Genre: General Fiction

#BookReview If I Let You Go by Charlotte Levin @tinycharlotte72 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #IfILetYouGo #CharlotteLevin #PGCBooks

categories: 8/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview If I Let You Go by Charlotte Levin @tinycharlotte72 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #IfILetYouGo #CharlotteLevin #PGCBooks Title: If I Let You Go

Author: Charlotte Levin

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 5, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

If I Let You Go by Charlotte Levin is a deeply moving and gripping portrayal of a woman coming to terms with loss.

Every morning Janet Brown goes to work cleaning offices. It calms her, cleanliness, neatness. All the things she’s unable to do with her soul can be achieved with a damp cloth and a splash of bleach. However, the guilt she still carries about a devastating loss that happened eleven years ago, cannot be erased.

Then, Janet finds herself involved in a train crash and, recognising the chance to do what she couldn’t all those years ago, she makes a decision. As news spreads of Janet’s actions, her story inspires everyone around her, and for the first time her life has purpose and the future is filled with hope.

But Janet’s story isn’t quite what it seems, and as events spiral out of control, she soon discovers that coming clean isn’t an option. Because if Janet washes away the lies, what long-buried truths will she finally have to face.

Review:

Nuanced, gripping, and tight!

If I Let You Go is an unsettling, character-driven novel that introduces us to Janet, a young woman who, after a tragic accident eleven years ago, has spent her life in the shadows, performing her cleaning job to the best of her abilities, keeping house and placating her domineering husband, and visiting her elderly father as often as possible, until one night she decides she’s had enough and by morning her life will be irrevocably changed forever when she wakes to discover she’s a heroine of a train crash she can’t actually remember.

The writing is crisp and edgy. The characters are anxious, tormented, and flawed. And the plot is a tense, unpredictable tale full of twists, turns, revelations, insecurities, deception, grief, manipulation, lies, and tragedy.

Overall, If I Let You Go is an intriguing, intense, immersive tale by Levin that does a wonderful job of highlighting just how devastating and all-consuming guilt and grief can be and reminds us to savour every moment because life can often change in a heartbeat.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Charlotte Levin

Charlotte Levin has been shortlisted for the Andrea Badenoch Award, part of the New Writers North Awards, and for the Mslexia Short Story Competition. Charlotte lives in Manchester and If I Can't Have You is her first novel.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange @CeladonBooks #TheConnellysofCountyDown #TraceyLange #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads

categories: 9/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange @CeladonBooks #TheConnellysofCountyDown #TraceyLange #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads Title: The Connellys of County Down

Author: Tracey Lange

Published by: Celadon Books on Aug. 1, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 288

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Celadon Books

Book Rating: 9/10

From Tracey Lange, the New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans, comes The Connellys of County Down: a story about fierce family loyalty, good intentions gone awry, and the consequences of improbable love.

When Tara Connelly is released from prison after serving eighteen months on a drug charge, she knows rebuilding her life at thirty years old won’t be easy. With no money and no prospects, she returns home to live with her siblings, who are both busy with their own problems. Her brother, a single dad, struggles with the ongoing effects of a brain injury he sustained years ago, and her sister’s fragile facade of calm and order is cracking under the burden of big secrets. Life becomes even more complicated when the cop who put her in prison keeps showing up unannounced, leaving Tara to wonder what he wants from her now.

While she works to build a new career and hold her family together, Tara finds a chance at love in a most unlikely place. But when the Connellys’ secrets start to unravel and threaten her future, they all must face their worst fears and come clean, or risk losing each other forever.

The Connellys of County Down is a moving novel about testing the bounds of love and loyalty. It explores the possibility of beginning our lives anew, and reveals the pitfalls of shielding each other from the bitter truth.

Review:

Sincere, immersive, and insightful!

The Connellys of County Down is a tender, engaging tale that sweeps you away to Port Chester, NY and into the lives of three siblings, Tara, Eddie, and Geraldine, as they each grapple with all the secrets, wounds, trauma, tragedy, hurt, shame, guilt, tears, and discontent that surrounds them.

The prose is heartfelt and raw. The characters are complex, scarred, and loyal. And the plot is a beautifully written, affecting tale about life, loss, friendship, family, secrets, jealousy, guilt, pain, anger, denial, resentments, familial drama, forgiveness, miscommunication, and self-reflection.

Overall, The Connellys of County Down is a hopeful, absorbing, multi-generational saga by Lange that reminds us where there’s love, there’s a way and that when it comes to family, life is a combination of all the messy, frustrating, challenging, heartbreaking, complicated moments, as well as all the lovely, wonderful, touching times that happen in-between.

This novel is available on August 1, 2023.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

 

Thank you to Celadon Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Tracey Lange

Born in the Bronx and raised in Manhattan, Tracey Lange comes from a large Irish family with a few secrets of its own. She headed west and graduated from the University of New Mexico before owning and operating a behavioral healthcare company with her husband for fifteen years. While writing her debut novel, We Are the Brennans, she completed the Stanford University online novel writing program. Tracey currently lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, two sons and their German Shepherd.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

Goodreads

#BookReview Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur @adriennebrodeur @SimonSchusterCA @AvidReaderPress #LittleMonsters #AdrienneBrodeur #SimonSchusterCA

categories: 8/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur @adriennebrodeur @SimonSchusterCA @AvidReaderPress #LittleMonsters #AdrienneBrodeur #SimonSchusterCA Title: Little Monsters

Author: Adrienne Brodeur

Published by: Avid Reader Press on Jun. 27, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

From the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Game comes a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets—for fans of the New York Times bestsellers The Paper Palace and Ask Again, Yes .

Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small and they have been haunted by her absence ever since. Their father, Adam, a brilliant oceanographer, raised them mostly on his own in his remote home on Cape Cod, where the attachment between Ken and Abby deepened into something complicated—and as adults their relationship is strained. Now, years later, the siblings’ lives are still deeply entwined. Ken is a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother’s goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works.

As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his seventieth birthday, staring down his mortality and fading relevance. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he’s determined to make one last scientific breakthrough and so he has secretly stopped taking his pills, which he knows will infuriate his children. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family—Steph, who doesn’t make her connection known. As Adam grows more attuned to the frequencies of the deep sea and less so to the people around him, Ken and Abby each plan the elaborate gifts they will present to their father on his birthday, jostling for primacy in this small family unit.

Set in the fraught summer of 2016, and drawing on the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, Little Monsters is an absorbing, sharply observed family story by a writer who knows Cape Cod inside and out—its Edenic lushness and its snakes.

Review:

Dramatic, simmering, and sincere!

Little Monsters is a tender, engaging tale that sweeps you away to the idyllic Cape Cod during 2016 and into the lives of the Gardner family, especially siblings Ken and Abby, as the preparations for their father’s upcoming seventieth birthday party will have them finally confronting all the jealousy, resentment, pain, scars, long-buried secrets, and despicable behaviours that have tied them together since childhood.

The prose is fluid and smooth. The characters are bitter, troubled, and flawed. And the plot is a captivating tale about life, loss, heartache, guilt, love, secrets, revelations, acceptance, familial drama, friendship, hope, mental illness, forgiveness, and introspection.

Overall, Little Monsters is a heartfelt, intricate, nuanced tale by Brodeur that reminds us that families are complicated and messy, the choices we make often have far-reaching consequences, and skeletons often find their way to the surface no matter how well they’re buried.

 

This novel is available June 27, 2023.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Adrienne Brodeur

Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir Wild Game, which was selected as a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post and is in development as a Netflix film. She founded the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story with Francis Ford Coppola, and currently serves as executive director of Aspen Words, a literary nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute. She splits her time between Cambridge and Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband and children.

Photograph by Tony Luong.

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#BookReview The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand @elinhilderbrand @littlebrown @HBGCanada #TheFiveStarWeekend #ElinHilderbrand #HBGCanada

categories: 9/10, Book Review, General Fiction, Women's Fiction
#BookReview The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand @elinhilderbrand @littlebrown @HBGCanada #TheFiveStarWeekend #ElinHilderbrand #HBGCanada Title: The Five-Star Weekend

Author: Elin Hilderbrand

Published by: Little Brown and Company on Jun. 13, 2023

Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hotel Nantucket: After tragedy strikes, food blogger Hollis Shaw gathers four friends from different stages in her life to spend an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket.

Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it happens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.

Review:

Heartwarming, comforting, and nostalgic!

The Five-Star Weekend is a lighthearted, engaging tale that takes you into the life of Hollis Shaw, a middle-aged successful food blogger who, after returning to her hometown of Nantucket, invites four friends, one from each stage of her life, to spend a weekend at her home on the island to help her come to grips with the recent loss of her husband and the strained relationship with her daughter she’s struggling to repair.

The prose is sentimental and tender. The characters are independent, supportive, and layered. And the plot is a compelling, touching tale of life, love, family, honesty, kindness, communication, acceptance, self-discovery, grief, loss, understanding, forgiveness, romance, taking chances, and new beginnings.

Overall, The Five-Star Weekend is another emotive, thoughtful, cosy read by Hilderbrand that does a beautiful job of reminding us just how important, powerful, and meaningful female friendships can truly be.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to HBG Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand is a mother of three, an avid runner, reader, and traveler, and the author of twenty-three novels. She grew up outside Philadelphia, and has lived on Nantucket for more than twenty years.

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#BookReview And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu @PGCBooks @groveatlantic @roxanegaybooks #AndThenHeSangaLullaby #AniKayodeSomtochukwu #PGCBooks

categories: 10/10, Book Review, General Fiction, LGBTQIA, Noteworthy Book Releases
#BookReview And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu @PGCBooks @groveatlantic @roxanegaybooks #AndThenHeSangaLullaby #AniKayodeSomtochukwu #PGCBooks Title: And Then He Sang a Lullaby

Author: Ani Kayode Somtochukwu

Published by: Grove Press, Roxane Gay Books on Jun. 6, 2023

Genres: General Fiction, LGBTQIA

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

The inaugural title from Roxane Gay Books, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a searingly honest and resonant debut from a 23-year-old Nigerian writer and queer liberation activist, exploring what love and freedom cost in a society steeped in homophobia.

August is a God-fearing track star who leaves Enugu City to attend university and escape his overbearing sisters. He carries the weight of their lofty expectations, the shame of facing himself, and the haunting memory of a mother he never knew. It’s his first semester and pressures aside, August is making friends, doing well in his classes. He even almost has a girlfriend. There’s only one problem: he can’t stop thinking about Segun, an openly gay student who works at a local cybercafé. Segun carries his own burdens and has been wounded in too many ways. When he meets August, their connection is undeniable, but Segun is reluctant to open himself up to August. He wants to love and be loved by a man who is comfortable in his own skin, who will see and hold and love Segun, exactly as he is.

Despite their differences, August and Segun forge a tender intimacy that defies the violence around them. But there is only so long Segun can stand being loved behind closed doors, while August lives a life beyond the world they’ve created together. And when a new, sweeping anti-gay law is passed, August and Segun must find a way for their love to survive in a Nigeria that was always determined to eradicate them. A tale of rare bravery and profound beauty, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is an extraordinary debut that marks Ani as a voice to watch.

Review:

Pensive, absorbing, and exceptionally heart-wrenching!

And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a tragic, beautiful tale that sweeps you away to Nigeria and into the lives of two boys, Segun and August, one who is confident in his sexuality and not ashamed to be a gay man while bearing all the hatred and violence faced by that decision, and the other who is torn, ashamed and struggling to come to grips with his sexuality but who ultimately can’t resist what his heart truly wants.

The prose is evocative and expressive. The characters are layered, tormented, and vulnerable. And the plot is an exceptionally impactful coming-of-age tale of life, loss, family, friendship, grief, guilt, denial, secrets, heartache, culture, prejudice, homophobia, violence, and love.

Overall, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is one of those books you never forget. It’s raw, timely, powerful, and heartbreaking. It’s an incredible debut by Ani Kayode Somtochukwu that everyone should have to read, and which ultimately reminds us that to love and be loved is one of humanity’s most fundamental needs and to quote Mahatma Gandhi’s iconic words that perhaps we should all remember a little more often, “Where there is love there is life.”

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ani Kayode Somtochukwu

Ani Kayode Somtochukwu is an award-winning Nigerian writer and queer liberation activist. His work interrogates themes of queer identity, resistance, and liberation. His writings have appeared in literary magazines across Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

A note on naming: Following Nigerian naming conventions, family names come first in the name order, followed by the given first and “middle” names. This author’s family name, corresponding to a “last name” in most European and American names, is Ani.

Photo by Ileleji Prince.

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#BookReview The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle @mikegayle @GrandCentralPub #TheMuseumofOrdinaryPeople #MikeGayle #GCPInsider

categories: 9/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle @mikegayle @GrandCentralPub #TheMuseumofOrdinaryPeople #MikeGayle #GCPInsider Title: The Museum of Ordinary People

Author: Mike Gayle

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on May 30, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

Still reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Jess is about to do the hardest thing she’s ever done: empty her childhood home so that it can be sold.  As she sorts through a lifetime of memories, everything comes to a halt when she comes across something she just can’t part with: an old set of encyclopedias.  To the world, the books are outdated and ready to be recycled.  To Jess, they represent love and the future that her mother always wanted her to have. 

In the process of finding the books a new home, Jess discovers an unusual archive of letters, photographs, and curious housed in a warehouse and known as the Museum of Ordinary People.  Irresistibly drawn, she becomes the museum’s unofficial custodian, along with the warehouse’s mysterious owner.  As they delve into the history of objects in their care, they not only unravel heart-stirring stories that span generations and continents, but also unearth long-buried secrets that lie closer to home.

Inspired by an abandoned box of mementos, The Museum of Ordinary People is a poignant novel about memory and loss, the things we leave behind, and the future we create for ourselves.  

Review:

Thoughtful, tender, and heart-tugging!

The Museum of Ordinary People is a sweet, poignant tale that takes you into the life of the kind, considerate Jess Baxter as her world gets suddenly turned upside down when, while she is still struggling to come to grips with the loss of her mother, she discovers an extraordinary place that takes and safely stores all those precious things that to most may seem like just trash but to others are layered in memories and love, and where together with the new owner, Alex Brody, she begins to uncover new purpose, passion, long-buried secrets, and unconditional friendships.

The writing is nostalgic and heartfelt. The characters are authentic, dependable, and supportive. And the plot is a delightfully engaging mix of life, loss, family, friendship, kindness, honesty, acceptance, generosity, romance, humour, introspection, grief, loneliness, and love.

Overall, The Museum of Ordinary People is a sweet, moving, uplifting tale by Gayle that does a brilliant job once again of highlighting his exceptional ability to create genuine, relatable characters and unique, memorable storylines that thoroughly enchant from start to finish.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Mike Gayle

Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham, UK. After earning a Sociology degree, he moved to London to become a journalist and ended up as an advice columnist for a teenage girls’ magazine before becoming Features Editor for another teen magazine. He has written for a variety of publications including the Sunday Times, the Guardian, and Cosmo. Mike became a full-time novelist in 1997 and has written thirteen novels, which have been translated into more than thirty languages. After stints in London and Manchester, Mike now resides in Birmingham with his wife, two kids, and a rabbit.

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#BookReview No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister @StMartinsPress #NoTwoPersons #EricaBauermeister #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister @StMartinsPress #NoTwoPersons #EricaBauermeister #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers Title: No Two Persons

Author: Erica Bauermeister

Published by: St. Martin's Press on May 2, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 8.5/10

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister’s No Two Persons is “a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives.”

That was the beauty of books, wasn’t it? They took you places you didn’t know you needed to go…

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways—and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.

Review:

Compelling, heart-tugging, and absorbing!

No Two Persons is a sensitive, thoughtful tale that takes you into the life of Alice Wein, a young writer who, after the tragic loss of her brother, writes a story that is so special it connects and impacts the lives of nine specific readers who have the opportunity to read it.

The writing is passionate and moving. The characters are stuck, wary, and wistful. And the plot, using a story within a story, sweeps you away into an engaging, touching, heartfelt tale about life, loss, friendship, family, heartbreak, tragedy, the magic of books, and love.

Overall, No Two Persons is a charming, immersive, original tale by Bauermeister that’s a beautiful love letter to books and the power they have to touch, heal, move, and provide hope to anyone lucky enough to read their pages.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Erica Bauermeister

Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.

She has a PhD in literature from the University of Washington, and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Photo Credit: Susan Doupé

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#BookReview If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook @CeladonBooks #IfWereBeingHonest #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads #partner

categories: 8/10, Book Review, General Fiction
#BookReview If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook @CeladonBooks #IfWereBeingHonest #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads #partner Title: If We're Being Honest

Author: Cat Shook

Published by: Celadon Books on Apr. 18, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Celadon Books

Book Rating: 8/10

For fans of We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange and All Adults Here by Emma Straub, Cat Shook’s debut novel If We’re Being Honest is the snappy, smart, heartwarming story of the Williams family, and the sweltering summer that rewrote their history.

When Gerry, the beloved Williams patriarch, dies suddenly, his grandchildren flock from across the country to the family home in Eulalia, Georgia. But when Gerry’s best friend steps up to the microphone to deliver his eulogy, the funeral turns out unlike anyone expected. The cousins, left reeling and confused, cope with their fresh grief and various private dramas. Delia, recently heartbroken, refuses to shut up about her ex. Her sister Alice, usually confident, flusters when she spots her high school sweetheart, hiding a secret that will change both of their lives. Outspoken, affable Grant is preening in the afterglow of his recent appearance on The Bachelorette and looking to reignite an old flame with the least available person in town. Meanwhile, his younger brother Red, unsure of himself and easily embarrassed, desperately searches for a place in the boisterous family.

The cousins’ eccentric parents are in tow, too, and equally lost—in love and in life. Watching over them all is Ellen, Gerry’s sweet and proper widow, who does her best to keep her composure in front of the leering small town.

Clever and completely original, If We’re Being Honest reminds you that while no one can break your heart like your family can, there’s really no one better to put you back together.

Review:

Complex, heartfelt, and absorbing!

If We’re Being Honest is a tender, hopeful, multi-generational story that delves into all the emotional bonds and intricate ties that exist between family members and immerses you in a tale about confronting the past, accepting the things you cannot change, following your heart, learning to heal, and embracing whatever comes next.

The prose is well-turned and fluid. The characters are flawed, troubled, and bitter. And the plot is a captivating tale about life, loss, heartache, grief, guilt, love, secrets, resentment, revelations, acceptance, familial drama, friendship, hope, forgiveness, and introspection.

Overall, If We’re Being Honest is a nuanced, uplifting, character-driven debut by Shook that was a good reminder that family can be frustrating, messy, secretive, and sometimes hard to love, but they can also be surprising, supportive, loyal, and the only true place that feels like home.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

 

Thank you to Celadon Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Cat Shook

Catherine Shook graduated from the University of Georgia in 2016 with degrees in Creative Writing and Mass Media Arts. Born and raised in Georgia, she now lives in Manhattan. IF I WERE BEING HONEST is her first novel.

Photo Credit: MurphyMade

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#BlogTour #PromoPost The Woman Beyond the Sea by Sarit Yishai-Levi (translated by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann) @OverTheRiverPR @AmazonPub #SaritYishaiLevi #thewomanbeyondthesea #translatedfiction #israeliliterature

categories: General Fiction, Promo Post
#BlogTour #PromoPost The Woman Beyond the Sea by Sarit Yishai-Levi (translated by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann) @OverTheRiverPR @AmazonPub #SaritYishaiLevi #thewomanbeyondthesea #translatedfiction #israeliliterature Title: The Woman Beyond the Sea

Author: Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann, Sarit Yishai-Levi

Published by: Amazon Crossing on Mar. 21, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 415

Format: Paperback

Source: OTRPR

This beautifully written, multi-generational story traces the paths of three women who lead entirely separate lives. There’s Eliya, a young woman who thinks she has finally found true love with her charismatic and demanding husband, an aspiring novelist, until he ends their relationship in a Paris café, spurring her suicide attempt; next is Lily, Eliya’s mother, who vanishes for long hours every day, and Eliya has no idea where she is; and a third, mysterious woman who has abandoned her newborn baby on the doorstep of a convent on a snowy night in Jerusalem.

Seeking to heal herself, Eliya is compelled to piece together the jagged shards of her life and history. Her heart-wrenching journey leads her to a profound and unexpected love, renewed family ties, and reconciliation with her orphaned mother, Lily. Together, the two women embark on a quest to discover the truth about themselves and Lily’s origins…and the unknown woman who set their stories in motion one Christmas Eve.

As each woman confronts upheavals in her life, Yishai-Levi, a truly gifted storyteller, masterfully ties the three together, striking chords of love, hate and despair.

“THE WOMAN BEYOND THE SEA is a very personal novel that emerged from longing and pain. But at the same time, it’s a book about forgiveness and acceptance and love that conquers all,” says Yishai-Levi. “Gilah’s translation is wonderful and I’m excited to bring this story to English readers.”

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to OTRPR and Amazon Publishing for providing me with a copy.

 

About Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann

Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann moved from Montreal to Jerusalem after studying theater, literature, and communications at McGill University. Starting out as a freelance journalist, translator, writer, and editor, she became a feature writer at The Jerusalem Post and, subsequently, editor of the paper’s youth magazines. Later, during a stint as a writer at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, she discovered how fulfilling it is to work for the benefit of others and moved to NGO work in East Jerusalem and the developing world. In recent years, she’s come full circle to her first loves and spends her best hours immersed in literary translation.

Photo Credit: Avi Hoffmann

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About Sarit Yishai-Levi

Sarit Yishai-Levi is a renowned Israeli journalist and author. In 2016 she published her first novel, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem. It immediately became a bestseller and garnered critical acclaim. The book has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Israel, was translated into 17 languages, and was adapted into a TV series that won the Israeli TV award for best drama series, and became a Netflix hit. It also won the Publishers Association’s Gold, Platinum, and Diamond prizes; the Steimatzky Prize for bestselling book of the year in Israel; and the WIZO France Prize for best book translated into French.

Yishai-Levi’s second novel, The Woman Beyond the Sea, was published in 2019. It won the Publishers Association’s Gold and Platinum prizes and has already been translated into several languages.

Yishai-Levi was born in Jerusalem to a Sephardic family that has lived in the city for eight generations. She’s been living with her family in Tel Aviv since 1970.

Photo Credit: Maya Baumel.

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#BlogTour #BookReview In Little Stars by Linda Green @LindaGreenisms @Mobius_Books #InLittleStars #LindaGreen #MobiusBooksUS

categories: 10/10, Blog Tour, Book Review, General Fiction
#BlogTour #BookReview In Little Stars by Linda Green @LindaGreenisms @Mobius_Books #InLittleStars #LindaGreen #MobiusBooksUS Title: In Little Stars

Author: Linda Green

Published by: Mobius on Feb. 7, 2023

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 10/10

In a divided northern England, love and hate are about to collide . . .

Sylvie and Donna travel on the same train to work each day but have never spoken. Their families are on different sides of the bitter Brexit divide, although the tensions and arguments at home give them much in common.

What they don’t know is that their eldest children, Rachid and Jodie, are about to meet for the first time and fall in love. Aware that neither family will approve, the teenagers vow to keep their romance a secret.

But as Sylvie’s family feel increasingly unwelcome in England, a desire for a better life threatens Rachid and Jodie’s relationship. Can their love unite their families – or will it end in tragedy?

Review:

Tragic, beautiful, and incredibly heart-wrenching!

In Little Stars is a poignant, pensive, emotionally-charged novel that takes you into the lives of a handful of people, including the families of eighteen-year-old Jodi and seventeen-year-old Rachid, as their worlds become irrevocably changed and shattered one fall day when a violent, fatal attack driven by ignorance leaves some devastated by loss, some overwhelmingly consumed with guilt, and some haunted and struggling to understand how to prevent these horrifying seeds of hatred from being able to blossom.

The prose is sobering and expressive. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are complex, consumed, and authentic. And the plot is an exceptionally absorbing tale of life, loss, family, friendship, grief, guilt, denial, secrets, heartache, parenthood, prejudice, violence, and interracial teenage love.

Overall, In Little Stars made me think, made me cry, and resonated with me long after I turned the final page. It’s an enthralling, impactful, hopeful story by Green that interwove exceptional character development with a bittersweet, immersive, heartbreaking love story, all steeped in an abundance of pain and tragedy.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

 

Thank you to Mobius Books US for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Linda Green

Linda Green is the bestselling author of ten novels, which have sold more than a million copies between them. Her latest novel, One Moment, was a Radio 2 Book Club selection, and her previous novel, The Last Thing She Told Me, was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and a Top 20 Sunday Times bestseller. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and son.

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