All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox

True love wasn't on their holiday wish list.

When Sadie and Max are selected as contestants on the famed reality singing show Starmaker, each thinks they've finally gotten their big Nashville break. But then they're paired up for duet week and stun the world with their romantic onstage chemistry. With fans going wild for #Saxie the network demands that they remain a duo on and offstage, or exit the competition. Faking a relationship until their final performance in the Starmaker holiday special shouldn't be too hard, except for one small problem—Sadie and Max can't stand each other.

With the deadline of their fake relationship approaching, they come together to write an original holiday love song, but will the magic of Christmas spark a romance?

All I Want for Christmas is the sophomore effort from Maggie Knox, the powerhouse duo of Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley. This novel reads like The Hating Game meets Nashville—it'a a festive and flirty enemies to lovers tale. 

Although this book is sweet and swoon-worthy overall, there are some weightier themes—alcoholism, abandonment of a parent, grief, death of a loved one. And there is lots of grumpy/sunshine. 

Complimented by holiday music, All I Want for Christmas will put you in the festive spirit. 

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

KARMA BROWN is an award-winning journalist and author of the bestsellers Come Away With Me, The Choices We Make, In This Moment, The Life Lucy Knew, and Recipe for a Perfect Wife. Her first non-fiction book, The 4% Fix, published in 2020. Karma's writing has appeared in publications such as Redbook, SELF, and Chatelaine. 

Brown lives just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband, daughter, and their adorably handsome labradoodle, Fred.

MARISSA STAPLEY is a journalist and the bestselling author of Mating for Life, Things to Do When It's Raining, The Last Resort and Lucky which has been optioned for television. 

Stapley lives in Toronto with her family. 

---

Q & A with Maggie Knox*

GWR: How long did it take you to write All I Want for Christmas, and how many drafts were there before publication?

MK: We took about a year to write it. Because this one was sold to our wonderful editing team at Putnam, Viking Canada, and Hodder in the UK on a proposal (along with The Holiday Swap, our debut), we approached it a bit differently than we do our other novels: we wrote an outline, then a half draft, which we shared with our editors. They gave feedback on that (which actually required a complete overhaul of the dual timeline we were initially using to tell the story), we wrote the rest of the draft, and then we went through two rounds of edits before it was ready for publication. 

GWR: Can you tell us about your writing process. What is the one thing that surprised you the most about writing as a duo?

MK: As with our previous novel, the outline was our saviour. We’re not sure it would be possible to co-write successfully without a rigorous, detailed outline. It’s natural that during the process of actually writing the book, some things will change. Characters have a way of tossing away the most carefully laid plans! But having a good roadmap in place made collaborating on a novel so much easier. What’s always surprising about writing as a duo is the way our writing can weave together so seamlessly in style and tone, even when we’re each writing a different character, as we did this time around. 

GWR: How did you come up with the concept?

MS: Oh my goodness, I’m having trouble remembering! I know it was during the whirlwind of selling The Holiday Swap, and during all the excitement we wondered what would happen if we pitched another idea, too. We’re both quick on our feet so went back and forth about it for a while and came up with an idea the editors loved and we were excited to work on. 

KB: My memory is also a bit spotty, but I’m remembering it the way Marissa does. One element we knew we wanted to add to the second book as well, along with a snowy, holiday feel, was the reality show angle. It’s one we both love, and it has so much potential in rom-coms.

GWR: Both of your books have a reality TV aspect—do either of you have experience in working in television? 

MS: One of my first jobs was in PR at VisionTV. I found working at a television station, especially one that was making the sort of unique programs VisionTV was making at the time, completely fascinating. I’ve also done some script-writing but never actually worked on-set. 

KB: During journalism school I interned at the CBC with the investigative journalism program The Fifth Estate. It was fascinating and inspiring to see the dedication and risks the show and its team took to bring such challenging stories to light. I was lucky enough to work with the formidable Leora Eisen, and received a writer credit for the episode “Spiritual Shepherds” (2003). It remains one of my best, most exciting work experiences to date.

GWR: Music is paramount to the story—can you play an instrument or do either of you have a musical background?

MS: We both have musicians in our family. I have a singer/actress aunt and a singer/songwriter uncle—plus a large extended family who can all sing and play various instruments and like to break them out at family gatherings for singalongs around the table or bonfire. I don’t have any musical talent myself, but I do own a karaoke machine and love to have friends over and belt it out, always confidently imagining we sound like Sadie with her magical voice…

KB: I have about zero musical talent! I used to play the clarinet, and not very well, in high school, and recently I tried to learn to play the ukulele…another fail. My dad, however, still plays in a band at the age of 83, and my mom is the most beautiful piano player. Clearly the musical talent skipped (at least) a generation in my family!

GWR: What is your favourite Christmas carol? 

MS: So many! Karma and I share a love of holiday music. We both love the Barenaked Ladies' version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"—if you’ve never listened to that one, do; it’s excellent. And Stevie Nicks’ version of "Silent Night" gets me every time. I’m also a sucker for the classics. Anything by Nat King Cole, but especially "O’ Tannenbaum" and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas album, which we have on vinyl and wear out during the holidays. 

KB: This is a hard one for me, because I adore Christmas carols. But my all-time favourite is "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole, and a close runner up is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by The Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan. Marissa and I definitely share a love of holiday music, which is one of the best parts about writing holiday romances…you have a perfect excuse to listen to carols outside of the regular season!

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be? 

MS: A shot of fireball whiskey! Enjoyed at a country-music playing dive bar in the Canadian Rockies. 

KB: Probably a glass of excellent, homemade eggnog, spiced to perfection with nutmeg and cinnamon. I don’t believe anyone drinks eggnog in the book, but it is a sweet and spicy cocktail…much like our main characters.

GWR: What are you working on now? 

MS: I’m working on another holiday rom com co-authored with bestselling Canadian author Uzma Jalaluddin: it’s called Three Holidays and a Wedding, will be released next fall, and takes place during a year when Christmas, Eid, and Hanukkah all fall at once. It’s a multi faith Love, Actually meets Let It Snow, and it’s so much fun. After that, I’ll be finishing up my next solo novel, The Lightning Bottles, about a missing 90s rockstar and the woman who goes on a life-changing road trip to find him, due out in 2024. 

KB: I’m in the final stages of my next novel, What Wild Women Do, which releases November 2023. It’s a dual timeline story about a writer and filmmaker couple who head to the isolated Adirondack Park for a month-long research venture, and the 1975 feminist owner of one of the Park’s “Great Camps.” After the couple stumble upon the now abandoned camp, they make a shocking discovery that is connected to the decades-long mystery about the former camp owner…and learn that the truth—both in the past and present—won’t stay buried forever. 

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

The Theory of Crows by David A. Robertson

A special thank you to HarperCollins Canada for a copy of the book in exchange for a review.

When a troubled father and his estranged teenage daughter head out onto the land in search of the family trapline, they find their way back to themselves, and to each other

Deep in the night, Matthew paces the house, unable to rest. Though his sixteen-year-old daughter, Holly, lies sleeping on the other side of the bedroom door, she is light years away from him. How can he bridge the gap between them when he can’t shake the emptiness he feels inside? Holly knows her father is drifting further from her; what she doesn’t understand is why. Could it be her fault that he seems intent on throwing everything away, including their relationship?

Following a devastating tragedy, Matthew and Holly head out onto the land in search of a long-lost cabin on the family trapline, miles from the Cree community they once called home. But each of them is searching for something more than a place. Matthew hopes to reconnect with the father he has just lost; Holly goes with him because she knows the father she is afraid of losing won’t be able to walk away.

When things go wrong during the journey, they find they have only each other to turn to for support. What happens to father and daughter on the land will test them, and eventually heal them, in ways they never thought possible.

Told through a fractured relationship between a father and daughter, Robertson's first adult novel is a story of healing. Blended with Indigenous culture, The Theory of Crows is a moving, emotional, and consuming story.  

The Theory of Crows is written from both Matthew's and Holly's point of view as well as through Matthew's letters to Holly. Robertson uses this epistolary narrative style to allow Matthew to explain his feelings and apologize to Holly, to say all the things that are weighing down his heart. Some of the most raw and beautiful writing is in these passages. 

The journey to find the family cabin and trapline is the vehicle that Robertson uses to explore Matthew and Holly's relationship. Matthew is a complex character who is grappling with his mental health and how close he is to destroying his family. Another paramount character is the land itself—Matthew is not only seeking its healing, but also a connection to it and by extension, to his father. 

This poignant and powerful novel is about connection, familial bonds, and of the gifts offered from the land. Highly recommend!  

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

DAVID A. ROBERTSON is a writer and freelance journalist. He is the recipient of the Writers’ Union of Canada Freedom to Read Award. His memoir, Black Water, won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. His middle-grade fantasy series, the Misewa Saga, includes the #1 national bestseller The Barren Grounds. He won the Governor General’s Literary Award for the illustrated books On the Trapline and When We Were Alone. Robertson is also the writer and host of the award-winning podcast Kiwew. 

Robertson is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and currently lives in Winnipeg.

---

Q & A with David A. Robertson*

GWR: Your writing spans a variety of genres, do you approach each book the same way? And do you have a favourite genre to work in?

DAR: I wouldn’t say that I approach each book the same way. They’re all a different thing, even though I suppose there are some skills that cross-pollinate. Writing a middle-grade fantasy novel is different than a memoir, for sure, but at the same time they’re still stories. They require an arc, a journey, a theme. I’m proud of my career in that I’ve been able to adapt to different forms of literature and genres, and to find success in most areas. I like the challenge of not only learning how to write in these areas, but writing well. I do find that I still have a scheduled approach to writing any book, and that doesn’t change. So, whether it’s 2-3 pages a day for a picture book, or 1,500 words per day for a novel, I bite off little pieces at a time until I’ve finished the project. It’s hard to pick a favourite genre. I really do love most of them. I’ve had a lot of fun writing fantasy, and incorporating supernatural elements into otherwise realistic fiction, and the challenge of making supernatural feel realistic. But if pressed, I’d say that picture books are my favourite. That’s not a genre, so I cheated.  

GWR: How long did it take you to write The Theory of Crows and how many drafts were there before publication?

DAR: The Theory of Crows took at least a year to write, which is a long time for me to complete a first draft. I wrote a fair amount of it, and then I left it for a little while before returning to the story and the characters. I guess I felt that I wasn’t ready for the entire journey initially, and needed to be ready. Maybe it was also just hard knowing that it was another way to say goodbye to my father, and I didn’t want to. 

Working with Jenn Lambert was incredible. She’s a very good editor, with a very good eye for what works, what doesn’t, but is also open to discussion on elements that we may not agree on. Initially, for example, the ending was up for debate, and we found a common ground that was perfect for the story. So, it was a path we walked together. There were a lot of steps on that path, as there is with any book. Some are big steps, some are small. So, including substantive work and then line editing, I’d say there was at least 7-8 drafts before The Theory of Crows was ready.

GWR: What was the inspiration for the novel?

DAR: There were a number of inspirations that converged to make this novel happen. It was the concept of crows and how they remembered faces for years, and how they might even be able to pass down recognition through generations. I just loved that so much. It was a natural fit for how I feel about our connection to ancestry, and place. When I went to the trapline with my father, I felt like I belonged there, but I’d never been there before. That’s blood memory. Then the thought is, Did the land remember me? That thought was embodied in the concept of the crows. Another inspiration was music, and how it’s integral in my creative process, but more than that, how it’s helped to save my life when I’ve been at my lowest. I wanted this book to be a love letter to a lot of things, and one of those things is music. And then it was just personal shit I was going through and needed to work through. It was losing my father, and imagining bringing him back to a trapline we couldn’t get to, because we couldn’t find. I still want to find it. This was my way of looking for it, in a spiritual sense. It was my depression after losing my father, and burnout after working so hard in 2020 and taking on too much. It was how that depression affected my relationships, including with my oldest daughter. And it was how I was able to find a way to heal, and through that, heal the brokenness that I had caused. So it’s a very personal book, but I find that there are elements of my own struggles that many people will relate to. Stories connect us in this way.

GWR: I loved the use of song lyrics—does music have an impact on your writing? Does it play a role in your writing process?

DAR: Yes. A huge role. I listen to music when I write, when I edit, when I drive, when I do anything. I feel like I need it like I need air. And it really did help me to get through some scary personal moments where depression was suffocating me. There were a lot more song lyrics initially, but I had to tone it down a bit or else there would’ve been as many lyrics as there were my own words. Plus I had to pay for using them, so in the end, I had a friend who allowed me to use lyrics of his (John K. Samson), which I’m so grateful for. And I had to choose the one set of lyrics that embodied the theme, but also meant a lot to me. That was Sufjan Stevens’ Requests.

GWR: You also employ an epistolary narrative style with the incredibly moving letters that Matthew writes to Holly. Were they always part of the story? How did you decide where and when to use them?

DAR: They were always part of the story, for sure. I thought it would be a really unique approach, and also a window in Matthew’s state of mind, how he needs to find a way to tell Holly he’s sorry and to explain why he messed up so badly (and why he was messed up so badly). They aren’t linear, and they don’t appear in any structure, so placing them into the story was a bit of work. I just tried to match them thematically to the areas of the book they appeared in. I took a few letters out in the drafting process, but kept in the ones that either built character in the best way, or were the most emotionally evocative.

GWR: What was the hardest scene to write? 

DAR: It was a scene where Matthew is standing in front of a mirror, and feels sickened by himself, when he’s at his lowest, and almost makes a very harmful decision. I didn’t want it to be too heavy handed. I didn’t want it to be manipulative in any way. I just wanted it to feel real, and painful, and beautiful. Not that there’s beauty in that sort of harm, but it helps to balance the pain, in a way. But since I’d been there, it was incredibly hard. Almost too hard.

Other than that, it was hard to write a realistic, believable, teenage girl, in Hallelujah. As a middle-aged man, I really relied on my daughters to find that authenticity. But finding the right headspace to write Holly, and to do it well, was tough.

GWR: This novel takes a deep dive into identity, mental health, and grief—while paying respect to the land—why was it important to include these elements int the story?

DAR: It was important for me to write about the things I’d been going through in an emotionally honest way, and also because I know that other people are going through things too. And sometimes when you see somebody else struggling, it makes you feel less alone. Even if it’s a fictional character. And that can be a life-saving thing. Art saves lives, I know it does. I would never say that anything I’ve done has saved a life, but I do know that it’s helped a few people feel seen and less isolated in their pain. That means a lot to me. You know, human beings, we’re not that different from each other. We forget that sometimes. Stories help us to remember that, I think. 

As for the land, I wanted to express my love for it, and the power of it. I’ve been really focussed on the land in my more recent work. Going there, spending time with my dad there, revealed so much about myself, to me. And it also revealed so much about our spiritual connection to the land, and how we need to find a reverence for it, in order to protect it, and be better stewards for it. So, in this story, the land is another character, and it helps people heal. I believe that it does this practically, in real life, as well.

GWR: What made you decide to write the book from a dual point of view? Was it easier or more challenging to explore the parallel storyline?

DAR: It was definitely more challenging. Switching perspectives is always hard, because you don’t want to pull the reader out of the story. You don’t want it to be jarring, unless being jarring helps the story. It was necessary, though. I wanted to show the journey, both physically and internally, of both characters. The reader needs to feel that journey for both, not just see it. So you can understand what they are both going through intimately, and you can, through that, understand their motivations and actions. It’s a tricky balance, but if I pulled it off, it’s worth it. It was also kind of neat to write in an almost YA voice, and an adult voice. I liked that contrast.

GWR: Do you have a favourite chapter or scene? 

DAR: I like the letter from Matthew to Holly when they’re standing in front of the ocean together, their shoes off, about to leave Haida Gwaii. I loved connecting that to the ending scene, which I love. But yes, saying more than that would be a bit too much of a spoiler. I also really liked writing Holly hanging out in a bathroom for several pages. It was fun to try and write interesting, and pretty, prose where a character is in a bathroom stall.

GWR: What do you hope readers will take away from The Theory of Crows?

DAR: I don’t know. I guess I would say that I hope they take from it what they need. I don’t think I could assign that to any reader. Art means something different to everybody. This book will mean something to one reader, and something else entirely to another. And that’s the beauty of any story.

GWR: Can you share what are you working on now?

DAR: I just signed on to write two more adult fiction novels with HarperCollins. I have a non-fiction book with them as well that I’m working on. I have the last three books in The Misewa Saga, my middle-grade fantasy series. I have a chapter book series that I’m starting to work on about an Indigenous girl who’s got some challenges but finds a way to overcome them and solve mysteries. I have two more graphic novels in The Reckoner Rises series. I have two pictures books coming out in the next couple of years, the next one being my next published book, The Song That Called Them Home. I have a graphic novel that’s set in the world of The Misewa Saga. And I have a hockey book coming out as well. So, there’s a lot. When I read what I just wrote it stresses me out. 

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor Launch Party

Photo credit: Girl Well Read. Do not use without written permission.

The event took place on the Duke of York's patio, located in The Annex in downtown Toronto. It was the perfect venue to celebrate Bianca Marais' newest novel, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor. 

Marais is hilarious and warm, and she sure knows how to throw a party! It was fantastic to see so many bookstagrammers and authors in person, especially Samantha M. Bailey and Marissa Stapley who were Bianca's special guests. There were cocktails, appies, and a tarot card reader. 

Thank you to both Bianca and her inimitable team at HarperCollins Canada for a fab evening. 

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is a feminist and witchy rom-com that celebrates women and their complexities.  

The coven faces issues that plague all females, one of which is aging. Society is obsessed with youth, tying it to beauty, thus denying women the privilege to grow old gracefully. Another paramount theme is that of sex and sexuality, topics that are often taboo with women that are more mature with age. Marais also explores themes of identity, sisterhood, and the balance of power.  

Told from multiple points of view, the characters are complex and unique. With its propulsive narrative and strong female leads, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is magical, mysterious, and full of mirth. You will be put under its spell. 

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat.

Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby—one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years—will surely be their salvation.

But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.

The witches are determined to save their home and themselves, but their aging powers are no match for increasingly malicious threats. Thankfully, they get a bit of help from Persephone, a feisty TikToker eager to smash the patriarchy. As the deadline to save the manor approaches, fractures among the sisterhood are revealed, and long-held secrets are exposed, culminating in a fiery confrontation with their enemies.

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW   

BIANCA MARAIS holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, where she now teaches creative writing. Before turning to writing, she started a corporate training company and volunteered with Cotlands, where she assisted care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans. 

Originally from South Africa, Marais resides in Toronto with her husband.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada/Doubleday Canada for an ARC in exchange for an ARC. 

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe” anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all, Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. 

Part story, part oral history, Carrie Soto is Back is a powerful novel about what it costs to be great. Professional sports (and sports in general) are a male-dominated space and a woman's perspective is hugely important to Taylor. This is evident in all of her books—she wants to make women feel seen and heard—and Carrie Soto is Back is no exception.

Reid once again writes about strong women and the downside of fame—Carrie is in good company with Evelyn, Daisy, and Nina. (Fun fact: at the beginning of Malibu Rising, we learn that Nina has separated from her husband, Brandon, and he is now living with his mistress, tennis pro Carrie Soto.) Driven and sharp, yet brash and bold, Carrie holds nothing back and only cares about winning. She is a layered, complex, and an unlikable character that is so well written that readers will not only root for her, but they will also be enamoured with the game of tennis.  

Taylor Jenkins Reid serves up an ace with Carrie Soto is Back. Highly recommend!

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

TAYLOR JENKINS REID is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, 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, Read with Jenna, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Her novel, Daisy Jones and The Six, is in post-production having been adapted by Hello Sunshine into a limited series for Amazon. 

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

Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie

A special thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

At thirty-nine, Nicole Muller’s life is on the rocks. Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional. It sounds like the perfect solution to help Nicole revive her career. So, despite her husband, Dan’s, concerns the group might be a cult, Nicole signs up for their retreat in Colorado.

Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride. A CEO, an actress, a finance whiz, a congresswoman: Nicole can’t believe her luck. The founders of Panthera Leo are equally as impressive. They explain the group’s core philosophy: they’re a girl’s club in a boy’s club world.

Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients that help her relaunch her career, and a great new apartment too. The favors she has to provide in return seem benign. But then she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment late at night where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime. And suddenly, Dan’s concerns that something more sinister is at play seem all too relevant. Can Nicole extricate herself from the group before it’s too late? Or will joining Panthera Leo be the biggest mistake of her life?

With its incredible premise—a group of women that are working the system like a boys' club—Please Join Us is a union of contemporary fiction and thriller through a feminist lens. And like Panthera Leo, this book has claws!

Struggling corporate lawyer, Nicole Mueller, is the narrator of Catherine McKenzie's thirteenth novel. Alternating between past and present, Please Join Us is an exploration of toxic relationships and the influence of power. Not without flaws, Nicole is a perceptive and intriguing character that readers will root for.  

McKenzie is a master storyteller—the plot is exceptionally clever and the pacing is spot on. She brilliantly explains the intricacies of the law into something palatable for her reader and weaves these threads into a brilliant and satisfying conclusion. 

Please Join Us is a feminist thriller about a secret organization, the challenges women face in the workplace, and just how far one woman will go to claim what is rightfully hers. 

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

CATHERINE McKENZIE is the bestselling author of numerous bestsellers including Six Weeks to Live, You Can't Catch Me, Hidden, Fractured, The Good Liar, and I'll Never Tell. Her works have been translated into multiple languages and I'll Never Tell, The Good Liar, and You Can't Catch Me have all been optioned for development into television series.

McKenzie was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. A graduate of McGill in History and Law, Catherine practiced law for twenty years before leaving the practice to write full time.

---

Q & A with Catherine McKenzie*

GWR: Is there a particular author/work that inspired you to become a writer or the way you write? 

CM: Such a hard question! I’ve definitely always been a big reader ever since I learned to read when I was three. When I was a girl I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and then of course Anne of Green Gables and the entire Anne series. Later, I discovered Jane Austen, Nick Hornby, John Irving and books like The Time Traveller’s Wife and The Fault in Our Stars. A Million Little Pieces was a big influence right when I started writing. Hopefully I’ve stolen the best bits from all of those and added something of my own.

GWR: Are you a pantser/gardner or a plotter/architect? Have you approached each book the same way, or has your writing process changed/evolved?

CM: I am a panster for sure, though I do plot in my head. My process has evolved over the years, and I am TRYING to be a better plotter in advance. But I do love the spontaneity of writing without a fixed outline. That’s where the magic happens.

GWR: Being a seasoned author, what is your favourite part of the publishing process? Is there anything that you still find difficult? 

CM: A lot of it is still difficult! I love when it’s just me and the manuscript and it’s all working out the way I planned. And then when the book is out and people enjoy it—that’s always special.

GWR: Overall, what do you have more fun with, character development or plot?

CM: I’d say both, honestly. I hope what makes me stand out as an author is that I have lots of people and well developed characters.

GWR: What was the inspiration behind Please Join Us?

CM: I received an invitation to an anonymous women’s group—and did not go! But the idea stuck...

GWR: I love how the characters are feminist, intelligent, and fierce. Do you have a favourite? 

CM: Thank you! I really like Athena, and Nicole of course, the narrator, because I spend the most time with her.

GWR: Did you build Please Join Us around a twist/reveal, or did this happen organically?

CM: I always know the end before I start writing, though in this case, the end was going to happen earlier and I realized that I was missing a twist while I was writing. Thankfully, the answer was already in the manuscript as is often the case.

GWR: What’s the one element of a thriller that is a must?

CM: Secrets!

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?  

CM: A Moscow Mule.

GWR: Can you share what are you working on now?

CM: A book loosely based on the Gabbie Petito disappearance called Have You Seen Her. 

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark

A special thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

She's back.

Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She's a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be—a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she's done, you've likely lost everything.

Kat Roberts has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat's long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg's real target is.

"The difference between justice and revenge comes down to who's telling the story."

The Lies I Tell is a twisty cat and mouse domestic thriller. Told through alternating points of view and flashbacks, Clark reveals Kat and Meg's true intentions while leading her reader into the moral grey area where the plot sits. Readers will have compounding emotions—they won't know who is the con and who is the prey.

Clark's characters are complex, layered, and strong. Despite their distrust of one another, Meg and Kat forge an unlikely friendship that weaves an insidious and intriguing web. And fans of The Last Flight will love the cameo at the airport. Clever, clever! 

The Lies I Tell is perfectly executed! It takes a deep dive into the motivations of two women seeking justice for those who who have wronged them and in their endeavour to change the course of their lives.  

BUY NOW

JULIE CLARK is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ones We Choose and The Last Flight, which was also a #1 international bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty languages. 

Clark lives in Los Angeles with her family and a golden doodle with poor impulse control.

The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais

A special thank you to the author, Bianca Marais, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat.

Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby—one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for thirty-three years—will surely be their salvation.

But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.

The witches are determined to save their home and themselves, but their aging powers are no match for increasingly malicious threats. Thankfully, they get a bit of help from Persephone, a feisty TikToker eager to smash the patriarchy. As the deadline to save the manor approaches, fractures among the sisterhood are revealed, and long-held secrets are exposed, culminating in a fiery confrontation with their enemies.

From the vivid imagination of Bianca Marais comes The Witches of Moonshyne Manor—a feminist and witchy rom-com that celebrates women and their complexities.  

The coven faces issues that plague all females, one of which is aging. Society is obsessed with youth, tying it to beauty, thus denying women the privilege to grow old gracefully. Another paramount theme is that of sex and sexuality, topics that are often taboo with women that are more mature with age. Marais also explores themes of identity, sisterhood, and the balance of power.  

Told from multiple points of view, the characters are complex and unique. With its propulsive narrative and strong female leads, The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is magical, mysterious, and full of mirth. You will be put under its spell. 

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW   

BIANCA MARAIS holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, where she now teaches creative writing. Before turning to writing, she started a corporate training company and volunteered with Cotlands, where she assisted care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans. 

Originally from South Africa, Marais resides in Toronto with her husband.

---

Q & A with Bianca Marais*

GWR: How did you start writing? 

BM: From the moment that I first discovered the alchemy that is reading, I began writing, wanting to create the kinds of magical worlds that were in the pages of my favourite story books. I wrote and illustrated my first book when I was 7, although it was mostly a knock off of Enid Blyton! I gave it to my teacher to read, expecting remarks of my brilliance but I got it back marked up with red ink, teaching early on that everyone is critic!

After that, I wrote throughout high school, and encouraged by my amazing English teacher, Lyn Voigt, I won Best Original Script and Best Comedy for a play I wrote for the RAPS Wits One Act Play Festival was I was 16.

I went on to study English and Communications at University but then stopped writing for a long time. Just before turning thirty, I wrote my first novel, which was widely rejected by everyone because it wasn’t very good. And then I wrote another with the same result. 

After I moved to Canada in 2012, I started doing the Certificate in Creative Writing Program at U of T’s SCS, and that’s when I started Hum If You Don’t Know the Words that would become my first novel to be published. 

GWR: What does your writing process look like—are you a pantser/gardner or a plotter/architect? And does your process differ with each book?

BM: I’m totally a pantser. I write in order to find out what’s going to happen, and I love giving my characters free rein to take me wherever they need to go. If I know exactly what’s going to happen in a story, I have zero compulsion to write it. Having said that, I often write myself into a dead end which I then have to backtrack from, and that can be frustrating. So now I try to write to some vague destination that I know is coming up at some point, but don’t mind at all if my characters decide, nope,  that’s not where they want to go after all! 

GWR: How did you come up with the concept for The Witches of Moonshyne Manor? What sparked the idea?

BM: An idea initially came to me of two best friends who were in their eighties, and one of them was beginning to show signs of Alzheimer’s. I originally imagined them in a regular seniors’ community but then an idea of a magical manor came to me, and it seemed much more fun to make the two best friends witches who were surrounded by other witches in their own magical version of a seniors’ village. I’d never written fantasy before and liked the idea of the challenge. Plus, I was writing this during another Covid lockdown, and I really needed a fun romp to distract me from how bleak the world was feeling. 

GWR: Where did you draw the inspiration for the Moonshyne Manor Grimoire from? 

BM: Women have had so much knowledge and experience to pass down over the centuries and yet many of them weren’t taught how to write. And so that knowledge became a kind of word-of-mouth legacy. For witches it would be the same, mother passing her knowledge of the magical world down to her daughter who would then do the same with her own daughter one day.

In books about witches, there’s a lot of exploration of this maternal lineage, but I wondered what would happen with young witches who’d been orphaned. Who would teach them everything they needed to know if they didn’t have mothers to guide them? And so the Moonshyne Manor Grimoire was created as a repository for all the knowledge Great Aunt Mirabel had to share with her charges. And of course, the witches add to it themselves with naughty spells and cocktail recipes. 

GWR: The coven faces issues that plague all women, one of which is aging. Why do you think growing old is viewed so negatively for women?  

BM: I think society places enormous pressure on women to look a certain way and this is true throughout their whole lives. And so, too much focus is put on appearance, and how we age physically, and there’s also too much emphasis on that loss of youth, rather than the wealth of knowledge and experience we gain along the way. I think that if we gave up on these ridiculous beauty standards, and just allowed ourselves to age disgracefully like the witches in the book, we’d have a lot more fun along the way. There’s freedom to be had in aging, and to reach a point in your life where you just don’t care anymore what people think or what they expect from you; to just do what the hell it is that you want to do. 

GWR: Why was it important to you to feature characters that are not usually represented/underrepresented?

BM: Representation matters in literature. It’s so important for us to read books and not just see ourselves in them, but to also see others in them who aren’t like us at all. Human nature tends to fear what it doesn’t understand, and how can we understand something unless we’re exposed to it often? The less we’re exposed to different cultures or gender identities or whatever, the more we see it as “other” and therefore, scary and strange. 

We also tend to focus too much on our differences when what we should be focusing on is how we are the same in our pursuit of happiness and love, how what most of us want most is security, peace, good health and an opportunity to thrive. 

If I can show in my writing how similar we all are, and if I can make my readers empathise with underrepresented characters, then I put my readers in those characters’ shoes. I truly believe the world would be a much better place if we were all more empathetic. 

GWR: What character did you sympathize with the most and did that change while writing the book?

BM: That’s an interesting question. Had you asked me which character was most like myself, I would have to say Queenie. We’re pretty much the same person. LOL. But when it comes to sympathy, I sympathize with all of them for different reasons. Ursula is plagued with guilt for something that she did decades ago and that’s something she carries with her every single day. Tabby lives with such regret and bitterness which means that she’s missing out on so much joy. Ruby has lost so much and has struggled so hard to carve a place for herself in the world. I sympathize with all of their struggles because these are struggles that I’ve had at one point or another in my own life. The witches are all damaged, imperfect people who are just doing the best they can. Aren’t we all?

GWR: What is one thing you hope readers take away from The Witches of Moonshyne Manor?

BM: There are a few takeaways I’d like them to have: that sisterhood is incredibly important and we should never undervalue the women in our lives who prop us up and cheer us on; that love is love, and that we should all be allowed to be ourselves and love whomever we want; and that aging is freeing and it’s a privilege that not everyone gets to experience, so we really should enjoy it more. Also, we’re stronger together and should always fight for the things we believe in and that make the world a better place. 

GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be? 

BM: It would be a fierce and fabulous cocktail like the Ruby Tuesday mentioned in the book. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 oz Moonshyne Manor vodka
1 oz Moonshyne Manor peach schnapps
1 oz Moonshyne Manor coconut rum
3 oz fresh cranberry juice
3 oz pineapple juice
½ oz cherry syrup
1 fresh cherry for garnish

Equipment:

Cocktail shaker
A glass tumbler

Instructions:

Add all the ingredients except the cherry to a cocktail shaker without any ice.
Shake as though you’re in a conga line holding the maracas.
Pour into a tumbler that’s filled with ice.
Garnish with a fresh cherry.

GWR: Can you share what you are working on now?

BM: I’m bouncing back and forth between two books at the moment, which I’ve never really done before. One is an emotional thriller, and the other is a dystopian fiction. We’ll see which one makes it to the finishing line. 

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith

A special thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Hachette Book Group Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Vincent, having grown up as the privileged daughter of artists, has a lovely life in many ways. At forty-four, she enjoys strolling the streets of Paris and teaching at the modern art museum; she has a vibrant group of friends; and she’s even caught the eye of a young, charismatic man named Loup. But Vincent is also in Paris to escape a painful betrayal: her husband, Cillian, has published a bestselling book divulging secrets about their marriage and his own past, hinting that when he was a teenager, he may have had a child with a young woman back in Dublin—before he moved to California and never returned.

 

Now estranged from her husband, Vincent has agreed to see Cillian again at their son’s wedding the following summer, but Loup introduces new complications. Soon they begin an intense affair, and somewhere between dinners made together, cigarettes smoked in the moonlight, hazy evenings in nightclubs, and long, starry walks along the Seine, Vincent feels herself loosening and blossoming.

 

In a journey that is both transportive and intimate, Half-Blown Rose traverses Paris, art, travel, liminal spaces, and the messy complexities of relationships and romance, with excerpts from Cillian’s novel, playlists, and journal entries woven throughout. As Cillian does all he can to win her back, Vincent must decide what she wants...and who she will be.

Cross-Smith's strength is in her immersive prose. She doesn't shy away from creating a strong female lead who (gasp!) puts her own passion above everything, even her family. Reeling from betrayal, Vincent—as in van Gogh—embraces her desires and sexual needs and what it means to be a woman, even while bleeding and emotional. (There's lots of period talk.)

But here's what doesn't work. Every character is not only attractive, but intelligent and interesting, which makes it feel like it's a script for a Hollywood movie. There are also no consequences for anyone's actions, least of all our heroine's (cue the ending). Meandering at times and manic at others, readers will be left feeling a little empty.

Half-Blown Rose is compelling, passionate, and beautifully written.  

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

LEESA CROSS-SMITH is a homemaker and the author of Every Kiss A War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, and This Close to Okay. 

Cross-Smith lives in Kentucky with her husband and their two teenagers.

Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner

A special thank you to the author, Natalie Jenner, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:

Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances - most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.

Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she's been working to support the family following her husband's breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.

Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she's working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.

As they interact with various literary figures of the time—Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others—these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.

Bloomsbury Girls is a story about friendship, perseverance, and the love of the written word. 

Vivien, Grace, and Evie are trying to forge their own paths in post-war London. Against the backdrop of a century old bookstore, the trio form an unlikely bond. Jenner's cast is further bolstered by the addition of some famous figures, shining a light on some of the overlooked women authors of that time. And there are also a few characters from The Jane Austen Society that make a cameo. 

Through the intertwined stories of the three women, Bloomsbury Girls examines class, prejudice, and gender roles. Each chapter opens citing one of the shop's archaic and stuffy rules—a clever plot device that becomes oh so satisfying in the Epilogue. Although this book features a larger cast of characters, they are well-developed and have purpose.     

In this union of historical and feminist fiction, there are flashes of romance as well as a little mystery. Jenner's meticulous research, beautiful writing, and rich detail make for another incredible reading experience. This wonderful followup to The Jane Austen Society will delight both historical fiction and literary fans.  

With its charming characters and bookshop setting, Bloomsbury Girls is every book lover's dream! 

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

NATALIE JENNER is the author of the instant international bestseller The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls. A Goodreads Choice Award runner-up for historical fiction and finalist for best debut novel, The Jane Austen Society was a USA Today and #1 national bestseller, and has been sold for translation in twenty countries. 

Born in England and raised in Canada, Jenner has been a corporate lawyer, career coach and, most recently, an independent bookstore owner in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.

---

Q & A with Natalie Jenner*

GWR: Is there a particular author/work that inspired you to become a writer or the way you write? 

NJ: When I was very little, L. M. Montgomery was my biggest influence and inspiration – although I read from the age of three, the Anne of Green Gables books were the first ones that looked and felt grown-up to me and I overly identified with Anne as a victim of her own imagination! Quickly on Montgomery’s heels was Jane Austen, whose books I discovered relatively young in life on my parents’ shelves. I loved the efficiency of Austen’s prose: how she just dropped you into scenes and didn’t overly describe the characters’ physical appearance or setting. Ironically it felt very filmic to me, very alive – I now see how part of Austen’s genius was knowing exactly how much to give you, the reader, so that your own imaginative work as you read gives you the greatest possible satisfaction and reward.

GWR: What comes first for you—the overall idea or the characters?  

NJ: The idea for sure. I will read something in The New Yorker, or hear a line in a Netflix documentary, or hit my head on something while falling down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and it just starts to itch. They say you often end up writing about the one thing you can’t not write about. Once I know the setting, time period, and what’s at stake, I sit down to write and then the characters just start showing up, fully formed. It’s so much fun meeting them.

GWR: Did any minor characters become major characters over the course of the novel? Do you have a favourite character? 

NJ: My characters all seem to innately know their place as I write, so it’s rare that one gets out of control. But Daphne du Maurier definitely ended up being a much more pivotal character for the women in the bookshop than I had originally intended, particularly in terms of the mentoring relationship she develops with Vivien. Vivien was a favourite character of mine as I wrote (all that sass and fashion-forwardness!), but honestly, I had a soft spot for all three women in the shop. I also developed a serious writing crush on Lord Baskin as I wrote, and Ash Ramaswamy slowly but stealthily stole my heart. By the end, I would have given Ash anything he wanted.

GWR: I loved your portrayal of what life would have been like for strong, intelligent women who are living outside of what is expected of them. Was there anything that you learned about that time period that surprised you? 

NJ: I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much women were getting done behind the scenes, so-to-speak. Clarissa Spencer-Churchill and Sonia Blair (George Orwell’s widow) really did have the run of the place at the literary journal Horizon whenever the men went off. It was strangely similar to the war: when the men were absent from the workplace, women were entrusted with things they otherwise weren’t, proving their competence all along. 

GWR: The inclusion of actual literary figures and social figures was fascinating. Can you tell us about the research you did? 

NJ: I do this weird thing as an author when I get that first “itch” to write something new: I look for relevant books, movies, and articles lying around the house (I own a lot of books and DVDs) and work from those first, because they are a sort of embryonic reflection of what intellectually turns me on. With Bloomsbury Girls, I had several books on Du Maurier already on my shelves, as well as a fascinating book published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Foyles Bookshop in London called The Romance of a Bookshop 1904-1929, which set out its earliest financial, staffing, and sales history. As I write, I will trip across new resources which often end up informing the plot: for example, when I learned about Peggy Guggenheim’s time working at the Sunwise Turn, one of the first women-owned and operated bookshops in America, I was thrilled to discover that a 1923 memoir of that shop had recently been reprinted only six months before. So that account became both another seminal resource for me as well as a kind of thematic endgame for the women in my story, who decide to try to take over the bookshop where they work. And the inclusion of Samuel Beckett came about because of a throwaway line in a Netflix documentary on Guggenheim which mentioned her affair with Beckett in the 1930s. So the research process for me happens both before and during the writing, and can look quite haphazard from the outside, but through it all runs a thread of personal meaning—even quirkily of fate—which makes it a joy for me to find ways to incorporate into the actual story.

GWR: What was the inspiration behind the shop rules? 

NJ: I come from decades of working in human resources, most often as a career coach and recruiter, so looking back I think the rules reflect all those HR handbooks and guides I had to administer! The rules also come from the personality of Mr. Dutton, the shop’s general manager: I remember writing the interview scene with Evie Stone at the beginning, and right away picturing how Dutton would have his own HR handbook of a sort, properly framed and installed where everyone would have to see it when sitting in his office. But even before that, different rules had started tumbling out of the various disaffected employees’ mouths as I wrote their initial dialogue, reflecting the strained work environment they are all about to rebel against!

GWR: If Bloomsbury Girls was a beverage, what would it be? 

NJ: It would definitely be what I recently learned the British call “builder’s tea”: strongly brewed black tea, with heaps of sugar and some milk, that is the reward for hard work and a source of camaraderie in the workplace, be it at a construction site or in a bookshop.

GWR: Evie has traversed your novels, do you have more stories for these characters? 

NJ: I am working on a third book which, like Bloomsbury Girls, is a stand-alone but carries forward one of its new characters: Vivien Lowry, the insolent shopgirl and budding playwright. This book takes place five years later at the Cinecittà movie studio in Rome, where Peggy Guggenheim has lands Vivien a job as a script doctor after her latest play bombs. Part of the fun with this book was having a few characters from The Jane Austen Society suddenly show up that I wasn’t planning on, and getting to catch up with them all over again. 

GWR: What is one thing you hope readers take away from your books? 

NJ: I do believe that no matter how difficult life is, you have to find ways to move forward, big or small. That even the smallest decisions or choices (a new book, chatting with someone behind you in line, a cup of coffee with an old friend) can lead to something huge and sustaining. That is, ironically, exactly what happened to me five years ago, when I turned to the works of Jane Austen to get through a difficult health challenge for my family. I had no idea it would lead to my finally getting published after decades of trying, and I so hope that my books always give people that same measure of hope and optimism, as well as a sense of the rich value of our relationships with those around us and in our communities at large.

*A version of this post was published on STYLE Canada.

Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen

A special thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Money can't buy happiness... But it can buy a decent fake.

Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home--she's built the perfect life. But beneath this facade, Ava's world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn't been used in years, and her toddler's tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.

Enter Winnie Fang, Ava's enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business--someone who'd never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left holding the counterfeit bag. 

Counterfeit is stylish, soapy, and sharp. Chen pulls back the curtain on the knock-off designer handbag business and on the Chinese factories where they are mass produced. 

This fashion-forward novel is a union of contemporary fiction and mystery. Chen employs a hybrid point of view, shifting from second person—Ava is talking to the detective—to Winnie's third-person account in the second part. She stays within the tight context of the women's relationship, leaving her reader to guess which story is real and which is the counterfeit? 

With strong female characters, Counterfeit is full of glitz, hustle, friendship, and secrecy.

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

KIRSTIN CHEN is an award-winning, best-selling author of three novels. Counterfeit has been recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Time, Oprah Daily, Haper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Parade, and more. Television rights have been optioned by Sony Pictures. Her previous two novels are Bury What We Cannot Take and Soy Sauce for Beginners.

Chen was born and raised in Singapore and now lives in San Francisco. 

The Truth About Ben and June by Alex Kiester

A special thank you to HarperCollins Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A heartfelt debut that explores the complexity of a modern-day marriage when a new mother vanishes one morning and her husband must retrace events of their recent past to bring her home.

Love isn’t something that happens to you; it’s something you must choose every day.

From the moment Ben and June met in a hospital waiting room on New Year’s Eve, their love has seemed fated. Looking back at all the tiny, unlikely decisions that brought them together, it was easy to believe their relationship was special. But now, after several years of marriage, June is struggling as a new mom. At times, she wonders about the life she didn’t choose—what might have been if she hadn’t given up the lead role in a famous ballet to start a family. Feeling like a bad mom and more alone than ever, she writes to her deceased mother, hoping for a sign of what she should do next.

Waking to the sound of his baby, Ben realizes that June is gone, along with her suitcase. As Ben attempts to piece together June’s disappearance, her new friends mention things he knows nothing about—a mysterious petition, June’s falling-out with another mom, her strange fixation on a Greek myth. The more Ben uncovers about June, the more he realizes how little he actually knows her. And now the only way to bring June home is to understand why she left.

One of the central themes in The Truth About Ben and June is the Greek tragedy Medea. June, a former professional ballet dancer, had been cast to play the lead before becoming pregnant with her son. She resonates with the story which becomes apparent through the flashbacks and June's journal entries—techniques Kiester uses to propel the narrative.

Told through alternating perspectives of husband and wife, The Truth About Ben and June is an honest look into the highs and lows of marriage—as well as motherhood—and how many women sacrifice their careers in order to be the primary caregivers in their families. 

Kiester treats her characters with care in this solid debut. All-in-all good effort, even with the convenient conclusion.

BUY NOW

LISTEN NOW

ALEX KIESTER has a degree in creative writing from Rhodes College and has worked as a copy editor and a book editor. The Truth About Ben and June is her debut.

Kiester lives with her husband in Austin, TX.