Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

#BookReview Five First Chances by Sarah Jost @swissSarahUK @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #FiveFirstChances #SarahJost #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview Five First Chances by Sarah Jost @swissSarahUK @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #FiveFirstChances #SarahJost #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Five First Chances

Author: Sarah Jost

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Apr. 18, 2023

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

What would you do if you had one more chance for the life of your dreams?

Lou feels like she is stuck on the wrong path: alone, in a city far from home, watching other people be happy. When the man she’s in love with announces his engagement to someone else, Lou is consumed by ‘what ifs’.

That’s when she finds herself slipping back in time to a night two years ago, where one small decision changed everything…

Suddenly, Lou has a chance to fix her mistakes. But as her choices lead her down roads she never could have imagined, she finds herself stuck in a time loop of her own making. And with each slip, Lou notices her life intersecting with one person again and again. A friend of a friend who once lived on the periphery, who is slowly becoming the one person who makes her feel like she might finally be on the right track.

Lou is about to realize that our greatest love stories aren’t always the ones we expected, but are the ones we choose to fight for.


Review:

Poignant, pensive, and moving!

Five First Chances is a heart-wrenching, time-loop tale that takes you into the life of Lou while she’s attending the wake of a casual acquaintance, when grief-stricken family members, a handful of vague memories, and thoughts of what-if leave her contemplative, curious, and exceptionally emotional until fate magically intervenes leaving her reliving the same two years over and over again in order to change, grow, reshape friendships, and discover everlasting love.

The writing is heartfelt and tender. The characters are strong, passionate, and endearing. And the plot is an absorbing, bittersweet tale of life, loss, family, friendship, kindness, honesty, acceptance, generosity, grief, romance, humour, introspection, and unconditional love.

Overall, Five First Chances is a reflective, emotional, promising debut by Jost that does a remarkable job of reminding us just how important it is to appreciate all those little things in life, the moments, the sunsets, and the shared smiles, while also highlighting the sheer power of love.

 

This book is available now.

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

        

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sarah Jost

Sarah Jost is a Swiss national who has been living in the UK since 2008. She works as a Housemistress and French teacher at a girls’ school, which she considers an immersive course in character study. Sarah lives in Buckinghamshire with her partner Luke and their adorable and destructive puppy Winnie. Five First Chances is her debut.

#BookReview It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #ItEndsatMidnight #HarrietTyce #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview It Ends at Midnight by Harriet Tyce @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #ItEndsatMidnight #HarrietTyce #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: It Ends at Midnight

Author: Harriet Tyce

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 21, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the acclaimed, Sunday Times bestselling author of Blood Orange comes a thriller of a party spiraling into murder when one guest’s plan to right old wrongs ends in blood, told with Tyce’s signature dark and propulsive twists.

It’s New Year’s Eve and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh’s best postcodes. It’s a moment for old friends to set the past to rights – and move on.

The night sky is alive with fireworks and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialize.

Because someone at this party is going to die tonight.

Midnight approaches and the countdown begins – but it seems one of the guests doesn’t want a resolution.

They want revenge.


Review:

Gripping, suspenseful, and unnerving!

It Ends at Midnight transports you into the life of Sylvie Munro, a successful barrister who, while presiding over a nasty case in Youth Court that has swirled up some conflicting emotions of her own, reaches out at the request of her sick friend Tess to a girl they both wronged as teens, triggering the past to collide with the present, long-buried secrets to come to light, and the truth to finally be revealed.

The prose is tight and edgy. The characters are secretive, consumed, and troubled. And the plot using a past/present, back-and-forth style, builds and unravels quickly into a compelling tale full of drama, deception, lies, guilt, corruption, ambition, manipulation, revenge, and the complex, toxic relationship that can exist between friends.

Overall, It Ends at Midnight is an engrossing, cunning, sinister novel by Tyce that kept me enthralled from the very first page and is the perfect choice for anyone who loves a menacing, highly entertaining, eerily tension-filled read.

 

This book is available now.

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

         

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Harriet Tyce

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before working as a criminal barrister for nearly a decade.

Having escaped law and early motherhood, she started writing, and completed the MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has written three novels to date, the Sunday Times bestsellers Blood Orange and The Lies You Told. It Ends At Midnight was published in April 2022 to critical acclaim.

She lives in north London with her husband and children, and two very nice dogs.

Photo by Rory Lewis Photography.

#BookReview One Month of You by Suzanne Ewart @SuzanneEwart1 @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #OneMonthofYou #SuzanneEwart #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview One Month of You by Suzanne Ewart @SuzanneEwart1 @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #OneMonthofYou #SuzanneEwart #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: One Month of You

Author: Suzanne Ewart

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Feb. 7, 2023

Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

When Alec asks Jess out, she knows it won’t work. Is Alec charming? Of course. Attractive? Definitely. Can she not stop thinking about him…yes, but that’s also the problem. Because Jess has rules. And the first? Don’t fall in love.

What no one knows is that Jess has inherited Huntington’s disease from the mother that she cares for. And while witnessing her own future play out, Jess has learnt to keep everyone and everything at arm’s length. But Alec is determined to break down those barriers. When she finally tells him why they have no future, he proposes a different option—just one month together.

One month to date. One month to live. One month to fall in love.

But as Jess grows closer to Alec, she knows she has to end it. It’s better that he is hurt now rather than heartbroken later, isn’t it?


Review:

Poignant, heartwarming, and sweet!

One Month of You is an absorbing, heart-tugging tale that sweeps you away to Manchester and into the life of hardworking administrator Jess as she struggles to come to terms with her mother’s deteriorating health, a positive diagnosis of Huntington’s disease herself, sticking to the nine rules she’s determined to live by, and not falling in love with a sexy bartender who’s kind, compassionate, and always ready to help.

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

Overall, One Month of You is a moving, reflective, bittersweet tearjerker by Ewart that is a lovely reminder to always live life to the fullest and surround yourself with those you love.

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Suzanne Ewart

Before becoming a writer, Suzanne Ewart taught English to teenagers in northwest England. In 2019 she won the eHarmony/Trapeze books Write Your Own Love Story competition. One Month of You is her first novel. She lives near Manchester with her husband and two children.

Photo courtesy of davidhighmam.co.uk website.

#BookReview The Sisters We Were by Wendy Willis Baldwin @WLBaldwin @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheSistersWeWere #WendyWallisBaldwin #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview The Sisters We Were by Wendy Willis Baldwin @WLBaldwin @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheSistersWeWere #WendyWallisBaldwin #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Sisters We Were

Author: Wendy Willis Baldwin

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 17, 2023

Genres: General Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 10/10

Pearl and Ruby’s choices drove them apart.

Finding their way back to each other might be the only way forward.

The weight of their family secrets could not have shaped Pearl and Ruby Crenshaw any differently. Ruby’s a runner, living in Dallas and only reluctantly talking to their mother, Birdie, when she calls from prison. Pearl is still living in her mother’s fixer-upper and finds herself facing a line in the sand: her weight is threatening to kill her. She’s hundreds of pounds beyond the point where she can celebrate her curves or benefit from the body positivity movement, and unless she takes drastic action, the future looks dire.

But when Ruby’s buried rage explodes in a hilariously viral way, the mistake has life-altering consequences. Now the sisters are back living under the same roof and forced to put the pieces of their separate lives together again. Funny, cinematic, and bursting with heart, this is a story of hope and redemption that celebrates the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.


Review:

Sincere, memorable, and sweet!

The Sisters We Were is an intimate, uplifting tale that sweeps you away to Austin, Texas and immerses you into the lives of the Crenshaw sisters, Pearl and Ruby, as they must finally accept the things they cannot change, make risky, life-altering decisions, confront a past littered with tragedy and heartbreak, repair fractured relationships, and embrace a future that doesn’t involve running away or eating for solace.

The writing is effortless and polished. The characters are multi-layered, genuine, scarred, and courageous. And the plot, including all the subplots, skillfully intertwines and unravels into a delightfully touching tale about life, love, loss, guilt, grief, family drama, secrets, friendship, happiness, self-discovery, romance, the day-to-day struggles of morbid obesity, and the special bonds that exist between sisters.

Overall, The Sisters We Were is a beautiful mix of hope, heart, and healing that is not only a humorous, emotive, lovely novel by Willis Baldwin but one which I don’t think anyone could possibly read and not be completely absorbed and utterly moved.

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Wendy Willis Baldwin

Author and freelance writer Wendy Willis Baldwin is a natural born storyteller. Her communications background includes broadcasting, marketing, talk radio, and sales. A native of Texas and a graduate of Texas Tech University, Wendy is a recent empty nester now living on a farm in New England, with one husband, three dogs, and thousands of honeybees. She is the co-host of the Life After Fat Pants Podcast.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

#BookReview The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheMitfordAffair #MarieBenedict #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheMitfordAffair #MarieBenedict #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Mitford Affair

Author: Marie Benedict

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 17, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict—she’ll have to choose: her country or her sisters?

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they’ve weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister’s lead, inciting rumors that she’s become Hitler’s own mistress.

Novelist Nancy Mitford is the only member of her family to keep in touch with Diana and Unity after their desertion, so it falls to her to act when her sisters become spies for the Nazi party.

Probing the torrid political climate of World War II and the ways that sensible people can be sucked into radical action, The Mitford Affair follows Nancy’s valiant efforts to end the war and the cost of placing loyalty to her country above loyalty to her family.


Review:

Engaging, informative, and colourful!

The Mitford Affair is a timely, intriguing tale set in England in the 1930s, pre-WWII, that takes you into the lives of the Mitford family, specifically three of the six sisters. Nancy, a novelist and the oldest of the siblings whose concern for the family’s political leanings she expresses through her writing and through information she secretly gathers and shares with her cousin Winston Churchill; Diana, a true beauty whose love for the fascist movement leads to the destruction of her marriage to the Guinness heir yet facilitates an ambivalent relationship with the founder of the British Union of Fascists, and perhaps even more controversial a friendship with the Führer of Germany; and Unity, one of the youngest of the sisters who through her all-consuming Nazi obsession becomes one of Hitler’s closest companions until war is declared and tragedy ultimately strikes.

The prose is smooth and precise. The characters are spirited, self-indulgent, and cultured. And the plot is an evocative tale of life, loss, love, self-discovery, passion, war, secrets, friendship, determination, betrayal, treachery, family, espionage, and manipulation.

Overall, The Mitford Affair is an alluring, insightful, compelling novel by Benedict that does a spectacular job of highlighting her incredible knowledge and research into these fascinating historical figures whose complex lives, relationships, and political alliances are often unknown, overlooked, or perhaps just long forgotten.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Marie Benedict

Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus on history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. She is the author of New York Times bestseller The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and Lady Clementine. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

#BookReview The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh @claremackint0sh @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLastParty #ClareMackintosh #DCMorgan #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh @claremackint0sh @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheLastParty #ClareMackintosh #DCMorgan #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Last Party

Author: Clare Mackintosh

Series: DC Morgan #1

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Nov. 8, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

At midnight, one of them is dead.
By morning, all of them are suspects.

It’s a party to end all parties, but not everyone is here to celebrate.

On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbors.

But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.

On New Year’s Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbors, friends and family—and Ffion has her own secrets to protect.

With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead…but who finally killed him.

In a village with this many secrets, murder is just the beginning.


Review:

Simmering, tight, and intriguing!

The Last Party is a tense, menacing police procedural that takes us to North Wales, where DC Ffion Morgan will have to team up with DC Leo Brady from the Cheshire Constabulary when the body of the previously famous opera singer Rhys Lloyd is found floating in Mirror Lake on New Years Day and the investigation quickly unearths secrets that point to him being a victim of misfortune, infidelity, and revenge or possibly a predator himself who through the years has preyed on anyone more vulnerable.

The prose is atmospheric and gritty. The characters are secretive, scarred, and impulsive. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel steadily into a sinister tale full of twists, turns, deception, revelations, emotion, violence, and murder.

The Last Party is the first book in the new DC Morgan series, and as I’m a huge fan of Mackintosh’s standalone thrillers, I’m interested and intrigued to read any and all of the next instalments to see how these characters will further develop and where she might actually take them.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Clare Mackintosh

Clare Mackintosh is an award-winning New York Times and international bestselling author. She spent twelve years on the police force in England and has written for Guardian (UK), Good Housekeeping, and other publications. Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide. Clare lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.

Photo by Astrid di Crollalanza.

#BookReview Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn @JenniferCoburn @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #CradlesoftheReich #JenniferCoburn #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn @JenniferCoburn @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #CradlesoftheReich #JenniferCoburn #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Cradles of the Reich

Author: Jennifer Coburn

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Oct. 11, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Three women, a nation seduced by a madman, and the Nazi breeding program to create a so-called master race.

At Heim Hochland, a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria, three women’s fates are irrevocably intertwined. Gundi is a pregnant university student from Berlin. An Aryan beauty, she’s secretly a member of a resistance group. Hilde, only eighteen, is a true believer in the cause and is thrilled to carry a Nazi official’s child. And Irma, a 44-year-old nurse, is desperate to build a new life for herself after personal devastation. All three have everything to lose.

Based on untold historical events, this novel brings us intimately inside the Lebensborn Society maternity homes that actually existed in several countries during World War II, where thousands of “racially fit” babies were bred and taken from their mothers to be raised as part of the new Germany. But it proves that in a dark period of history, the connections women forge can carry us through, even driving us to heroism we didn’t know we had within us.


Review:

Haunting, insightful, and affecting!

Cradles of the Reich is an absorbing, intense tale set during prewar Germany that takes you into the lives of three German women who all come from different backgrounds and with completely different motivations but whose worlds become uniquely connected and intertwined when they all find themselves residents of Heim Hochland, a secret Nazi breeding facility created and maintained specifically with the intent to create a pure Aryan race.

The prose is polished and expressive. The characters are vulnerable, intriguing, and strong. And the plot is a compelling tale of life, loss, love, family, sacrifice, courage, manipulation, motherhood, subjection, oppression, resistance, and survival.

Overall, Cradles of the Reich is a well-written, informative tale by Coburn based on real-life events that does an exceptional job of highlighting her considerable knowledge and impressive research into an unimaginable, narcissistic atrocity executed during one of the most dark, hate-filled, tragic times in history.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jennifer Coburn

Jennifer Coburn is the author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn breeding home at the start of World War ll.

She has also published a mother-daughter travel memoir, We'll Always Have Paris, as well as six contemporary women's novels. Additionally, Jennifer has contributed to five literary anthologies, including A Paris All Your Own.

Jennifer lives in San Diego with her husband, William. Their daughter, Katie is currently in graduate school. When Jennifer is not going down historical research rabbit holes, she volunteers with So Say We All, a live storytelling organization, where she is a performer, producer, and performance coach. She is also an active volunteer with Reality Changers, a nonprofit that supports low-income high school students in becoming the first in their families to attend college. She specializes in college essay development, and interview prep.

Photo Credit: Killian Whitelock

#BookReview The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw @PennyHaw @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheInvincibleMissCust #PennyHaw #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw @PennyHaw @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheInvincibleMissCust #PennyHaw #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Invincible Miss Cust

Author: Penny Haw

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Oct. 4, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 10/10

Must-read historical fiction for fans of Marie Benedict and Tracey Enerson Wood, based on the real life of Britain and Ireland’s first woman veterinary surgeon.

Aleen Cust has big dreams and no one―not her family, society, or the law―will stop her.

Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father’s death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear. At last, she is on her way to becoming a veterinary surgeon! Little does she know her biggest obstacles lie ahead.

The Invincible Miss Cust is based on the real life of Aleen Isabel Cust, who defied her family and society to become Britain and Ireland’s first woman veterinary surgeon. Through Penny Haw’s meticulous research, riveting storytelling, and elegant prose, Aleen’s story of ambition, determination, family, friendship, and passion comes to life. It is a story that, even today, women will recognize, of battling patriarchy and an unequal society to realize one’s dreams and pave the way for other women in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.


Review:

Insightful, rich, and absorbing!

The Invincible Miss Cust is a beautifully written, fascinating interpretation that sweeps you away to England and Ireland between 1874 and 1922 and into the life of Aleen Isobel Cust from the loss of her father as a child and subsequent move from Ireland back to England, her struggle to be accepted and allowed to study at the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, her enduring passion and love for the Emerald Isle and the animals that called its lush green fields home, and her final acceptance on the RCVS register in 1922.  

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are diligent, brave, and independent. And the plot is an absorbing tale of life, loss, love, friendship, familial drama, support, passion, courage, and the ins and outs of veterinary medicine in the late 1800s. 

Some of my favourite books of all time are those that remind us of the things that daily we often take for granted and yet were forged by strong, courageous, determined women who came before us and The Invincible Miss Cust is one of those. It’s a vivid, immersive, intriguing novel by Haw that does an exceptional job of highlighting her considerable knowledge and impressive research into this renowned iconic figure whose grit, hard work and perseverance had a tremendous impact on the world of veterinary surgery.

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Penny Haw

Penny Haw worked as a journalist and columnist for more than three decades, writing for many leading South African newspapers and magazines before yielding to a lifelong yearning to create fiction. Her stories feature remarkable women, illustrate her love for nature, and explore the interconnectedness of all living things. The Invincible Miss Cust is Penny’s debut historical fiction. She lives near Cape Town with her husband and three dogs, all of whom are well-walked.

#BookReview The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheStorytellersDeath #AnnDavilaCardinal #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheStorytellersDeath #AnnDavilaCardinal #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Storyteller's Death

Author: Ann Dávila Cardinal

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Oct. 4, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

From International Latino Book Award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes a gorgeously written family saga about a Puerto Rican teenager who finds herself gifted (or cursed?) with a strange ability.

There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family’s house when Isla was a child…

Isla Larsen Sanchez’s life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage.

When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family’s cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her.

At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can’t solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.


Review:

Nostalgic, memorable, and intriguing!

The Storyteller’s Death is a captivating, mysterious tale that takes you into the life of Isla Larsen Sanchez, a young eight-year-old girl who, after being sent by her mother to Puerto Rico for the summer while her father is terminally ill, continues to happily spend every summer there with her extended family until things take a little turn when at eighteen she begins to have visions of events that have happened to her deceased ancestors in the past, and when those stories begin to turn violent long-buried family secrets that some would prefer to stay hidden will finally need to be unearthed and confronted.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are multilayered, conflicted, and curious. And the plot is a compelling blend of life, loss, love, family, friendship, secrets, surprises, heartbreak, culture, community, magical realism, and resentments.

Overall, The Storyteller’s Death is a hopeful, immersive, multi-generational saga by Dávila Cardinal that reminds us that when it comes to family life is a combination of all the messy, challenging, heartbreaking, complicated moments, as well as all the lovely, wonderful, touching times that happen in-between.

 

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ann Dávila Cardinal

Ann Dávila Cardinal is a novelist and Director of Recruitment for Vermont College of Fine Arts where she also earned her MFA in Writing. She comes from a long line of Puerto Rican writers, including father and son poets Virgilio and José Antonio Dávila, and her cousin, award-winning fiction writer Tere Dávila. Ann’s first novel, Sister Chicas, was co-written with Jane Alberdeston Coralin and Lisa Alvarado, and was released from New American Library. Her next novel, a horror young adult work titled Five Midnights, was released by Tor Teen on June 4, 2019. The story continues in Category Five, also from Tor Teen, released on June 2, 2020. Ann lives in Vermont where she cycles, knits, and prepares for the zombie apocalypse.

Photo Credit: Carlos Cardinal

#BookReview A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey @sierragodfrey @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AVeryTypicalFamily #SierraGodfrey #bookmarkedbylandmark

#BookReview A Very Typical Family by Sierra Godfrey @sierragodfrey @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #AVeryTypicalFamily #SierraGodfrey #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: A Very Typical Family

Author: Sierra Godfrey

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Sep. 13, 2022

Genres: General Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

For fans of Emma Straub and Jennifer Weiner, comes a heartfelt, darkly funny novel about learning to love (and forgive) your family…even when they accidentally put you behind bars.

All families are messy. Some are disasters.

Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison more than fifteen years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn’t spoken to anyone in her family since. Ten years later, Natalie receives a letter from a lawyer saying her estranged mother has died and left the family’s historic Santa Cruz house to her–sort of. To inherit it, Natalie and her siblings must claim it together.

Natalie drives cross-country to Santa Cruz with her willful cat in tow expecting to sign some papers, see siblings Lynn and Jake briefly, and get back to sorting out her life in Boston. But Jake, now an award-winning ornithologist, is missing, and Lynn, working as an undertaker in New York City, shows up with a teenage son. While Natalie and her nephew look for Jake–and meeting a very handsome marine biologist along the way–she unpacks the guilt she has held on to for so many years, wondering how, or if, she can salvage a relationship with her siblings after all this time.


Review:

Sincere, immersive, and nuanced!

A Very Typical Family is a tender, compelling tale that delves into the complex bonds and emotional scars that can exist between family members and immerses you in a tale about rediscovering one’s self, confronting the past, accepting the things you cannot change, learning to heal, and moving on.

The prose is smooth and fluid. The characters are hesitant, conflicted, and damaged. And the plot is an exceptionally absorbing tale about life, loss, love, tragedy, resentment, regret, guilt, grief, familial drama, self reflection, friendship, and forgiveness.

Overall, A Very Typical Family is a beautiful mix of heart, hope, and healing that is not only a moving, emotive, lovely debut by Godfrey but a must-read novel for anyone who loves a meaty, well-written family saga.

 

This book is available now.

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

           

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sierra Godfrey

Sierra Godfrey is a technical writer, graphic designer, and a former credentialed sportswriter covering Spanish soccer. When she’s not writing about messy families, she’s taking long walks, reading, and being cozy. Originally from Santa Cruz, California, she has lived all over the world including Santorini, Greece, but now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, which includes a dog, two cats, and a turtle, all of which seemed like a good idea at the time.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

%d bloggers like this: