Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren

A special thank you to Libro.fm and Simon & Schuster Audio for an audiobook listening copy.

During a whirlwind trip to England for her eighteenth birthday, Tate Jones fell in love. Sam Brandis was her first everything, including her first betrayal and her first heartbreak.

But Tate Jones is actually Tate Butler, daughter of Ian Butler, one of the most famous actors in the world. This fact is something that she has kept hidden from everyone, except Sam. So when he breaks her trust, and subsequently her heart, Tate is shattered.

Fast forward fourteen years. Tate has followed in her father's footsteps and is a sought after actor. For the first time in her career, she will be starring opposite her father in a movie—this is her big break. Arriving on set, she comes face-to-face with the last person she expected to see: Sam. He is still so handsome, and as charming as she remembers.

Forced to confront the man who hurt her the worst, Tate wonders if Sam could be her happily ever after, or if he was her her once in a blue moon.

This was my first Christina Lauren book (I know, where have I been?) and I loved it! It was flirty, fun, and completely engaging. I've been hearing rave reviews about this author team and finally got on the train thanks to Libro.fm.

Twice in a Blue Moon had a fantastic premise. We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture that finds the inner workings of Hollywood fascinating, and this book dishes! The writing was clever and captivating with a well-developed back story. There were parts that were so moving and tender—the innocence and excitement of first love was captured so wonderfully.

If you love YA and romance, than this book is for you. The beginning reads like a young adult book and the rest is a smart and consuming romance.   

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CHRISTINA LAUREN is the combined pen name of bestselling authors and best friends, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. 

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

A special thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This anticipated follow up features the now iconic, Olive Kitteridge, in a more reflective state in her life. It has been two years since her husband, Henry, died and Olive has started a new relationship with Jack Kennison, a widower. Strout uses this relationship status as a vehicle for Olive's observations on her life, and how her actions have caused stress in many of the most important connections in her life.    

Strout is simply a gift. Her writing is breathtaking, gorgeous, and heartbreaking. Revisiting Crosby, Maine, Strout once again draws on the small-town characters and their connections to Olive. Her works speak to the reader with her signature style of subtle nuances juxtaposed against the not-so-subtle, Olive. This book is a character study that is a feast for the reader.

Admittedly I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as Olive Kitteridge, but it was lovely to revisit the brutally honest and discontented, yet empathetic, Olive.

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ELIZABETH STROUT is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge; the #1 New York Times bestseller My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys, and New York Times bestsellers; Anything is Possible and Abide with Me. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker and O: The Oprah Magazine.

Strout lives in New York City.

Break in Case of Emergency by Brian Francis

A special thank you to HarperCollins Canada, #HCCFrenzy, and the author, Brian Francis for a finished copy of the book.

Life hasn't always been easy for 15-year-old Toby. Her mother died by suicide five years ago, and her father is not in the picture having abandoned her mother when she was pregnant.

When the book opens, Toby is living on a dairy farm with her grandparents. Struggling to find any light in her world, she’s making plans to follow a similar route as her mother. But her plans are suddenly interrupted when she’s told that her estranged father is returning home. Oh, and that he’s gay, and a famous female impersonator.

This novel broke my heart, and I mean that in the best way possible. Francis tackles some heavy and difficult topics, but deftly handles the responsibility that comes with writing about suicide and depression—he writes with care, compassion, and authenticity.

The characters are well-developed and each provide a different view of Toby. As far as she is concerned, there is just enough pathos without the reader feeling sorry for her, instead they are pulling for her and don't want her to make the same choice as her mother.

With Francis' signature wit, Break in Case of Emergency is a vulnerable story about a non-traditional father and daughter relationship, and a young girl reconciling with herself. I highly recommend!

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BRIAN FRANCIS is the author of three novels: Fruit, Brian's first novel, was a 2009 Canada Reads finalist and is an Amazon and 49th Shelf “100 Canadian Books to Read in a Lifetime” title, Natural Order was a Best Book 2011 selection by the Toronto Star, Kobo, and Georgia Straight, and Break in Case of Emergency is his newest book and YA debut. Brian is also writer and columnist for The Next Chapter on CBC Radio.

Francis lives in Toronto.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Penguin for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Wright is swept off her feet by the handsome American, Bennet Van Cleve. Leaving her native England for a new life in Kentucky, she quickly realizes that life across the Atlantic is not what she had hoped, especially living with her overbearing father-in-law.

She is feeling completely stifled in her new life. To escape her mundane existence, she signs up for the travelling library—a job for the women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt's initiative.

Margery is the leader of the group and soon becomes Alice's greatest ally. She is a no-nonsense, sassy and spirited woman that has never asked a man for anything. Rounding out the roster of what will be known as the "Horseback Librarians of Kentucky" are three other women.

Even though they are faced with all different types of danger, the women are committed to their job of bringing books to the people who have never had any. They are sharing the gift of learning to change lives.

A tale of how rewarding friendship between women are, of true love, and for what lies beyond.

The Giver of Stars is a story that celebrates reading and the group of women responsible for delivering library books to the people living in the mountains of Kentucky during the Great Depression. Moyes' latest offering is based on the real-life program that was created by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

What is most engaging about Jojo's writing is how she infuses her books with humour to counteract the heartbreak. Her writing is rich and moving while also being lighthearted and entertaining.

Of the two main characters, Margery is the fearless one, whereas Alice is someone who finds her purpose through her work and her female friendships. But both women are strong in their own different ways.

While I enjoyed the book for the most part, it was a little long, and at times overly dramatic—most of the story focuses on Van Cleve trying to destroy the project and the women involved. And I felt that Moyes was trying to lighten the drama with romance and it didn't work for me. What did however, were the parts that focused on the women themselves, and of the travelling library. This, coupled with her beautiful descriptions of the landscape, really made the book.

This novel is an exploration of the depths of relationships, about standing up for what is good and right, and above all, it is about love. A solid 3.5 stars.

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JOJO MOYES is the New York Times bestselling author of After You, Me Before You, The Horse Dancer, Paris for One and Other Stories, One Plus One, The Girl You Left Behind, The Last Letter from Your Lover, Silver Bay, and The Ship of Brides.

Moyes lives in Essex, England with her husband and three children.

Searching for Sylvia Lee by Jean Kwok

A special thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Kwok's latest work begins with a mystery. The oldest Lee daughter, Sylvie, vanishes while on a trip to the Netherlands where she was visiting with her dying grandmother one last time.

Amy is the shy and sheltered baby of the Lee family who has always looked up to her sister. Sylvie fiercely loves her little sister even though she is seven years younger and they weren't raised together. She was raised in the Netherlands by her grandmother because her new immigrated parents were too poor. That choice weighed heavily on Sylvie's parents, even after she had returned.

Deeply distraught and wracked with grief, the Lees want answers as to what happened to their daughter. Amy visits the last place that Sylvie was seen alive, and instead of uncovering answers, she learns of hidden secrets that speak to their complicated and delicate family dynamic.

Searching for Sylvie Lee is a portrait of an immigrant family and an exploration of cultural constraints —even within the same family. Throughout the book, there is an overarching theme of loss as well as the high cost of keeping secrets.

Told by Amy, Sylvie, and their mother, the narrative shifts back and forth in time. The woman reveal the emotions that they've been hiding as well as the truths that they have been guarding with the fear of being found out. Each character is thinking in their native tongues of English, Dutch, and Chinese—the distinctive voices, culture, and language shield each character.

There is a tremendous amount of growth for Amy. She must overcome her crippling shyness in order to find her sister. A sister she is realizing that she actually knows little about. It is here where Kwok excels. Her writing has incredible purpose where Amy is concerned and it is some of the best in the book.

My only issue was with the pacing of the book—I did find it slow overall, and that the narrative kept stalling because of too many flashbacks. That being said, this is an incredibly thoughtful and beautifully written book. There is such an innate and ingrained sadness to Kwok's words. If you do enjoy more of a literary type thriller, then I would definitely recommend this book.

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JEAN KWOK is the author of the bestselling Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Jean received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and completed an MFA in fiction at Columbia. She worked as an English teacher and Dutch-English translator at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and now writes full-time.

Kwok was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn as a young girl. 

The Poison Garden by A. J. Banner

A special thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Elise Watters seems to have it all—a happy marriage, a beautiful Victorian home, and runs her own business inherited from her late mother. She was also left a sizeable inheritance.

She decides to surprise her husband, Kieran, a day early for their first anniversary. But they are both left stunned when she catches him in their bed with another woman.

Her world is completely turned upside down, especially since the return of her ex-husband who has is conveniently working right next door. Everything she thought she knew is coming into question—her marriage, her friends, and Elise can't trust either her husband or her ex. With her paranoia increasing, she has no where to turn and no one to trust.

I enjoyed After Nightfall and was excited to have been selected as an early reviewer of The Poison Garden. Unfortunately, the main character's paranoia overwhelmed the plot and the story is never fully fleshed out.

The pacing was too rushed—Banner needed to make the story more robust, and to be perfectly honest, credible. A lot of what was going on was either not believable, or too coincidental. The reader isn't going to buy in, especially in a genre that has such stellar offerings.

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A. J. BANNER was born in India and raised in North America. Her first novel, The Good Neighbor, was a #1 Kindle bestseller for thirty-four days. The Twilight Wife was a USA Today bestseller.

Banner lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and five rescued cats.

The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica

A special thank you to Edelweiss, NetGalley, and Park Row Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Fousts are starting over in Maine. Sadie and Will have moved their family from Chicago to a small island town. Shortly after moving, their neighbour, Morgan Baines, is found dead in her home.

Sadie is not only shaken up by the murder, but she's also creeped out by their dilapidated old home that was inherited from Will's sister after her sudden and unexpected death. As Sadie obsesses over what happened, she also has to deal with Will's niece, Imogen, who they are now guardians of. But the more Sadie discovers about the town, and its residents, the more she realizes that she may be involved in the murder.

One woman's struggles, another's obsession, and a little girl named Mouse collide in this hypnotic and complex narrative. Told from multiple perspectives, The Other Mrs. has strong pacing and incredibly complex characters. This story is hypnotic and well-sculpted and I was hooked from the first page.

Kubica is a master at this genre and this is my favourite book of hers to date.

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MARY KUBICA is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Good Girl, Pretty Baby, Don't You Cry, Every Last Lie, and When the Lights Go Out.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature.

She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children and enjoys photography, gardening and caring for the animals at a local shelter.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A special thank you to Doubleday Canada for a copy of the book.

Daisy Jones & The Six is a fictional account of the rise and fall of a 70s rock band. They were the biggest band of that decade and this is the story of their break up, as well as their rise to fame.

The central relationship in the story is between the two main characters, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, with the most obvious inspiration being Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac). Jenkins Reid also drew inspiration from other female/male partnerships like The Mamas and the Pappas, Johnny Cash and June Carter, even Beyoncé and Jay Z. There is tension and it is this tension that informs the music.

Daisy Jones & The Six is written as an oral history, which is one of the ways that non-fiction stories are told. Jenkins Reid brilliantly uses this format to frame her narrative in a time where there was no social media to record events. Each character's name precedes their part—everyone is chiming in to tell their account of the events. Because this is a non-traditional type of narrative, sometimes their stories contradict.

In this novel, Taylor writes many types of women—there is not only one way to be a woman. Daisy, Camila, Karen, and Simone are all very individual with different goals. Daisy is beautiful and rich and doesn't care about the power that she wields because of it. She wants to be taken seriously as a lyricist (even though she has an incredible voice) and wants to be heard and valued for her contributions. Billy is also a lyricist that takes himself seriously, only he is widely-respected because he's a man, so everything comes easier to him. When they write an album together, there is a power struggle because they both need to be heard and Daisy needs to push for this to happen.

A woman's perspective is hugely important to Jenkins Reid and I think that this evident in all of her books—she wants to make women feel seen and heard. Traditionally 70s rock is thought of as a male-dominated space, but there were so many incredible women in that time period and Taylor wanted to celebrate these women and their contributions. She wrote Daisy Jones & The Six in part because of her love for Stevie Nicks, but to be clear, it is a not a story about Fleetwood Mac.

Reese Witherspoon's production company, Hello Sunshine, is turning Daisy Jones & The Six into a TV show with Amazon Studios. Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber—the Oscar nominated duo behind (500) Days of Summer, The Fault In Our Stars, and The Disaster Artist—are writing and producing the series.

This story was utterly mesmerizing and totally lived up to all the hype!

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TAYLOR JENKINS REID is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels Daisy Jones and the Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her books have been chosen by Reese’s Book Club, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Her novel, Daisy Jones and The Six, is is currently being adapted by Hello Sunshine into a limited series for Amazon.

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and dog.