Review: The Second Home (by Christina Clancy)

My Rating: 4 stars

Drawing on her own family's summers spent on Cape Cod during her youth, author Christina Clancy's debut novel The Second Home tells the story of the Gordon family and what happens one fateful summer during their Cape Cod trip that ends up changing the dynamic of their family forever.

Every year during their months-long break from their jobs as teachers in their hometown of Wisconsin, Ed and Connie Gordon like to take their two teenage daughters Ann and Poppy to spend the summer at their beloved vacation home on Cape Cod — a house that has been in the family for generations.  The summer of 2000 marks the second year that the Gordons are accompanied to Cape Cod by Michael, the teenager they adopted after his mother's death the previous year.  At first, the trip starts off like it does every summer, with the family enjoying all the fun and leisure that a vacation on the Cape has to offer.  Not long into their stay, Ann — the 'always serious, never without a plan' older daughter — lines up a babysitting job with The Shaws, a wealthy family also spending their summer on the Cape.  Meanwhile, Poppy — the free-spirited younger daughter — spends most of her time at the beach, where she hangs out with a group of surfers she just met.  And Michael, still unable to believe how incredibly lucky he is to be accepted and loved so whole-heartedly by the Gordons, is perfectly content spending time with Ed and Connie in the Cape Cod house that he has come to love. Unfortunately, the family's usually happy summer soon takes a turn for the worse when Ann becomes involved in a situation that not only upends her life and drives a rift into her relationship with both Poppy and Michael, it also destroys the underlying fabric of their family forever.

This is one of those books that left me feeling conflicted after I finished reading it.  While there was so much I liked about the book — the engaging story, the descriptive writing, the atmospheric and beautifully depicted setting, the themes I resonated with — the main thing that prevented me from loving this one were the characters.  Of course, I hated the character of Anthony Shaw like pretty much anyone reading this story would — it's to be expected given his loathsome actions, plus he is the obvious "villain" in the story.  What I didn't expect was that I would dislike Ann — the main protagonist— as much as I ended up doing.  As a character, Ann frustrated me to no end.  Yes, her self-absorbed, pretentious, arrogant personality was annoying, but what frustrated me the most was her continued haughtiness and pettiness even after she got herself into the predicament that upended her own life and the lives of others — it made my blood boil the way she would be jealous of her siblings and begrudge them for living their lives on their own terms rather than staying behind to help her clean up the mess she made of her own life. Some may argue that she was young and naive, which ok, perhaps makes her behavior excusable at 17 years old, but how about 16 years later when she is in her thirties and still behaving the same way?  It made it really hard for me to feel even an ounce of sympathy for her despite what she went through (and I'm pretty sure I'm probably the only who feels this way, which is fine).

Despite my strong reaction and the obvious frustration I had with some of the characters, I liked everything else about this book well enough overall for me to still recommend it as a worthy read.   In fact, this one ended up being quite a page-turner for me, a story I was so absorbed in that, if I didn't have to get up early for work, I very well could've finished in one sitting.   

Received e-ARC from NetGalley and paper ARC directly from publisher St. Martin's Press.

Review: The Last Train to Key West (by Chanel Cleeton)

My Rating:  4.5 stars

Chanel Cleeton is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  I read her two previous historical fiction novels (Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba) both of which revolved around the Perez family from Cuba, and absolutely loved both books!   After finding out last year that Cleeton would have a new book out some time in 2020, I knew that I definitely had to get my hands on a copy as soon as it became available.  Her newest work, The Last Train to Key West, is a bit of a departure from her previous works in that it isn’t connected (not directly anyway) to the same Perez family, plus the story is markedly different in its depiction of a specific historical event that occurred over Labor Day weekend in 1935 — the devastating hurricane that struck the Florida Keys, one of the deadliest in the history of the United States.  With that said though, one similarity that threads through all 3 of Cleeton’s historical works is that they all feature strong female protagonists who rise above the restrictions placed upon them by society — not only that, but the characters are written in a non-stereotypical yet realistic way that makes them more relatable.   

In this book, the story is told from the perspectives of 3 women whose backgrounds and personalities are very different, but who happen to cross paths when they are simultaneously impacted by the storm and its deadly aftermath.  Helen, a pregnant waitress working at a local diner in the Key West area where she grew up, yearns to escape the abusive marriage she has been trapped in for 9 years.  Mirta, who agreed to an arranged marriage in order to help out her family back in Cuba, is determined to know the man she married as she arrives in Key West with him for their honeymoon.  Elizabeth, a once-wealthy debutante whose family fell from grace after the Wall Street crash, travels from her home in New York to the Great War veteran camps in Key West with the hope of finding the relative whom she believes can save her from her current predicament.  Though the narrative was told from the alternating first person viewpoints of these 3 characters, their voices were distinctive, which is important because this type of structure is not easy to get right on a consistent basis. Chanel Cleeton is one of the authors who does this well — in addition, Cleeton writes in a way that captivates and draws the reader in, which is another reason why I enjoy her books.

I actually devoured this one in 2 sittings and even then, didn’t want the story to end.  I definitely recommend picking this one up, whether for the absorbing story or the strong characters.  Cleeton is an author who doesn’t disappoint and I truly look forward to what she has in store for us next!

Received ARC from Berkley via Edelweiss.

Review: 28 Summers (by Elin Hilderbrand)

My Rating: 4 stars

When I picked this book up at first, I honestly wasn't expecting to like it much.  No, it wasn't really because of the premise (which of course I can understand why would be a deal-breaker for some readers), but rather, in general, I'm just not a fan of contemporary romance novels (a genre which this book definitely falls into).  But after reading the summary, I was curious about the Same Time, Next Year-inspired story and how the author, Elin Hilderbrand, would pull it off.  So I decided to go into this one with an open mind and see where it would lead me (plus I had never read this author before despite hearing so much about her works, so when it came up as one of the recommended works on my book club's summer reading list, I figured this would be as good a time as any to try reading this). As it turns out, I surprised myself with how much I ended up liking this one.  For me, the beauty of this story was in the execution and the surprising amount of depth to the plot that I actually was not expecting.  On the surface, this is a story about a love affair between Jake McCloud and Mallory Blessing — one Labor Day weekend in 1993, the two of them are brought together when Mallory hosts a bachelor party for her brother Cooper at the beachfront Nantucket cottage that she had inherited from her aunt.  The party ends up being a bust, but Jake and Mallory develop a close bond and by the end of that weekend, they decide that they will get together on the same weekend each year, similar to what the characters in the movie Same Time Next Year (which they watched together that weekend) do.  Their arrangement endures for 28 years — through marriage, children, career changes, family complications, etc. — until the summer that Mallory finds out she is dying.

At first I was worried that the story would be repetitious, especially when I saw that the structure of the book was divided into 28 chapters — one for each year — which I assumed would mean that we would essentially be reading 28 different variations of the one long weekend that Jake and Mallory spend together.   It turns out that I was completely wrong — while the love affair was indeed the central force that drove the plot, it didn't overwhelm the story at all. Instead, we get an in-depth exploration into the different facets of both Mallory's and Jake's lives, but not only that, there are also the emotional implications of their relationship and how it impacts both themselves as well as those around them.   In addition to also exploring the various nuances of love, the story also tackles the complexities of relationships mixed with the challenges of life — inevitably, it also raises the question of morality in terms of the affair, but instead of answering the question and risk veering into the "preachy" territory, Hilderbrand lets the reader decide for themselves what reaction they choose to have to the story and the characters.

Given the premise, there will undoubtedly be sections that are uncomfortable to read for some — moreover, the basis of the story being about an illicit love affair may also be a turn off for others...if it bothers you, I would recommend not picking this one up at all. Personally, I appreciated the way Hilderbrand approached the story, as well as the way she wrote the characters — I really felt for Mallory in her struggle with her feelings for Jake, while at the same time, I loved her personality, especially her sense of humor.  As for Jake — I know technically I should've hated him, but I honestly couldn't bring myself to do so.

Lastly, it's impossible to talk about this book without touching on its narrative structure. Regarding the unique format of starting each chapter with various current events and pop culture moments from that year, I must say that this was my absolute favorite part of the book!  It was like taking a trip down memory lane and for me, it definitely enhanced the reading experience.  I also liked that we got to hear from the perspectives of not just Mallory and Jake, but also most of the other characters as well — this helped to make the characters more realistic and personable.  

Hilderbrand is known for her picturesque descriptions of Nantucket, where she sets most of her novels, and this book, her newest work, is certainly no exception.  Her depictions of Mallory's Nantucket cottage and its surrounding community were so atmospheric that I absolutely felt transported, so much so that I actually put Nantucket down as a place I would love to visit someday!  While I'm definitely looking forward to Hilderbrand's next book, I'm hoping to be able to explore her extensive backlist at some point in the future!  

Review: That Summer in Maine (by Brianna Wolfson)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

One of the things I remember most about Brianna Wolfson’s debut novel Rosie-Colored Glasses, which I had read back in 2018, was how emotionally resonant the book was for me.  At the time, it was one of my favorite reads of the year (one that I rated 5 stars of course) and, more significantly, it was one of the few books that actually brought tears to my eyes as I was reading.  There were so many things I loved about that book – the story, the characters, and most memorable for me, the lyrical writing that made the story flow so beautifully. 

Given that experience, it should come as no surprise that when I heard Wolfson would have a new book out this summer, aptly titled That Summer in Maine, I was ecstatic and knew right away that I had to get my hands on a copy as soon as possible.  Of course, this also meant that I went into this book with very high expectations, to the point that I automatically assumed that I would love this one as much as I did her debut.  Unfortunately, this was not the case, and in the end, it fell quite a bit short of expectations for me.  While Wolfson’s second book was written in mostly the same lyrical style that had captivated me in her debut – plus it covered the same theme of flawed families as well as the bond between mothers and daughters --  everything else felt so different this time around.  Not only did I find it difficult to get into the story this time (it took me until close to the halfway mark before I felt pulled in), I also didn’t feel anything for the characters, which really surprised me.   I had loved the characters in Rosie-Colored Glasses so much that, when I had gotten to the end of that story, I didn’t feel ready to let them go yet.  With That Summer in Maine, I actually felt annoyed with the characters for majority of the story.   Perhaps it was the inconsistency in the way the characters were portrayed -- Hazel and Eve were supposed to be 16-year-old teenagers, yet throughout most of the first half of the story, Hazel’s actions and behavior made her come across like a much younger child, while the descriptions of Eve in the second half made it seem like she could pass for someone much older, perhaps a young adult even.  The unevenness of the characters’ portrayals from one section to another was a bit jarring, which definitely affected the flow of the story for me.  Also, using the format of writing letters to recount Jane’s and Susie’s experiences with Silas during that fateful summer, while it made sense based on their story taking place in the past, the writing style felt a bit out of place with the rest of the narrative, almost like I was reading two different books.  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but Wolfson has a unique writing style that was one of the key aspects of why I adored her debut novel as much as I did, so the contrast in style with those segments was particularly felt.

While the story and characters didn’t really appeal to me this time around, one of the things I appreciated was the depth with which Wolfson depicted the characters’ struggles in dealing with the complex family dynamics at the center of this particular story.  The idea of two families from completely different walks of life, previously unknown to each other, discovering the truth of their connection via two daughters born from two different affairs with the same man – it’s a pretty complicated premise that Wolfson handled well in the overall scheme of things.

Though this one didn’t quite live up to my expectations, especially compared to this author’s debut novel, it was still a good read overall – basically, this was a book that I liked well enough, but didn’t love.  With that said, I still look forward to reading Wolfson’s next work, though I probably should be more cautious about not going in with high expectations next time.

Received ARC from MIRA / Harlequin via NetGalley.

Review: The Wife Who Knew Too Much (by Michele Campbell)



My Rating:  2 stars



This is the third book I've read by author Michele Campbell and the second one that I've disliked strongly enough to give it only 2 stars (and still feel like I'm being too generous).   

Last year, when I read Campbell's A Stranger on the Beach, the two biggest issues I had with the book were the badly executed story line as well as the frustratingly cliched and unrealistically written characters.  In my review of that book, I remember writing how much I loathed the characters (especially the main protagonist Caroline), whose actions and behavior would get more ridiculous and outrageous the more the story progressed.  Unfortunately, Campbell's newly released fourth novel The Wife Who Knew Too Much was plagued by pretty much the same issues as her previous book — the execution was poor and the characters were absolutely loathsome.  Actually, in my opinion, the characters in this story — especially the main character Tabitha — were way worse....I disliked most of them from the very first page.  Its not often that I react in such a negative manner to characters in a fictional story, but Tabitha truly did get on my nerves.  Perhaps I'm tired of reading about middle-aged women who are immature and childish and come across like petulant teenagers, or who are portrayed as naive and overly emotional and incapable of thinking rationally.  Tabitha is the type of character I can't stand — indecisive, foolish, immature — throughout the entire story, she knowingly makes poor choices over and over (and over and over and over) again, and if that's not bad enough, whenever things go south because of those choices, the main reaction is to whine and cry and beat herself up for being foolish (the word "stupid" is more appropriate but a bit too harsh)...then, instead of learning from her mistakes and trying to fix them, she pushes all rational thought away and dives headfirst back into the foolishness that had gotten her burned in the first place.  It's hard to dislike a character so much that you end up having zero sympathy for them as well as not caring one bit what happens to them, but that's definitely how I felt about Tabitha (and all the characters in this story, for that matter).  Don't get me wrong — I have no problems with flawed characters, as those flaws are usually what makes characters realistic, but the characters in this story were beyond flawed...Tabitha, Connor, Nina, and  just about every other character in here were so cliched and stereotypically drawn that they essentially became caricatures.

Aside from the characters, the other thing that annoyed me was the plot, which I found to be ridiculously contrived from beginning to end.  It's one thing for a plot to be predictable, but entirely another when it veers into "outlandish" territory, to the point that I have to suspend disbelief every step of the way.  Barely halfway through the story, I got so annoyed that I started skimming through to the end, which I'm glad I did because I know if I had read it word for word, I probably would've thrown my Kindle across the room in frustration. The writing itself was also a problem for me, as it felt very elementary and clunky, plus the fact that, as the main character, Tabitha narrated the story from her first person point of view made it so much worse, as I got fed up hearing her go back and forth trying to rationalize every dumb decision she made.  

After 2 books in a row that left a bad taste in my mouth, I think I'm officially done with this author, at least for now.  With that said though, I don't want to discourage anyone from reading this if they so choose, as not everyone will have the same negative experience I did. So definitely check out other reviews first before deciding.

Received ARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley

Review: Sea Wife (by Amity Gaige)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

I'm a bit torn with my feelings toward this book. On the one hand, it was a really good story, well-written and atmospheric, with a unique narrative structure that alternates between the first person perspective of Juliet Partlow (the "sea wife" from the title) and that of her husband Michael through his captain's logbook. After buying a sailboat, Michael decides to quit his job as an insurance agent and convinces his wife Juliet, along with their 2 young kids Sybil (7 years old) and George (2 years old), to accompany him on a year-long sailing trip to Panama. Their journey is a harrowing one, made even more difficult by the fact that both Michael and Juliet are novice sailors, mostly learning as they go. As they head out on their journey, Michael and Juliet soon realize that navigating the tumultuous seas is just one of the challenges they must face, as some of the underlying issues that had already put their marriage in a precarious position prior to the trip begin to gradually surface. Through Juliet's reflections after the trip, supplemented by Michael's recollection of events through the log he kept during the journey, a complex picture emerges that provides deeper insight into not just their present situation but also their pasts. The story itself covers quite a bit in terms of themes — from the bonds of family to the complications of societal relationships, from strength built upon love to resilience in the face of adversity, there was definitely much to reflect upon here.

As I said earlier, this was a good story overall, well-crafted with realistic characters and an interesting premise. The mystery portion, as it pertained to the events that unfolded on the trip leading to the revelation of what happened to Michael, while not the main focus, was pretty well done. There was an ominous tone that permeated most of the story, a sense that something had to have gone terribly wrong on the trip, but we (the readers) won't find out what happened until the time was right to reveal it. The structure was effective, though it also naturally lent itself to a "slow-burn" narrative where bits of context were revealed gradually, bit by bit, and not always in a straightforward manner.

While I did like the story well enough as a whole, one thing that didn't really work for me were the elaborate descriptions of the various aspects of sailing, including loads of terminology and other technical stuff that, quite frankly, went way over my head. This bogged down parts of the story for me, and in some instances, broke the flow of my reading, which was definitely frustrating. Also, the sections that had a political bent to them confused me a bit, as I wasn't expecting politics to play a role here, for one, and two, a lot of the political stuff that came up didn't feel like it had anything to do with the rest of the story — for example, a discussion the characters would be having about parenting would suddenly veer into a drunken rant about capitalism and immigration policies (that's just one example — there were other references to politics that I picked up on scattered throughout the story). I usually get annoyed when a book I'm reading veers into political territory unexpectedly (it's a pet peeve of mine), especially when it has little to nothing to do with the story — in this instance, it definitely affected my reading experience, though luckily the rest of the story was compelling enough that it didn't completely overwhelm.

I'm glad I picked this one up and it was a good read for the most part, but unfortunately I don't think I was able to appreciate the "depth" of the story as much as I usually would have. Perhaps it is because of everything that has been going on in the world lately (plus the added stress overall in my work and family life), I've been finding it a bit of a struggle to read books that lean more toward the "heavy" side of things. But with that said, I'm grateful that I'm able to read at all during this unprecedented time, so if I'm not able to give a book 100% focus or the attention it deserves at the moment, I will try not to beat myself up too hard over it.