nary a care for food, drink, or sleep, much like the main character, Arthur. This tale will give you the chicken skin and make you reconsider going outside at night. I highly recommend this for lovers of all things scary. Read my review here.

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And next was something a little different (actually, very different). For my book club this month, we read A Walk on the Beach by Joan Anderson. Written as an ode to the author’s friendship with a remarkable woman she met on Cape Cod one fateful autumn, this is a beautiful tale of wisdom, zest for life, and the importance of being active and engaged. I gave this book five bright stars. Read my review here.

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I was intrigued by Lucy Foley’s The Guest List because of a blurb I read about it some months ago, and I found it to be a thrilling look at some of the secrets people keep and the things that drive them to commit unspeakable acts. With that being said, I would only recommend this book to someone who doesn’t mind a close-up look at those unspeakable acts, because some of them are pretty gritty and nauseating. Read my review here.

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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson was the October choice for one of my book clubs. As I write this post, I haven’t yet attended the discussion, but I think it’s good to reflect on the book before listening to the opinions of others. So my review of this book about white Americans and their relationships with and to Americans of African descent is here and I hope you’ll take a minute to read it. This is a hugely important book on an even more important topic, and I think everyone should read it. It’s scholarly enough for high school and college students, yet written in a style that’s easy enough for everyone else to read.

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I had so many mixed feelings about this book, and in the end I gave it three stars and would not recommend it. The author, who is a comedian and actor, was new to me. His brutal and (admittedly, sometimes very funny) shameless honesty was really something to behold, and his obsession with sex and genitalia were off-putting, at best (he seemed never to have gotten beyond adolescence). And let me just say that if my husband ever talked about me the way Black talks about his wife, I’d give him the boot. Read my review here.

***

So what have you all been reading? Care to share?

Until next time,

Amy

Reading Round-Up: August Edition

For the entire month of August, I’ve been thinking that the last Tuesday was actually next week. Imagine my shock when I learned it’s today. Luckily, over the past month I’ve been working on this post each time I finish a book, rather than waiting until the day before the last Tuesday and then writing the whole thing.

Anyway, August was a good month for reading! I’ve finished seven books since my last Reading Round-Up, and it’s an even more eclectic bunch than last month. Let’s get started!

 

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. I read this for my book club, and if it hadn’t been assigned, I might not have chosen to read it. I think World War II stories are important, but I have to read them really far apart from each other or I just find them too overwhelming.

Let me start by saying this book is very closely based on a true story, which I find absolutely incredible. I highly recommend it, but only before and after you’ve read something very light-hearted. If you’re looking for a happy book, this isn’t the one for you. It takes a lot to get me to cry while I’m reading, and this reduced me to a puddle. Read my review here.

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Dead Man’s Prayer by Jackie Baldwin. I first heard about this book, the first in the DI Frank Farrell series, on Twitter when I started following author Jackie Baldwin. I was intrigued at first because I love books set in Scotland, but once I started reading the intrigue factor jumped into the stratosphere and I couldn’t turn pages fast enough. Are you looking for a thriller that will leave you breathless? You’ve come to the right place. Read my review here.

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Out of the Woods by Patricia Gligor. This is the third book in the Small Town Mystery Series. In this book, Kate Morgan confronts the man who left her, a pregnant teenager, eleven years ago. For the sake of their daughter, she tries to make the best of the situation, but his return causes some problems, not the least of which is the reaction of her fiance. And when questions arise about the man’s possible involvement in a number of horrifying home invasions, what will she tell her daughter?

This is a great book and although it’s classified as a mystery, it crosses genres into women’s fiction, family drama, and suspense. It’s got it all. Read my review here.

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I really looked forward to reading Sea Wife by Amity Gaige. Billed as psychological suspense, it’s the story of a family (husband, wife, two young children) who leave their lives behind for a year and sail around the Caribbean. Unfortunately, it’s all psychological and no suspense. The main character, Juliet, suffers from depression and, it would appear, anxiety, and the story ends up being a morose tale of a marriage that has gone stale and the disturbing thoughts of a woman who doesn’t think she was ever meant to be a mother. I gave the book 3 stars and you can read my review here. As I noted last month when I shared a book I didn’t really like, don’t let my review put you off from reading the book. There are plenty of glowing reviews for this work of literary fiction.

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The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin was a book club pick. I’m glad I read it, but I didn’t like it. It was depressing, entirely bereft of any semblance of happiness for any of the characters, and looooong. As in, almost 600 pages. The book spans many years, and I often felt like I was reading it in real time. On the other hand, in taking a look at the many reviews this book has garnered, I am clearly in the minority. There are lots of people who think this book is beautiful, moving, and melancholy in a good way. It’s just not my cup of tea. I think it’s because I like my reads to have at least a little bit of action and some character growth, and I saw almost none of that in this book. If you like a character-driven story, this might be for you. Read my full review here.

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Untamed by Glennon Doyle is a work of art. I listened to this memoir on CD, and hearing the book read by the author was a great experience. This is the first time I’ve heard a book (at least, not a children’s book) read by the author and though I have my doubts about fiction writers voicing their own work, for a memoir it was a wise choise. Read my review here.

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This book has been on my radar for a while, and I was eager to read it. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner doesn’t disappoint. Read my review here.

What have you read this month? I hope you’ll share your reads in the comments.

Until next time,

Amy