 Thanks to partners NetGalley, Simon Element, and Marysue Rucci Books for the digital ARC of Helen Phillips’s Hum. The book will be published on August 6!
Helen Phillips’s Hum is one of those books that crawls into the deepest parts of my brain—the niggling thoughts and fears that surface most often in the middle of the night—and just won’t leave. It’s speculative fiction set in the very near future, a novel that unearths the ugly threat of our pathways and habits. The setting is a city devastated by the climate crisis. May and her family—her husband Jem and children Lu and Sy—have struggled to survive on his gig work since May lost her tech job to hums, robots driven by the very AI she’d been training. Out of desperation, May signs up for adversarial tech surgery. These small modifications to her face will prevent her from being recognized by the technology that runs her city. The large payment she gets in exchange is meant to go to practical costs like rent and medical bills, and May does take care of some of those. But in a spontaneous (but not really) move, she also buys nonrefundable tickets for a family weekend at the Botanical Garden, the only place where they can access the type of nature that is now lost, the type of nature that surrounded May while she was growing up. Despite Jem’s misgivings, the family embarks on this trip within the city, with May determined to make the weekend a perfect oasis within the gritty darkness of their lives. This world is one where adults are always on their phones; where children’s lives are tracked and fueled by “bunnies,” wearable wrist technology; and where people spend much of their time within Wooms, immersive isolation pods in which occupants are completely surrounded by screens. But May wants to break these connections, insisting that they leave their phones and bunnies behind. Hum isn’t a comfortable book; there’s too much that’s recognizable, and I often felt deeply seen (and not in a good way), and every page of the book is thought provoking. But. It’s when May’s children go missing in the midst of the Botanical Garden, untrackable (no bunnies!), that the story really ramps up . . . as did my anxiety . . . even (especially!) when a Hum steps into help. Phillips, the author of The Need (another amazing book), is juggling so much here: Hum features deeply drawn characters and an incredibly compulsive plot alongside resonant questions about the path we’re all on and where it may be leading. I couldn’t look away, from the book or from what it reflected back at me. This will be one of my top books of the year.
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 Thanks to partners NetGalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC of Alli Dyer’s Strange Folk. The book will be published on August 6!
Alli Dyer’s Strange Folk is a story of generations of women in Appalachia and is—in the synopsis—compared to the works of “Alice Hoffman, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Addison Allen.” Yes, please. The novel centers on Opaline, now called Lee, who left her home and family in Craw Valley for college and never came back. Now, with her marriage disintegrating, Lee and her children have returned to her grandmother Belva’s home to find that not much has changed. Belva is still the community healer, magic worker, and occasional outcast; Lee’s mother Redbud is still an addict; and Lee still yearns to be elsewhere, promising herself that they won’t stay long. Lee has never told her kids, Meredith and Cliff, anything about her home, so she’s surprised to find that they’re enchanted by the natural beauty, Belva’s mysterious knowledge, and a deep history that draws them in. Then the deaths start. There’s suspicion of Belva and a vague sense of threat permeates everything around Lee’s family. Lee is reminded of why she left and what she was running from. She’s drawn into considering just why the deaths have happened just as she’s rediscovering the entirety of who she was and who she wants to be. Strange Folk is such a compelling novel, one both firmly rooted in the realities of its rural community setting and in the magic that’s woven through each page. I appreciated the way Dyer makes apparent both the attraction that Craw Valley holds and the reasons that Lee might have felt the need to experience something different in her youth. The author illuminates the problems epitomized by Lee’s family—addiction and poverty and prejudice—without discounting the very real beauty of a tight-knit community, rich traditions, and natural beauty. Dyer weaves together Lee’s coming home with a suspenseful plot beautifully.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC of Amanda Quain’s Dashed. The book will be published on July 16!
I have great, great affection for Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and I thoroughly enjoyed Amanda Quain’s Ghosted, a retelling of Northanger Abbey. That made Dashed, Quain’s retelling/modern continuation of Sense and Sensibility an easy pick for my TBR. Dashed focuses on Margaret Dashwood, the youngest sister in her family. In Austen’s book, she’s a sort of afterthought to Elinor and Marianne (the “sense” and “sensibility” of the title); here, she’s the center. During her childhood, she was more like Marianne—she was impulsive and extroverted and emotional. After Marianne’s yearning for a man she couldn’t have ended in tragedy for Marianne and Margaret, she vowed to be more like Elinor: controlled and independent and organized. That meant putting mental space between her and Marianne. Now, Margaret has graduated from high school and has planned to spend her summer on a cruise ship with Elinor and Elinor’s husband Edward, the chaplain on the ship. Her plans change rapidly when Marianne shows up, boards with the family, and drops the news that Brandon broke up with her. And she’s spending the summer with Elinor and Margaret. Immediately, Margaret panics, convinced that she’s going to fall back into a Marianne pattern . . . unless Margaret can find a new match for Marianne who will distract her and keep her on an even keel. (After all, she thinks, it’s only romantic attachments that anchor Marianne.) In the meantime, Marianne has her own plans for Margaret, who has never succumbed to love after seeing the turmoil it wrought with her sister. Marianne will go along with Margaret’s plans IF Margaret goes on some blind dates of her own. Fortunately, Margaret made a quick—friends-only, she says—connection with Gabe, who runs the soundboard for the ship’s entertainment. He’ll be the perfect, decoy blind date. She just has to convince herself that friendship is all she feels. Dashed is a fun update/retelling that makes full use of Austen’s beautifully developed characters in a modern setting. While I did feel that the polarity of Elinor and Marianne was a bit much—Margaret continually told herself she had to choose between these two models, and I felt she was just too smart to fall into the sort of dichotomy that steers much of the plot—and Margaret’s denial of her feelings for Gabe cycled a bit too long, I still thoroughly enjoyed the time devoted to the youngest member of the Dashwood family. I appreciated the ways that she explored the ways that Margaret would have experienced the love stories of Elinor and Edward, of Marianne and Brandon, and the ways that might have affected a young, impressionable sister. I did feel, however, that it took too long for the book to lean into the complexities that lie beneath the easy characterizations that Austen ultimately resists. There’s great humor in Margaret’s reality show-style attempts to find a match for Marianne, and I loved seeing Elinor and Edward years into a sweet, stable marriage. Gabe is also a fantastic romantic interest, and his years on the cruise ship lead him to be a wonderful tour guide for Margaret. The various stops make for a wonderful setting. Overall, I recommend Dashed to Austen fans and to YA romance readers, and I look forward to reading the next installment in Quain’s series of modern Austen retellings.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Berkley for the digital ARC of Ali Brady’s Until Next Summer. The book will be published on July 9!
Ali Brady’s newest book, Until Next Summer, shows that this writing duo just keeps getting better. Their previous novels The Beach Trap and The Comeback Summer had already made them auto-read authors for me, and Until Next Summer just reinforced their place on that list. Jessie is the eternal camp kid—Camp Chickawah was her place of solace in a childhood torn between two divorced parents and their new families, and it’s still the center of her life and career as head camp director. That’s why she’s never understood why her former camp best friend, Hillary, didn’t step into a role as camp counselor back when they were teenagers. The moment she made that decision was when their friendship ended. Now, Hillary has an incredibly successful career in the city and an impressive and parent-approved—if passionless—relationship. But she’s never forgotten the joy and freedom that she found at Camp Chickawah and with Jessie. She doesn’t think, however, that she’ll ever make her way back there. Then, an opportunity arises. The children of Camp Chickawah’s former owners have decided to sell the camp to a developer who’s going to tear it down. For the last summer before it’s destroyed, Jessie sets up a series of “adult” camps, designed for all of the kids-turned-adults who need Camp Chickawah in their lives again. And Hillary is one of them, running the arts and crafts program. This fun premise sets up a fun, moving, fabulous novel that includes romance and friendship, characters finding themselves and each other, all the joy and nostalgia of summer camp, and even a sweet dog. Alternating between Jessie’s and Hillary’s point of view, the authors manage to share the desolation of a friendship lost and the hope that it can be rekindled. Yes, this is a steamy romance—and I loved watching both characters find their perfect matches—but I think the book’s centering of friendship is my favorite part.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC of Eloisa James's Viscount in Love. The book will be published on July 23!
I jumped on the chance to read Viscount in Love, drawn in by my previous experiences reading Eloisa James’s fun, feminist spins on regency romance. Viscount in Love fits right in. Torie Sutton is a bit of an outcast from her society—she’s never fit in the way her sister, Leonora does. Leonora is devoted to meeting others’ expectations, to following the rules and making a good match. And she’s succeeded in all of the above, nailing down an engagement with Viscount Dominic Kelbourne. Leonora, by contrast, doesn’t care much about fitting in and has had to accept others’ low opinions of her, driven—at least in part—by her inability to read. (It becomes clear early on that she has a reading disability, though this is of course before those were diagnosed.) When Dominic Kelbourne’s sister and her husband are killed, he’s left with their twins who are rebels and outcasts in their own right. And Leonora is having none of it. So, left without a partner, Dominic moves on to finding a caretaker instead—and Torie is the perfect candidate. Torie, though she deeply loves the twins, wants to be more than a nanny, and her resistance and Dominic’s persistence make for a fantastically fun historical romance.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC of Maggie North's Rules for Second Chances. The book will be published on June 25!
Maggie North’s Rules for Second Chances is a truly lovely second-chance romance, one that tackles its characters’ need to know who they are both in a relationship and as individuals. The novel is thoughtful and thought-provoking, funny and tender. What a wonderful debut. Liz Lewis knows that her husband, Tobin, is magic. He’s magic at West by North, the adventure company where he works as a head guide . . . and Liz does spreadsheets. He’s magic with his mother, who dotes on his every move . . . and tolerates Liz. He’s magic at every part they attend, where he is the star . . . and Liz feels like either a barnacle attached to him or a wallflower hoping to fade into the background. Unfortunately, their three-year marriage is not magic. Yes, the physical part of their relationship works as well as it ever did, but now the rest of their marriage is plagued by secrets and a long list of topics they avoid. Tobin is the ever-popular yes man, leaving Liz to always be the one saying “no” or staying—resentfully—silent. Liz can’t take it anymore, and so, on her 30th birthday, she walks away from their marriage, vowing to “GET MAGIC.” She wants to find happiness, and herself, to climb out of her spreadsheets, earn a promotion, and find someone who can balance her. But Tobin isn’t ready to let go. Just as Liz is dipping a toe into improv, after her boss tells her that’s the way to start earning her promotion, to gain confidence and sparkle, Tobin convinces her to try a relationship-counseling-via-improv book written by his best friend (who also happens to be Liz’s improv teacher). What ensues is Liz’s fight to find herself, to figure out who she is and who she can be in her marriage with Tobin and her career and her complicated relationship with her sister. Rules for Second Chances is a book that embraces the complexity of relationships and of identity. There are characters here to cheer for and to despise, situations that feel so real and so painful that the characters’ vulnerability shines off the page. I absolutely loved watching Liz’s journey, and I’m eager to see what Maggie North publishes next.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC of Nicola Yoon's One of Our Kind. The book will be published on June 11!
Nicola Yoon’s One of Our Kind is quite a departure from her YA romance novels (which I unreservedly love!)—this is an adult suspense/thriller, a creepy headtrip that kept me on edge, my shoulders tense, for all 272 pages. Jasmyn Williams has some hesitations about her family’s move to Liberty, California, an all-Black community for the top echelon. But her husband, Kingston, is convinced that their family needs to make the move to secure a safe, bright future for their son Kamau and the baby they’ll have in a few, short months. Kingston’s life hinged on a tragedy—his brother’s fatal shooting by a police officer—that has shaped his outlook ever since. The couple has experienced racism as individuals and as a couple, so at first their experience in Liberty (while at terms unnerving) reinforces the joy of living in a place with all-Black police officers and teachers and store owners. But then Jasmyn begins to notice little things: her neighbors’ unwillingness to engage with the injustice still happening outside their community; Liberty’s commitment to straightened hair and European beauty standards; and the centrality of the spa whose self-care mantras turn Jasmyn off from the beginning. Liberty was founded by Carlton Way, King’s boss, so Jasmyn understands the need King feels to toe the line, to show that he’s bought in. But then he starts spending all of his spare time at the spa, giving up his previous dedication to mentoring at-risk youth in their old neighborhood to focus on self-care. Jasmyn also has a hard time finding people she really connects with, other than Keisha and Charles, kindred spirits, with whom she decides to start a Black Lives Matter chapter in Liberty. But they hit a wall, unable to recruit a single person to join them. And then Keisha and Charles start to change their opinions. I don’t want to give away anything else about the plot, which is both captivating and deeply disturbing. The book alternates straightforward narrative with news stories and case files, illuminating the history of Liberty and its residents, creating a structure that is deeply resonant. One of Our Kind brought to mind the film Get Out and Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s Ace of Spades, though those comps aren’t precise: this is the author’s unique response to American society, and it stands alone. It’s a powerful, thought-provoking work demonstrating that, regardless of genre, Nicola Yoon is a master.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of Katherine Center's The Rom-Commers. The book will be published on Tuesday!
Reading Katherine Center’s newest book has become a favorite summer tradition for me. Her books center on such believably real characters in such lovely, dreamy, and sincerely funny circumstances. The Rom-Commers checked all of those boxes for me. Emma Wheeler’s life is dominated by two things: (1) caring for her family, particularly her father, after a tragic accident that changed their lives forever, and (2) screenwriting. Well, screenwriting rom-coms. Emma has made choices that have affected her career and her freedom to make sure that her younger sister has every option she could dream of as she emerges from college and to keep her father safe, which means 24-7 care. So, when she’s unexpectedly given a chance to ghost write (and overhaul) a rom-com screenplay by her idol, Charlie Yates, she’s both exhilarated and reluctant: her sister has an internship opportunity that Emma doesn’t want her to pass up, and she can’t leave her dad. This situation, right from the beginning, is communicated with such vividness that I felt every facet of Emma’s agonizing choice: follow the dream that she’s pushed down for so long or keep to the narrow path that she’s carved out for herself. It takes a push from her family—and her high school ex-boyfriend, Logan, now a successful Hollywood agent—to get Emma on the plane to meet and work with Charlie Yates. And then she finds out that (despite what Logan told her!) Charlie doesn’t want a ghost writer and doesn’t even know that she’s coming. This premise spins out in satisfying ways. Of course, Emma ends up co-writing with Charlie, schooling him on the merits of the rom-coms that he so scorns and giving him a very honest take on the problems she sees with his draft. Their working relationship has ups and downs, misunderstandings and miscommunications both deliberate and not, and the ways that their romantic relationships develop in parallel to their screenplay are delightful. But it’s the characters that are the standout here, the ways that Emma and Charlie (and Emma’s dad and sister) force themselves to work toward happiness again and again, work toward believing in and living with love. I always appreciate reading Center’s acknowledgments, where she shares the inspirations for each story and the books and research that informed her novels. Her dedication to and advocacy for romance is a beautiful thing, and it’s borne out, again and again, in her books. The Rom-Commers is a beautiful tribute to rom-coms and to writing and to movies, and it’s a wonderful novel about the ways we have to believe in and put effort into pursuing love. It’s a book that will satisfy Center’s readers, old and new.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the digital ARC of Molly Morris's Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet. The book will be published tomorrow!
I knew from the first page that I was going to love Molly Morris’s Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet. It’s quirky and original and just totally captivating. Here’s the premise: Wilson Moss is a high school senior, and she’s completely alone. She’s been alone since both of her best friends abandoned her, just as they were moving into their junior years. Ryan cut her off completely (though they—awkwardly—still work together at Ryan’s mom’s restaurant). Wilson’s mom left Wil’s long-time stepfather, the adult who provided the most stability in her and her younger half-sister’s life. Her friend Annie? She not only transferred to the local private school but also ended their friendship. And then, she died. Wil’s not exactly sure what happened, though she has some ideas. So, she takes a chance on her town’s unique contest, a once-every-decade anomaly. Any resident of Lennon can throw their name in the hat for a chance to bring back someone dead . . . for 30 days. Shockingly, Wil wins the contest, which means she has 30 days to (temporarily) resurrect her friendship and to figure out just what makes her so unlovable. The whole situation is complicated. Ryan had begun making small forays into friendship again, but Wil’s choice makes Ryan beyond angry since the first fissures in their friendship began with Annie and Ryan. And Wil isn’t content with 30 days, so when she picks up on a loophole from Ruth Fish (the seemingly immortal being who’s in charge of the town, and the contest) Wilson vows to mend the trio’s friendship and—hopefully—make this a real chance at life again for Annie, and a real chance at friendship again for her. This book has so many layers. I love the magical realism, the strangeness of the contest and the matter-of-fact way that everyone in the town accepts it. The world building is just fantastic. I love the complexity of Wilson’s character, the way she’s so valiantly trying to gain some control over the areas of her life that she lost, searching for love and friendship and family. The secondary characters here are incredibly vivid, too, and I could feel the ways that they’re struggling for so many of the same things that Wilson is hoping for, each existing as fully realized people in the same way that Wil is. After finishing Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet, I found out that Morris has one previous YA novel—I’ll be picking it up soon. Do yourself a favor, and put this one on your TBR.  Thanks to partners NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the digital ARC of Wendy Chen’s Their Divine Fires. The book will be published on May 7!
Wendy Chen’s Their Divine Fires comes in at only 256 pages, but that length is deceptive: this is a sprawling, multi-generational tale of three generations of Chinese women that takes the reader from 1917 Liuyang, China to 2009 Massachusetts, United States. Chen’s novel, inspired by the experiences of her own ancestors, begins with the story of a young girl, Zhang Yuexin, living with her family, including her two brothers, in Liuyang. Yuexin is devoted to her oldest brother, so when he cuts his traditional braid, angering her parents, Yuexin cuts her hair, as well. This initial symbolic event sets the stage for unrest: the family is broken when her oldest brother leaves to join the Revolution, setting them on a path that will have unexpected effects on them all. After her brother leaves, Yuexin’s young life is again altered forever when she saves Tan Haiyang, the young son of a local wealthy lord. He stays with the family while Yuexin’s father, a doctor, cares for him. Yuexin and Haiyang form a strong connection, but once he returns home, it seems likely that they’ll never see each other again, driven apart by the distance in their families’ situations. The only hope is that he felt the connection as strongly as Yuexin did. The narrative captures the effects of this Revolution, the ways that its aftermath cycles through the generations, moving through the Cultural Revolution of the 70s to the diaspora who make their way to the United States. Chen’s writing is stunning, and her sense of character is so vivid. Watching the way that early generations appear again later, the ways that ancestors affect their descendants, offers powerful commentary on the cycles of history. Despite the depth and power of its content, Their Divine Fires is a propulsive read, and I can’t recommend it enough. |
AuthorI'm Jen Moyers, co-host of the Unabridged Podcast and an English teacher. Archives
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