Day, A Novel, by Michel Cunningham. Heartbreaking Five stars.

After allowing myself a few weeks of fluff in the form of holiday romance novels, I was ready for a novel like Michael Cunningham’s Day in the same way I crave vegetables after binging cookies. They are not just delicious, they are good for you, and restore balance.

 

I feel privileged to have been allowed to read this novel. The writing was exquisite and masterful, as I expected. It is a quiet story of how a family of ordinary people, extraordinary only in their relationships with each other, lived in the ordinary landscape of Brooklyn, in April in 2019, and how those relationships and landscapes twisted, turned, and re-leveled in the next two years. There are eight characters who share point of view with the reader, though one is only an infant we communicate with by observation. The existentialism of the members of this family before COVID, and the way isolation took existentialism beyond the capacity for the characters to cope, whether that be with themselves, their children or mates, or their career choices reflects the emotions and mindset of many of us who survived 2020.

The discovery of these characters and their chosen paths is the joy of this novel, so I won’t go into detail. Themes of self-awareness, fluidity in sexuality, art and expression, spirituality, and the underlying questions of what is feminist, what is traditional, and what is simply human are dealt a gentle hand. It left me wanting to turn back to page one and read it all over again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy. Day will be released tomorrow, November 14, 2023.

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. Great Mystery!

 

Gothic romances have a few things in common that readers expect and return to the genre again and again to find. Rachel Hawkins understands this, and delivers in full with The Heiress. A happy couple, haunted by the past that they’ve run all the way to the Colorado Mountains to escape, a family mystery that sent them back, and a gorgeous southern manor filled with dysfunctional family.  A perfect kind of mystery you won’t want to put down.  Delighted to recommend this to my mystery and gothic loving friends. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.  The book releases on January 9, 2024. Happy New Year reading!

Second Chances in New Port Stephen 5* (Content warning: LGBTQIA issues remarkably well done.)

When Eli’s career as a TV writer blows up due to the bad acts of the star of the show he writes for, he decides to return home for the holidays. Many things have changed since Eli was in New Port Stephen, Florida. He’s no longer the stand-up comic he was when he left, he’s sober now, and most importantly to Eli, he’s completed his transition. Florida has changed too, threatening the very existence of people like Eli. 

 

 

 

But his family has not changed and will go to great lengths to show him the love they’ve always had for him, even though they are learning and make mistakes. And then he runs into Nick, his first love, his first lover and someone who is still as intriguing as he was in high school, before Eli transitioned.

The best thing about this book is the way it illustrates romance, falling and re-falling, in love. There is only enough attention to the same sex relationship as the author wants to share with the reader to assure empathy, and it is done so well. The reader is rooting for these two guys to make it, proving that in the hands of the right author, even in a romance novel, love is indeed love. Bravo to TJ Alexander.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Atria Books for the ARC of this wonderful story. The book will be released on December 5, 2023.

Highland Christmas by Amy Quick Parrish 3 stars

 

 

 

I was looking for something easy to read, having just read a couple of long, serious, books. It was time for a bit of brain candy. It’s also November and time to turn thoughts toward the Holidays. So, when I found Highland Christmas on my NetGalley shelf, I was delighted. Even though the book has been out for a year (Published October 25,2022) and has a sequel coming out next year (October 12,2024), it seemed to be just what I needed.

It was fine. The story of Melissa Mackenzie, whose philandering husband Dave (no last name…which is a detail I wanted) had thrown her out of her home after Thanksgiving dinner, so he can snuggle in with her brother’s ex, Samantha, after a quick Christmas trip to Barbados. Melissa is blindsided, but there doesn’t seem to be any grief, especially when the Prince of Nairobi…oh wait, it’s a long-lost uncle in Scotland who has left her a house in Inverness.

So, our Melissa drops everything, packs a bag, and books a flight.

The story goes on with Melissa makes the flight meets all sorts of wonderful, picturesque Scottish, people, finds the house she’s inherited, and not only moves in, renovates it, adopts a dog, and attends all the lovely celebrations of the village. All before Christmas.

While it is a sweet story, almost a fairy tale, the complete lack of detail about characters and complications frustrated me. I almost put it down, but realized there wasn’t that much left to read, as the book is only 128 pages long. I wish she’d had an editor to tell her that people want to know more about the characters … I originally thought Melissa was in her fifties or better, but later it seems she may be in her twenties. And while we got lots of local color, with descriptions of everything from the highland games to the taste of Haggis, we don’t really know much about how our characters feel. Shouldn’t Melissa be angry?  Or sad? 

I got what I was looking for though, a bit of literary candy. Just remember that candy isn’t very nourishing.

This was a NetGalley advanced reader copy. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Flying Cactus Publishing, for allowing me to read in exchange for this review.