Huh, Squarespace has a new feature. A little lightning bolt icon that opens up Chat GPT functionality for AI-driven content creation. How quickly this technology has become absolutely pervasive. I’ve been using it here and there to help distill research and I definitely see the advantage. But ugh. I kind of dread wading through the coming flood of derivative genre novels (especially cosy mysteries!) that are no doubt being created as I type. There is quite enough dross in the world, thank you.
But that point actually takes me to something I’m quite pleased about this month. On more than one occasion, I started reading a book that I realized I was not enjoying and then – brace yourself – I stopped. Over the years, I’ve grudgingly slogged my way through many books that did not captivate my brain out of some weird sense of obligation. And I’m talking about books I was ostensibly reading for pleasure, not for school or work. When I ran into that experience this month, I had a little talk with myself. The book’s feelings are not going to be hurt, Frances. The author will never know, Frances. Just put the damn book down, Frances. So I did. So liberating!
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Speaking of which, I read the first part of this book (40 or 50 pages) and just could not get into it. First book of the month and I put it down. I have to laugh at myself for the enormous sense of pleasure this gives me.
Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards. If I was worried that my inability to concentrate on the previous book was due to some personal ennui or something, this book instantly cured me of that notion. A tense psychological thriller that should probably be made into a movie, this novel hooked me from the outset and kept me turning pages all the way through.
Beach Read by Emily Henry. Several pages into this, I was having a strange sense of deja vu. I became sure I’d already read it, but since I couldn’t really remember the plot I kept on. I enjoyed it just fine. I didn’t actually record what I thought of it the first time (the latter half of 2021 kind of slipped by), but I suspect I liked it fine then. Probably if I read it in another 18 months or so, I’ll feel the same.
November 9 by Colleen Hoover. Really good read. It’s a love story between a writer and a former child star who has given up acting due to a terrible injury. They meet for the first time on the day the young woman is set to move across the country. For plot reasons, they decide to meet up for one day each year for the next five years – with no communication in between. It’s a very unlikely premise, but the charm of the characters and the storytelling makes it easy to suspend disbelief and go with the flow.
The Dating Dare by Jayci Lee. For the first several pages, I somehow thought I was reading a novel by Jasmine Guillory and I was so disappointed. This is just so flat and formulaic, I thought. She’s lost her magic touch, I thought. Plot twist: that’s a whole different author of a whole different book also on my tablet but not the one I had opened. lolololol I’m so sorry, Ms Guillory! This book had potential to be a fizzy fun beach read: hot young brewmaster who runs a beer pub with her protective older brothers secretly hooks up at her best friend’s wedding with the brother-in-law of the new bride and secretly agrees to date him on a dare. But it was not fun and sadly short on charm. So, I stopped reading it a little over mid-way through. I just could not be arsed.
Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali. Starring two Muslim teenagers who meet by chance on Spring break, this story alternates between their two points of view as captured in their journals. Adam, a university student facing an illness alone and trying to be strong for his widowed father and young sister. Zayneb, an American teenager who gets angrier and more frustrated with each racist comment by her teacher, until she confronts him and ends up suspended. They meet in Doha where Adam grew up and where Zayneb is visiting her aunt. I think this is technically a YA novel, and it’s a great one. But the themes it deals with – ignorance, fear, overt and covert racism, loneliness – are universal. So moving.
Nightshade on Elm Street by Kate Collins. An easy, breezy cosy mystery. Just one big nit to pick with one character who is constantly spouting malapropisms that aren’t believable or funny. Was not enough to drive me away, but you’ve been warned Kate Collins.
Seeds of Deception by Sheila Connolly. Another DNF! This one because of the utterly unlikable main character and dumb dumb plot. The main character and her husband are newlyweds, and there is much mention of how everything went so fast that they didn’t have time to discuss finances, if they wanted children, etc. Then we find out they have been dating for two years! What. These two grown-ass “mature” adults are idiots. And then she repeatedly criticizes her parents’ marriage even as they’re in the middle of trying to solve a murder. Plus, casual racism. Blech.
All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover. Content warning for anyone who has had challenges conceiving or carrying a pregnancy. This is not an easy read on that score. But it was a good read, for sure.
While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory. Now THIS is Jasmine Guillory. She’s still got it! I love her well-rounded smart, sexy, deeply competent characters who nevertheless feel like real imperfect humans. They can be unreasonable, irrational. They go to therapy and know better, but sometimes get in their own way. Lots of fun. I also like how a secondary character in a previous novel – in this case Ben, brother of Theo and brother-in-law of Maggie – becomes one of the main characters in this one. I expect we’ll see him and his love interest, the famous and beautiful but down-to-Earth actress Anna Gardiner, show up as side characters down the road. Predicting we’ll see a book starring someone like her admin assistant next. Or – ooooh! – maybe one of their therapists. That would be fun. Sign me up.
