Happy Tuesday and my pick today is back to romance and it is one of the new releases that I read last week and there’s another coming up tomorrow in the quick reviews too.
Kalpana is planning the wedding of her dreams, or at least the wedding of her fiancé’s dreams. Marcus is a literary fiction superstar and Kalpana is a romance writer. He’s from old money and she’s the third generation of her family born in the UK but they’re in Sri Lanka with their wedding planner Sampath to plan the big traditional Sri Lankan wedding that Marcus wants – even though Kalpana isn’t sure those traditions feel right for her. Sampath is a great listener – and seems to hear what Kapana wants in a way that Marcus seems not to be.
I read it across less than twenty four hours over the weekend and it was a real treat. As you can tell from the title this is a love triangle type situation, but I don’t think this is going to ping anyone’s cheating monitor for reasons that I can’t really explain without it being a spoiler. As well as the romance, Charika is exploring feelings of identity and culture and also looking at the place of romance and commercial fiction in the bookish infrastructure all of which is right up my street. It also really made me want to visit Sri Lanka – it paints such a vivid picture of the future places they visit and the potential wedding venues.
My copy came from NetGalley but this came out last week and I’m not sure how easy the paperback will be to find but it’s on Kindle and Kobo for £1.99 at the moment as are some of Charika’s previous novels some of which I’ve written about here like Picture Perfect and Knowing Me, Knowing You.
Welcome to August everyone, all the usual start of the month stuff coming up over the next week or so. In the meantime, here’s the list from last week, which includes three of my Bristol purchases, three new releases (included one I mentioned in the Summer romance releases) and the last of the St Justs I hadn’t read which meant I could finally write that post on Friday! This week it’s meant to be hot and sticky again and I’ve got at least one theatre trip planned so we’ll see how all of that meshes with the reading list.
I’m exhausted. I’ve had a fabulous time at book conference, but I’ve spent a lot of time talking about reading, listening to talks about reading and buying books to read rather than actually reading. So this list is short and I’ve already caused myself a major problem for tomorrow by writing about American Fantasy last week. Past Verity causing problems for Future Verity once more.
Where to start. About six on the way to book conference and another nine at book conference. And I’m writing this before our day out in Bath where we intend to visit even more book shops.
Bonus picture: Our (there’s a trio of us) sale table at the delegate sale on Sunday. The right hand side (all the less valuable stuff!) is (mostly) mine. I didn’t sell it all, but I came home with less books than I took with me – even when you include the stuff I bought at conference. Result.
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
Yes, yes, yes. I finished this on Monday. But I would have finished it on Sunday if I hadn’t been watching the World Cup final and also reading Dimsie. It happens. Anyway, this is still relatively new (it came out mid-May) and as this peak summer holiday season (it’s the first week of the school holidays in a lot of places in the UK this week) this would also be a great book to read on your sunlounger.
So the plot: American Fantasy is a cruise ship, and for the duration of this cruise it’s going to be filled with fans of the 90s boyband Boy Talk, among them Annie. She was meant to be on the cruise with her sister, but after her sister broke her leg, she’s there alone. Annie is also newly divorced, newly empty nested and wondering what she’s doing on this cruise full of people who are clearly bigger fans than she is (or was). But with the help of her roommate, she starts to embrace the break from reality and the opportunity to re-examine her life as she takes a break on the sea. Also on board are said boyband, and when Annie accidentally connects with one of the members, it seems like there might be a whole new world out there .
I was expecting from the blurb that this could be a bit of a Romantic Comedy situation, but it keeps you guessing a bit more than that. We’re following the cruise from three points of view – Annie’s but also Sarah who works for the production company in charge of the boyband side of the cruise and Keith one of the members of the boyband. All the action takes place across the cruise and I’ve seen a lot of people saying that there isn’t a lot of plot or action. I’d disagree with that a bit – but I’d agree that a lot of what happens is internal to the characters. Annie’s situation I’ve already mentioned, but Sarah has just been dumped by her girlfriend and Keith is stuck in a bit of a rut in his life. Annie and Keith are doing the most reflecting on their lives, but Sarah is doing some too – along with providing the reader with a slightly different view point of the cruise and its attendees.
I’m a bit younger than Annie but I was a boyband teenager and so I really enjoyed reading about a fandom that’s been with a band for decades and is willing to shell out thousands of pounds/dollars to spend some time in proximity to them. I’m not that person – and Annie wouldn’t have been if her sister hadn’t wanted her to go, so I really felt this description of Annie as she waits to have her photo taken with the band:
Annie felt her heart rate increase. She wasn’t sweating anymore, she wasn’t hot, she wasn’t excited, exactly. It was the clickclickclick of a wooden roller coaster climbing to its first drop. Dread. It was one thing to be here—to admit to herself that this one group of men still mattered to her for whatever combination of reasons. Still, it was something else to actually meet them. Annie was comfortable with Boy Talk existing as an idea, a sort of inner party trick, like knitting or knowing something by heart. This was what she had known by heart for so many years, and hearts were meant to be kept inside.
Straub has talked about being a fan of New Kid on the Block and going on an NKotB cruise in the publicity tour for this book but contours of Boy Talk’s back story – one member of the band leaving and doing other things/becoming the break out success – is actually more similar to other bands – primarily N*Sync and Justin in the US but also Boyzone and Ronan, Take That and Robbie in the UK. I really enjoyed that Straub isn’t mocking the women for their fandom she’s leaning into it. There is some crazy in here, but it’s not about them having something that they are fans of. And that’s nice because liking boybands is often one of those things that’s framed as a guilty pleasure – like reading romance novels, or going to events for things that you like. I’ve certainly felt that.
I don’t think this is my favourite Emma Straub and I think what she’s trying to leave the reader with is more open-ended than I’m ever going to prefer, but it was a lovely reading experience and I only wish I’d been reading it on a sun lounger at the beach and not on the sofa and the train.
This is going to be super easy to find in shops – I’ve already seen it in several not just the time I mentioned in this post where I’ve reused the photo of the UK cover above from. I like the US cover better, which is why I used it at the top of the post and I think it is more reflective of the tone and genre of the novel that this one, but I wanted you to know what you’re looking out for. And of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo and in audio. My version came from NetGalley, even if I didn’t get to it before publication.
A rollercoaster week in many ways, ending late on Sunday night with extra time in the World Cup Final and me rereading a Dimsie book instead of something new. Who knows what I’ll write about tomorrow given that the two NetGalley books that I finished aren’t out for months, and there are a lot of later in series on the list too. Oh well, I’m sure it will come to me…
Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s due to be sweltering again today and it’s also the France v Spain semi final so I suspect nota lot of reading is going to be occurring. But I do have something from last week’s heat affected list to talk about.
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I’ve struggled with how to describe the plot of this because the blurb really doesn’t give anything away. So here is what the blurb says:
A woman is on trial for her life, accused of murder. The twelve members of the jury each carry their own secret burden of guilt and prejudice which could affect the outcome. In this extraordinary crime novel, we follow the trial through the eyes of the jurors as they hear the evidence and try to reach a unanimous verdict. Will they find the defendant guilty, or not guilty? And will the jurors’ decision be the correct one? Since its first publication in 1940, Verdict of Twelve has been widely hailed as a classic of British crime writing.
So as you can tell this is an unusual type of murder mystery. Postgate introduces you to each juror – their backgrounds and the things that might influence their opinions as they are sworn in, and then jumps to the events leading up to the crime (without telling you who did it) and then the trial itself.
This was originally published in 1940 and as the blurb says murder was still a capital crime, so the defendant’s life is in the hands of the jury. It’s really well written to give the reader plenty to think about as you’re reading the book and I found the ending really clever too. If I had one problem with it, it’s that in the Kindle edition I read, there seemed to be an element missing from the graphics in the deliberation section, but I need to go and look at a paperback copy to see if that’s an issue in those, or maybe even a deliberate thing. This actually came out nearly ten years ago, when the BLCC range was a lot smaller, and is one of the genuinely forgotten but deserving reprints.
It’s in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, which means that the only version you can get through Kobo is the audiobook one, and of course it’s also in paperback and is one I’ve seen fairly regularly in stores. You can buy it directly from the British Library in their store at the library on the online one where it’s only £8.99 and is also in their 3 for 2 deal. Bargain.
It’s so hard to concentrate in the heat isn’t it? And to sleep. And to do anything other than slump somewhere and drink cold drinks and moan about how hot it is. That was basically my week. Lots of time on hot trains not being able to thing about anything except how hot I was. This week is meant to be a bit cooler (please, please, please) but we’ve also got an England semi-final at the World Cup (which I’ll be missing at least part of) and then whatever comes next. Who knows what all that means for the list…
Yes I know, this is the least unexpected BotW pick since, oh I don’t know, the last time I previewed a new release book on the Thursday and then promptly had it on the read list on Monday. But in my defence, I do try not to do this and pick my previews accordingly – and indeed when I went back and checked this the last time it happened is more than a year ago with A Murder for Miss Hortense (but only because I spaced out reading Dolly All the Time, The Paris Match and Finders Keepers from their previews – mostly because those were paperback preorders and not *right there* on my Kindle tempting me). But although there were a lot of books out last week, this was the one I was most excited about given how much I loved Pineapple Street. And also one of those other books that was out last week was a second Miss Hortense book – and was trying not to repeat on that front too. Anyway, with that slightly defensive opening over, to the review:
Caroline has always wanted to be a writer and when she gets a year long writer’s fellowship, she gives up her job in publishing and moves to Greenhead, Massachusetts and the cottage that writer the fellowship is endowed for once lived in. In Greenhead she meets Van. Van is one of the locals – an outdoorsy, ecologist who is like a big friendly dog made human. Soon they’re seeing each other and and Van is including her with his group of friends – including Bailey, who he’s been falling into bed with ever since they were at school. Van’s friends aren’t overly pleased at the advent of this rival to Bailey, and this only gets worse when Bailey realises that she’s pregnant with Van’s child. She’s definitely only in their circle because Van wants her to be – and what she does when she’s not anymore throws everything in the group up in the air even more than her presence did in the first place.
The blurb doesn’t reveal what it is that Caroline does – and as it happens a long way into the book (I want to say after the 60 percent point) I’m not either because it’s a huge spoiler, but it’s totally delicious and turns what was already a really good read into something truly excellent. This is very much a rich people problems novel as well as the Greenhead group with their family summer homes and ski trips, Caroline’s mother is a hugely successful writer and there’s never any sense that Caroline’s finances are dependent on whatever she writes on the fellowship being a success and so she’s an outsider only in that she doesn’t know them, not so much in status or class. And so it’s all about relationships and drama on that front and even if people break up you know they’re going to be OK financially, even if they’re upset interpersonally.
All of which makes it exactly my sort of soapy, beach read and I absolutely devoured it, messaging various people as I went along with choice quotes and how much I was enjoying it. It would be a perfect sun lounger read – and I can see why it’s the July pick for Jenna’s book club* because it’s a summer read and I can see people having diverging views about it – and in fact if you look at the goodreads reviews you will see that! If you liked Pineapple Street (which obviously I did), I think you’ll like this. That was about Rich People Problems in Washington DC, this is about Rich People Problems on the coast. The relationships are dysfunctional – and apart from Caroline that’s because they all have so much history together – and do they even really have that much in common any more aside from that shared history? Read it and find out, if you like the same sort of books that I do (and maybe that’s why are you here?) then I don’t think you’ll regret it.
My copy came via NetGalley but I think this is going to be everywhere. Pineapple Street was, and as previously mentioned, this has been picked by one of the big US book clubs so I’m expecting this to be as everywhere as Pineapple Street, if not more so. And of course it’s also on Kindle and Kobo and in audiobook.
Happy Reading!
*Jenna is Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W Bush and presenter of the Today Show on which her book club is a feature.
Not going to lie, I’m really feeling it after getting up to watch the England match in the middle of the night and my brain’s not really working right now. So this might be a shorter than usual post because of the brain fade but basically the top line is that I finally finished a long runner and because I was writing the offers post I may have bought some things…
Happy Tuesday, it’s book of the week day again. and I think maybe the Deanna Raybourn was my favourite-favourite last week – but that’s the eighth in the series and the given that i’s nearly the end of June and thus the end of Pride month, it’s maybe fitting that the last BotW of the month is a queer romance.
Dream On, Ramona Riley is both a small town romance and a normal person and famous person one. When Ramona’s mum ran away, teenage Ramona helped her dad with her baby sister until Ramona left for college. Then when her dad was involved in an accident, she dropped out and gave up her dreams of a career in costume design to come home and help her family again. But now Olive is about to leave for college and Ramona’s best friend wants her to give up her job in the local diner and pursue her dreams again. And it just happens that this summer there is a big budget Hollywood rom-com coming to film in town, that might give Ramona the chance to kickstart her dreams. The only problem is that one of the stars of the movie is Dylan Monroe, the actress daughter of two 90s rock stars and also Ramona’s first kiss, one magical night back when she was a teenager, and now Ramona has to teach her to waitress and other Normal People things.
I realise that that seems like it’s already quite a lot of plot, but actually it really is just the set up and there’s loads more that happens after that and I’m not spoiling anything. This has got the same sort of witty dialogue that Ashley Herring Blake’s previous series Bright Falls has – and actually in a delightful crossover between the old series and the new, the movie that is being filmed is based on one of Iris’s books. It’s got a culture clash between the small town life and the famous people one, Dyland has got a lot of issues about her upbringing that she’s working her way through and the two heroines are keeping so many secrets from each other it’s a wonder they manage to sort it all out satisfactorily at the end, but they do, and I’m almost convinced that they’re going to manage to make it work despite their very different life experiences. It’s got quite a lot of sex scenes in it – more I think than the Bright Falls series and some language in them that I don’t love, but hey, each to their own, at least nothing was described as oozing or dripping…
I’ve already got the second in this series, Get Over It, April Evans, on the shelf after my trip to Gay’s the Word, whcih was actualyl the catalyst for reading the first one, and there is a third (and maybe final?) book in the series, Take a Chance, Sasha Sinclair, coming out in September, so you never know by the end of the year I may even have read the whole series! I definitely enjoyed this one enough that I won’t delay reading the next one too long.
I bought this in Saucy Books back at the end of last summer, but I’ve seen it in a bunch of other bookshops since then too. And it’s available on Kindle and Kobo too.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 