I feel Grinch-like panning this widely beloved story, but for me the sweetness was cloying; the tale slowed to a snail's pace as Allen explored every thought, possibility, and detail; and the twist felt jarring and was revealed too late to carry emotional weight. Theo, an elderly stranger, appears in the small town of Golden, Georgia, recognizing and appreciating locals' gifts and making them feel seen, sometimes for the first time. He admires the various portraits of locals

This second and final installment of Faizal's young adult duology emphasizes on the power of found family over blood ties; reveals chilling, ambitious, ruthless plans for creating a horde of vampires; and pushes characters to sacrifice for love. The first installment in Hafsah Faizal's young adult Blood and Tea series offered intriguing secrets, a swirling mystery, terrible betrayal, heartwarming found family, steady action, and vampires. That book ended with the city reeling

Culpability shapes questions around artificial intelligence--and societal and individual responsibility for it--around imperfect characters who have drifted apart and must now recognize each other's fallibility, whether through sacrificing or trying to protect each other. The Cassidy-Shaws are riding in their family's autonomous minivan when it crashes into another vehicle. Seventeen-year-old Charlie, the twins, their father Noah, and their mother Lorelei, an AI leader, are

The uneven pacing and tangents into bizarre scenarios in Trip made me feel somewhat disconnected from the story, but the moments of dark humor and the promise of an unorthodox payoff kept me reading and consistently curious. Sandra is a documentary producer at a death conference in Nepal when she dies in an unlikely, mundane accident. The majority of the speakers milling around talking at each other and preparing for their presentations are insufferable hacks, but after Sand

Immaculate Conception explores art and inspiration; how trauma shapes us; the fraught prospect of altering memories; and the blessing and curse of wealth, power, and necessary compromises in this tale of ambition, love, and deep envy spiraling into an out-of-control collective force. In an imagined near-future world, Enka is from a fringe family, with little exposure to ideas, art, creativity, or opportunity. Yet she secures herself a position at an art school, where she str

This faerie-centric reimagining of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities offered a compelling story of redemption and self-sacrifice with a significant fantasy undercurrent that is key to the plot. I felt bogged down by the explanations of the workings of the faerie system, its punishments, and its policies. I feared this was the best of times; I hoped it could not get any worse. H. G. Parry's novel A Far Better Thing  is a twist on Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities , and Parr

Woolever's experiences working for Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain are fascinating--and, in the case of Batali, often disturbing. The food-focused writing and restaurant workings are the highlights; the author also recounts the implosion of her personal life, addiction, and extramarital affairs as well as shaping a new normal for herself. Laurie Woolever is fresh from culinary school and realizing that she doesn't want to be a chef when she stumbles into a position as an assis

I like a story driven by a female investigaor of a main protagonist, and in this small-town mystery and tragedy, officer Emmy Clifton...

I've loved the other three books I've read by Lily King, but I didn't connect with the Heart the Lover characters and didn't believe in...

Ryan builds a vivid small-town Irish setting with its gloomy, then alarming, descent into corruption. The twenty-one points of view were...

This first installment in the series sets up an overlooked princess who becomes a heroine; deadly monsters who may be being treated...

I liked the unlikely modern-day friendship and depth of connection, and I love a best-friend story, but the past timeline and immense,...

I love the way Fortune builds a summer tableau, but the reasoning for this forbidden love didn't hold up for me, and I was frustrated by...

Comedian Maria Bamford's memoir is unflinching in examining her own base impulses and personal challenges such as mental illness and...

Norlin draws the reader into the eerie heart of a small group living sequestered in the Swedish forest as they gradually fall into...

Bug Hollow tracks the Samuelson family from an idyllic mid-1970s Northern California summer through a tragedy that upends already-tenuous...

Death of the Author explores the connection of an author to her work--and how a story can take on a life of its own--in this novel...

I loved the love for books in this novel, but I ultimately couldn't get past my issue with the premise, in which an actress plays the...

I'm a huge Amy Bloom fan, and while I appreciated the strong main female character here and the World War II-era crises, for me, the...

The first in the author's young adult steampunk Finishing School series offers wonderful, typically strong Carriger women with unique...