Recent Reads: Starling House by Alix Harrow

Starling House by Alix Harrow

Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date:  October 3, 2023

 

Format: Hardback
Source: BOTM Pick October

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis:

A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

Review: 

I love this cover so much, sadly the story was just ok for me.

Opal is raising her younger brother after her mother's death, it was a freak accident and she drove off of a bridge. Arthur has taken over a family home in the town of Eden, which has always interested Opal. While Arthur and the house are odd, and there are so many rumors around its weirdness, Opal takes an opportunity to work as a house cleaner there to raise money to help her brother get into a better school. Arthur and Opal kind of become friends and this has a strange almost grumpy/sunshine trope...to some degree. 

Highlights of this book were all around the house, it was strange and kind or alive and it does stuff to its own liking. I also liked the add-in of  The Underworld, a book by the first Starling House owner. I enjoyed these magical things, but the way it all came together in the end just felt odd and kind of rushed. Maybe there was too much romance build up and not enough explaination of the dreamworld magic and the town for my liking. 

Overall it was a creepy and fun read for the end of October/ early November, and think that some will love it. It jsut wasn't for me.

Recent Reads: Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott 

Publisher: Anchor Books
Publication Date:  September 13, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: BOTM October 2022

Rating:
DNF - 1 Star

Goodreads Synopsis: 

In the tradition of modern fairytales like American Gods and Spinning Silver comes a sweeping epic rich in Eastern European folklore--a debut novel about the ancestral hauntings that stalk us, and the uncanny power of story.

The Yaga siblings--Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist--have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive a mysterious inheritance, the siblings are reunited--only to discover that their bequest isn't land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.

Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas' ancestral home in Russia--but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine's blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family's traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide--erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future.

An enchanted adventure illuminated by Jewish myth and adorned with lyrical prose as tantalizing and sweet as briar berries, Thistlefoot is an immersive modern fantasy saga by a bold new talent.

Review: 

I am sad about this one, I wanted to love it ... or even like it for that matter and sadly it was just too slow, and I was not invested enough to care to finish it. 

I DNFed this book at ~40%, I had been trying to read it for the last month, and in the meantime also finished many other books while avoiding it. The story is about a brother and sister that are pretty much estranged, but come together when they inherit the chicken-legged house. Now in order to pay off her side of the house and own it outright, Bellatine is helping her brother Isaac put on a puppet show... but there is also someone trying to find the house. At almost halfway through, there were no climaxes in the story at all, and I needed something to keep going and it just never came. I got to a section where they are sitting in a diner and talking and then Isaac has a flashback about a friend named Benji... and I tried to skip it... it was at that point that I realized the character building/ flashbacks that were meant to build were just depressing me and so I called it quits.

Where I think this book went wrong was in the pacing. It was so unbearably slow for too long. There are oh moments here and there but not with the characters we are meant to invest in. It also has a weird past/present issue that irked me... are we set in modern times with cell phones or are we in the 1930's because it oddly felt like both and maybe that was meant to bring on an 'old-soul' feel but it was just odd in context. 

I also still wanted more from this world - it was magical realism, so it was supposed to be able to set magic down in our world and ride it out, but I found the magic to be forced and not as seamless as I like my magical realism settings to be.

So, overall, this was not for me... however if you are looking for something slower paced, you might enjoy it. 

Recent Reads: Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen 
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date:  August 30, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Book of the Month Sept pick.

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

An enchanting tale filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go.

Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.

Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits—a stunning old cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe, and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.

When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at the Dellawisp she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a young woman with a past, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and a lonely chef, and three ghosts. The sudden death of one of Zoey's new neighbors sets off a search that leads to the island's famous author and to a long-estranged relative of the sisters.

Each of them has a story, and each story has an ending which hasn't yet been written.

Review: 

I really like this author's use of magical realism in her novels. While seemingly contemporary fiction, there are magical realism elements interspersed in a whimsical way.  The story is about futures, happiness, friendship and love, and I really liked the found-family elements this book created. Readers follow Zoey, who moves into her mother's condo the summer before she is due to set of to a nearby college. She meets her neighbors, Charlotte who is a loner, bohemian, henna artist; Mac a chef, they crazy lady that is always yelling at people and snooping, and her mysterious sister that does not come out of her unit. There is also a son, an author, and a caretaker as well. So there are a lot of characters in this one but it all flows really well. 

The book follows all these characters as Zoey learns more about them during her time there, but we also learn about them through ghosts that linger at teh Dellawisp - the complex they live in. 

This was such a fun book for a number of reasons. The author did such a wonderful job creating atmosphere. I want to visit Mallow Island and the Dellawisp and see the bird and meet all these strange people that seem like so much fun. The twist ans turns this books takes were well done and some were unexpected and shocking. There was so much depth - of enviornment, of characters and their emotions and feelings and beings. It all worked together beautifully.

If you enjoy magical realism or would like to try it, Sarah Addison Allen's work is a great place to start. It is subtle and whimical, just know that you might not get explanations unitl the very end.

Recent Reads: Book of Night by Holly Black

Book of Night by Holly Black 

Series: Book of Night #1
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date:  May 3, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: BOTM add on

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.

Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgängers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

Holly Black makes her adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of shadowy thieves and secret societies. 

Review: 

Growing up, I read Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tales series and enjoyed them. I was excited to see that she was writing an adult book and I hopped at the chance to grab it as an add-on in my Book of the Month box a few months back. I finally got around to picking it up, I had saved it because it seemed like a good Autumn read. 

The story follows Charlie Hall a somewhat reformed, but not quite reformed, thief. Her world is pretty much ours except that there is a little bit of magic. Much like that scene in Peter Pan where the shadow escapes, in Charlie's world shadows can be altered, quickened, and be detached and turn to dangerous blights. The plot follows her as she learns of a missing book that can allow shadows to become real people and she has been tasked with finding it for a man that is deadly.

This was an interesting concept for a book but I feel like it missed the mark a bit. I was about 100 pages in and wanted to give up... but pushed, then I was 200 pages in and wanted to throw in the towel.. and pushed and finally finished, but a book really shouldn't make you want to put it down that badly. It took everything I had to get through it and the small twists at those page points were really all that was keeping it alive for me. 

It is writting in past and present, showing how Charlie got to this point in her live, which was interesting but distracting at times. I was over 100 pages in and still didn't fully grasp what a 'quickened shadow' meant and why people needed them. The how of these things was very poorly explained and I was lost through a lot of the plot becuase of it. Then at chapter 18 we get Remy's point of view, which builds the story but I hate when new POVs are added late in books... 

Overall, I just wasn't really impressed with this book and the moer I think about it the more I am like... eh... 

Recent Reads: Darling Girl by Liz Michaelski

Darling Girl by Liz Michaelski 

Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: May 3, 2022 

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Book of the Month pick

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

In this beautiful, grounded, and darkly magical modern-day reimagining of J. M. Barrie's classic, to save her daughter's life one woman must take on the infamous Peter Pan--who is not the innocent adventurer the fairy tales make him out to be . . .

Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy--yes, that Wendy. She's running a successful skincare company; her son, Jack, is happy and healthy; and the tragedy of her past is well behind her . . . until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she's been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.

Eden's disappearance is a disaster for more reasons than one. She has a rare condition that causes her to age rapidly--ironic, considering her father is the boy who will never grow up--which also makes her blood incredibly valuable. It's a secret that Holly is desperate to protect, especially from Eden's half-brother, Jack, who knows nothing about his sister or the crucial role she plays in his life. Holly has no one to turn to--her mother is the only other person in the world who knows that Peter is more than a story, but she refuses to accept that he is not the hero she's always imagined. Desperate, Holly enlists the help of Christopher Cooke, a notorious ex-soldier, in the hopes of rescuing Eden before it's too late . . . or she may lose both her children.

Darling Girl brings all the magic of the classic Peter Pan story to the present, while also exploring the dark underpinnings of fairy tales, grief, aging, sacrifice, motherhood, and just how far we will go to protect those we love.

Review: 

Reading this synopsis, I wanted to much more from this book. I was sadly disappointed. I was so excited to pick it up, but then it fell flat for me. 

The book follows Holly Darling, the granddaughter of the infamous Wendy Darling. Yes! The one that met and adventured with Peter Pan. In this ominous retelling, Peter isn't the sweet, whimsical lost boy that we know and love. He is a bit sinister. Holly is a mother of a teen named Jack and a girl named Eden that is very ill and bedridden, but all of a sudden Eden goes missing and Holly has to travel back to London to find her. All of this is complicated by the fact that Jack is ill too, and Eden's condition has been saving him all these years, and he doesn't know about it or her at all. 

So why did this just not sit right with me you might be asking? Well, I didn't like Holly at all. She was a mom and that was her whole personality, on top of that she was self-absorbed too. Her children are the only people in the world, but she also kept everything from them. There was so much lying and deception throughout the book, that most of the plot conflicts could have been alleviated by her just telling them the truth, or something for that matter. I honestly couldn’t keep up with the lying and it was frustrating to feel like we weren’t getting anywhere for most of the book because of it.

I expected a twisted retelling, but Pan doesn’t make an appearance until the very end and the ending, while I won’t spoil it, was lack-luster and abrupt. On top of all that, there were SO many triggers in this book. BOTM added one about sexual assault, which was a big one, but there is rape as well, drug abuse, murder, thoughts of suicide, death of children, a lot of grief, physical and mental abuse as well. That is a lot for one book that was just meh.

Overall, I found Holly to be overbearing and kind of a bad mom when all was said and done. Her son Jack was a stereotypical annoying and angsty teenager. Jane, Holly’s mother, was also a bad mother, and another stereotype. In her case, the privileged, never there, upper-class mom. There was a PI named Chris that I wanted to be more involved in the story and I wanted more from the retelling portion to include him and really engrain him in the tale, but that didn’t happen either.

Overall, this one was not for me. It was sadly a disappointment.

Recent Reads: The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Publisher:William Morrow
Publication Date:  June 2, 2020

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Add on from BOTM

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

The bride ‧ The plus one ‧ The best man ‧ The wedding planner ‧ The bridesmaid ‧ The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

 

Trigger Warnings: Alcohol abuse, bullying, drug use, emotional abuse, sexual assault, self harm, suicide, eating disorder, murder, and infidelity. 

Review: 

Since this book came out I have been drawn to the concept, an island wedding, a body, a mystery and lots of secrets. I was happy to add it on one of my BOTM boxes and now to read it. It was a very interesting read. It is told from multiple POVs including: Jules, the bride; Hannah, the plus one of Jules best friend; Olivia, the bridesmaid and sister of Jules, Johnno, the best man, and the wedding planner, Aiofe. It is also told through snippets of the past and also the now. Though most of the now relates to the body and builds suspense about what happened and how. 

I really liked all of the flawed characters, and all of them were flawed. Jules is overachieving, a perfectionist, with parental issues. Olivia has her own trauma she is dealing with through self harm and what seems like an eating disorder. Hannah is anxious and nervous and generally uncomfrotable around the group and thinks that something is going on between her husband and Jules. Johnno has ghosts from secrets past and a drinking/drug problem that stems from them. Aiofe seems the most put together but she is also very mysterious throughout the book as she plans for Jules' wedding. 

The plot took a lot of build up, with all the POVs and the past/present alternations it was hard to get a grasp of what was to come and when. Even from the synopsis you know about a body, but whose and why, that is the whole story. It all comes together really well, but I didn't feel for the person that was mudered at all, they deserved it and I really liked the clarity of who had 'done it'. 

I found this to be a very fun read, but it was deep and dark and has a lot of triggers, so it might not be for everyone.

Recent Reads: The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James 
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date:  March 15, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: From Book of the Month

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect--a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.

Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases--a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea's surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she's not looking, and she could swear she's seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn't right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.

 Review: 


 

Recent Reads: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab 
Publisher: Tor Books 
Publication Date:  October 6, 2020

 

Format: Hardback, Physical Copy
Source: Bought as an Add-On from Book of the Month

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Review: 

This book has been on my to read pile for far too long. I have heard all the love for it and I enjoy Schwab's writing so I finally picked it up. I took my time reading it over the course of about a month and I adored this book.

Addie LaRue is about a woman that makes a deal with the dark and is cursed to live forever but no one will remember her, until one day there is someone that does. The story is told not only from different point of view but also merges the past and present, retelling Addie's life through the centuries building up to the present. 

I found this book to be poignant, lingering, and in a way ...wispy. It was beautufully composed and morally grey at times and it was wonderful. Schwab created a book without a big climax/ conflict instead focusing on passing relationships and falashbacks, all Addie' encounters and snippets of her time here on earth. The love/relationships/ regret/ saddness of this story is overwhelming and I think that will sit with me for years to come and not many books can say that. 

While reading this book, it felt just like Addie, like a fog through your fingertips, wispy and flighty but with purpose. 

Recent Reads: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham 

Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date:  January 11, 2022

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Book of the Month December 2021 Pick.

Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis: 

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?

In a debut novel that has already been optioned for a limited series by actress Emma Stone and sold to a dozen countries around the world, Stacy Willingham has created an unforgettable character in a spellbinding thriller that will appeal equally to fans of Gillian Flynn and Karin Slaughter.

Review: 

I am a fan of a good mystery and I feel like a lot of thrillers call into the mystery category as well... just with some amped up anxiety, so I decided to choose A Flicker in the Dark as my BOTM pick in December.

A Flicker in the Dark follows Chloe. When she was 12 her father was accused and jailed for the murder of 6 teenage girls in her town. Now 20 years later, murders that are feeling eerily similar are happening and they are too close for comfort. Chloe finds herself immursed and enthralled by the murders and embeds herself into the investigation. All well and good except she is also super paranoid and anxious about the killings and killer and can't really control the panic she is feeling. 

Chloe is an unreliable character throughout this book due to her anxiety and taking/ abusing medications to mediate it. She also has a number of trust issues stemming from the past, so all her friends and family seem to be suspect now. I didn't really like her attitude throughout the boo, or her abuse of her power to prescribe meds and take them - as a professional that it SO ethically NOPE that I am surprised she is a professional in this book. Espeically given that she had problems with medications before becoming a psychologist. 

I found the story to move a bit slow in the beginning and about half way thorugh it starts to take off with a whirlwind ending/ wrap up. Since Chloe was so anxious, I felt that she build this mystery into more of a thriller, she was all over the place, but her fears became the readers fears in some ways and there were some uncomfrotable moments. 

Overall, I was emotionally invested in this book, I was trying to figure out who-done-it and there were some good twists and guessing involved. I wouls have liked more from our main character but it was still an entertaining read. 

Recent Reads: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Publisher: Park Row
Publication Date:  March 2, 2021

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Book of the Month, add-on

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.

Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.

One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose - selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive. 

Review:

Such an interesting premise, an apothecary of the past and a modern woman who wants to learn more about her. The book is told in alternating timelines from multiple point of view. You have Nella and Eliza in the past and Caroline in the present, telling the tale about Nella's business and how it came to an end. 

Nella has taken to dispensing poison (as well as meds) to the women of London in the 18th century. Helping these women with revenge and ease their suffering. Caroline, in the modern timeline, is trying to ease her own suffering. She is visiting London on what should have been her 10 year anniversary, but before leaving she learned that her husband was cheating on her. In London, while Mudlarking, she comes across a vial and it sends her on the hunt for answers about who it belonged to. 

I had a lot of feelings while reading this book, I was so excited to hear Nella's or Eliza's story of the past, hear how they were helping the women of the city. I was not as connected to Caroline's story except for the fact that I thought her husband was an ass. He was so disrespectful of her wants, wishes, and overall, and narcissistic that I was so angry at him. 

Anywho - I liked the past POVs and story a lot. I liked the drama it caused and the history and the details throughout it. I thought that Caroline's story was interesting enough but not necessary, I would have been happy with just Nella being a serial killer using poisons. 

Overall, this was a good mystery, pieced together well enough. It was through provoking at times, clever, and dramatic. The cover of the books is GORGEOUS! and it includes some medicinal recipes/ teas in the back as well. If you don't mind a past/ present POV split, history with some mystery, this one might be for you.

Recent Reads: The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova 

Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date:  September 7, 2021

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Book of the Month - August 2021

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers.

Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Marimar, Rey, and Tatinelly’s daughter, Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orquídea’s line. Determined to save what’s left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, the four descendants travel to Ecuador—to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back. 

Review: 

The internet has been blowing up over this book for a few months now, and so I chose it as my BOTM pick in August and finally picked it up in December. The premise was a very interesting one - grandmother summons her kin to collect inheritance upon her...pending death. 

The book is told in alternative point of view as well as chapters that jump back and forth in time. We hear Orquidea's story as it is happening and as her family is piecing together the mystery of her life with their new magical inheritances. I enjoyed this read, but it was a little slow going. 

I found myself flying through the past-focus chapters and not really in tune with the modern day ones. I wanted more of Orquidea's story, I wanted more details about her life, the magic, her struggles and successes and so this book gets 4-stars for her. Her character was so interesting and her story was so fantastical. Her family was interesting and the magic that she passed on to them was cool but I felt like I didn't need that part of the story to understand it -- and I really didn't need multiple POVs in the modern timeline.

I understand why this book had so much hype - it was imaginative and the story was captivating. I would love to read more in this world and about the magic. 

Recent Reads: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood 

Series: The Love Hypothesis #1
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication Date:  September 14, 2021

 

Format: Hardback
Source: From Book of the Month.

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding... six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Review: 

I have really been enjoying rom coms lately and this one was so wonderful. Nerdy, fake-relationship, academia focused – all swoon worthy in my opinion. 

The book follows Olive as she throws herself at an unsuspecting passerby in order to convince her friend that she is dating… and that unsuspecting person was actually the grumpiest Professor in her department. Lucky for Olive, he doesn’t immediately report her to the college, but instead agrees to go along with her fake relationship. 

Olive is such a good representation of a Ph. D candidate (I have worked with a lot of them in my roles in academia). She is all over the place, tight on funds, tired, and just trying to move through her program at a somewhat normal pace. She is in the lab a lot and students around her are all anxious about their own programs and research being completed. I really liked Olive, she was fun and funny.

Adam, the grumpy professor, is also wonderful. He is moody and mysterious, and apparently hot but since he is an ass, no one really likes him. Olive is impressed to find out that he can be tolerable, and their banter and her smart-ass comments are life in this read. I loved their relationship build up, it was amusing and swoon-y. Although this started as a fake relationship, Olive was true to herself and who she was the whole time. She kept it real with Adam and that was refreshing. Adam was oblivious to how curmudgeonly he was and being with Olive really pulled him out of his shell. 

Overall, this was a fun, spunky rom com with a little spice. I really loved this read.