The Overdue Life of Amy Byler: A Novel by Kelly Harms

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

Amy Byler is an overworked and underappreciated single mom that could use a break. Three years ago, her husband went on a business trip to Hong Kong and never returned. So naturally Amy is skeptical when he shows up and offers to take care of their kids for the summer. With no one to answer to, Amy decides to head to New York City—her former college stomping ground—for a librarian conference.

On her kid-free escape, Amy thinks she's in for catching up on sleep, lots of reading, and some professional development. Instead, she lets her hair down and has a fling with a handsome librarian. She also reconnects and stays with Talia, an old friend from college. Talia is a successful magazine editor who talks Amy into a makeover which she dubs as a "momspringa" (a take on Rumspringa) and documents the experience as a feature in the magazine.

With one man capturing her heart, and the summer coming to a close, Amy has to decide how this is all going to play out. What is going to happen to this new Amy and the life that she has carved out for herself? Before she can decide, past and present collide and Amy may lose a lot more than either of her identities.

This book was incredibly charming! I loved the dynamic between Amy and her teenage daughter, Cori (who the reader gets to know through her journal entries). Harms's writing is relatable, endearing, and witty. She is particularly effective in capturing the struggles and challenges of a mother—from mother's guilt to constantly worrying about your children. Women regularly sacrifice themselves for their children and oftentimes it is at the expense of their own happiness. This can be detrimental to the relationships that they have with their partners and their friends.

Are you in need of a momspringa? I know a lot of women that are...so if that's you, grab your girlfriends, and grab a cocktail, this book is for you!

KELLY HARMS a former editor, lived in New York and worked with many of her author-heroes as at HarperCollins and then as a literary agent at the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Harms lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her sparkling son, Griffin; her fluffy dog, Scout; and her beloved Irishman, Chris. 

The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan

A special thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Masha is drowning, figuratively speaking that is. Once a spirited and vibrant woman, she has been eclipsed by grief. Seeking solace in the silence, Masha frequents the local Victorian cemetery and the town pool where she punishes herself for her son's death in the freezing water.

But as she meets a cast of eccentrics—including Sally Red Shoes, a 70-something opera singer and the beautiful and wise Kitty Muriel—she begins to live again. The women change Masha's course by opening up a new world of possibilities. That is until the past comes back with a vengeance.

The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes is a poignant novel about death, resilience, and finding joy in the smallest things.

I had the sincerest pleasure of reviewing The Keeper of Lost Things and loved it! Hogan's a gifted author who writes with emotion and flair. In this story, Hogan draws on her own experience with cancer and treatment. She also explores friendship—between different generations and backgrounds—and the theme of drowning. In this novel, swimming serves a psychological purpose in that Masha uses it as a way to serve her penance. She swims underwater to the steps, holds the handrail and stays under until her lungs implode and she drowns...almost.

Masha is a character that lives a life of self-imposed emotional isolation. Her grief and the guilt over her son's death have become her dark companions, an addiction of sorts. There are some beautiful passages in the cemetery where she creates stories for those that are resting there. Gradually Masha surfaces both literally in the pool, and figuratively from her grief. It is then that her swimming becomes a joy rather than a punishment.

Thank you, Ruth Hogan, for this book. It is an incredibly moving story of grief, and of the resilience and beauty of the human spirit.

RUTH HOGAN was born in the house where her parents still live in Bedford, England. She was a veracious reader as a child and studied English at Uni.

Hogan lives in a Victorian house with her husband and an assortment of rescue dogs.

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

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

Hoffman's latest work transports us to Berlin in 1941. It is during this time, one of the darkest in humanity, that three women must rely on their courage in order to survive.

In order to keep her twelve-year-old daughter away from the Nazi regime, Hanni Kohn sends her away to stay with some distant cousins. She visits an illustrious rabbi to seek his help. While pleading her case to the Rabbi's wife, their daughter, Ettie, overhears and secretly offers help. Ettie creates a golem—a mystical Jewish creature—to protect Lea at all costs. When Ava, the golem, is brought to life, she is forever connected to Ettie her maker, and Lea, the girl she is created to keep safe.

With evil lurking everywhere, the girls face unsurmountable loss, and sacrifice so much for love.

We meet some extraordinary characters that take us on an astonishing journey of love and loss, while demonstrating incredible courage and resilience. Paramount is a mother's love for her daughter and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child. All of this is sprinkled with Hoffman's signature magical realism.

This is a fresh take on the Holocaust and there are elements that Hoffman shines a light on, like the border crossings of many children, that many are not aware of. She educates and elevates her readers. Hoffman's writing transcends. It is elegant and haunting, and quite simply, stunning.

In this book, all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is forever.

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ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.

Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.

Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.

Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.

She currently lives in Boston and New York. 

The Arrangement by Robyn Harding

A special thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Canada, and Gallery/Scout Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Natalie is a struggling art student in New York City. She is having trouble making rent and keeping up with her other bills. Her roommates are less than impressed with her drinking, overnight (male) guests, and her failure to pay her share.

While at school, she becomes friends with Ava, one of her classmates, who appears to have it all. She is always impeccably dressed and has her own apartment in Chelsea. Natalie discovers that Ava used an online site to find herself a sugar daddy (a wealthy, older man that pays for her time with sexual favours being optional) and is intrigued after she learns how much money can be earned for a date— some girls even get monthly allowances and trips.

When Natalie meets Gabe, a dashing and successful lawyer who is more than thirty years her senior, he seems like the perfect candidate and their chemistry is undeniable. Soon enough, they are a couple. Natalie falls hard for Gabe and believes he feels the same way about her. But Gabe hasn't been completely honest—he is still married and has no intention of leaving his wife.

Things end abruptly and Natalie can't cope. Her drinking spirals out of control and she starts stalking  Gabe. She even goes as far as to befriend his daughter. But Gabe's not having it. What was supposed to be an arrangement between two consenting people has turned into an obsessive nightmare that ends in murder.

After reviewing Her Pretty Face, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Harding's latest work and she delivers in spades! The plot is layered and emotionally charged with characters that are believable and engaging. Harding has a gift of captivating her reader, she delivers a powerful page-turner that is taut with suspense.

The writing is smart and complex, while not being trite or contrived. I was fully vested in the story, especially with such an interesting and fresh premise—I wanted to learn more about the sugar baby/sugar daddy dynamic.

This book is sexy, smart, and seductive!

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ROBYN HARDING is the author of The Party, Her Pretty Face, and The Arrangement. She has written and executive produced an independent film.

Harding lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband and two children.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal

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

This novel is about three British-born sisters—Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina—who do not get along very well, especially now that they are adults. The sisters embark on a pilgrimage to India in order to fulfil their mother's dying wishes, and to lay her to rest.

Rajni is a school principal. She is serious in nature and is always trying to maintain some form of control, especially over her teenage son. Jezmeen is a struggling actress, who at thirty, fears she'll never make it. Shirina is the peacemaker in the family. She is the good girl who has married into a traditional, yet very wealthy, family.

When Rajni was a child, she visited India with her mother, Sita, and vowed never to go back. But being a dutiful daughter, she must cary out her mother's last wish. For Jazmeen, the timing is perfect. She has just been publicly fired from her job in television. The timing also seems to agree with Shirina, who is having trouble at home with her overbearing in-laws. They are pushing her to make a decision that will have a lasting impact on her married life—she needs to decide whether to obey as expected, or for once, stand up for herself.

Travelling to India brings the sisters together and it is also a voyage of self-discovery. The girls learn more about their mother, as well as what really happened on the trip that she and Rajni took and why Sita could never return to India.

After reading the hilarious and heart-warming Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, I was sincerely thrilled to be selected to review The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters. What I enjoyed (again) about Jaswal's writing is the humour that is sprinkled throughout—there are a lot of wonderful comedic bits to this story that balance out the more weightier parts that surface over the course of the narrative.

This book is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. Women have to be more aware and alert when travelling, especially in a male-dominated society. Balli does women a great service by writing about some of these challenges and considerations. These dangers also contributed to the palpable tension that is present throughout the story; there is tension between the sisters because of their shared history, as well as the tension between tradition and modernity. The Shergill girls are the first generation in their family to be raised outside of India. They struggle with straddling both worlds, especially returning to a country that is tied to their past—they can identify with the culture, however, they don't fully belong there. In The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, this plays out in moments of confusion, humour, misunderstanding, and conflict.

Jaswal's writing is powerful, yet thoughtful, and of course, charming. What amazes me how she can shine a spotlight on issues that Indian women face, but is so graceful and engaging, striking the perfect tone. Another gem!

BALLI KAUR JASWAL has written four novels to date, as well as short fiction and non-fiction. Her third novel, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows was a Reese Witherspoon’s book club and The Girly Book Club selection in 2018. The book has also been optioned for film.

She was born in Singapore and has lived all around the world, including Australia, Japan, Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, the US and the UK, where she was a writer in residence at UEA.

She now lives in Singapore.

The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine

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

Dr. Kate English is easily envied. She is the heiress to a large fortune, has a beautiful home and gorgeous family, and a successful career. But when her mother, Lily, is brutally murdered, everything comes crashing down and things are not as they appear.

Kate reconnects with her estranged best friend, Blaire, who rushes to be by her side in her greatest time of need. The two put aside their differences, and it is as if no time has passed.

The grief is quickly replaced by fear when Kate starts to receive threatening messages. Although it is not apparent who is responsible for killing her mother, one thing is for certain, Kate is next. Blair decides to take matters into her own hands, to try and find Lily's killer, and in the process, alienates anyone that is close to Kate.

Secrets, lies, infidelity, and betrayal—things are not as they appear on the surface of high society in Baltimore.

I don't like to give negative reviews, I really, really don't...however this one just didn't do anything for me. The writing was horrible. There were little to no conjunctions or connecting words, instead there was short, choppy staccato sentences and after a while, this is exhausting to read. The characters lacked depth, and the story was completely underwhelming.

The writers seemed to struggle with pace, and plot as a whole. Just when things seemed to get moving, there would be an abrupt shift in focus to tertiary characters that were confusing to keep track of because there were so many. As far as the ending, I certainly won't spoil anything, other than to say that again, the pacing was off and it was rushed.

That being said, I have heard incredibly positive things about The Last Mrs. Parrish and will for sure give that one a chance.

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LIV CONSTANTINE is the pen name of USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and international bestselling authors (and sisters) Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. The duo write dark stories influenced by their Greek grandmother's tales.