review: the savages by matt whyman

There’s something different about the outwardly normal Savage family. As the book opens, their family secret is about to come out as a private investigator is looking into the father’s business. But that’s not all the family has to worry about: teen daughter Sasha has started dating a vegetarian, 12-year-old prankster Ivan pulls a prank that goes too far, and the mother’s spending is out of control. The characters are fantastically drawn and the incorporation of some self-righteous vegetarians is perfect given the peculiarities of the Savages’ own diet. The amusingly dark storylines converge in a fabulous way, but the ending is unsatisfying with many loose ends (likely because The Savages is intended to be the first in a series).
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Overlook.

review: the divorce papers by susan rieger

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When criminal law attorney Sophie Diehl is asked to interview a prospective divorce client (the firm’s divorce attorneys just happen to all be busy), she agrees with reservation but the assurance that it will be the only thing she has to do before returning to her regular duties. That is, of course, not the way things go as the client wants Sophie to represent her. With Sophie’s 30th birthday fast approaching on the heels of yet another failed relationship, working on a contentious divorce involving custody of a young girl (who broke my heart!) brings up issues stemming from the divorce of her own parents. Although Sophie takes the lead in The Divorce Papers, the other characters are as vividly alive as she is due to the interesting format of the novel. The Divorce Papers is entirely correspondence, newspaper articles, and legal briefs. This choice created some distance while also allowing for details that one would not get in some other form. The short sections filled with such high emotions also made it very easy to keep saying, “one more page,” until the last one was reached.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Crown.

review: happily ever after by elizabeth maxwell

Happily Ever After opens with the erotica that Sadie Fuller is writing under her pseudonym, but follows with Sadie’s decidedly unsexy personal life. She’s the self-described overweight ex-wife of a gay man with whom she shares a daughter. Sadie’s life goes along normally, if not boringly, until she spots a gorgeous, but confused man while she’s shopping at Target. It doesn’t take long before Sadie discovers that this man is the character from her manuscript! From there, Happily Ever After ends up being a mix of genres as paranormal elements combine with erotica, romance, and women’s fiction. Via Sadie’s commentary on being a novelist, Elizabeth Maxwell addresses the mixed genre issue which helps make it all work. The characters here were great and it was thoroughly enjoyable when Sadie lost control of her manuscript and then her life.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

review: reconstructing amelia by kimberly mccreight

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From the first pages, Reconstructing Amelia was amazing. The book opens with a glimpse into the life of a high school student named Amelia, then quickly turns to the perspective of Amelia’s lawyer mother, Kate. Kate had Amelia while in law school, but didn’t let a baby slow her down. Although she fiercely loves her daughter, Kate’s also dedicated to her job which she will come to regret after Amelia’s apparent suicide. Kate grieves hard, but then finds something new to dedicate herself to when she receives a text stating that Amelia didn’t jump. Kate learns that Amelia’s death was barely investigated and there was plenty going on in Amelia’s life that Kate was clueless about.

Although Amelia dies almost as soon as the book starts, Kimberly McCreight alternates between Kate’s present-day narration and the final days of Amelia’s life as told from her perspective. There are also a few flashbacks to when Kate got pregnant for good measure. It was wrenching to learn everything that happened to Amelia and all that she kept from her mother. When it all unfolded, I was stunned by the entire truth of these characters.
5/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, HarperCollins.

review: the sweetness of forgetting by kristin harmel

With her divorce still fresh, Hope is struggling a bit. She’s running the family bakery which has taken a hit from the economic downturn, her preteen daughter is being a bit of a brat, and her grandmother has Alzheimer’s. In a moment of clarity, Rose asks Hope to find out what happened to the family she left behind during World War II. Hope’s a bit confused though—the family has a Jewish surname which differs from Rose’s maiden name. Not to mention that Rose attended a Catholic church. Although Hope doesn’t feel she should take time away from saving the bakery, her daughter insists she must follow Rose’s wishes. That leads to Hope uncovering huge secrets about Rose’s past while also finding her own future.

The Sweetness of Forgetting’s plot is excellent and the inclusion of recipes from Hope’s bakery was fun, but the portrayal of Hope’s daughter was annoying. It’s been a while since I was Annie’s age, but I, like, didn’t say “like” each and every sentence. There’s actually an amusing moment where a retired teacher corrects Annie, but she continues to say “like” (and “whatever”) all the time.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.

review: heartbeat by elizabeth scott

Heartbeat was heartbreaking. Emma goes with her stepfather Dan (her dad died when she was young) to visit her mother in the hospital after school every day. But the thing is, Emma’s mother is dead. Her body’s being kept alive because she’s pregnant, but not far enough along for the baby to be born. Emma is incredibly pissed about the situation. She and Dan used to be close, but now she believes he only cares about his son. And for Emma, it is always “Dan’s son” never “my brother.” Emma has a really great friend to lean on, but it’s not until she starts talking to bad boy Caleb, who’s doing community service at the hospital, that she really starts to move past her anger and grief.

The portrayal of the relationships between all the characters was so realistic—Elizabeth Scott did an amazing job creating people with shades of gray. Emma and Dan aren’t perfect, but they aren’t evil either. The emotions of the characters really come through too. I couldn’t help but cry as Emma and Caleb and then Emma and Dan shared their grief with each other.
5/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.

review: fire by sara b. elfgren & mats strandberg

After finding out they were the Chosen Ones in The Circle, the five surviving girls are still at work to stop the apocalypse in Fire. As the school year starts, they discover their principal (who they learned was part of the Council in The Circle) has been ousted and the new principal will be implementing the new Positive Engelsfors movement into the curriculum. The Chosen Ones think the movement is stupid, but their classmates and a number of the adults in the community embrace it which isolates the girls further. As it turns out, the Chosen Ones have good reason to be wary of Positive Engelsfors.

As with the first book in the Engelsfors trilogy, Fire starts with a lot of unnecessary information. Fire would’ve been amazing if it started at Part Three as that’s where the action really picks up. Instead there’s a lot of background about the Positive Engelsfors movement (which does play a huge role in the plot, but much of the setup could’ve been eliminated) and what’s been going on in the lives of the Chosen Ones. Another issue was how many characters are in this lengthy novel. The Circle suffered from the number of characters in it and Fire introduces even more. Making matters all the more confusing, the girls switch bodies at one point. Yet Fire is better than The Circle. The latter third of Fire really shows just how high the stakes are for the Chosen Ones and the entire town of Engelsfors.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Overlook.