 Thanks to partners NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC of Shea Ernshaw’s Habits of the Sea. The book will be published on July 7!
As a reader, I know that I can always count on Shea Ernshaw’s novels to offer rich, evocative, and atmospheric narratives. Some are spookier than others, but all of them have a sense of stories unearthed. Ernshaw’s newest book, Habits of the Sea, is her second written for adults, and it is gorgeous and completely immersive. The novel begins with a horrible loss: the death of Clay Lockhart’s wife and unborn twins. His grief is such that it causes their land to break away from Scotland, becoming an island that drifts on the whims of the ocean, meeting up occasionally with a coastline here or there, and then drifting away again. Ellie Mills first encounters the island when she’s twelve. She’s awakened by a strange light, goes out to the island to see if she can help, and meets Clay briefly before returning to shore. When she arrives home, her grandmother tells her that a week has passed. Though Ellie shares her strange story, no one believes her. Called a liar for her entire childhood, she has spent her life denying the existence of the island and of Clay, seeking counseling to help her accept her own denials. In her thirties, Ellie is now a counselor herself and is desperate to capture the stability that has escaped her for most of her life. And then the island reappears. Unable to resist, Ellie travels to its fleeting location, swims out to the island, and finds that Clay and the island DO exist . . . and that Clay hasn’t aged since she last saw him, decades before. Now, she’s trapped, separated from her family and fiance, uncertain of how much time is passing as she and Clay reach a type of truce. Oh, this is such a fabulous story, one fueled by dueling forces of grief and hope, betrayal and loyalty, denial and belief. It once again confirms Ernshaw as an auto-read author, able to spin out captivating stories that I can’t stop reading.
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 Thanks to partners NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the digital ARC of Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s The Heirs. The book will be released on Tuesday!
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímíd’s new book The Heirs struck me differently from her previous novels (Ace of Spades and Where Sleeping Girls Lie), offering fewer of the surreal, disorienting moments that both disorient and challenge the reader. The Heirs reminded me of nothing so much as The Umbrella Academy . . . with the speculative elements removed. The novel alternates between one, current storyline that predominantly takes place over just a few days and flashbacks. The chapters also shift between the characters’ perspectives, with five siblings—Octavius the Maestro, Fola the Brain, Bilal the Olympian, Perdita the Artist, and Romeo the Failure—as the primary focus and occasional chapters dipping into other, secondary characters’ points of view. These genius siblings were adopted by their father, Leontes Button, as part of an experiment to prove that nurture outweighs nature. Each of their areas of genius was chosen when they were toddlers who gravitated towards a symbol—a violin bow, for example, for Octavius. Then, Button poured his generous resources into relentless training and support that has resulted in their status as prodigies but also in some serious mental health issues. Every year, Button holds an exclusive Prodigy Ball both to publicize his Button Method and to honor other prodigies. This year, during the tenth ball, which is held on a yacht, Leontes is murdered. His children—along with everyone else who attended—are the suspects. The book rolled along quickly for me, and I was compelled to discover both the secrets that inhabited their pasts and, of course, the solution to the mystery of Leontes’s murderer. I did, however, yearn for a deeper consideration of the characters’ psychology, though the plot-centered nature of the book certainly kept my attention. I did feel that the conclusion of the book was a bit rushed, with several important developments occurring through exposition dumps rather than evolving naturally. Overall, The Heirs was a solid read that will, I think, satisfy lovers of YA mystery.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and St. Martin's Press Judah, meanwhile, both marvels at her inappropriateness and fights the way he can’t get her out of his head. As they meet up at wedding after wedding—Judah as wedding singer and Arielle as the always-bridesmaid—they begin to give into their attraction. I loved watching the way Ari and Judah navigate their very different romantic histories and their seemingly opposite visions for their romantic futures. Seeing each grow and compromise, wrestling with the perceptions of their families and Judah’s fans, was so, so compelling. Soon by You is a great, satisfying read.for the digital ARC of Dahlia Adler’s Soon by You. I have been such a fan of Dahlia Adler’s YA romance books that I jumped on the chance to read her first adult, open-door romance, Soon by You. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, which delves into the intricacies of the Orthodox faith that serve both to unite and to complicate the burgeoning, enemies-to-lovers relationship between Arielle Becker and Judah Klein. After Arielle has a few bridesmaid-related mishaps in one of the many weddings of which she is a part, she revels in raging at Judah for his judginess of her.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the digital ARC of Lynn Painter's First and Forever. The book will be published on May 12!
While I haven’t read all of Lynn Painter’s books, her work has been reliably excellent for me. I primarily think of her as a YA romance author, but First and Forever is the second of her adult romances that I’ve read and enjoyed. The characters here are the novel’s biggest strength: they’re quirky and sweet, and I love the way Painter weaves in some fabulous secondary characters. In First and Forever, Duffy Distefano begins the book as a target because of a very public, very negative interaction with the mascot of the Minneapolis Coyote football team. In a desperate attempt to quell the trolling, Duffy’s dad Tony sets up an interview for Duffy on the local tv station; unbeknownst to her, Connor Cunningham, the Coyotes’ tight end, joins her for the segment. Their hilarious banter and obvious chemistry is a hit, which helps both Duffy and the Coyotes, and the PR team asks Connor to go out with Duffy again. He reluctantly agrees, and finds that their chemistry is even better than he’d thought. For Duffy, the prospect of dating someone famous isn’t appealing at all . . . but the joy this relationship brings her dad, who is in poor health and also grieving Duffy’s mom, inspires her own, more transparent fake dating proposition to Connor. The prospect of just when and how Connor’s deception will arise hovers in the background throughout the book, and that relationship-built-on-a-lie is almost always a negative for me. Fortunately, Painter’s writing—the cleverness of the banter, the quirkiness of the characters—helped me to (mostly) set aside my qualms. First and Forever isn’t quite as strong as Painter’s other books for me, but I still recommend it.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing for the digital ARC of Adib Khorram's One Word, Six Letters.
Adib Khorram’s One Word, Six Letters is inspired, he explains in his Author’s Note, by an actual event when—during an author talk at his school—someone yelled a homosexual slur, presumably aimed at Khorram, in the middle of the assembly. In Khorram’s fictionalized version of events, the boy who yells the slur is Dayton. He shouted the word on a bet from a friend. He realized that it wasn’t a word he should say, but he also didn’t realize it was all that big a deal. So, Dayton is somewhat shocked that, in the aftermath, he loses the respect of his brother and his two best friends and becomes the target of whispers and stares at school. Farshid is Dayton’s classmate and has always liked him fine. But now? Farshid feels that Dayton’s shout has set off rumors and whispers in the hallways, considerations of who might be gay. And Farshid is worried that the speculation may fall on him. He undertakes a regimen of boxing and weightlifting and extreme diet restriction to ensure that he looks the part of “being straight.” Khorram’s narrative, alternating between the two boys’ points of view, developing each perspective with nuance and empathy. He makes no excuses for Dayton’s decision but does allow him to grow and learn, to seek new friends, to consider the suspicion with which he is now viewed. Farshid—who I found to be the much more sympathetic character from the beginning—is similarly complex, wrestling with his sexual identity and imagining the reactions he could face from his family and friends if he faces the truth he suspects he knows. As in his other books, Adib Khorram excels at crafting a story meant for young adults but rewarding for any reader. One Word, Six Letters is a worthy read delving into issues we should all be considering: of casual cruelty, of empathy, of friendship, and of the ways that we can grow.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC of Rebecca Serle's Once and Again.
Rebecca Serle’s novels are always so lovely, featuring a central instance of magic around which the reality of the characters’ lives revolves. In her newest novel, Once and Again, the magic is a ticket that allows each new woman in the Novak family the chance to turn back time, to change their fate, just once. For Lauren Novak, the ticket has always seemed to be both gift and burden. The chance to reverse an irreversible occurrence—as when Lauren’s mother undid the death of Lauren’s father when Lauren was fifteen—is miraculous. But it’s also a choice and, once made, it’s not available again, so knowing the right time to use the ticket and that, once used, it won’t be available again, is always on Lauren’s mind. Lauren is married happily, to Leo, and has a strong relationship with her parents; with her grandmother, Sylvia; and particularly with her father, her kindred spirit. Her mother’s caution after having used the ticket, of knowing that she must live with anything that happens, has caused her to tread through life so carefully that she hardly lives it. Lauren’s father, on the other hand, lives life with joy, immersing himself in each day with disregard for risk or fear. While Lauren’s husband is away on an extended work trip, she goes to stay with her parents, and finds that her former best friend and boyfriend Stone, who she has not seen for years, is staying nearby with his parents. As she is drawn back into the rhythms of her life before Leo, Lauren begins to think about the choices she has made and what they have meant for her. While Once and Again didn’t quite reach the magical heights of her other novels for me, I could stop reading, eager to know what choices Lauren would make. I appreciated Serle’s decision to weave reflections from her mother and grandmother through Lauren’s story, revealing the different ways that they have navigated the knowledge of and the choices involved in possessing the silver ticket. I look forward to Serle’s next foray into magic.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Knopf for the digital ARC of Tayari Jones's Kin.
Tayari Jones’s Kin, a brilliant new novel set in the 1950s and 1960s, centers on Vernice and Annie. The two girls grow up together in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, in lives intertwined around one central absence—mothers—and one central presence—their friendship, more akin to a sisterhood. As the girls mature, they wrestle with the ways that their mothers’ stories shape their own. Vernice, whose mother was murdered by her father, is haunted by what might have been: the mother who might have loved her, who might have shown the affection that her aunt Irene, who raised her, could never quite express. Annie—whose mother left her with her grandmother, another woman who provided the required care but was unable to offer the love for which Annie yearned—envies the clean break represented by Vernice’s mother’s death. In place of such a definitive loss, Annie becomes determined to find her mother and to, somehow, establish the relationship that she was denied. Vernice’s path takes her to Spelman College, where she realizes that her intelligence is no match for the lessons of society. Vernice’s vision of herself—her sexuality, her appearance, her future—winds through a series of changes that seem to take her further and further from Honeysuckle. Annie’s vow to find her mother leads to Memphis, along with an ex-boyfriend, his cousin (Annie’s current boyfriend), and the ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend. (Yes, it’s complicated.) Annie’s tunnel vision makes everything revolve around that search for her mother and imperils her ability to establish her own path forward. Told in alternating perspectives, Kin was impossible to put down. The friendship between Vernice and Annie’s is undoubtedly the strong center of the novel: the ways that these characters contrast and complement each other is absolutely beautiful. Jones’s writing is vibrant and so, so quotable. I found myself marking quotation after quotation because of its wisdom, a deep truth it revealed about Vernice or Annie, or just because it was beautiful. Her ability to bring to life her protagonists but also a rich cast of secondary characters is remarkable. Ultimately, Kin made me feel the joy and pain and hope of these women, made me want the best for them, and made me love them even through their mistakes and their flaws. Kin is the second of Jones’s novels I’ve read--An American Marriage was also a five-star read for me—and it has convinced me to prioritize her backlist.  Thanks to #partner @celadonbooks for the ARC of Charleen Hurtubise's Saoirse. The book will be published on February 24!
I was so thrilled to read Charleen Hurtubise’s Saoirse (you can find the synopsis below), and I found that it more than lived up to my expectations. This book was an easy five-star read for me. Hurtubise reveals Saoirse’s full story layer by layer, weaving between past and present to show both who she was and who she has become. Her current life, which centers on art and love for her partner and her two young daughters, is all that she hoped for, but there’s a constant sense of the threat that she fears lurking beneath this beauty. As a reader, I desperately wanted the new life, the existence she manifested as she clawed her way out of her old life, to last . . . but I feared that it couldn’t. The writing here is gorgeous, unflinching in its portrayal of ugliness but equally vivid in communicating love and hope, and there’s a perfect balance of plot and character that meant I could hardly bear to stop reading. What a stunning novel. Synopsis: “For readers of Colm Tóibín and Claire Keegan, Saoirse is a powerful novel set between the United States and Ireland about a woman who runs from her traumatic past and the secrets she carries to survive. “In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse (pronounced Sear-sha)—a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. And free is precisely how she is finally beginning to feel. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. No one must learn of the identity she has stolen in order to survive; they cannot know of the dangers that she crossed an ocean to escape. “When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal, and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done. “Saoirse is an evocative, suspenseful exploration of the intimate relationship between art and life and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of reinvention.”  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the digital ARC of Nadia Davids’s Cape Fever. The book is out tomorrow!
Nadia Davids’s Cape Fever is a claustrophobic descent into a world of manipulation, control, and surreality. Set in post-World War I in an unnamed colonial town, the novel begins in the midst of Soraya Matas’s interview to be a maid for Mrs. Hattingh, a reclusive widow whose life and home and, perhaps, her sanity have been crumbling. Soraya, desperate for a job and coached by her mother in how best to appear, is able to portray herself as meek and obedient and ignorant, unable to read and write. She gets the job. Mrs. Hattingh insists that Soraya leave her family home in the Muslim Quarter to live with Mrs. Hattingh, who has no other servants left. As the story progresses, the two women’s lives become more and more intertwined in their shared solitude. Eventually, Mrs. Hattingh insists that she should help Soraya write letters to her fiance, transcribing Soraya’s thoughts so that her relationship can withstand the couple’s separation. That weekly writing ritual, along with Soraya’s growing awareness of the spirits inhabiting the home, become more and more oppressive, creating barriers from Soraya’s connection to the rest of her life. Oh, I loved this book. It made me deeply uncomfortable, and as I read, I felt my shoulders creep higher and higher, the tension nearly unbearable (in the best possible way). Davids excels at building an atmosphere that reflects the creep of the skewed power dynamics between the two women, the ways that Mrs. Hattingh is able to wiggle her way into every corner of Soraya’s life and identity.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Celadon Books for the digital ARC of Marisa Kashino's Best Offer Wins.
Marisa Kashino’s Best Offer Wins is such a ride of a book. I didn’t really like any of the characters, and I had a hard time identifying with the things that they frantically pursue, but I couldn’t look away. The voice of protagonist and first-person narrator Margo Miyake is so compelling and so distinctive that I was drawn into the web of her over-the-top decisions and incredibly ridiculous rationalizations. The premise is relatively simple (though the plot doesn’t let it stay simple!). Margo and her husband have been desperately house hunting for a year and a half. They (and Margo, in particular) are cramped in their tiny apartment. Their marriage is suffering, as are their plans to start a family since Margo refuses to bring a baby into what she considers to be insufficient living conditions. Then, Margo hears word that the perfect house is going to be for sale, and she realizes that she may have a chance to get a bid in early, hopefully avoiding the frenzy of bidding and outbidding, which is a contest that they lose every time. She just wants to make sure that the house is everything it looks like on the internet. So, she drops by. And then she invades the backyard as she fights for a view through the windows. And then one of the owners comes home. Chaos ensues. Margo decides that the best way to grab this chance is to strike up a relationship with Curt and Jack so that they’ll *want* to give her an advance bid. Her machinations lead her to some ridiculousness that is too unhinged to ruin the fun by spoiling it here (and that’s only the first truly unhinged step she takes). Best Offer Wins is uncomfortable and funny (in the darkest way possible) and so, so bingeable. What a reading experience. There isn’t really anybody to root for, but there are plenty of people to sit back and just watch as the inevitable crash comes closer and closer. You know something bad is going to happen, and you can’t stop it . . . so just go with it and enjoy the very swervy ride. |
AuthorI'm Jen Moyers, co-host of the Unabridged Podcast and an English teacher. Archives
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