My very favorite Bossy August reads!
Welcome to the last gasp of summer---and the final Bossy summer book reviews. I hereby present to you historical fiction, literary fiction, romance, fantasy, and science fiction. I'm just that well-rounded!
If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think!
And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads?
01 The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd
The Final Act of Juliette Lloyd is a historical fiction art-focused mystery told in two timelines. I found the story immensely satisfying.
In The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby, Ellery Lloyd (the husband and wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos) offers a gorgeously wrought historical fiction mystery in two timelines.
In 1938, runaway heiress and aspiring artist Juliette Willoughby gives up her inheritance (and dark family history) for love, then disappears into Europe with surrealist painter Oskar Erlich.
She works tirelessly on a painting that garners significant interest, while Oskar's work doesn't get the attention he was hoping for. The tension between Juliette and Oskar begins to drive them apart, and Juliette begins to fear that her family has tracked her down in Paris.
Then Juliette and Oskar perish in a Parisian apartment fire--along with Juliette's brilliant painting.
Fifty years later, Caroline and Patrick, two Cambridge students who are falling in love, are also on the hunt for dissertation topics. They stumble upon a treasure trove of items belonging to Juliette Willoughby--and indications that the famous Paris apartment fire was no accident at all.
The modern-day timeline follows Caroline and Patrick through twists and turns, through the ins and outs of the art world, to the eventual collapse of their relationship (minor note: this occurs off page, and I found it somewhat unsatisfying).
The mysterious appearance of what seems to be a Juliette Willoughby original, followed by a tragic death within Caroline and Patrick's circle, bring the two back together, fueled by their knowledge of Juliette's motivations and their desire to understand the past more fully.
I was intrigued by the structure, and I liked the gradually revealed elements of Juliette's painting and of her past. This was immensely satisfying historical fiction.
I listened to The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby as an audiobook.
For my full review of this book, please see The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby.
02 You Are Here by David Nicholls
David Nicholls's characters, some of whom are strangers to each other, meander through the English countryside on a days-long jaunt--and along the way allow long-held vulnerabilities to fall away in this beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming story.
In David Nicholls's You Are Here, a small group of Sophie's friends, along with her teenage son, assemble to "walk" (hike) through the hills and moors of northern England for several days.
After meeting for the first time, Michael, a recently divorced teacher, studious and thoughtful, and Marnie, a playful copy editor who prefers solitude after her own divorce, fall into a companionable rhythm and, to their surprise, begin to seek out each other's company in an extended hike toward the coast.
We see the disconnect between Marnie and Michael's inner selves and their unsure, sometimes awkward acts and words, and it's deliciously heartbreaking to be privy to their insecurities and fears as well as their soaring hopes--and their crushing attempts to reign them in, in case their feelings aren't reciprocated and their fragile hearts can't take another round of loss.
I loved this literary fiction--the increasing vulnerability and search for connection after heartache, the vivid descriptions of English countryside, and the small moments that mean everything.
Click here for my full review of You Are Here.
03 The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
The Paradise Problem is the perfect light fiction read to close out the summer, with a high-stakes fake marriage, comeuppances for the greedy bad guys, our main protagonists' falling deeply in love, art > wealth, and plenty of Christina Lauren's signature steamy scenes.
In Christina Lauren's newest romantic fiction, Anna and West are a young married couple on the verge of divorce.
But this isn't heartbreaking for either party, because they were only married to reap the benefits of married student housing at UCLA.
Several years after saying goodbye, Anna is struggling to pay for her father's cancer treatment and has just been fired from her cashier's job at the corner store...when West shows up on her doorstep. The two were never divorced after all, West has a trust fund--and he has to stay married to Anna to collect on it. Which means traveling together to a tropical island for his sister's wedding, pretending to be soulmates, and fooling West's family.
This is an adorable fake-dating-in-paradise setup with funny dialogue, a wonderfully imperfect main protagonist, steamy moments, and a tantalizing prospect of a Happy Ever After ending.
The writing team of Christina Lauren also authored the books The True Love Experiment, The Unhoneymooners, In a Holidaze, Love and Other Words, Something Wilder, and Autoboyography.
Click here for my full review of The Paradise Problem--and links to lots of other romantic fiction titles I've loved.
04 Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout examines the range of characters from her many books and their intersecting stories, their imperfections, and their explorations of the meaning of life.
In small town Crosby, Maine, acclaimed writer Lucy Barton and attorney Bob Burgess walk and talk about everything under the sun--their pasts, their missteps, what they wonder about, and their dreams.
Bob is defending a man accused of a terrible crime: killing his mother, a mean, reviled lunch lady long perceived as an enemy of the town's young children. But the young man, a self-taught artist, is counting on Bob and an unorthodox approach to figuring out who really killed Bob's mother.
Tell Me Everything digs into secrets and lies, revenge, forgiveness, resignation, heartbreak, second chances, abuse, and addiction. And the story weaves in characters from other Strout books, including Olive Kitteridge.
But the story is primarily about human connections. Bob and Lucy explore the complexities of life, revealing more and more about their own inner selves as they take their weekly walks and become more dear to each other. And Olive and Lucy share stories from their own lives and those they've encountered, trying to come to terms with the meaning of life and the human condition.
Please click here for my full review of Tell Me Everything.
05 The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett
A leviathan lurks in the ocean, threatening destruction on a grand scale, while an unorthodox, brilliant investigator and her stalwart new assistant work to solve a murder mystery that reaches into the highest levels of society and government.
In Robert Jackson Bennett's novel, The Tainted Cup, he blends a rich, historical fiction-feeling story, a Sherlock Holmes and Watson-type investigatory relationship, and fascinating otherworldly fantasy and steampunk elements into a captivating story.
In a mansion in Daretana, an imperial officer lies dead--with a tree growing out of his body.
Brilliant, grumpy, extremely high-ranked detective Ana Dolabra and her inexperienced, staid, intuitive apprentice, Dinios Kol, aim to use their magical enhancements to get to the heart of what seems to be a murder--one that might threaten the whole Empire.
I was fascinated by the tone of The Tainted Cup.
The partnership between impatient, extremely intelligent Ana and the closed-off, steady, intuitive Din was a standout. Ana is Sherlock Holmes-esque in that she holds many of the answers to the mysteries that abound--but she doles them out on a need-to-know basis.
The Tainted Cup explores issues of class, wealth and privilege, duty, the power of nature, handicaps and gifts, and betrayal and loyalty. I loved this book and the extended story that Robert Jackson Bennett has begun here.
For my full review, check out The Tainted Cup.
06 The Blighted Stars (Devoured Worlds #1) by Megan E. O'Keefe
Megan E. O'Keefe's first space opera in the Devoured Worlds series presents failing worlds filled with conflict, shifting loyalties, pollution and destruction, and the beginnings of a lovely love story.
In the first book of Megan E. O'Keefe's Devoured Worlds series, The Blighted Stars, studious Tarquin Mercator is the unlikely heir to his ruthless father's galaxy-wide mining empire. Naira Sharp is a quick-minded spy and revolutionary who thinks she knows why newly discovered planets are being destroyed--and it all comes down to the greed of the Mercator family. Naira is determined to stop them.
Disguised as Tarquin's new bodyguard, Naira is celebrating her access to the Mercator family--until she and Tarquin realize they're stranded on a dead planet. Now they must rely on each other to survive--and together they stumble upon a widespread plot with corruption that spans the galaxy.
Pollution and multiple worlds' destruction drives the plot, and various characters' belief in their own judicious use of technology and science to play God is as complicated and faulted as one could anticipate.
The love story emerges through difficult circumstances and is lovely, although in some ways it's still in its infancy at the end of the book. The love story is also far from the focus of the book. The tone of The Blighted Stars is a somewhat dark and horrifying space adventure, with moments of sweetness and levity. I was hooked on all of it.
O'Keefe creates a high-stakes, universe-spanning drama in The Blighted Stars, and it sets up complexities for the books to come in this series, which I definitely want to read.
For my full review, please see The Blighted Stars.
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