Julie's Review: Women are the Fiercest Creatures

Author: Andrea Dunlop
Series: None
Publication Date:  March 7, 2023
Publisher: Zibby Books
Pages: 272
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: The title says it all about this outstanding novel
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Summary: Anna Sarnoff is still reeling from her quickie divorce from tech wunderkind Jake Sarnoff. Forced out of the company that she helped Jake build, Anna is trying to pick up the pieces of her life, navigating the waters of solo parenting their two teenage boys and adapting to her new role of ex-wife. To make things more complicated, Jake seems to want her back…and his persuasiveness tempts her to say yes. Across town, the brilliant and striking Samanta Flores-Walsh, Jake’s college girlfriend, is busy raising her teenage daughter and running her thriving yoga studio. Although their relationship ended years ago, unanswered questions from their time together gnaw at her, and when she learns that Jake is planning to take his billion-dollar company public, she starts to wonder if perhaps it isn’t too late for justice. Finally, there’s Jake’s much younger new wife, Jessica, who’s struggling to stay afloat as a new mom while her high-profile husband grows increasingly distant. Set in the wealthy enclaves of Seattle’s tech elite, the lives of these three women grow entangled as long-held secrets are forced to the surface, threatening to destroy their families. Written with razor-sharp intelligence and heart, Women Are the Fiercest Creatures is a searing look at the complexities of family and the obstacles women navigate in every aspect of their existence. ~amazon.com 

Review: We are all guilty of it, not celebrating other women and their achievements. Somehow we've been taught that we are all in competition with each other but we all have different paths. Sometimes we do things to hold onto something we think is ours, even though the ripples will be felt for years by others. Women Are the Fiercest Creatures is the story of 3 women who are all connected to each other through one man. One very selfish & narcissitic man who plays them off each other without any of them knowing. Sam and Anna are the real narrators for the story and we get to know Jessica through their eyes and interactions. 

Usually when there is a novel that involves more than one female character, I find myself identifying with one but not all but what makes this one unique is that I saw a bit of myself in each of them. I felt the worst for Jessica though because she was really alone and had no one to turn too. I loved how the other 2 women stepped in to help her even with their complicated backgrounds. 

While the story seems like it is about Jake and their relationship with him, he's really a catalyst to show how resilient women are. He's also a big time sleezeball in more ways than one. I flew through this book and I really didn't know what to expect. I have long been a fan of Ms. Dunlop's books and this one is no exception. 

Julie's Review: We Came Here to Forget

Author: Andrea Dunlop
Series: None
Publication Date: July 2, 2019
Publisher: Atria
Pages: 352
Obtained: Publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Angst, first love, true love, tragedy, redemption with fantastic characters
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Summary: Katie Cleary has always known exactly what she wants: to be the best skier in the world. As a teenager, she leaves her home to live and train full time with her two best friends, all-American brothers Luke and Blair, whose wealthy father has hired the best coaches money can buy. Together, they are the USA’s best shot at bringing home Olympic gold. But as the upward trajectory of Katie’s elite skiing career nears its zenith, a terrifying truth about her sister becomes impossible to ignore—one that will lay ruin not only to Katie’s career but to her family and her relationship with Luke and Blair. With her life shattered and nothing left to lose, Katie flees the snowy mountainsides of home for Buenos Aires. There, she reinvents herself as Liz Sullivan, and meets a colorful group of ex-pats and the alluring, charismatic Gianluca Fortunado, a tango teacher with secrets of his own. This beautiful city, with its dark history and wild promise, seems like the perfect refuge, but can she really outrun her demons? In alternating chapters, Katie grows up, falls in love, and races down the highest peaks on the planet—while Liz is reborn, falls into lust, and sinks into the underground tango scene at the bottom of the world. From the moneyed ski chalets of the American West to the dimly lit milongas of Argentina, We Came Here to Forget explores what it means to dream, to desire, to achieve—and what’s left behind after it all disappears. ~amazon.com 

Review: What can shatter someone so much that they literally get on the next plane out of town? What made Katie give up her dream of Olympic gold when the destruction wasn't caused by her own actions? The answer is guilt. Guilt that she could have done something, didn't see what she should have, etc. 

So Katie leaves for Buenos Aires and reinvents herself at Liz Sullivan who is running away from heartbreak, apparently like all the other expats she happens upon. She immerses herself in the culture by taking Spanish lessons to become a tour guide and then decides to take tango to put her body back to use. 

What she finds is that everyone is dealing with heartbreak in some way and that everyone has their own way of dealing and healing. She has to find her own way back and dealing with the hurt and pain. Once she opens up to her new friends and herself she begins to heal and understand that not all things are within her control she can let go.
 
What I loved about this book was that it was raw, emotional and real. You feel for Katie especially when it's revealed what it was that sent her into distress. You want her to find her way back to the things and people she truly loves while maintaining what she learned during her time in Buenos Aries. 

Ms. Dunlop does an excellent job of pulling the story together with writing that is superb and  character development is spot on. She is an author that I look forward to reading her next book.


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Julie's Review: She Regrets Nothing

Author: Andrea Dunlop
Series: None
Publication Date: February 6, 2018
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 400
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: More Money More Problems
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Summary: When Laila Lawrence becomes an orphan at twenty-three, the sudden loss unexpectedly introduces her to three glamorous cousins from New York who show up unannounced at her mother’s funeral. The three siblings are scions of the wealthy family from which Laila’s father had been estranged long before his own untimely demise ten years before. Two years later, Laila has left behind her quiet life in Grosse Point, Michigan to move to New York City, landing her smack in the middle of her cousins’ decadent world. As the truth about why Laila’s parents became estranged from the family patriarch becomes clear, Laila grows ever more resolved to claim what’s rightfully hers. Caught between longing for the love of her family and her relentless pursuit of the lifestyle she feels she was unfairly denied, Laila finds herself reawakening a long dead family scandal—not to mention setting off several new ones—as she becomes further enmeshed in the lives and love affairs of her cousins. But will Laila ever, truly, belong in their world? Sly and sexy, She Regrets Nothing is a sharply observed and utterly seductive tale about family, fortune, and fate—and the dark side of wealth. ~amazon.com  

Review: She Regrets Nothing is the kind of book that you want to read after you've read a lot of heavily themed novels. It definitely has a soap opera-y feel to it with all the drama and deceit. You know from the minute Laila moves to NYC she's going to get herself into heaps of trouble. She's a fish out of water who wants to grow legs and belong. She's definitely not as naive as you think in the beginning and as the book goes on you realize that she seized the opportunity with gusto. Unfortunately, her new cousins see her as a naive Midwesterner and for a while she feeds into that stereotype. Laila acts like she's there for the relationships with Liberty, Leo and Nora but really she's all about the benjamins.

Liberty is the most grounded of the 3 cousins. She's got a job that she loves and doesn't take her family's money for granted. She's got a best friend who really is like her sister, Reece and is pretty satisfied with her life overall. Nora and Leo are the self-absorbed twins. They are all about how super rich they can still be without having to work for any of it. They are all about parties (charity or otherwise), clubs and shopping. Nora is attention seeker and Leo can't decide what he wants.

Here's the thing about the super wealthy (I've learned it all from books and tv) is they are suspicious of newbies. It won't matter that Laila is a "Lawrence" it will matter that she didn't grow up with the rest of them. Money, or lack there of it, does funny things to people. It can bring out the worst in people or it can bring out the best. Laila was an example of the worst, while her cousin Liberty was the best. Ms. Dunlop does an excellent job of ensuring these characters aren't too cartoonish while also showing that in some ways they are exactly that.

The novel starts off a bit slow but it builds and builds and builds until everything happens at once. Laila's carefully constructs mirage evaporates. She can never imagine the harm that her lies and deceit will do but she doesn't really care.

I definitely enjoyed She Regrets Nothing and would recommend it. It would be a great read for Spring Break (or any other time).

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Julie's Review: Losing the Light

Author: Andrea Dunlop
Series: None
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 336
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: When you know it's not going to end well from the first line but you need to read the last line to know what happens.
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Summary: A smart, obsessive debut novel about a young woman studying abroad who becomes caught up in a seductive French world—and a complex web of love and lust. When thirty-year-old Brooke Thompson unexpectedly runs into a man from her past, she’s plunged headlong into memories she’s long tried to forget about the year she spent in France following a disastrous affair with a professor. As a newly arrived exchange student in the picturesque city of Nantes, young Brooke develops a deep and complicated friendship with Sophie, a fellow American and stunning blonde, whose golden girl façade hides a precarious emotional fragility. Sophie and Brooke soon become inseparable and find themselves intoxicated by their new surroundings—and each other. But their lives are forever changed when they meet a sly, stylish French student, Veronique, and her impossibly sexy older cousin, Alex. The cousins draw Sophie and Brooke into an irresistible world of art, money, decadence, and ultimately, a disastrous love triangle that consumes them both. And of the two of them, only one will make it home. ~amazon.com  

Review: Losing the Light is a novel about first love, friendship, finding your place and learning what it is to be yourself. We meet Brooke when she's in her 20s and about to leave NYC for the suburbs and embark on her new life with her fiance. She goes to a party hosted by her friend and bumps into someone that she knew 10 years prior. It is in the rest of the book as a flashback, we get to know a younger Brooke and her experience in France.

While Brooke seems a little innocent and naive, it turns out she's got a little bit of a wild streak in her. It's what gets her the trip for a school year to France. It is through this program that she meets and strikes up a friendship with Sophie. Frankly, I think that this is a friendship of circumstance rather than one with deep ties. I'm not sure that Brooke and Sophie would have been friends if they wouldn't have had a shared experience or had stayed in California. That's not to say that there wasn't affection between the friends but at times it didn't seem genuine to me. Brooke was insecure when she was around Sophie. She thought that Sophie lit up a room when she walked in and discounted herself when around Sophie. I actually wanted Brooke to wake up and realize that she had more to offer than Sophie. It wasn't to say that Sophie wasn't bright and fun but Brooke was those things as well but just more reserved. Brooke and Sophie begin to distance themselves from the other American students at the institute but hanging out with a local girl, Veronique and her cousin, Alex. It is evident to the reader that Alex is someone not to trust but our sweet and a bit naive, Brooke is going to have to learn that the hard way.

You know what is going to happen, it's not really a shock but it is amazing how it takes Brooke a while to figure it all out. I think she probably knew what was going on but chose to ignore it because she was so enamored with Alex and the French way of life. While I liked Sophie, I will admit I didn't totally trust her. Maybe it's because I could see how things were going to go down or maybe I felt she was fake. I also didn't think she was the best influence or genuine friend to Brooke. Sophie always seemed to be trying to prove herself.

Ms. Dunlop did a fantastic job of making you feel like you were right with Brooke while she was having her experience in Nantes. You could feel the sun on your face when they were at the beach in Cap Ferrat. You could feel Brooke's jealousy and her elation through the pages. The fact that I could connect on that kind of level with Brooke enhanced my reading experience.

If you are looking for a great coming into adulthood novel, then Losing the Light is one for you. I am definitely looking forward to what Ms. Dunlop writes next.


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