Sunday Skim

Week of 4/23/2023:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

Julie's Review: We Love to Entertain

Author: Sarah Strohmeyer
Series: None
Publication Date:  April 25, 2023
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Psychological Thriller
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Behind the scenes look at reality tv with a bent
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Holly and Robert Barron are attractive young real-estate investors and contestants in a competition run by To the Manor Build, the nation’s most popular home renovation app. With millions in product endorsements and online followers at stake, they’re rehabbing a Vermont home they scored at a bargain price into a chic hilltop estate ideal for entertaining. It’s all camera-ready laughs and debates over herringbone tile until Holly and Robert go missing hours after their picture-perfect wedding—leaving behind a bloody trail. Suspicion falls quickly on Erika Turnbull, the Barrons’ twenty-something assistant—eager, efficient, and secretly in love with Robert. Did Erika let her misguided passion turn her into a murderer? So claim the townsfolk of Snowden, Vermont, who still haven’t forgiven her for a tragic accident back in high school. But Erika’s mother, Kim, is not about to let small-town gossip and a cop with an axe to grind destroy her daughter—again. With time running out and their own lives at risk, the mother-daughter duo set out to find what really happened to the Barrons. First, though, they’ll have to confront the vengeful former owner of Holly and Robert’s estate, ruthless reality-show producers, and a secret that might bring their own house down. ~amazon.com 

Review: I do love a good HGTV show but I'm not really into home competition shows but Ms. Strohmeyer wrote one of my favorite books ever, Kindred Spirits, so I wanted to read her latest. Let me just start by saying I love reading books with unreliable and unlikable characters; We Love to Entertain fits. Holly and Robert are the golden couple of the home building competition, To the Manor Build, but are things what they seem? Are they really the "perfect" couple? Of course nothing is how it seems on tv. The story is told from Holly and Robert's assistant, Erika and her mom, the town clerk, Kim. 

Erika is a bit infatuated with Robert because honestly he's got charisma oozing out of his pores and how can you not like Holly who spins the made herself into something from nothing cliché. Plus for Erika, she's still spinning from an accident in high school that made her close herself off to everyone and there's not a lot of jobs in Snowden, CT. She's in charge of their schedules, plus organizing all the deliveries for the house. It's the day of their wedding though that changes everything for her and others in her orbit. 

Things quickly start to unravel for Erika and the show as Holly and Robert disappear. 

I loved the pace of this book and how things unfold in the 2nd 1/2 of the novel. I'll definitely be grabbing Ms. Strohmeyer next novel. 

Sunday Skim

Week of 4/16/2023:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

Julie's Review: The Aubrey Hepburn Estate

Author: Brenda Janowitz
Series: None
Publication Date:  April 18, 2023
Publisher: Graydon House
Pages: 368
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Bottom Line: Wasn't expecting the twist but as usual a great story
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: When Emma Jansen discovers that the grand Long Island estate where she grew up is set to be demolished, she can't help but return for one last visit. After all, it was a place filled with firsts: learning to ride a bike, sneaking a glass of champagne, falling in love. But once Emma arrives at the storied mansion, she can't ignore the more complicated memories. Because that's not exactly where Emma grew up. Her mother and father worked for the family that owned the estate, and they lived over the garage like Audrey Hepburn's character in the film Sabrina. Emma never felt fully accepted, except by the family's grandson, Henry—a former love—and by the driver’s son, Leo—her best friend. As plans for the property are put into motion and the three are together for the first time in over a decade, Emma finds herself caught between two worlds and two loves. And when the house reveals a shattering secret about her own family, she’ll have to decide what kind of life she really wants for herself now and who she wants to be in it. ~amazon.com 

Review: I've been a big Brenda Janowitz fan since reading The Dinner Party and her writing gets better with each book. How do you leave the past behind when it keeps coming into your present? Even more daunting how do you reconcile the past that is true with the past that you thought was your truth? Emma has very fond memories of growing up in a fancy estate where her parents helped to run the household. It's also where she fell in love with her childhood best friend, who was the grandson of the estate owners. Of course it isn't that easy since his grandfather and her mother forbade them from being together. What do you do when your other childhood best friend buys the property and wants to tear down the main house to build a housing community. She's not on board and even joins a local organization to stop Leo from building it. 

Emma is in quite the quandary with Leo and Henry. It is so easy for the 3 of them to fall back into the roles they had as teenagers. Except are these the roles they are supposed to be in as adults. Emma also has her own journey she needs to take part in and figure out who she is, who she wants to be and how she reconciles the past. 

What I loved about this story was the meaning of home and how it doesn't always have to be tied to a physical place. As someone who has fond memories of her childhood home, it is hard to let go of, even though you know the memories you made there are what counts. This is something that Emma has to learn as well. 

I liked the tie to Audrey Hepburn but it's definitely not what you think when you go into the book, which makes in better in my opinion. 

If you haven't read any of Ms. Janowitz' books, I highly suggest you go and read her back list or start with this one! 

Julie's Review; The Perfumist of Paris

Author: Alka Joshi
Series: The Jaipur Trilogy
Publication Date:  March 28, 2023
Publisher: MIRA
Pages: 359
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: My favorite of the series and that's saying a lot
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Paris, 1974. Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents. She has an exciting and challenging position working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her. Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage. ~amazon.com

Review: The Jaipur Trilogy has been one of my favorites over the past few years and the last installment, The Perfumist of Paris might just be my favorite of all of them. The sights, sounds and the smells that Ms. Joshi evokes in this novel are outstanding. Not to mention that she does a phenomenal job of describing Agra; she transports you there. I happen to think that Lakshmi is one of the strongest female characters I've read in a series because of what she endured, who she became and who she helps. Her sister Radha on the other hand, endured a hard childhood but was given some privileges because of her sister and she acts like it. Marrying into a rich Parisian family has it's advantages as well but also has it's disadvantages. Her husband Pierre isn't the most supportive of her quest to become a master perfumer or just her working at all. He truly feels that her place is at home with their 2 girls. 

When Radha gets the chance to design her own perfume, she jumps at it but it means going home to her sister and facing things in her past that she's never dealt with before. It is where he future collides with her past. It also causes Radha to grow up a bit and come into her own. It also helps her relationship with Lakshmi go into a different phase, as more equals instead of a more mother and daughter relationship. It puts them on more even ground. I loved how the courtesans are the ones who inspire her to find her passion and her scents for her perfume. 

If you haven't read any of this trilogy, you really must! I'm sad it's over but I can't wait to see what Ms. Joshi writes about next. 

Sunday Skim

Week of 4/9/2023:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

I have adored Mazey Edding's series A Brush With Love but I didn't connect as much with Indira  and Jude as I did with the previous romantic duos but it is still worth a read. She does a fantastic job highlighting mental health and those people that are neurodivergent. 

Sunday Skim

Week of 4/2/2023:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

I am off to a great start with books in April and it looks to be a great month for releases. I really have to learn not to request everything under the sun but it gets harder as you start finding more authors to love and read. 

Monthly Rewind - March 2023

 

* Denotes Audiobooks

Wow was March a great month for books! It does help that it's a longer month, I had a weekend in the woods with a friend and then time at an airport for a few days in New Mexico. 

Women are the Fiercest Creatures ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I Will Find You ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Comeback Summer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Georgie, All Along ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

* When We Had Wings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Loyalty ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

* Mercury Pictures Presents ⭐⭐⭐⭐

* Any Other Family ⭐⭐⭐⭐

London Seance Society ⭐⭐⭐⭐

*Friends, Lovers & the Big Terrible Thing ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Community Board ⭐⭐⭐

* Island Time ⭐⭐⭐

Sunday Skim

Week of 3/26/2023:

Finished:

Currently Reading:

Looking Forward To:

If you want to go on an adventure with a grandma and a young adult, then you can't miss Colleen Oakley's newest novel, The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise. It is hilarious, sweet and shows the importance of having friends of all ages. Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline is the mob book of mob books. I loved all the history and characters in this book. Plus you can't go wrong with a book set in Italy.