Leigh Kramer

Teach Me by Olivia Dade {review}

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Seasoned Romance

 

My Review - 5 Stars

What a gem of a story! Teach Me is absolute perfection, a layered, nuanced seasoned romance and I could not get enough of it. This is the kind of book that makes you laugh out loud one moment and tearing up the next.

Martin and Rose are both in their early 40s, which fed my deep and abiding need for seasoned romance. They’re both divorced and I really admired how this aspect was treated. Rose is an ice queen to Martin’s cinnamon roll soul. They’re both great teachers and I really wish I’d had history teachers like them. I was invested from the moment they met and loved how they kept drawing closer and closer to each other, despite the barriers in place. This is some of the best character development bar none and I especially appreciated Rose’s arc.

I typically avoid single parents in my romance but Martin was a remarkable father and I loved his teenage daughter. Speaking of which, the side characters were the actual best. The other teachers, Rose’s former in-laws…they added so much depth to the story. Truly, I loved this book with my whole heart! Olivia Dade is a remarkable author and I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

CW: classism (which is countered), past child abuse (physical and emotional), past death of a parent, grief, divorce, scheduled school lockdown drill, past infidelity, past workplace sexual harassment, childhood poverty, fatshaming (which is countered)

 

Synopsis

Their lesson plans didn't include love. But that's about to change...

When Martin Krause arrives at Rose Owens's high school, she's determined to remain chilly with her new colleague. Unfriendly? Maybe. Understandable? Yes, since a loathsome administrator gave Rose's beloved world history classes to Martin, knowing it would hurt her.

But keeping her distance from a man as warm and kind as Martin will prove challenging, even for a stubborn, guarded ice queen. Especially when she begins to see him for what he truly is: a man who's never been taught his own value. Martin could use a good teacher--and luckily, Rose is the best.

Rose has her own lessons--about trust, about vulnerability, about her past--to learn. And over the course of a single school year, the two of them will find out just how hot it can get when an ice queen melts.

 

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Every Last Breath (Final Hour #1) by Juno Rushdan {review}

Genre: Romantic Suspense

 

My Review - 5 Stars

CW: past late-term miscarriage, grief

Every Last Breath is an impressive romantic suspense debut. Filled with twists and turns, the fast pace still allowed for plenty of character development and the romance balanced with the action. The latter is important to me as a reader. I don’t want to be worried about characters who are making out when they should be focused on safety but I also don’t want the plot to neglect their love story. In this case, I’m sure Rushdan’s real life experience as a former military intelligence officer came in handy and it helped me trust her characters would come out fine in the end.

This is also a second chance romance. Maddox believed her almost-fiancé died nine years ago, only to find he’s very much alive while out on a mission. A mission in which she needs his cooperation in order to prevent a pandemic from happening. Cole, on the other hand, is pissed. He thought Maddox betrayed him all those years ago and he’s not going to make working together easier on her.

Complicating all this is that Maddox is a covert operative for Gray Box, a secret government outfit and she was wrapping up college back when she and Cole dated. He has no idea how capable she is in the field or what a kickass woman she’s become. And it should stay that way: secret government organizations are supposed to stay a secret. I loved how Maddox navigated this issue. I loved both of these characters. They are both tremendously strong and have overcome so much to get to where they are. If you love books about people who are excellent at their jobs, this is the book for you.

Cole and Maddox have so much history to overcome but they were very much in love before everything went awry and their chemistry is still intact. It's so clear to the reader that they're good together, both in and out of the bedroom, and it's just a matter of whether they'll take a chance on each other. Cole can be harsh with her at times but it makes sense given what he believes. And Maddox tries to protect her heart because of what she experienced after his presumed death. The story deals very frankly with her late-term miscarriage and grief, which is good to see on page but may be triggering to some. It was refreshing to see how Cole’s grief was handled once he learned what had happened, as men’s grief over miscarriage can be minimized and often isn’t acknowledged at all.

I don’t want to spoil the plot because there are so many great twists and turns to experience. But I do want to mention a couple of things about the villain I found interesting. This made me think about the evolution of Bad Guys in books/TV/movies. We're back to the Russians/Eastern Europeans and that feels true to life. But the story delves into our complicity with what has happened in those countries. There’s a reason so many countries hate the US and we need to deal with that. Despite what the villain plans to do, which is heinous, he has a strong code of honor. It really humanizes him. I prefer not to have any POV from villains in my books but I will admit the brief insights we get from him added to the tension and pacing.

While the main mystery of this book is wrapped up, there’s a larger arc for the series that ends on a cliffhanger. There’s a double agent at Gray Box and I cannot wait to find out who it is. Bring on book 2!

CW: assassinations, attempted murder, violence, kidnapping, hostages, threat of pandemic, past death of loved ones, past late-term miscarriage (cervical incompetence), reference to past panic attacks, grief, psychiatric hospitalization due to depression and grief, prejudice/racism, brief reference to past diagnosis of child leukemia (appears to be in remission), reference to 9/11

 

Synopsis

48 hours
2 covert operatives
1 chance to get it right

Maddox Kinkade is an expert at managing the impossible. Tasked with neutralizing a lethal bioweapon, she turns to the one person capable of helping her stop the threat of pandemic in time: the love of her life, back from the dead and mad as hell at her supposed betrayal. Recruiting Cole to save millions of lives may be harder than resisting the attraction still burning between them, but Maddox will do whatever it takes...even if it destroys her.

When Maddox crashes back into Cole Matthews' life, he wants to fight back. He wants to hate her. But the crisis is too strong to ignore, and soon the two former lovers find themselves working side-by-side in a breakneck race to stop a world-class killer with a secret that could end everything.

 

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Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy from Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for an honest review.

Muse Of Nightmares (Strange The Dreamer #2) by Laini Taylor {review}

Genre: YA Fantasy

 

My Review - 5 Stars

What a powerful conclusion to this duology. It’s dense with action and characters and I had no idea how the intersecting threads would resolve, particularly for Sarai and Strange. All hope seemed lost at the end of Strange The Dreamer (one of my favorite books of 2017) and yet Sarai has a chance thanks to Minya’s gift. But of course it comes with a mighty price.

While Strange was an ode to books and reading, Muse is more a story about what happens when we are lost to our grief and need for revenge. Grief can twist and distort us, as we see with Minya and Nova. Half the time, I wasn’t sure if I was rooting for them to be crushed or redeemed. They do awful things but they’re treated with compassion and we can clearly see why both became this way.

Laini Taylor’s world-building was amazing per usual. The ghost characters have different abilities compared to other ghost stories—a saving grace for Sarai—and the arc with the two Ellens had me rapt. All of her angel demon monster books are inventive but I was particularly impressed with how things came together in this one. I have no idea how she came up with the idea for this story but I’m so glad she did.

CW: past rape, child slavery, slavery, violence, murder, attempted murder, grief, domestic violence, toxic parents, child abuse

 

Synopsis

Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.

She believed she knew every horror and was beyond surprise.

She was wrong.

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the Muse of Nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this astonishing and heart-stopping sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

 

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Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman by Alice Steinbach {review}

Genre: Travel Memoir

 

My Review - 4 Stars

I’m not sure how I found out about this book. Only that the moment I did, I ordered a copy and I started reading it as soon as it arrived. For as much traveling as I do, I’ve never taken a solo trip. I either travel with friends or I travel to go see friends. I’ve long been inspired by people who travel by themselves. However, I’ve never particularly desired to do so myself. Perhaps because I’m single and get as much alone time as I want—traveling, for me, is about companionship and community. And yet, with my 40th birthday around the corner, I’m wondering if a solo trip might be the right way to welcome the next year in. And so I read this book.

Steinbach took a four month sabbatical from work to travel to London, Oxford, Paris, and various parts of Italy when she was in her 50s. There’s a large amount of privilege associated with this trip and she unfortunately does not seem aware of it. I would not be able to take a break from work for that long, on top of paying for the trip itself, nor do I know many people who could. I don’t begrudge her the opportunity. It’s more like I’m impressed she could afford to do so on a reporter’s salary.

That aside, Steinbach has no small amount of anxiety at the start of the trip as the enormity of what she’s doing sinks in. But from there, she is open to where the trip takes her and strikes up conversation with strangers wherever she goes. At times, she explores on her own and other times, she goes off on an adventure with someone she’s just met. This even leads to meeting Naohiro, with whom she has a love affair off and on throughout her trip. I’m envious of people who do this so easily and I did see somewhere that she’s an extrovert.

While I wanted to read this memoir to help make sense of whether I should try solo travel, it is at its heart a memoir. It is Steinbach’s personal experience about what she learned about herself and her need for independence. I related to that latter part quite a bit. There are plenty of good takeaways, with relevance beyond travel, such as Steinbach’s new friend who asks her, “Why not turn this mishap into an adventure?” Wise words for us all. I also liked learning about the random history of places she explored, such as the Home of Rest for Ladies of Small Means in Surrey. It was a home for working women in need of a holiday. How amazing is that?

While Steinbach had mostly positive experiences on the trip, she does not shy away from sharing about the negative. She delves into her sense of safety as a single woman and how that is altered when she’s almost mugged in Italy. She gets horribly ill while in London but her new friends take care of her and there were some really tender moments as she has to accept their help.

The writing is lovely and I was quite engaged by her descriptions and experiences, with one exception. Steinbach’s father died when she was quite young and she describes aspects of her grief over losing him that I found confusing. Or at least they weren’t as well integrated into the narrative.

She does not always talk about people in the kindest way. And it bears noting she’s a straight woman who released this book in 2000 and there are some dated elements as a result.

CW: death of a parent, grief, divorce, attempted mugging

 

Synopsis

"In many ways, I was an independent woman," writes Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Alice Steinbach. “For years I’d made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow.” But somehow she had become dependent in quite another way. “I had fallen into the habit of defining myself in terms of who I was to other people and what they expected of me.” But who was she away from the people and things that defined her? In this exquisite book, Steinbach searches for the answer to this question in some of the most beautiful and exciting places in the world: Paris, where she finds a soul mate; Oxford, where she takes a course on the English village; and Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to be married. 

Beautifully illustrated with postcards from Steinbach’s journeys, this revealing and witty book transports you into a fascinating inner and outer journey, an unforgettable voyage of discovery.

 

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The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets by Molly Fader {review}

Genre: Women's Fiction

 

My Review - 5 Stars

This is romance author Molly O’Keefe’s women’s fiction debut as Molly Fader. I love her romance novels so I was curious how her women’s fiction might compare. The connections are there: she’s one of the best in the business when it comes to rich character development and the exploration of relationships. Only in this case, the focus is more on the relationship between two sisters and their mother than the love interests. (Side note: it’s interesting to see quite a few romance authors taking a stab at women’s fiction in the past few years.)

The story is told through four female POVs: sisters Lindy and Delia, their mother Meredith, and Delia’s teen daughter Brin. The characters are strong and well-developed. I was especially drawn to Lindy’s arc, as someone who went away and now it being drawn back in and whose life has not turned out the way she imagined. I really enjoyed her burgeoning relationship with Chief Singh, who is a total dreamboat.

Multiple POVs give us great insight into the family dynamics. Digging in to who knows what was fascinating. There are secrets in this family: again and again, Lindy and Delia mention how the McAvoy way is to essentially bury things under the rug. But you can only bury things for so long before they start to rise to the surface. I wanted to know the secrets and to better understand the pervasive dread that made me burrow even deeper into the story.

The way the Fulbright House featured in the story—or perhaps loomed—gave it definite gothic vibes. The house is a specter. We know something went down at that house but we don’t know what, only that it changed the course of the McAvoy women’s lives in two distinct ways. First, it figured into the death of Lindy and Delia’s dad when they were kids. Second, something that is not revealed until the end of the book and warrants a content warning. (See the spoiler tag in the CWs at the end of this review for details.) Once the truth is revealed, it was handled well but please exercise caution as needed.

This story was enthralling and Fader’s gift for prose was on full display. If Fader decides to write more women’s fiction, I will certainly keep reading more in this vein.

CW: past death of a parent, drowning, grief, stroke, hospitalization, postpartum depression, shoplifting

Spoiler CWs (highlight bracket to see): [second degree burns, past rape, unexpected pregnancy]

 

Synopsis

What drove their family apart just might bring them back together... 

It's been seventeen years since the tragic summer the McAvoy sisters fell apart. Lindy, the wild one, left home, carved out a new life in the city and never looked back. Delia, the sister who stayed, became a mother herself, raising her daughters and running the family shop in their small Pennsylvania hometown on the shores of Lake Erie.

But now, with their mother's ailing health and a rebellious teenager to rein in, Delia has no choice but to welcome Lindy home. As the two sisters try to put their family back in order, they finally have the chance to reclaim what's been lost over the years: for Delia, professional dreams and a happy marriage, and for Lindy, a sense of home and an old flame--and best of all, each other. 

But when one turbulent night leads to a shocking revelation, the women must face the past they've avoided for a decade. And there's nothing like an old secret to bring the McAvoy women back together and stronger than ever.

With warm affection and wry wit, Molly Fader's The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets is about the ties that bind family and the power of secrets to hold us back or set us free.

 

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Disclosure: I received an advanced copy from Graydon House in exchange for an honest review.