Review: Seven Summers by Paige Toon

 

Title: Seven Summers

Author: Paige Toon

Published: 28th March 2024, Random House UK

Status: Read March 2024 courtesy Penguin UK/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

Seven Summers is a heart wrenching contemporary romance from Paige Toon about love, loss, family, and fate.

The summer Liv meets Finn, tragedy binds them, and then tears them apart. Liv’s life is in Cornwall where she tends bar, creates sculptures, and watches over her brother. Finn’s life is in LA where his career as a singer/songwriter is taking flight. Forced to part as the season turns, the lovers make a solemn vow, if they are both single when Finn returns a year from now, they will renew their romance, setting the scene for a love story seven years in the making.

Moving between the present day and the tumultuous events of the six previous summers, Seven Summers is an emotional journey that charts the course of Liv and Finn’s relationship. Toon elicits smiles as the couple make the most of the time they are together, and tears each time they part. Their romance is passionate, sweet, and all-consuming, and I was wholly invested in it. But eventually something has to change and when Liv meets Tom, she is forced to make a choice. To Toon’s credit, Liv and Tom’s relationship is equally as compelling, and ultimately as heartrending. It’s a unique twist on a love triangle trope that makes a statement about soul mates and second chances.

While Seven Summers is a romance at its core, it’s also much more than just that. In some ways it’s a coming of age story, as Liv is only just in her twenties when the story begins, and as a consequence of her loss, she gives up on her plans and becomes sort of stuck. With the immediacy of the first person perspective, the narrative is quite intimate so that the reader shares in Liv’s journey as she navigates her grief, guilt and yearning.

Poignant, wistful and hopeful, Seven Summers is another heartfelt novel that will give you all the feels.

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Review: Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

 

Title: Listen For the Lie

Author: Amy Tintera

Published: 14th March 2024, Bantam UK

Status: Read March 2024 courtesy Bantam/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

Lucy Chase murdered her best friend, at least that’s what everyone thinks, including the voice in Lucy’s head, even though she remembers nothing, and the police can’t prove it.

Listen For the Lie by Amy Tintera is a darkly hilarious mystery in which Lucy reluctantly returns to her hometown for her grandmothers birthday at the same time as a popular true crime podcaster, Ben Owens, decides to open an investigation in an effort to solve the five year old case.

Lucy is a fantastic character, and carries the book effortlessly with her first person narrative. I delighted in her acerbic wit and bold attitude. Not surprisingly, Lucy always has her guard up, except around her grandmother, who is equally outspoken. Their bond is a delight, and Beverley nearly steals every scene they share. It’s Beverley who convinces Lucy to cooperate with Ben.

Transcripts from the podcast are used to provide details about the crime, and the interviews reveal new pieces of the puzzle. The residents of Plumpton have plenty of secrets and I enjoyed how the mystery played out. It’s not a complex plot but there is plenty of drama and intrigue, and separating gossip from truth to determine what really happened the night Savannah was murdered is a challenge.

Despite all the humour Tintera does touch on serious issues including domestic violence, PTSD, and obsession. The tension develops well as Lucy and Ben grow closer to learning the truth, and there is an exciting and satisfying climax. Short chapters and snappy dialogue support the fast pace of the novel.

A fun, quirky and compulsive mystery, I found Listen For the Lie to be a delightful read.

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Review: Women of Good Fortune by Sophie Wan

Title: Women of Good Fortune

Author: Sophie Wan

Published: 3rd March 2024, Ultimo Press

Status: Read March 2024 courtesy Ultimo Press

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My Thoughts:

Women of Good Fortune is a fun and engaging debut from Sophie Wan.

In ten months former restaurant hostess Lulu is to marry one of Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor’s, it will be the event of the season, attended by everyone who is anyone. Lulu should be deliriously happy, or so her mother insists, but instead she is miserable and longs to escape. Her best friends are similarly unhappy with their lives, Rina is continually overlooked for promotion at work, and as such the pay rise she needs to in order to preserve her fertility, while Jane, convinced her appearance has doomed her to a life of mediocrity, desperately wants plastic surgery. When Jane floats the outrageous idea of stealing the generous cash gifts expected at the wedding as a solution to all of their woes, the temptation proves irresistible and the friends plan a daring heist.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Lulu, Jane and Rina, Women of Good Fortune unfolds over a period of about a year. As preparations for Lulu’s wedding continue under the dictatorial rule of her monstermother-in-law-to-be, the trio also work feverishly to devise a foolproof plan to get away with the cash.

The plans for the heist are pretty complex but it’s fun to see how the women go about solving each challenge, from enlisting the services of a counterfeiter, to flirting with the best man. I enjoyed the bursts of humour, and there are some tense moments too, with last minute complications threatening to ruin everything.

The three friends are interesting women, all quite different from each other. Lulu is the most sympathetic of the character’s, while Jane is probably the least likeable. The story is well grounded in its cultural setting, from the casual mentions of social touchstones, to the descriptions of traditions, yet Wan manages to communicate the universality of women’s experience as her protagonists grapple with their issues. Wan explores subjects such as the value of friendship, the management of family expectations, the desire for independence, and the importance of self worth, among others.

I found Women of Good Fortune to be an entertaining, smart and satisfying novel.

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Review: Someone Else’s Bucket List by Amy T. Matthews

 

Title: Someone Else’s Bucket List

Author: Amy T. Matthews

Published: 31st January 2024, Simon & Schuster

Status: Read February 2024 courtesy Simon & Schuster

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My Thoughts:

“My dying wish is for you to finish my bucket list. I refuse to die without knowing this list will be completed. And I refuse to die without knowing my family will be okay…”

Someone Else’s Bucket List by Amy T. Matthews is an unexpectedly delightful read given that it’s a story that revolves around grief and loss.

An extrovert who parlayed her love of adventure into a successful career as an influencer with millions of followers, Bree Boyd was the life of every party, and her younger sister Jodie feels her loss every day. At the Boyd’s first Thanksgiving dinner without Bree, they are stunned when her best friend, Claudia, shares an Instagram reel recorded before Bree’s death. In it Bree challenges Jodie to complete the last seven items on Bree’s unfinished bucket list, with the help of a corporate sponsor, and in doing so free their family from the crippling medical debt accrued during Bree’s treatment for Leukaemia.

Jodie’s first instinct is to refuse Bree’s request, unlike her sister, Jodie is shy and introverted, however the opportunity to clear the family’s debt, and her desire to honour her sister’s last wishes, means she can’t say no. The bucket list tasks are reasonably benign, for example – 17. Plant a tree…, 74. Perform a walk-on cameo in a Broadway musical…, 99. Fly over Antarctica…, but they take their toll on Jodie. Jodie inspires sympathy, and I really liked the thoughtful development of her character. While she slowly grows in self-confidence, becoming less critical of herself and requiring more of others, Jodie’s increased sense of self-worth is fragile, often resulting in a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ situation. This is particularly evident in Jodie’s romantic relationship with Kelly Wong.

Grief is the main theme of the book. Matthews writes with compassion for the complicated process of dealing with loss, and how that journey is different for everyone. But this is also a story about hope, courage and love, and there is a sincerity to the emotion in this story that I found wholly believable. The author also makes some subtle commentary about the positives and pitfalls of social media, the ethics of corporate sponsorship, and the disgrace that is the user-pays American healthcare system.

Thoughtful, entertaining and poignant, Someone Else’s Bucket List really tugged at my heartstrings, I laughed, and teared up, I mourned and I celebrated.

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Bookshelf Bounty

Every third Sunday of the month (or so)  I share my Bookshelf Bounty – what’s been added to my TBR tile recently for review from publishers, purchases or gifts.

This month I’m linking up with Mailbox Monday

Click on the cover images to view at Goodreads

For Review 

(My thanks to the respective publishers)

 

Review: The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County by Claire Swinarski

Title: The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

Author: Claire Swinarski

Published: 12th March 2024, Avon

Status: Read February 2024 courtesy HarperCollins/Edelweiss 

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My Thoughts:

Esther Larson is embarrassed when her family discovers that she has been fooled by an online scammer with a sob story to whom she’s given almost her entire savings and that now the bank is threatening to foreclose on her lakeside home. Esther’s granddaughter, Iris, is horrified by the possibility of her grandmother’s loss, and is determined to stop it happening. Inspiration comes from an unlikely source, the son of celebrity chef Ivan Welsh, who is staying in Iris’s Air B&B with his father and younger sister. Well known for her tasty cooking as a member of the ‘funeral ladies’, a group of women who have been providing food for funerals for decades, Iris thinks a cookbook containing recipes from Esther and her friends would sell well enough to raise the money needed.

I took a chance on The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County expecting a lighthearted family drama, with recipes included as a bonus, but that’s not quite the story Claire Swinarski has written. I would have been content if the story had remained focused on Esther, her friends, and the cookbook, but instead Iris, and the troubled Cooper Welsh, take centre stage. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just not what I was looking for.

If I look past that disappointment, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County was an engaging read. There is warmth, gentle humour, and heart as Esther’s family, friends and community rallies around her, but Swinarski also stirs up a lot of emotion exploring challenging topics including PTSD, grief, intimate violence, and family dysfunction. I admired the realistic and sensitive way the author had her characters deal with these issues, and I particularly found the connection between Esther’s marriage, and Iris and Conner’s relationship to be a poignant element. However in what is a reasonably short book at under 300 pages, Connor’s, and his family’s, issues certainly felt as if they dominated the storyline.

Just as a note disappointingly my ARC included only a single recipe for pie crust, I certainly hope that the published copy contains more.

Despite my thwarted expectations, I did like The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County, and if you favour lots of family drama in a small town setting I’m sure you will too.

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Review: What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan

 

Title: What Happened To Nina?

Author: Dervla McTiernan

Published: 5th March 2024, HarperCollins Australia

Status: Read February 2024 courtesy HarperCollins/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

What Happened to Nina? is a stand alone mystery from bestselling Irish born Australian based author, Dervla McTiernan.

When Leanne Foster discovers that her daughter’s boyfriend has returned home from a week’s getaway the couple took at his family’s rural retreat, she’s puzzled. Having not heard from Nina, Leanne and her husband try to speak with Simon Jordan, only to be stonewalled by his parents who advise them that the couple broke up and their son has no idea where where Nina could be, before shutting the door on them. It’s the same story, more or less, that Simon gives Detective Matthew Wright who is assigned to investigate after the Foster’s report their daughter as a missing person, but to Nina’s parents it just doesn’t make sense.

Unfolding from multiple points of view, it is the aftermath, rather than the crime itself that is the focus of What Happened to Nina? Desperate to find their missing daughter the Foster’s are willing to risk anything for answers. Meanwhile Simon’s wealthy parents go to extraordinary lengths to protect their son from any suggestion of wrongdoing. I really liked how McTiernan represented the perspectives of the parents, particularly the mother’s, both of whom are faced with the unthinkable.

To be honest though the plot as a whole feels sort of derivative. McTiernan seems to have been heavily inspired by the real-life case involving the murder of Gabby Petito, not only with regards to the facts of the crime, but also the involvement of social media and its impact on the investigation. Had I been less familiar with the case I think I would have found the story more absorbing. That said, the twist at the end was hugely redeeming.

Though there were elements of What Happened to Nina? that I was impressed by, overall I found it underwhelming. A good read, just not a great read.

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Review: Servo by David Goodwin

 

Title: Servo: Tales from the Graveyard Shift

Author: David Goodwin

Published: 28th February 2024, Hachette

Status: Read February 2024 courtesy Hachette Australia

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My Thoughts:

I worked part time in a servo (gas station for US readers) during my last year or so of high school. I got the job because I spent hours there after school and on the weekend hanging out with my boyfriend (now husband) who worked there part time while he was at university. It was the very early 90’s, and it was still an actual service station in that we were supposed to offer to fill the tank, check the oil, and clean the windscreen of our customers when there was two of us on shift. In practice we only did this for patrons of a certain age and/or socioeconomic bracket, or those that insisted. We were busy, being on a main road, but we were also one of several a few hundred meters apart in a fairly affluent suburb, and though we had an on-site mechanic and a car wash, our shop was small offering little more than the basics – cold drinks, ice creams, cigarettes, newspapers and snacks. That’s not to say we didn’t attract drama. As in any retail job, customers ranged from the indifferent, to the weird, to the hostile. There was a popular pub and drive thru across the road and we had more than one drunk stumble in, especially on the weekends when we were open until midnight. The occasional brawl broke out on the forecourt, a handful of drive-offs, and there was at least one attempted hold up (not on my shift thankfully). Most memorably for me, during a petrol shortage with cars queuing down the street, anger and desperation resulted in a man becoming pinned between two cars at the bowser, that was a hell of a day.

All this is to say that David Goodwin’s memoir, Servo, sent me wandering down memory lane. My experience wasn’t near as fraught as his own, it certainly didn’t trigger an existential crisis, a drawn out drug binge, or stomach ulcers, but there was a lot about his job I could personally relate to. Anyone with retail experience however will likely be familiar with many of the situations David finds himself in.

I found myself nodding in recognition as Goodwin described the mundane routines of his job, and I often laughed out loud at the idiosyncrasies of his colleagues and customers. The sheer lunacy of the ‘gumbleton’s’ David regularly encounters is quite something, but I believed every word. People are strange, especially those that wander into servo’s in the small hours.

Servo is also in part the story of David’s coming-of-age from a shy, sheltered young adult to someone more confident and streetwise. The job took its toll both physically and mentally on him however, and he confesses the ways in which he tried to cope with its stresses.

The writing is articulate and animated, and Goodwin relates his experience in a personable, confiding tone. His descriptions, especially of the people he encounters, are vivid and memorable.

Told with humour, pathos and candour, I found Servo to be a highly entertaining read. Remember to offer the console operator a friendly smile next time you pay for your petrol.

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Available from Hachette Australia

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Review: All the Words We Know by Bruce Nash

 

Title: All the Words We Know

Author: Bruce Nash

Published: 27th February 2024, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read February 2024 courtesy Allen & Unwin/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

Told from the perspective of Rose, an elderly woman with dementia, All the Words We Know is an unusual literary mystery.

When Rose learns her Scrabble partner has fallen to her death, she is sure that it is no accident but can’t quite recall why. It has something to do with the golden Scare Manager and the Angry Nurse, and perhaps her son’s dirty bottom and the password he needs. To make sense of what is wrong, Rose must sort through the present and the past, the understood and the unknown, the remembered and forgotten.

With a clever use of language, Nash draws the reader into Rose’s world as she roams the halls of the aged care facility. The narrative is surprisingly playful, humour deftly tempers the sharp-edged pangs of loss and frustration. Muddled words and puns add a layer of lightness, even absurdity at times. Moments of lucidity fade into the labyrinth of forgetting, so that parts of the narrative feel circular, but Rose slowly makes progress. We get glimpses of the truth that Rose is searching for, but as an unreliable narrator, it’s often as murky for us as it is for her.

I admire what Nash has accomplished with this unique novel. All the Words We Know, is clever, poignant, and entertaining.

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Available from Allen & Unwin

RRP AUD$32.99

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Bookshelf Bounty

Every third Sunday of the month I share my Bookshelf Bounty – what’s been added to my TBR tile recently for review from publishers, purchases or gifts.

This month I’m linking up with Mailbox Monday

Click on the cover images to view at Goodreads

For Review 

(My thanks to the respective publishers)