Reading Lately: February 2022

Although communist countries are falling all over Europe, in 1989, Romania is still ruled by the cruel dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. Blackmailed by the secret police, seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu is forced to become an informer, walking the edge between deceiving the Securitate while still protecting his family. I Must Betray You is exactly what you want from young adult historical fiction. Sepetys showcases the everyday teenage life in a unique setting with a narrative that is as compelling as it is informative.

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Publication Date: 1 February 2022
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On New Year’s Eve 1999, five teenagers working the night shift at a Blockbuster in New Jersey are attacked, with only one survivor. Police quickly identify a local teenage boy as a suspect, but he disappears before they can arrest him. Fifteen years later, it happens again at an ice cream store. Now FBI Agent Sarah Keller must investigate both incidents, looking for a connection, while stirring up memories for the first survivor and the brother of the accused, who has always proclaimed his brother’s innocence.

The Night Shift has a tightly woven plot so all the characters are heavily interwoven. This interconnection allowed for plenty of twists and red herrings, but also made it so I guessed the ending. Yet, the story was so fun to read, that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller to read this Spring.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Publication Date: 1 March 2022
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Peach Blossom Spring is a family saga that follows 70 years of the Dao family. After a life as a refugee, first fleeing from the Japanese Army and then relocating during the Civil War, Renshu Dao and his mother Meilin eventually end up in Taiwan. When Renshu attends graduate school in America, he reinvents himself as Henry and refuses to talk about his childhood or heritage to his American wife or daughter.

Loosely based on the life of Melissa Fu’s father, Peach Blossom Spring does an excellent job guiding you through modern Chinese history. Although the story was interesting, the telling left something to be desired. The writing style was stiff and the characters are emotionally distant; you are told what happens to them but never able to truly experience what they are feeling.

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Publication Date: 15 March 2022
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Born with face blindness, Eleanor witnesses her grandmother’s murder but can’t identify the killer. Terrified the murderer will come for her, Eleanor begins to have severe anxiety and nightmares. When she unexpectedly inherits her grandmother’s vast estate in the Swedish woods, Eleanor also inherits the dark secrets that come with it.

Camilla Sten’s Swedish thriller has the perfect spooky setting at an abandoned estate in the woods. Eleanor’s face blindness and the tensions between the characters give the whole novel a suspenseful vibe. Yet, the lackluster character development left me wanting more depth. That said, you will appreciate Sten’s twist, as the backstory of Eleanor’s grandmother collides with the present-day events.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Publication Date: 29 March 2022
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Born with mixed-race heritage to parents who were born as slaves, Walter F. White’s skin was light enough that he could easily “pass” as white. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance and an important member of the NAACP, White used his ability to lead a dual life, going undercover to investigate some of the worst racist murders in America. White’s leadership shaped public opinion, pushed forward the Civil Rights Movement, and altered the mission of the NAACP toward legal and political activism.

I absolutely loved A. J. Baime’s biography of Walter F. White, which I picked up only because I loved his previous book on auto racing, Go Like Hell. Unsurprisingly, I had never heard of the NAACP leader and activist who had a hand in almost every major civil rights advance from 1920 to 1950. Baime focuses on White’s life and details the race relations that wove through the decades of American history, making it a fascinating, albeit sobering, read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Mariner Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Publication Date: 8 February 2022
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In Tokyo Ever After, Princess Izumi learned that her absent father is the Crown Prince of Japan. As she settles into her life as a princess, Izumi is thrilled when her parents get engaged. However, the Imperial council is refusing to approve of the marriage. Izumi must become the perfect princess to win the Imperial council’s favor while dealing with her own romantic troubles.

Although I adored Tokyo Ever After, a Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians mash-up, I thought the sequel was cute but unremarkable. I know some fans will swoon over Izumi’s new love triangle, but I was disappointed in the lack of character development and the retread drama from the first book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Flatiron Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Publication Date: 31 May 2022
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After her mom dies and her boyfriend dumps her, Hannah Brooks is desperate to avoid her mess of a life and sink into work as an Executive Protection Agent, a bodyguard to wealthy corporate clients. In walks her next assignment, reclusive superstar actor Jack Stapleton who needs protection from a middle-aged stalker while visiting his sick mother. The catch: Jack wants Hannah to pretend to be his girlfriend so his family won’t know. Now Hannah must act the part, and decide whether Jack’s just a really good actor or if the connection they seem to share is real.

I rarely read romances, but I am all over Katherine Center’s love stories, especially since they aren’t steamy at all. Don’t expect quality literature here, but a cute engaging contemporary romance that won’t make you think too much, but has the feel-good happily-ever-after ending you crave. I liked how Center flips the script, making Hannah the protector of the male protagonist. If you want a light easy rom-com without steamy sex scenes, The Bodyguard will be the perfect summer read for you.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Publication Date: 19 July 2022
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On a trip to the Channel Islands to write about her parents’ epic romance, Laura accidentally switches suitcases with a stranger and falls for its unseen owner based on the items in his case. With the help of a surly cab driver, she tries to find the mysterious owner while researching her parents’ epic love story and comes to realize that real life isn’t nearly as perfect as she imagined.

A cute romantic comedy, Just Haven’t Met You Yet endears with a quirky protagonist stumbling through love in an idyllic setting. The novel hits the right tone with Laura’s epiphany that a great story doesn’t make a great love, yet I didn’t connect with the story, feeling the plot was over-the-top. Also, I would not recommend the audiobook as the narrator mumbled through all of the cab driver’s lines, making the story extremely hard to follow.

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Publication Date: 9 November 2021
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Jason Mott’s contemporary novel showcases two parallel storylines. In the first, an unnamed Black author sets out on a publicity tour of his latest book. During the tour, he keeps encountering the Kid, a possibly imaginary child. Along with this story, Mott interweaves the tale of Soot, a young Black boy with extremely dark skin facing injustices in the rural South. As the plot converges, Hell of a Book looks at the costs of racism in America.

Hell of a Book is a unique book that falls between literary fiction and satire. The author who serves as the protagonist is full of frenetic energy and an unreliable memory and would fit in perfectly with the madcap characters of Catch-22. Mott’s creative narrative keeps you unbalanced, a conversation-provoking study of what it means to be Black in America. All I can say is that Hell of a Book is a work of art you must experience for yourself.

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Publication Date: 29 June 2021
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In her poignant memoir, Michele Harper shares what it has been like being a Black woman in a predominantly male and white career as an emergency room physician. Recently divorced, Harper started her first job in New York City where she learned how to heal her own wounds from childhood abuse through examples from her patients

In The Beauty in Breaking, each of Harper’s anecdotes hits on a specific systemic issue in healthcare today: racial profiling, sexism, sexual abuse in the military, mental health treatment, etc. However, as a whole, the memoir fell a bit flat, diving into Harper’s childhood but just skimming her adult life with odd tangents about meditation and yoga.

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Publication Date: 7 July 2020
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When their babysitter bails at the last minute, new parents Anne and Marco Conti decide they can still attend a dinner party at their next-door neighbor’s house. Despite checking on baby Cora every half hour, when they return home, she is gone. Suspicion immediately falls on the panicked couple because they are both hiding secrets. A must-read psychological thriller, The Couple Next Door instantly pulled me in and didn’t let me go. I thought the tension and timing of the revelations worked well, and I loved all the twists even though I guessed the ending.

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Publication Date: 14 July 2016
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Five-year-old Jack has lived his whole life in Room. It’s his whole world where he lives with his Ma all day long. At night, Ma shuts him up in the wardrobe for protection when Old Nick visits. What Jack doesn’t realize is that his mother doesn’t view Room as home, but as a prison where she is being held captive. Narrated from Jack’s perspective, Room hauntingly narrates unimaginable horrors witnessed through the innocence of a child.

Reading Room, I was still struck by the power of narration through the eyes of a child. The story is split into three parts: the captivity, the escape, and the transition into the world. While the horrors of the premise are unimaginable, the story doesn’t dwell on them, else it would be extremely difficult to read. Instead, Donoghue’s core message is about the transition, watching your entire world come apart, quite literally, and learning to live in the aftermath.

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Publication Date: 6 August 2010
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A decision made in an instant can change the course of so many lives. Just before Sarah and her Jewish family are arrested in Paris in 1942, Sarah locks her little brother in a cupboard, assuming she will be back soon. Now 60 years later, as journalist Julia Jarmond investigates the past, she learns volumes not only about that fatal day in history but also about herself.

When I mentioned I was reading Sarah’s Key, I got a million messages that it was the best and most heartbreaking book ever. Suffice it to say that my expectations were sky high, and, unfortunately, were not fully met. Don’t get me wrong, the premise of Sarah’s Key is beyond sad, but not in a sob your heart out way. Admittedly, I already knew the tragic plot event before I read it. Otherwise, the rest of this World War II novel was interesting and taught me new aspects of the war, but I wasn’t nearly as gripped as I expected to be. You win some, you lose some.

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Publication Date: September 2006
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Narrated through the eyes of a philosopher dog unlike any other, The Art of Racing in the Rain tells of Enzo and his beloved master Denny, a race car driver, as Denny navigates love, marriage, fatherhood, life, and death. At first, I found this dog-narrated story sappy and overrated, but then halfway through a custody battle ensued that completely hooked me and left me emotionally wrecked, but in a good way.

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Publication Date: 13 May 2008
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Inspired by her TED Talk, Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, empowers women to be brave enough to embrace imperfection. From a young age, girls are conditioned to be nice – to be kind, considerate, and not offend. Yet, what works well in elementary doesn’t translate into real-life creating women who feel like they are never good enough. I felt so called out reading Brave, Not Perfect because Saujani perfectly describes me and my insecurities in ways I had never really thought about. For readers like me who are in her target audience, Brave, Not Perfect is inspiring and relatable, though a little lacking in practical day-to-day advice.

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Publication Date: 5 February 2019
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Jacqueline Woodson shines in this middle-grade coming-of-age book hitting on important issues of today teaching children that it’s easier to face things when we aren’t alone. Every week, six children from a special class are given an hour alone to talk among themselves. Gradually, they begin to open up to each other, discussing Esteban’s father’s deportation, Amari’s worries of racial profiling, Haley’s father’s incarceration and her mother’s death, and their fears and hope for the future. 

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Publication Date: 28 August 2018
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Told in a series of vignettes, The House on Mango Street shows snippets in the day-to-day life of Esperanza Cordero, a young Mexican-American girl living in poverty. With no central plot, the story hints at the characters, events, and settings around her as she struggles to find where she belongs in a world that doesn’t seem to want her. Short but powerful, The House on Mango Street conveys the reader right into Esperanza’s world, making it a great coming-of-age read.

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Publication Date: 1984
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