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The Books I'm Reading Now This week I'm reading a book in which a modern-day, luxury tradwife influencer wakes up in the gritty, unforgiving 1800s, Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear; I'm listening to Mai Nguyen's darkly funny and moving book about deep grief and finding a way forward, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead; and I'm listening to Ilona Andrews's novel about a superfan who wakes up in the world of her favorite fantasy series--danger, wonder, and all, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke Caro Claire Burke's debut novel features main protagonist Natalie, a fundamentalist Christian who subscribes to male-dominated power structures. She marries the son of a powerful senator, and she delves so far into perfection in homemaking and parenting, she becomes a "tradwife" influencer with 8 million followers. Then one day, Natalie wakes up panicked, without her perfectly showcased, support-staff-driven, manicured and merchandised modern farmhouse. She is living in the actual 1800s, in a homestead version of her life without electricity, indoor plumbing, or running water. Yesteryear is satirical, darkly funny, and has me completely hooked so far. I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley. 02 Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen Cleo and her best friend since childhood, Paloma, live down the street from each other and are ecstatic to be pregnant with their first children at the same time, and they give birth on the same day. But Paloma and her husband happily bring their new son home, whlie Cleo and Ethan find themselves in a nightmare of grief: their daughter Daisy dies at the hospital soon after birth. Cleo and Ethan's world is turned upside down. Nguyen plunges the reader into Cleo's grief, her sometimes socially unacceptable methods of getting through each day, and, much to her husband and family's horror, her departure from actuarial work to employment at the funeral home where Daisy's service was held. Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead is turning out to be darkly funny, moving, honest, messy, and lovely. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio and Libro.fm. 03 This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me (Maggie the Undying #1) by Ilona Andrews Maggie has long leaned on rereading her favorite fantasy series for comfort and security. She eagerly awaits the final book in the series, and she feels like she knows the characters and world of Kair Toren. So when she wakes up naked and cold in a filthy gutter, with events unfolding around her as they do in the first book of the series, Maggie doesn't know how or why she's there, but she's certain she's living within her beloved story. Maggie must figure out how to survive long enough to figure out what's going on. She can lean on her knowledge of the behind-the-scenes forces at play in the kingdom, of figures' secrets and motivations, and of what is to come--as long as she doesn't make herself a target and doesn't change significant events by interfering. But she realizes that if she dies, she quickly comes back to life. And she doesn't seem to be very good at staying out of trouble. This is fascinating, fun, elaborately plotted, and irresistible so far. I'm listening to This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me as an audiobook. “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team, Gordon and Ilona. They have also co-authored the Kate Daniels, Edge, and Hidden Legacy series, as well as the Innkeeper Chronicles.

Six Bossy Literary Fiction Favorites I'm still mining my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. If you've missed my prior lists, take a look on the blog! You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite literary fiction reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 What We Can Know by Ian McEwan Ian McEwan's literary fiction looks back upon our present with a cutting 2119 eye. An enthused future academic and a contemporary poet's put-upon wife trade points of view to illuminate across two timelines a calculated rewriting of history, our brave and hubristic present-day existence, and fictional yet hauntingly plausible dangers. In What We Can Know, we're introduced to characters living in a 2119, post-global-warming, post-nuclear war existence in which the population has been cut by more than half, inland seas spread across the globe, and much of the world's variation, richness, and natural world no longer exist. Within this timeline, Tom Metcalfe, one of our main protagonists, is an academic fascinated by the past (the years surrounding our present day). In particular, he is obsessed with a famous poet named Blundy's ambitious 2014 poem, the single copy of which was read aloud for the (obtuse, grumpy, belligerent) poet's wife's birthday, then lost to time. Early on, I found the academic focus somewhat tedious, but then the story builds into unexpected, often dark layers. The tone of the book is quiet, shadowy, and reflective, but there are rich, sordid, often unexpected twists beneath the largely academic, intellectual exercises and discussions. Affairs, theft, lies, murder, negligence leading to death, drug-addled decision-making, and terrible mistakes are all essential components of the novel, yet the pacing does not charge along; this is a slow creep through the surface to often-wretched underbellies. Ian McEwan is also the author of Atonement, On Chesil Beach, Saturday, Amsterdam, and other books. You can click here for my full review of What We Can Know. 02 I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman Harpman's slim novel poses a mysterious situation without promising concrete explanations. Our main protagonist knows little about her situation or location, yet persists in her quest for answers and builds a rich inner life filled with wonder. Forty women (one is a young girl, our main protagonist) live year after year as prisoners in an underground cage. Male guards come and go, feeding the women minimal rations and never speaking. The women have no recollection of how they came to be in this place, and no information is forthcoming about why they are trapped there. They are not allowed to touch each other but may speak, and to bond and pass the time, they share stories of their past lives, bicker over infinitesimal variations in how they may prepare their food or sew their own clothing, and simply kill time until their almost certain death inside the cell. Then a blasting alarm sounds, the nearest guard drops his keys and flees, and the women scramble for an escape they never anticipated. But what awaits them on the other side of the bunker doors? The novel's tone doesn't assure a satisfying set of answers as to why the women were chosen for this imprisonment, insight into what its purpose might be, or details as to its location. Yet I was intrigued by the post-apocalyptic, puzzling situation and by the main protagonist's persistence and rich inner life, which exists in stark contrast to the physical barrenness that seems to surround her. For my full review, please see I Who Have Never Known Men. For more postapocalyptic and dystopian stories I've Bossily reviewed, please check out the titles here. 03 Clear by Carys Davies Davies's slim, luminous, heartbreaking novel sets a story of isolation and human connection against the brutal removal of impoverished citizens from the land in mid-19th century Scotland. Davies sets her stark, beautiful story Clear against the backdrop of the Scottish Clearances of the 19th century, in which impoverished citizens were driven off their land. John Ferguson, a minister in need of funds for his new church accepts the job (against the advice of his wife) of evicting Ivar, the sole inhabitant of a remote island off the northern coast of Scotland in 1843. A series of events leads from disaster to recovery, to connection and secrets, to a surprising set of revelations. The men develop a tender, heartwarming friendship separate from class, background, intellect, and societal expectations. John, at a distance from worries about his congregation and the future of Presbyterianism, as well as from his kind wife, sinks into Ivar's daily rhythm of working on the land, caring for animals, and finding wonder in nature. Time passes as though in a vacuum, and the men's need for human connection overshadows all else. By the time John's wife appears--fresh from a rough sea journey, inspired to travel by a sense that John was in danger--the resolution feels heartbreaking, heartwarming, and utterly surprising in its generosity and departure from societal norms. For my full review of this book please see Clear. 04 O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker O Caledonia is a modern classic, literary fiction that encompasses darkly funny passages and tragic consequences set against a gloomy Scottish landscape that serves as a key character, it's so essential to the tone of the novel. Barker's novel features Janet, a misunderstood, mocked, badly treated young woman coming of age in a family of obtuse, rigid, unkind members living in a gothic, ramshackle castle in Scotland. Janet's only ally is her eccentric old Aunt Lila, who is herself powerless and in danger of being thrust from the family. Boarding school leads to further ostracization and irritating demands upon Janet's time, when she'd prefer to lose herself in literature and avoid social interaction altogether. This is darkly funny, with a surprisingly startling and tragic setup for O Caledonia's immersive, atmospheric story. I found the bookends that set the stage for (and close the loop on) a character's demise distracting, but I was captivated by the story inside. Each attempt Janet makes to be her true self, delve into her interests, or behave naturally ends in a tragic reprimand or a disastrous set of consequences. She is punished for wanting, for knowing, and for achieving. Her family could be said to be paralyzed by societal norms if their imaginations weren't so lacking; no other routes appear to occur to them, so they plod cluelessly, and often cruelly, forward. The bleak, unforgiving setting is as present as another character, with its dead orchard stretching into the distance; whipping, unrelenting wind; and dark, cold days. For my full review, please see O Caledonia. 05 The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr Carr's newest novel is a captivating series of character studies within a tightly knit Irish seaside community in the late 1900s. While characters struggle to make ends meet, support each other, and avoid giving in to the least generous parts of themselves, tragedies and wonders shape their community in this lovely, heartbreaking and heart-wrenching tale. In a seaside Irish town in the 1970s, a baby is washed up on the shore. As the community wonders at his mysterious, whimsical appearance, they embrace Brendan, as he is ultimately named, as one of their own, yet hold him separate--and, for a time, credit him with the power of bestowing blessings upon them. But the world of the story is grounded in day-to-day stressors and challenges. The country is reeling from economic troubles; Brendan's older adoptive brother deeply resents his presence; and conflicts and complicated dynamics underscore friendships, family relationships, and the community as a whole. The story is a fascinating study of relationships, with heartwarming moments and heartbreaking developments alike. Brendan is not the main protagonist, despite the novel's title, yet he is central to the story in that his presence pushes others to determine what they're about. He remains steady in the face of external upheaval (and Declan's exceptionally poor treatment of him), until even Brendan begins to waver and to seem for a time unsure of who he is and what he is made of and made for. When Carr offers various measures of character growth and resolutions toward the end of the book, they are reassuring and lovely, sometimes heart-wrenching, and fittingly complicated. I listened to The Boy from the Sea as an audiobook. Click here for my full review of The Boy from the Sea. 06 Time of the Child by Niall Williams Time of the Child feels like poetry in prose form, and Williams richly shapes a small-town Irish community's everyday and extraordinary events in this poignant, gorgeous literary fiction novel. In 1962 in the small Irish town of Faha, it's Christmastime, and Dr. Jack Troy and his oldest daughter Ronnie are coping with complicated family dynamics in their drafty, rural Irish home when an unexpected discovery turns everything upside down. During the annual, chaotic community fair preceding this holidays, which this year is a rainy business full of haggling, disappointments, and triumphs, an infant is left by the church gates. Young Jude and Faha's grown twins, Tim and Tom, bring the baby girl to Dr. Troy and Ronnie, believing her dead but not sure what else to do. And she does seem to have passed on to another realm, until Dr. Troy is able to revive her. In an impulsive pact, the four men agree not to share the news of the baby with anyone. What really shines in Time of the Child is the power of the small-town Faha community--gossipy and desperate for dirt as its citizens may largely be. The miracle of unity brought about by a baby's presence is poignant without feeling too easy. This story is beautiful and powerful. Williams's writing feels like a poem in prose structure; no word is wasted, and I read this novel slowly in order to savor the world the author so gorgeously created. For my full review of this book please see Time of the Child. You might also like to read the Bossy review of the Niall Williams novel This Is Happiness.

Page's romantic novel celebrates the importance of books for coping, celebrating, and exploring, while also delving into our main protagonist's deep grief and fight to find her footing again after loss. The sweet story offers poignancy, heart, and hope. Tilly is a young adult still reeling from the death of her beloved husband Joe, and she's hoping that the start of a new year will mean hope and maybe a version of a fresh start. She receives a mysterious message from the owner of Book Lane, a local London bookshop, and learns that Joe had made arrangements for a handpicked book for Tilly each month of the coming year, hoping to inspire, comfort, and challenge Tilly, but most of all, to open her up to living again. The books become a touchstone each month during that first difficult year after Joe's death. Tilly befriends bookseller Alfie and his coworkers, and her new friends allow her to grieve as well as celebrate small joys without guilt. But the year following Joe's passing also allow Tilly to imagine a new version of herself and a future with happiness, hope, and the promise of unexpected adventure. But the grief, the books--and her friendships, particularly with Alfie--change Tilly. She considers her life as she hasn't before, she grows fully into herself, and she has difficult conversations she's avoided (the daughter-in-law/mother-in-law discomfort and rehashing of old grievances resolves messily-beautifully, in satisfying fashion). While the young widow fights to get her footing back, she thinks back on her relationship with Joe, who was in many ways her polar opposite. She doesn't sugarcoat her memories, and her revisiting the key ups and downs is powerful. Joe celebrated her passion for books but was hardly a reader himself--and then he was gravely ill, hardly able to do more than mastermind the book-a-month plan. It becomes clear that Alfie the well-read book lover was obviously the driving force behind the actual, perfect book suggestions, which makes Tilly feel all kinds of ways. But Alfie's bookstore, which he inherited from his father, is under threat due to rising rents, rising costs, and an increasingly posh neighborhood threatening to price him out. The community loudly voices support for their beloved store, but it will take a contemporary-romance miracle for the store to be saved. Luckily, this is a feel-good romance celebrating books while its main protagonist reels with grief. While the complications and difficulties exist, Page makes you certain things will turn out with hope and the promise of joy. The book recommendations by theme that kick off the chapters (courtesy of Alfie and the bookstore) are a fantastic touch, and along with Tilly's book-a-month selections, Page offers up dozens of titles to explore. I listened to This Book Made Me Think of You as a libary audiobook via Libby. More Books You Might Enjoy Libby Page is also the author of The Lido, The Vintage Shop of Second Chances, The Island Home, The Lifeline, and The 24-Hour Café. You might also want to check out these other Bossy reviews of books about books and books that deal with grief.

I felt that knowing the story of the nonspeaking author of this novel added significant depth and poignancy to this big-hearted, heartbreaking story of the clients and staff of an adult daycare center, their personal stories, and their inner lives. In his debut novel, author Woody Brown, who is nonspeaking and autistic, shares a portrait of an adult daycare center in California through glimpses of its varied clients and staff members, their motivations, their frustrations, their hopes, and their divergent paths. Upward Bound is a dreary building, but its daily clients bring gifts, abilities, and desires for connection. Its staff members have uneven abilities to recognize the humanity behind the clients' conditions and disabilities and to meet their emotional needs. Brown slides the reader into various points of view, allowing us to sink into the inner lives of clients who may not be able to verbalize their thoughts and needs but who feel complex emotions and desires, as well as into staff members' varied backstories of how they came to Upward Bound. Some crucial disconnects between client intention and staff interpretation become clear to the reader; the characters' distress and frustration are powerful to understand. Yet some characters make undeniable, unlikely, essential connections with each other. Tragedy ultimately strikes in an unexpected way, and some figures drift apart. Brown shares realistic challenges and disappointments within the novel, yet he also offers enlightening insights and hope for improved care and connection for his Upward Bound characters. He does this without smoothing the way too easily for discovering potential avenues to communication, which the author well knows can be a fraught, necessarily inventive and flexible, complex, time-consuming challenge. The real-life story of the challenge of Brown's education, his extremely dedicated mother, and his labored yet highly effective method of communication is breathtaking and inspiring. (He points to letters on a laminated board and waits for his mother to confirm his words; this is how he conveys his thoughts and feelings and how he dictated the entirety of this novel, and this obviously requires his mother or another caregiver to spend hours working closely with him.) Brown's personal experiences lend legitimacy and particular poignancy to the protagonists' stories and paths in this big-hearted, sometimes heartbreaking novel. I received a prepublication edition of Upward Bound courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. Other Books You Might Like You might also be interested in my Bossy reviews of other novels featuring neurodivergent characters and books that involve characters with disabilities.

The third in the Cal Hooper series is a slow-burn mystery in which Tana French serves up deep character development; a prominent, brooding Irish landscape; and a multitide of community secrets, dark motivations, and furious revenge. When I Bossily reviewed the first book in this series, The Searcher , I started my review this way: What do I love more than a Tana French book, a retired detective story, or an Irish setting? Nothing. There is nothing I love more than any of these setups, except all three in one . I continue to stand by all of this appreciation for French and for this series. That brings me to this third and final Cal Hooper mystery, which provides more of all of it: more details of small-town Irish life in Ardnakelty , more retired-cop challenges of trying to live a quiet life, more sharp undercurrents that keep Cal hopping--and more prickly interpersonal encounters as he wades into and through the unspoken language, loyalties, and duty of getting along with and truly becoming part of his community. To recap: Cal Hooper, a former Chicago cop, has settled into small-town Ireland life, made connections, developed a low-key but deeply felt romance with Lena Dunne, and taken on the role of a surrogate father to a local teen, Trey Reddy. But the quiet life he had envisioned continues to elude him. In this third novel in French's series, the community reels over the disappearance and death of a local young woman, Rachel Holohan. She had been involved with the son of a powerful local family, the Moynihans, and it becomes clear that the Moynihans plan to change the area's landscape by building an enormous factory--after buying up all the farms in the area. To say that community feelings are mixed on this matter is dramatically understating things, and the significant rift in the town is exacerbated by rumors, gossip, fears, and fury around Rachel's demise. The focus of The Keeper is largely the complicated, evolving, often unspoken interpersonal goings-on in Ardnakelty , and I was fascinated by Cal's navigation of the minefields (along with Lena's and Trey's entrees into their own complicated social encounters). Cal is flying blind less often now that he's been around Ardnakelty locals for a while, but he must sometimes make educated guesses about the waterfall of repercussions he may be causing with an act or question, or which move increases his loyalty to his best buddies, or how he might manage a sticky situation that involves his best girl or his pseudo-daughter. In this novel, French also digs into the past to show us Lena's past and to illuminate the reasons for her frequent seclusion and her withdrawal from local society. Her dips within this novel into reconnecting with old acquaintances (and the resulting hubbub) illustrate the generations of patterns, expectations, claustrophobic rules, and long-simmering conflicts that swirl through the entire area. The idyllic countryside hides all manner of secrets, greed, cruelties, manipulation, and darkness, and the "Irish noir" label perfectly fits the tone of French's shadows and sinister situations. French highlights the clash of tradition and stasis against modernity, change, and proposed shifts in ownership and community focus. These complicated matters are at the heart of the instigating conflict in the novel. The Keeper is an almost 500-page slow burn mystery. An undercurrent of tension exists throughout, as acts of revenge grow in a cycle of growing stakes and danger. After a time the mystery is no longer a mystery; the main unknown is which form the community's renegade justice will take, and how far it will reach. I wasn't wholly satisfied with the truth of Rachel's demise, and I wasn't sure I fully bought into it, nor the particulars of the justice served to the perpetrators of the major wrongdoings here. But I love a mystery that leans into character development, and The Keeper delivers wonderfully on that front. The character development takes center stage throughout. While I don't think you must read the other books in the series before this one, I do think readers would benefit from the richness of the characters' journeys in prior Cal Hooper books. I received a prepublication edition of The Keeper courtesy of NetGalley and Viking Penguin. More Tana French Novels I love Tana French. You might also be interested in my Bossy reviews of other Tana French novels .

The Books I'm Reading Now This week I'm reading the newest novel by a favorite author, Taylor Brown, Wolvers ; I'm reading Woody Brown's debut novel about an adult daycare center, Upward Bound ; and I'm listening to Christina Applegate's memoir, You with the Sad Eyes . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Wolvers by Taylor Brown Trace Temple is a disillusioned, angry young man whose family lost its ranch after hard times. Then Trace, a gifted tracker who knows the woods better than almost anyone around, is hired by a shadowy, powerful militia group to take out One-Eleven, the female leader of the most famous wolf pack in New Mexico, the Dark Canyons. But One-Eleven is uncannily gifted in eluding human pursuit, and Trace is far from the only outdoorsman in these woods. I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. I'm a huge Taylor Brown fan. Check out my Bossy reviews of his novels Rednecks , Wingwalkers , The Gods of Howl Mountain , and Fallen Land , a title I loved and included in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War . 02 Upward Bound by Woody Brown In his debut novel, Woody Brown, who is non-speaking and autistic, shares a portrait of an adult daycare center in California through glimpses of its varied clients and staff members, their motivations, their frustrations, their hopes, and their divergent paths. Upward Bound is a dreary building, but its daily clients bring gifts, abilities, and desires for connection. Its staff members have uneven abilities to recognize the humanity behind the clients' conditions and disabilities. The real-life story of Brown's education, dedicated mother, and labored method of communication is breathtakingly inspiring, and his experiences lend legitimacy and particular poignancy to the protagonists' paths in this big-hearted, sometimes heartbreaking novel. I received a prepublication edition of Upward Bound courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. You might also be interested in my Bossy reviews of other novels featuring neurodivergent characters . 03 You with the Sad Eyes by Christina Applegate Christina Applegate began acting as an infant, and she was a young actor when she starred in the long-running sitcom Married...with Children . She went on to star in movies like Anchorman and in television series like Dead to Me . But her childhood in Laurel Canyon was filled with uncertainty, danger, and physical and sexual abuse. Work meant structure, and pay, and stability, and Applegate yearned for all of this when at home her mother struggled with addiction, her stepfather was cruel and harmed her, and her caregivers abused her in ways that shaped her forever. Applegate was open about her breast cancer diagnosis years ago, and she is frank now about the difficulties and limitations of her multiple sclerosis. This is a brutally honest memoir, and in the audiobook Applegate repeatedly sobs as she shares her painful memories and experiences. Yet she is sharply funny and full of reflections, hard-earned wisdom, and hopes for her daughter. You might also want to check out these Bossy reviews of other celebrity memoirs .

Six Final Bossy Favorites If you follow this blog, you probably already know that historical fiction is one of my favorite reading genres, and this is the third of three historical-fiction favorite lists I'll have for you as I revisit my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. For my first roundup, check out this link , and for my second, check out this one . You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can click to read about past Bossy historical favorites . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite historical reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian The deep bond that builds between an injured Union soldier and the Virginia woman who secretly takes him in is touching and complicated, and Bohjalian doesn't make Libby's dangerous choices feel too easy. The author was inspired by a true story. Libby Steadman lives in Virginia on the edge of the Confederate-Union Civil War conflict. Her husband has been away fighting for the Confederacy since soon after they were married, and Libby is warden to her orphaned, strong-willed niece Jubilee. She's also living alongside a hired hand, Joseph, who became a freedman when Libby's husband's family reconsidered their stance on slavery, and his wife Sally. Together the family members work grueling hours milling grain for the Confederacy.  Then Libby finds a gravely injured Union officer in a neighbor’s abandoned home. Because she hopes that a Union woman would take pity on her husband in the same situation, she secretly cares for Weybridge's injuries, realizing that if Confederate soldiers were aware of his presence in her home, the family would be considered traitors. The decision to take in Weybridge is morally clear to Libby, but the realities of the potential harm it could bring aren't lost on her. Bohjalian never makes the decision-making too easy, and the ending was not the neatly tied-up bow of a resolution I had begun to anticipate. The story is based upon a real account of a Southern woman who helped a Union soldier during the Civil War. I received a prepublication edition of The Jackal's Mistress  courtesy of Doubleday Books and NetGalley. For my full review of this book please see The Jackal's Mistress . 02 Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine Erin Crosby Eckstine's richly detailed historical fiction explores the life of Junie, an enslaved young woman in rural Alabama haunted by her sister's speaking, demanding ghost while she dares to dream of love and maybe even a life of freedom. The Civil War is looming, and Junie is a sixteen-year-old who has spent her whole life enslaved on an Alabama plantation. She works alongside her family, caring for the plantation owners' daughter Violet, who is her own age, and gaining cursory exposure to Violet's studies of poetry and knowledge. But Junie wanders restlessly at night, haunted by her sister Minnie's sudden death not long ago and by Minnie's ghost, which is demanding that Junie complete dangerous tasks and face truths she never imagined . Erin Crosby Eckstine balances the horrors of living in an enslaved situation with the complex interpersonal relationships Junie forges. Without shying away from the often hopeless lack of autonomy, lack of power, and lack of say-so and constant fear of the enslaved, Eckstine builds a rich story of detail of life at the time. She also explores the complicated Violet-Junie dynamic, in which Junie is Violet's only company for many years, yet is at her mercy for all opportunities to learn, explore, and pause from backbreaking work. For my full review, please see Junie . 03 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Much of The Safekeep  feels claustrophobic, quiet, and hopeless, but unexpected shifts late in the story turn accepted histories on their heads, opening the door for newly imagined futures of the characters' dreams . It's the summer of 1961 in the rural Dutch province of Overijssel, and rigid Isabel is a spinster in self-prescribed rigidity, adhering to strict schedules and a quiet life in her late mother's home--where she resides at the whim of her brothers, who, as men, own the house (but do not live there). When her playboy brother Louis drops his gauche girlfriend Eva to stay--for at least a month! in their mother's old room!--Isabel is more than a little upset. Eva's curiosity, enthusiasm for the world, and embracing of new experiences begin to seep into Isabel's experience. Isabel is initially annoyed, then inexplicably drawn to Eva--and eventually a torrid love affair begins between the women. Yet most of their feelings and hopes and thoughts are unexpressed. Theirs is largely a halting, unsure, almost silent, sexually driven relationship. This felt almost gothic in its initial darkness and hopelessness, then took me by surprise by blooming into a story about coming into one's own and defying expectations to find healing and love. I listened to The Safekeep , which was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, as an audiobook. For my full review please check out The Safekeep . 04 The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap Dunlap's debut novel explores early Edinburgh surgical schools, questionable methods of obtaining study subjects, a main protagonist's surprisingly believable entrée into body snatching, a forbidden love, and serial killers, and I was in for it all. Dunlap's debut novel is dark, twisty, gothic, and it's set in 19th-century Scotland as fictionalized versions of real-life serial killers Burke and Hare are terrorizing Edinburgh. James Willoughby is a naïve young medical student whose family fortunes have taken a negative turn, leaving him with a passion for studying medicine but no resources to pursue schooling. He becomes drawn into the underworld of body snatching when he seeks paid work to fund his studies--and begins to understand (and assist with) the process of obtaining cadavers for his surgery study. Ultimately, terrifyingly, his activities lead him to run into the cadaver-producing killers Burke and Hare. Dunlap does a wonderful job of bringing a spooky, fascinating underworld of Edinburgh to life, while also exploring the burgeoning surgery and medical school experience, and, against all odds, building the somewhat-reasonable-feeling case for James's horror-turned-acceptance on the subject of mining graveyards for bodies to study. I love Dunlap's writing and the way the author crafted this story. I'm definitely in for reading this author's future books! Please click here  for my full review of The Resurrectionist . 05 The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Whitehead, inspired by a real-life reform school that abused and terrorized boys for over a century, shares a tale of racial injustice, abuse and horrors, terrible fear, and the very real threat of death at the hands of openly, willfully cruel white men. We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness. Elwood Curtis is a promising young man in 1960s Tallahassee. But when he hitchhikes with the wrong guy to his first day of scholarship university classes, he's unfairly sent to a boys' reform school, The Nickel Academy. The "Nickel Boys" endure endless injustices, abuse, and horrors, including the looming threat of being "disappeared" out back, never to be heard from again. But as naive as it may be, Elwood persists in pursuing justice and clinging to the moral high road just like his idol Martin Luther King, Jr., and he is unwavering in his ideals regardless of the dangers. His best friend Turner is more savvy, careful, and jaded, while loyal to Elwood. The Nickel Academy is based on a real-life reform school that, horrifyingly, abused boys for 111 years. The Nickel Boys  doesn't shy away from infuriating, relentless, insidious, damaging, often deadly racial injustice and cruelties. I felt a little manipulated regarding the "twist" Whitehead introduces late in the book, but the living out of an identity and living into an envisioned future is a powerful element. For my full review of this book please see The Nickel Boys . For other titles that center around race, please check out the books at this link . For more nonfiction titles that focus on race, please click here . 06 Buckeye by Patrick Ryan Patrick Ryan's literary fiction traces decades of the messy, poignant lives of two families shaped by uncompromising societal expectations who work to connect across secrets, upended traditional roles, shocking loss, and unanticipated love. In Patrick Ryan's literary fiction title Buckeye , which begins before World War II and spans to the end of the twentieth century, we begin with the story of a young couple in Bonhomie, Ohio, as they meet, fall in love, build a family, and struggle to stay connected. Relationships shift, unlikely ties grow stronger, characters grow apart and find their way back together, and what seemed like indelible relationships fall away as Buckeye  stretches across decades of life, choices, and loss. The unexpected, unorthodox, secret-based links between two families shape the story (with a supporting cast made up of an older generation steeped in habit and old-fashioned values yet poignantly capable of change and growth). The found-family messiness was a highlight of the novel; the caring that emerges due to and among heartbreaking splits is particularly powerful. Patrick Ryan is also the author of The Dream Life of Astronauts , Send Me , and young adult novels. For more family stories you might like, please check out the Bossy reviews at this link . For my full review, please check out Buckeye .

This romance-laced mystery centered around a podcast and its host's disappearance includes some far-fetched-feeling elements, but Tiffany Crum's debut novel keeps up the pacing and kept me interested throughout, including the renegade justice that's served up. Benny and Joy are best friends who met under unusual circumstances; Joy, a narcoleptic, was asleep outside a bar bathroom when Benny woke her up. (Side note: this is presented as a zany meet-cute but felt a little jarringly oddball and potentially extremely dangerous to Joy.) Now Joy and Benny host one of the most popular podcasts around. Through their natural banter and conversations they came up with what turned out to be a slam-dunk premise: One friend poses a highly specific situation and asks the other to imagine how they would escape it. Then the duo reveals a real-life situation that has occured and which applies to the scenario and they speak to experts about how best to survive it. The podcast is entertaining, a huge hit--and extremely lucrative. In fact, Benny and Joy are in talks to sell the podcast for millions. When Joy and her husband Xander, who's been highly involved in the management of the podcast (and Benny and Joy's finances), go missing under mysterious circumstances, Benny is suspect number one. Because of this, and because of his adoration of Joy, Benny feels it's up to him to put together the pieces of what happened--and bring them home. It becomes clear that Benny and Joy have in the past had feelings for each other; that Xander has secretly and not-so-secretly been controlling and interfering; that Benny's ex-wife is a saint and also more key to the story than one might have anticipated; and that many things are not as they seem. The pacing of This Story Might Save Your Life moves along; Crum tracks back and forth in time, relies on snippets of the podcast as context, and shares various characters' points of view to reveal the real story piece by piece, all while present-day events continue to unfold. Joy is narcoleptic, has suffered from trauma, and is at times hallucinatory, so she is an unreliable narrator--until we know that we're getting the full story toward the end of the book. When the full extent of the secrets and lies at the heart of the mystery are revealed, some of them feel somewhat far-fetched and like significant reaches, but I was most intrigued by one unexpected key player, a seemingly unlikely but essential piece of the justice that is ultimately served up. I listened to This Story Might Save Your Life as an audiobook. More Books You Might Like This Story Might Save Your Life is Tiffany Crum's debut novel. Another mystery that invoves a podcaster is the great novel Listen for the Lie .

Quindlen's key characters find themselves in messy situations whose resolutions are all but assured. The small moments between characters bring them to life (and link them inextricably together), and while their heartwarming, heartbreaking paths are not all smooth, More Than Enough offers a version of a happy ending. I loved this. Polly is a high school English teacher who leans on her close-knit, longtime book club for support, reason, venting, and laughter. Along with her beloved husband, they are her closest people. The friends gift Polly an ancestry DNA kit, and when she lightheartedly submits her results, she is matched to a stranger. Sure that it's an error, Polly digs into her family history to make sure she is who she has always thought. She wonders if her difficult relationship with her mother could be due to secrets around her biological origins, and she forges an unexpected bond with a young woman while feeling distance from her brother and even more cold feelings toward her mother. Meanwhile, messy life events are propelling members of the book club in different directions, and the friends' bonds will be tested by all that is to come. Polly's strong, loving marriage is a bolstering force for her, as is her deep friendship with her brother. The hesitant, imperfect development of her relationship with her mom is difficult and intriguing to witness. I was fascinated by the way Polly's book club friend group evolved through difficulties. After so many years, they have reads on each other's personalities and preferences in many ways, but some combinations of them also keep each other at an emotional distance. The experiences they share through the course of the book add another layer to their connections. I felt as though the premise of the book club (everyone buys the book but pledges not to read it) was somewhat silly and contrived, although in theory I'm all for unconventional book club inspiration (I love that my good friend's book club is all about sharing their thoughts on the books they're each personally reading, rather than choosing a book to read on a certain timeline together). Polly's connection to the young ladies in her school becomes more evident to her and to the reader as the story unfolds; her influence and affinity for the teens--as well as the new teen friend she meets through her DNA test journey--is a poignant juxtaposition to her struggle to start the family she wants to have. Quindlen is insightful about sharing small moments between characters that are packed with meaning and impact as well as offering peeks into characters' innermost thoughts, and she's tuned into how these elements ultimately build relationships and collectively build a life. The tone of this one let me know that the story might be messy, and it might not turn out satisfactorily for all involved, but that some version of a happy ending was coming without feeling unrealistically easy. I loved this novel. I received a prepublication edition of this novel courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. More Reading You Might Like Anna Quindlen is also the author of After Annie , One True Thing , Every Last Thing , Object Lessons , and other books. You might also like these Bossy reviews of other heartwarming books, heartbreaking books, and books exploring issues around DNA .

It's not necessary to read other books in this series before diving into an Eddie Flynn novel; Cavanagh skillfully establishes key elements of the past while diving into the urgency of present-day events. The character of Eddie is perfectly imperfect, and I didn't mind the outlandish story elements because Cavanagh creates such a suspenseful story that moves right along. Elly Parker is a wildly successful social media influencer who focuses on filming and sharing her random acts of kindness across the internet. She's happy in her marriage--until she realizes that her husband is having an affair with her best friend. Elly retreats into silence after inadvertently posting to the internet the moment she attempted to surprise her husband but discovered the affair, which was at that time occurring in her own bed. When she emerges from seclusion, she sees a stranger with crutches and a suitcase on the steps of a subway platform, clearly in need of assistance. She is determined to continue to try to be kind out in the world, despite her pain. But the stranger's specific intention was always to draw Elly into his mysterious, elaborate, destructive plan. He goes to great lengths to lay the groundwork of framing Elly for a terrible crime. Now Elly is having trouble getting the police or anyone else to believe in the existence of the unknown man who has turned her life on its head, much less in getting them to believe she is wholly innocent of the terrible acts that literally have her fingerprints all over them. Enter Eddie Flynn, whose fast-and-loose approach to his work as a criminal lawyer destroyed his marriage and is a constant threat to the continuation of his career. But when you're backed into a corner with all logic eluding you and with evidence and criminal charges pointing in your direction, Eddie Flynn is just the guy you need. The convoluted motivations of this stranger-villain, a sociopath criminal mastermind, feel shockingly arbitrary. Cavanagh does delve into this monstrous figure's past and the reasons for his mental illness. The randomness of his targeting Elly and her seemingly assured destruction make for a chilling, it-could-happen-to-anyone horror. Eddie is perfectly imperfect and stops at nothing to achieve his ends, using craftiness, his knowledge of human nature, and playing up favors and loyalty. His ragtag officemates are an underrated, skillful team. Toward the end of the story there's an overly convenient although somewhat satisfying twist regarding the bad guy; I had wondered if something along these lines was going on, but thought it felt too far-fetched. I didn't mind that Cavanagh dove in on multiple outlandish avenues (the villain's targeting of Elly; this final twist) within the book. I received an electronic prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. More from Steve Cavanagh Steve Cavanagh is also the author of Kill for Me, Kill for You  as well as eight other titles in the Eddie Flynn series, of which this book is a part. You might also like these mystery and suspense titles I've Bossily reviewed.

The Books I'm Reading Now I went skiing for spring break last week, and during my travels and some lazy evenings I managed to pack in some great books that I'll be reviewing ASAP--and wanting to talk to you about. This week I'm listening to a sweet book-loving novel that also deals with grief, This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page; I'm reading the third in Tana French's Irish-set Cal Hooper mystery series, The Keeper ; and I'm reading a mystery built around a fictitious podcast, This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page Tilly is a young adult still reeling from the death of her beloved husband Joe, and she's hoping that the start of a new year will mean hope and maybe a version of a fresh start. She receives a mysterious message from the owner of a local London bookshop and learns that Joe had made arrangements for a handpicked book for Tilly each month of the coming year, hoping to inspire, comfort, and challenge Tilly, but most of all, to open her up to living again. Tilly befriends bookseller Alfie and his coworkers, and the books and her new friends allow her to grieve but also to imagine a new version of herself and a future with joy, hope, and the promise of unexpected adventure. I'm listening to This Book Made Me Think of You as a libary audiobook via Libby. Check out these other Bossy reviews of books about books and books that deal with grief . 02 The Keeper (Cal Hooper #3) by Tana French Cal Hooper, a former Chicago cop, has settled into small-town Ireland life, made connections, developed a low-key but deeply felt romance, and taken on the role of a surrogate father to a local teen. But the quiet life he had envisioned seems to elude him. In this third novel in French's series, the community reels over the disappearance of a local young woman. She had been involved with the son of a powerful local family, and it becomes clear that that family plans to change the area's landscape by building an enormous factory, after buying up all the farms in the area. I received a prepublication edition of The Keeper courtesy of NetGalley and Viking Penguin. You might also be interested in my Bossy reviews of other Tana French novels . 03 This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum Benny and Joy are best friends who host one of the most popular podcasts around. One friend poses a highly specific situation and asks the other to imagine how they would escape it. Then they reveal a real-life situation that applies to the scenario and ask experts about how best to survive it. The podcast is entertaining--and extremely lucrative. In fact, Benny and Joy are in talks to sell the podcast for millions. So when Joy and her husband Xander, who's been highly involved in the management of the podcast and Benny and Joy's finances, go missing under mysterious circumstances, Benny feels it's up to him to put together the pieces of what happened--and bring them home. Another mystery that invoves a podcaster is the great novel Listen for the Lie .

I hope spring is treating you well so far! I'll be taking a little break from posting, but while I'm offline I'll be reading lots of books I can't wait to share with you once I'm back! I've been reading lots of new and upcoming books for a local talk I'll be doing in May about spring books. This is just the excuse I need to focus only on new new new books, and there are so many promising titles coming out, I'm having my usual greedy-reading dilemmas about what to read first. I'll be back soon to talk about Bossy books I think you'll love! Meanwhile, feel free to search or peruse titles by category, by rating, by theme--or dive into a Greedy Reading List of books I've loved.

Ridzén's beautiful, poignant novel centers around Bo, an elderly Swedish man living out his last days in his woodland cabin as the past becomes more vivid to him than his present. This is lovely, heartbreaking, and practical while offering hope. Bo is an elderly Swedish man living in the woodland cabin where he grew up. He exists in somewhat of a haze between naps, frequent carer visits, calls and check-ins from his son Hans, short walks with his beloved elkhound Sixten, and vivid memories of his life--which sometimes feel more real than his reality. His wife, who suffers from dementia, is in a care center, and his memories of her pop up in painful, poignant vibrancy. Bo yearns for a deeper connection with his son. But when Hans determines that rehoming Sixten is best for all involved, Bo is devastated, angry, and unsure whether his shaky relationship with his son can be repaired. When the Cranes Fly South is a beautiful, poignant, tragic, hopeful examination of end-of-life issues for an aging person as well as the loved ones who are trying their best to support their elderly person, keep them safe, and promote autonomy within a framework of care. In Ridzén's novel, while the past and Bo's many memories begin to become more vivid and realistic to Bo than the present-day or near-past, we watch Bo letting go, and from a distance we witness his son, grandson, best friend, dog, and carers as they see him slipping away. The Swedish setting means that Bo has around-the-clock care and check-ins; this standard of care allows for dignity, continuity, and valuable connections. The Sixten-related issues seemed to me potentially quite easily solvable by securing someone for daily dog walks, and as with many pet-centered storylines, I became outrageously emotionally invested in this one. I loved this poignant, lovely novel and the hope and practicality that overcomes heartbreak. Ridzén places us deeply in Bo's point of view, which was valuable to understanding his perspective on matters related to his own body and his pending death. I read When the Cranes Fly South  for my book club. This is the author's debut novel. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Vintage Books. More Books about Mortality For more Bossy reviews of books about mortality, please check out this link . And for novels centered around aging, please click here .

Bossy Favorites of the Month Please enjoy this roundup of my six favorite reads of March. I hope you've read some great books during this "in like a lion, out like a lamb" month. Have you read any of these titles? What were some of your favorite reads this month? 01 Kin by Tayari Jones Jones throws every issue imaginable at her two main protagonists, best friends living in the Deep South, both without their mothers. The young women cope with their pain in divergent ways, and while I was interested in the story, I wanted to feel a deeper emotional connection to the characters and the increasingly dramatic layers of the novel's events. Young Annie and Vernice were best friends in small-town Louisiana. Both grew up without mothers, but then their paths diverged. For me, a main strength of Kin is Jones's ability to build a rich Southern setting and to layer issues of race, class, wealth, and power atop it. Annie's almost-constant focus on her mother's abandonment began to feel overpowering; she is unable to live day-to-day life because of her obsession with her mother's absence. Jones throws all manner of major issues at her characters: body autonomy; wealth and privilege; the paralysis of poverty; issues of race, civil rights, education, and women's rights; loyalty and friendship; relationship power mismatches; and more. A lot occurs within the story, yet I found myself wanting to feel more around the dramatic scenarios within which Jones places her characters. I felt more curious than invested, and I wished for more of an emotional anchor with the protagonists. For my full review, please see Kin . Tayari Jones is also the author of An American Marriage . You might want to check out these books that center around race , the South , and friendship . 02 Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise Count me in for Irish-set novels--and for suspenseful, mysterious-past stories that hint at darkness, dangerous secrets, and the destructive power of the truth. But Hurtubise builds the true heart of this story around the development of its characters and relationships. This is a fast, intriguing read that I loved . When she was old enough, Sarah ran from an emotionally cold childhood in Michigan and mysterious circumstances to the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she now lives as an artist and goes by the name Saoirse (pronounced SUR-shuh) . She and her beloved partner and two daughters live peacefully, and Saoirse often paints the members of her beloved family. But if the truth of Saoirse's secrets came out, it would upend her existence, and she is terrified that her past will somehow be uncovered and destroy her family. When a piece of her art wins a competition, it garners unwelcome attention and publicity that might reveal all Saoirse has done and the lengths she has gone to to escape her origins . I love a story set in Ireland, and Hurtubise doesn't skimp on building an evocative setting on blustery cliffs and in lush green countryside. I also love a story involving a character's mysterious past, and I love a suspenseful story that I'm eager to piece together. Saoirse provides all three of these elements, plus a bad guy who's easy to detest, the overcoming of trauma, a deep love story, a passion for art, and more. I blew through this novel, and the whole time I was reading Saoirse , I held my breath that it would hold up because I couldn't wait to start recommending it! I received a prepublication edition of Saoirse courtesy of NetGalley and Celadon Books. For my full review of this book please see Saoirse . 03 Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi Saara El-Arifi's Cleopatra offers a picture of a feminist, cutthroat, passionate, dedicated woman who is a mother as well as a ruler; she is a lover and a deadly enemy; and her singular focus on Egypt and its future leads her in all ways. This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived. In Saara El-Arifi's Cleopatra , the author tells from Cleopatra's point of view the story of the infamous, fabled, often maligned figure who ruled Egypt as Pharoah from 51 to 30 BC--and whose relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony have added to the reductive caricature of Cleopatra as a seductress. Cleopatra often addresses the reader directly, hinting at future events, reviewing past occurrences, adding behind-the-scenes context that those around her are not privy to, and allowing emotions to creep out with us as though we are in her trusted inner circle. Like many of us who question historical accounts that feel whitewashed or wiped of women due to sexism, Cleopatra recognizes that those who come after her may seek to erase her influence and importance. I most loved the details of life in Egypt and the ferocity with which this version of Cleopatra ruled her kingdom, loved her lovers, protected her children, and worked to establish as much strength and protection as possible for her country and people. I was all in for her passionate whirlwind of a romance and relationship with Caesar (and the partnership's political implications in the world), but by the time Mark Anthony came around, I felt like the romantic ground had been covered. I received an electronic prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books; and I received an audiobook version of Cleopatra  thanks to Libro.fm  and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. For my full review, please check out Cleopatra . For more retellings you might like, please check out these Bossy reviews . 04 Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy McCurdy translates the singular voice she displayed in her candid, darkly funny memoir into fiction with a story about a taboo relationship that serves as a catalyst for an increasingly strong young protagonist to reject what doesn't work for her and move forward with her life. McCurdy's unique voice came through loud and clear in her personal, unflinching memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died . The premise of her debut novel Half His Age  made me cringe, and I wasn't sure I was going to ultimately be able to read it, but I wanted to find out how McCurdy's significant command of narrative nonfiction storytelling would translate into fiction. Waldo is a seventeen-year-old senior working at Victoria's Secret after school, binge-buying cheap clothing online to fill the emotional void she often feels, and often sleeping alone in the trailer where she lives with her often-absent, man-crazy mother. She becomes wildly, lustily fixated on Mr. Korgy, her fortysomething, married creative writing teacher who shows her hints of encouragement in her work. In Half His Age  McCurdy offers a complicated story about an illegal, inappropriate, mystifying, all-encompassing obsession. But the book is primarily about Waldo and her path forward. I had the feeling that if it hadn't been Mr. Korgy, Waldo would have wrestled with some other testing force, and it felt clear that she was always destined to emerge from a messy scenario as more fully herself, stronger, and increasingly determined. McCurdy offers powerful, darkly funny, and suprisingly poignant moments with an edge. In Half His Age , she builds outstanding storytelling around a taboo, discomfiting situation. I listened to a prepublication version of Half His Age , which is wonderfully narrated by Jennette McCurdy, courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. You can read my full review here: Half His Age . 05 When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén Ridzén's beautiful, poignant novel centers around Bo, an elderly Swedish man living out his last days in his woodland cabin as the past becomes more vivid to him than his present. This is lovely, heartbreaking, and practical while offering hope . Bo is an elderly Swedish man living in the woodland cabin where he grew up. He exists in somewhat of a haze between naps, frequent carer visits, calls and check-ins from his son Hans, short walks with his beloved elkhound Sixten, and vivid memories of his life--which sometimes feel more real than his reality. His wife, who suffers from dementia, is in a care center, and his memories of her pop up in painful, poignant vibrancy. When the Cranes Fly South  is a beautiful, tragic, hopeful examination of end-of-life issues for an aging person as well as the loved ones who are trying their best to support their elderly person, keep them safe, and promote autonomy within a framework of care. In Ridzén's novel, while the past and Bo's many memories begin to become more vivid and realistic to Bo than the present-day or near-past, we watch Bo letting go, and from a distance we witness his son, grandson, best friend, dog, and carers as they see him slipping away. I loved this lovely novel and the hope and practicality that overcomes heartbreak. Ridzén places us deeply in Bo's point of view, which was valuable to understanding his perspective on matters related to his own body and his pending death. Click here   for my full review of When the Cranes Fly South . 06 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff This classic memoir is told through letters between Hanff, living a passionate reader and writer's life in New York City, and a group of booksellers across the ocean who are struggling in postwar Great Britain. The structure allows for poignancy and wonderfully frank self-reflection . In interviews about her wonderful book The Correspondent , Virginia Evans mentioned another epistolary book, the 1970 classic memoir 84, Charing Cross Road , and I hadn't ever read it so I decided to dive in. This slim book consists of the charming twenty-year correspondence between a hotheaded, opinionated New York writer (Hanff) and an antiquarian bookseller in London, Frank Doel. Deep friendships build across the ocean through Hanff's particular book requests and life commentary, Frank's steady, warm replies, Hanff's postwar parcels of food and treats for the staff, and the grateful reactions sent her way . The correspondence is only half Hanff's, but this epistolary memoir structure and its rich content allow for poignant self-reflection, honest observations, deep connections, and a rich portrait of the author. For my full review, please check out 84, Charing Cross Road . For more Bossy reviews of epistolary novels, please click this link .

Abby Jimenez knows how to layer difficult situations and messy complications into her rom-coms, and her main protagonists must confront and overcome past and present difficulties in order to banter their way through the story and build a sweet life together. I was hooked on the chemistry and fascinated by the significant, heartbreaking obstacles and how they might possibly be addressed to allow for love. Larissa made a split-second decision one night after a concert, when she was shoeless and in need of a ride home: she chose joking, fun-time-guy Mike to drive her, and they quickly started to date. Then she became friends with his far-more-serious best friend, Chris, a pharmacist who is kind, thoughtful, and more quiet. That fateful night, Chris had come across as more aloof--but he had been grieving the loss of his mother and his complicated feelings around it. Now Mike is binge drinking and hiding it from Larissa, and Chris's many attempts to help Mike patch things up with Larissa only serve to layer Chris's thoughtfulness over Mike's personality, fooling Larissa into finding depth and caring in Mike that doesn't exist. Larissa and Chris feel more and more connected to each other, but because they'd never hurt Mike, they have to remain just friends. Jimenez inevitably offers great banter and fantastic premises, and she incorporates real-world issues, which add depth. Early in this story she had already explored money troubles, death and grief, identity theft and financial repercussions, and more. I wasn't sure I was up for reading about the extensive money troubles--this stresses me out--but Jimenez manages realistically complicated scenarios with grace and impressive nuance, including this particular sticky situation, hooking me completely. I did at times very much feel as though Chris was going too far, taking measures Larissa wasn't asking him to take and playing the role of Savior Male above all else. Yet his actions were undeniably sweet and came from a place of caring help rather than control. Larissa did in fact need and appreciate the help, and Chris couched it all as partnership and selflessness. The sweetness between Chris and Larissa is irresistible, and Jimenez takes what feels like an impossibility of a future and ekes out a story and a love that manages to move forward--despite messy, complex, potentially heartbreaking repercussions. I listened to The Night We Met courtesy of Harper Wave and Libro.fm . More Books to Check Out You might also want to check out these other Bossy reviews of books by Abby Jimenez or other rom-coms I've loved .

Saara El-Arifi's Cleopatra offers a picture of a feminist, cutthroat, passionate, dedicated woman who is a mother as well as a ruler; she is a lover and a deadly enemy; and her singular focus on Egypt and its future leads her in all ways. This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived. My knowledge of Egypt is limited, but my interest was sparked by one of my favorite childhood reads, The Egypt Game . In Saara El-Arifi's Cleopatra , the author tells from Cleopatra's point of view the story of the infamous, fabled, often maligned figure who ruled Egypt as Pharoah from 51 to 30 BC--and whose relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony have added to the reductive caricature of Cleopatra as a seductress. The tone of the book is that of setting the record straight, illuminating Cleopatra's many facets, and bringing the reader into the titular subject's inner workings, fears, and complicated motivations. Cleopatra often addresses the reader directly, hinting at future events, reviewing past occurrences, adding behind-the-scenes context that those around her are not privy to, and allowing emotions to creep out with us as though we are in her trusted inner circle. Like many of us who question historical accounts that feel whitewashed or wiped of women due to sexism, Cleopatra recognizes that those who come after her may seek to erase her influence and importance. She seems aware that this active editing of her life will in fact occur, and that her legacy will largely be reduced to the power of her beauty and seduction rather than her ruling, cutthroat decision-making, sacrifice, passion, and her powerful presence. (We later discover that she is writing omnisciently because a version of her perpetually exists; this is explained late in the book). I most loved the details of life in Egypt and the ferocity with which this version of Cleopatra ruled her kingdom, loved her lovers, protected her children, and worked to establish as much strength and protection as possible for her country and people. Magical abilities are said to be passed down through Cleopatra's royal line--with a few notable exceptions, which feel terrifying and create opportunities for usurption of power. By the end of the book we learn more about these "abilities" and their role in the greater history of Cleopatra's family line and in Egypt. I was all in for her passionate whirlwind of a romance and relationship with Caesar (and the partnership's political implications in the world), but by the time Mark Anthony came around, I felt like the romantic ground had been covered, so the power of the mutual obsession, while admirable for Cleopatra's round two, felt somewhat repetitive to me. (When I was listening to the audiobook, the Italian accents for certain characters at times felt almost caricature-like to me.) I received an electronic prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books; and I received an audiobook version of Cleopatra  thanks to Libro.fm  and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. Other Books to Check Out Saara El-Arifi is also the author of Faebound and The Final Strife . For more retellings you might like, please check out these Bossy reviews .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Abby Jimenez's newest rom-com with depth, The Night We Met ; I'm reading Rachel Hochhauser's Cinderella retelling from the perspective of the "evil" (actually fierce and determined) stepmother, Lady Tremaine ; and I'm reading the newest title in Steve Cavanagh's Eddie Flynn mystery series, Two Kinds of Stranger . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 The Night We Met (Say You'll Remember Me #2) by Abby Jimenez Larissa made a split-second decision one night after a concert, when she's shoeless and in need of a ride home: she chose joking, fun-time-guy Mike to drive her. Then she becomes friends with his far-more-serious best friend, Chris, a pharmacist who is kind, thoughtful, and more quiet. That fateful night, Chris had come across as more aloof--but he had been grieving the loss of his mother and his complicated feelings around it. Now Larissa and Chris feel more and more connected, but because they'd never hurt Mike, they have to remain just friends. Jimenez offers great banter and fantastic premises, and she works in real-world issues to add depth. So far in this story she's explored money troubles, death and grief, identity theft and financial repercussions, and more. I'm listening to The Night We Met courtesy of Harper Wave and Libro.fm. Check out these other Bossy reviews of books by Abby Jimenez . 02 Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser Rachel Hochhauser's Lady Tremaine is a retelling of the Cinderella story from the perspective of the "evil" stepmother, who is actually a strong, determined woman set on protecting her daughters and securing futures for them in a world where the safety and security of unmarried women is far from assured. A royal ball opens up the opportunity for Lady Tremaine to use the respectability of her deceased husband's title to secure invitations for her daughters and her standoffish stepdaughter. After her stepdaughter garners the attention of royalty , Lady Tremaine discovers a destructive secret in the noble family, and she must make crucial decisions around her own flesh and blood and the future of her loved ones. I received a prepublication edition of Lady Tremaine courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. You might also be interested in Bossy reviews of other retellings . 03 Two Kinds of Stranger (Eddie Flynn #9) by Steve Cavanagh Elly Parker is a social media influencer who's happy in her marriage--until she realizes that her husband is having an affair with her best friend. When Elly sees a stranger with crutches and a suitcase on the steps of the subway platform, she is determined to continue to try to be kind out in the world, despite her pain. But the stranger's intention was always to draw Elly into a mysterious plan, and now Elly is having trouble getting the police or anyone else to believe in the existence of the unknown man who has turned her life on its head. I received an electronic prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Atria Books. Steve Cavanagh is also the author of Kill for Me, Kill for You as well as eight other titles in the Eddie Flynn series, of which this book is a part.

Six More Bossy Favorites Historical fiction is one of my favorite reading genres, and this is the second of three historical-fiction favorite lists I'll have for you as I revisit my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. For my first roundup, check out this link . You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can click to read about past Bossy historical favorites . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite historical reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein Allision Epstein shapes Charles Dickens's greedy criminal mastermind Jacob Fagin into a character with a rich backstory, showing him to be a man shaped by personal and societal circumstances in mid-1800s London and imagining his efforts to teach thievery to his wards as valuable survival instincts that allow for a desperate survival. In Allison Epstein's version of mid-nineteenth-century Dickensian London, the traditional villain of Jacob Fagin acquires a rich backstory. Jacob has been scrabbling for existence since he was a young boy. When his father was murdered as a thief in the Jewish quarter, the family's situation became increasingly desperate. His beloved mother Leah kept her son fed and supplied with books, and she worked relentlessly at menial jobs to keep them afloat--until her own untimely demise from disease. Now Jacob's options for survival are limited, and he begins to train as a pickpocket, soon eclipsing his teacher and the other thieves in the area, beginning to be known as Fagin--and gradually, driven by a measure of empathy, taking in and training young people who are also fighting for a chance in a tough world. I haven't read Oliver Twist  in many years, yet Fagin has remained ingrained in my head as a selfish, greedy, detestable character . details of the place and time, exposes Victorian London's stark class contrasts, and presents the filthy rabbit warren of streets, alleys, and squares flanking the polluted Thames where the band of thieves scrape by, care for each other, sometimes betray one another, and live their complicated lives. Allison Epstein is also the author of A Tip for the Hangman  and Let the Dead Bury the Dead . You might also be interested in these Bossy reads  that are set in the 1800s. For my full review of this book please see Fagin the Thief .   02 Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven Bug Hollow tracks the Samuelson family from an idyllic mid-1970s Northern California summer through a tragedy that upends already-tenuous relationships. Various points of view and side characters sometimes make the story meander as Huneven explores fissures that stretch through decades, but I loved the unconventional bonds, chosen-family elements, and vivid details that place the reader in points in time. When Sally Samuelson was eight, her idolized golden-boy older brother Ellis went missing after his high school graduation. The family located him in Bug Hollow, a Northern California community where he was living his best life in a last-gasp counterculture house with a free-spirit of a new girlfriend. After pushing him to return home before heading to college, he headed to campus and died in a freak accident . Bug Hollow  spans decades, tracking grief and then the life paths of Ellis's sisters (particularly young Sally), his parents, Julia, and adopted Eva. Lives intersect unexpectedly, disappointments and shortfalls become clear, secrets emerge, and joy is sometimes elusive. The strongest bonds between characters aren't those within the nuclear family, and this was one of my favorite aspects. We zigzag to spend page time with intriguing side characters (Yvette, with whom Phil has a very brief affair; Mrs. Wright, the former principal of Sybil's school), which adds to the sometimes-disjointed feeling of the story, but I loved Huneven's gift for placing us in vividly set scenes of the times, and for the sprawling interconnected characters and their caring for each other. Huneven is also the author of the novels Search , Off Course , Blame , Jamesland , and Round Rock . You might also be interested in these novels about difficult family situations . For my full review of this book please see Bug Hollow . 03 The Briar Club by Kate Quinn The Briar Club  employs nine points of view to tell the story of life in a female-only boarding house in 1950s, McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., bookended by the story of a mysterious murder in the building . This historical fiction novel from Quinn is a departure from much of my favorite Quinn fiction--brave women during wartime, being brilliant, outsmarting the enemy, taking risks, and entering into danger . In The Briar Club , Kate Quinn turns her considerable talent for bringing history to life by tackling the McCarthy era--in what feels like a very timely novel about free speech, the twisting of truth, and destructive governmental paranoia . I didn't love the recipes and their cutesy endings with story-specific conditions that are ideal for their consumption. Nor did I love the house's voice, or the house as a whimsical, yearning character (with somewhat unclear desires). The many points of view added depth to the characters, but at a cost: I felt somewhat jarred by shifting to another perspective just when I was settling into the last one. But I love a found-family story. And Quinn's inspiration for the Grace March storyline is a personal favorite; The Americans  is one of my all-time favorite shows . Kate Quinn is the author of the fantastic titles The Diamond Eye , The Huntress , The Rose Code , and The Alice Network , as well as The Phoenix Crown , which she wrote with Janie Chang. For my full review please check out The Briar Club . 04 The Fraud by Zadie Smith Smith was inspired by the real-life Victorian England case of a cockney impostor attempting to wrest an inheritance from the nobility, but I was most captivated by the unmarried, aging, complex character of Eliza and how she found unorthodox avenues by which to find fulfillment. In her first historical fiction novel, Smith offers a Victorian England tableau featuring a wonderfully complex female character in Eliza Touchet, the unmarried, aging housekeeper, cousin, and confidante to the terrible but prolific, well-to-do novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. Smith builds a subplot from the real-life, much-publicized case of the Tichborne Claimant, in which Arthur Orton, a cockney butcher, returned from an extended stay in Australia and attempted to lay claim to the Tichborne family fortune, insisting that he was a long-lost noble son much changed by his time away--and with the actual Tichborne heir's former slave as his key witness . But I was far more interested in the character of Eliza and the shape of her life. Her voice and point of view are sometimes testy, often incisive, and at other times diminished--a product of the limitations of single women in that time. I found Eliza irresistible. Zadie Smith is also the author of the novels White Teeth , The Autograph Man , On Beauty , NW , and Swing Time , as well as essays and short stories. For my full review, please check out The Fraud . 05 Isola by Allegra Goodman Isola , based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman, shifts between details of a life of moneyed ease and an abandonment on an unforgiving, uninhabited island after our main protagonist falls in love with the wrong person. Marguerite is heir to a fortune, but after she is orphaned, she grows into a young lady while her guardian Roberval squanders her inheritance. As Marguerite enters into her early teens, she begins to fear that her cousin views her as a creepy match for himself. At the very least it becomes clear that he will pay no dowry in order to make another match for her. Instead, in a somewhat shocking turn of events, he forces her to sail with him to New France. But on the way, Marguerite falls for her guardian's servant . The carelessness that partially leads to the crisis in space felt unrealistic to me, and the high drama and gasping reveal regarding the pivotal sp When their relationship is discovered, Roberval cruelly punishes them by abandoning them on an uninhabited island to perish. Marguerite, once a privileged, protected child of wealth and opportunity, must learn to survive in the wild. I was fascinated by each aspect of this tale, and Goodman transported me into the details and (often infuriating) dynamics of life at the time. Isola  is inspired by the story of the real-life sixteenth-century heroine, Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval. For my full review of this book please see Isola . 06 Trust by Hernan Diaz This story-within-a-story-within-a-story reveals a clever woman working within the 1920s confines of her sex to outsmart Wall Street while retaining a conscience while showcasing foolish, greedy men determined to manipulate the truth in order to paint themselves in a better light. I was intrigued by the structure and by the peeks behind the curtains of a wealthy family and one woman's financial acumen. In 1920s New York, Benjamin Rask is a ruthless, outrageously successful Wall Street tycoon, and his beloved wife Helen is the daughter of quirky intellectual aristocrats. They have exceeded any imaginable measure of success and wealth, and their elite financial position and power has in turn catapulted them to the peaks of social status. But dark secrets lie behind their intriguing success. Diaz's novel explores multiple versions of the couple's story through various points of view, which together present fascinating questions about the true story of two disparate personalities, their marriage, and their intertwined success. The structure of the novel is intriguing; through shifting perspectives and increasingly occluded reality, the reader must choose a narrative to believe. Characters come off as less realistic than their fictionalized versions (who are main protagonists of the story inside a story), and the ability of those with money and power to manipulate the truth into pure fiction is chilling--and chillingly familiar these days . Hernan Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for Trust . He is also the author of In the Distance . For my full review, please check out Trust .

Jones throws every issue imaginable at her two main protagonists, best friends living in the Deep South, both without their mothers. The young women cope with their pain in divergent ways, and while I was interested in the story, I wanted to feel a deeper emotional connection to the characters and the increasingly dramatic layers of the novel's events. Young Annie and Vernice were best friends in small-town Louisiana. Both grew up without mothers, but then their paths diverged. In the 1960s, Vernice (Niecy) headed to Spelman College, befriending powerful young women, fighting inequality, and finding her voice. Annie became increasingly fixated on her mother's absence, and her search for her place in the world promised adventure but quickly bordered on (then fully bled into) self-destruction. For me, a main strength of Kin is Jones's ability to build a rich Southern setting and to layer issues of race, class, wealth, and power atop it. Annie's almost-constant focus on her mother's abandonment began to feel overpowering; she is unable to live day-to-day life because of her obsession with her mother's absence. (In light of this, I was incredibly frustrated by the fact that Annie did not promptly try to access her mother when she finally learned of her address.) She is singleminded and without deviation from her one focus, yet she achieves little to nothing around this preoccupation. Her fixation seems to take the place of character development; she doesn't seem to grow or change because of the absence of her mother or because of her unstoppable focus on this absence. She does, however, become distracted enough to miss out on a chance at love, then allow herself to be taken advantage of, to devastating effect. On the other hand, Niecy's mother died in a tragic manner, so there's no hope of a second chance at a relationship with her. As a result of her loss, Niecy becomes largely closed-off emotionally, rejecting aspects of herself that might invite social criticism, and she is increasingly set upon achieving stability. Her mother-in-law is very involved in Niecy's "finishing"; she is controlling, and she places extreme importance upon Niecy's behavior, dress, and habits. Jones throws all manner of major issues at her characters: body autonomy; wealth and privilege; the paralysis of poverty; issues of race, civil rights, education, and women's rights; loyalty and friendship; relationship power mismatches; and more. A lot occurs within the story, yet I found myself wanting to feel more around the dramatic scenarios within which Jones places her characters. I felt more curious than invested, and I wished for more of an emotional anchor with the protagonists. There's an intriguing but strangely extended stay at a compound that's a brothel (where the male characters are weak and careless enough to make you want to scream with the debt they incur for our female characters, desperate to leave), and the madam becomes an unlikely, unwilling version of a surrogate mother to Annie. The story builds theatrically to an ending that takes the drama to another level. I received a prepublication edition of Kin  courtesy of NetGalley and Knopf. More Books You Might Like Tayari Jones is also the author of An American Marriage . You might want to check out these books that center around race , the South , and friendship .

Count me in for Irish-set novels--and for suspenseful, mysterious-past stories that hint at darkness, dangerous secrets, and the destructive power of the truth. But Hurtubise builds the true heart of this story around the development of its characters and relationships. This is a fast, intriguing read that I loved. When she was old enough, Sarah ran from an emotionally cold childhood in Michigan and mysterious circumstances to the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she now lives as an artist and goes by the name Saoirse (pronounced SUR-shuh) . She and her beloved partner and two daughters live peacefully, and Saoirse often paints the members of her beloved family. But if the truth of Saoirse's secrets came out, it would upend her existence, and she is terrified that her past will somehow be uncovered and destroy her family. When a piece of her art wins a competition, it garners unwelcome attention and publicity that might reveal all Saoirse has done and the lengths she has gone to to escape her origins. I love a story set in Ireland, and Hurtubise doesn't skimp on building an evocative setting on blustery cliffs and in lush green countryside. I also love a story involving a character's mysterious past, and I love a suspenseful story that I'm eager to piece together. Saoirse provides all three of these elements, plus a bad guy who's easy to detest, the overcoming of trauma, a deep love story, a passion for art, and more. Yet Hurtubise also manages to make the reader care about her protagonists, developing depth to her characters and their relationships amid the secrets, lies, and hidden histories--which is no small feat and a balancing act she manages with skill. I liked coming full circle with the key storyline threads, yet t he very ending of the book felt a little clean and straightforward after such a complex story full of evasion, secrets, and the constant, urgent fear of repercussions. I didn't at all mind that we got to ultimately witness the promise of joy and peace, but the sunshiny tone of this portion of the book seemed slightly too easy and abrupt after the lurking danger and looming potential destruction present in the many preceding pages. I blew through this novel, and the whole time I was reading Saoirse , I held my breath that it would hold up because I couldn't wait to start recommending it! I received a prepublication edition of Saoirse courtesy of NetGalley and Celadon Books. More Bossy Reviews You Might Like You might also enjoy checking out my Bossy reviews of more Irish stories and books set in Ireland . And don't miss these stories filled with suspense and stories about art .

Bookseller, activist, and one-of-a-kind personality Jeannine A. Cook's voice shines through in this memoir of conversations with and deep inspiration around deceased authors; nerve-racking, enormous leaps of faith; living relationships with ancestors who have passed on; and shaping the future through empowering young people. Jeannine A. Cook was raised by a blind librarian mother, and books have always been an important part of her life. She always imagined that she'd write a book of her own, and she imagined opening a bookshop in her old age. But instead, she found herself working three jobs, stressed out and without time to read, much less craft something of her own. In her journal, she began an imaginary conversation with Harriet Tubman about the woman's strength and resilience. And in 2020, Cook opened a bookstore called Harriett's Bookshop in Philadelphia, which was one of Harriet's first stops on her Underground Railroad journey. But then Covid hit, and Cook had to shutter the store. But because of Cook's strength of spirit--and the power of books--Harriett's Bookshop remains open today, as do Ida's Bookshop (named after Ida B. Wells) in New Jersey and a literary installation, Josephine's Bookshop (named after Josephine Baker), in Paris. Cook writes in a conversational style, and her mind and journey down various paths each seem to go a million miles an hour, so often I felt like I was just trying to keep up and keep track of where we were. But her explorations of different avenues are intriguing. She carries on vibrant dialogues with deceased authors; simultaneously dives into multiple pie-in-the-sky endeavors without being certain of her landing pads; and leans into the power of her ancestors and traditions, growing spiritually closer to them. She believes in the power of empowering, educating, and expanding the horizons of youth, and she actively enters into doing so for the youth conductors involved in her shop. Cook communicates often with her father, who is increasingly disabled, seemingly still in love with his estranged wife, Cook's mother, and who often seems to talk over and at Cook, as she does with him. Their relationship seems as though it would be more fraught; Cook references her parents' volatile relationship and mentions that her mother's blindness in her second eye was due to being kicked and stomped by Cook's father. But abuse is not mentioned again, and Cook feels deep emotional links to her dad. The author's faith in resolutions presenting themselves despite logistical roadblocks (and, sometimes, what feel like logical challenges that might cause others to hit the pause button) means that she has at times had a bookstore missing drywall, shelves, finished flooring, and paint when it is due to open; she has lived in a home without plumbing--going to the bathroom in a bag--as she believed in its bones and promise; she has crisis-crowdfunded her bookshops; and she has taken many more leaps of faith, seemingly certain (and correct) that somehow it will all work out. This was often nerve-racking for me personally to read about, but I took some deep breaths and jumped in with Cook. Most of the details of wonderfully ambitious, enormously complicated, often high-stakes plans resolve themselves--sometimes seemingly through the force of Cook's will but, one has to think, also likely due to a cast of unnamed, supportive, supporting, busy figures helping serve as a framework for Cook's endeavors but largely invisible to the reader. Cook's zigzagging journey in this memoir was often tough to track; she leans into various avenues of spirituality, accesses the presence of her ancestors, runs from mission to mission, promotes activism, and develops new ideas and passion projects. The book's voice and its jumps from topic to topic feel like a reflection of the author's nonstop mind and relentless push to explore, share, and manifest her ambitious dreams. There's surprisingly little "book talk" here. Cook's connection to deceased authors feels mystical and mysterious--it's all deeper and shapes her more fully than simply a "love of books." Shut Up and Read feels as though it explores the roots of family and pivotal figures who came before, the growing branches of all that's happening in the present, and the promise of later generations' leaves and flowers to serve as the tree's crown to come. I've read many memoirs, and Shut Up and Read  was unlike any I've encountered before. I listened to Shut Up and Read courtesy of Amistad and Libro.fm . More Books You Might Like I listened to Shut Up and Read courtesy of Amistad and Libro.fm . Jeannine A. Cook is also the author of the novel It's Me They Follow , the writing of which she references in Shut Up and Read . Please also check out these Bossy reviews of other books about books and memoirs you might enjoy.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Valerie Bertinelli's memoir Getting Naked ; I'm reading Ian McGuire's newest, unrelenting, suspenseful novel White River Crossing ; and I'm reading Saara El-Arifi's novel Cleopatra , an empowering, fascinating story told from Cleopatra's point of view and aimed at setting the record straight. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Getting Naked: The Quiet Work of Becoming Perfectly Imperfect by Valerie Bertinelli Is my intrigue with this book due to my One Day at a Time nostalgia, my vague affection for the idea of Bertinelli and Eddie Van Halen as an 80s power couple, or the charm of Bertinelli on her now-defunct, fourteen-season cooking show Valerie's Home Cooking ? Or is it just that Valerie Bertinelli, now in her mid-sixties, clearly seems to have no interest in foolishness or BS? I'm eager to find out if, as I hope, she's offering a straight-talking, funny, compassionate missive to women in this memoir. In Getting Naked , the author dives into aging, menopause, family, relationships, insecurities, and rewriting her own script. I'm listening to Getting Naked courtesy of Harper Wave and Libro.fm. Check out these other celebrity memoirs I've Bossily reviewed; or you might like my reviews of these memoirs . 02 White River Crossing by Ian McGuire Ian McGuire's newest novel White River Crossing is set in the brutal cold and wilderness of sub-Artic Canada. In the winter of 1766, a bedraggled fur peddler arrives at a remote Hudson Bay Company outpost with a chunk of gold, telling tales of more to be found farther north, at a place called Ox Lake. Greed and arrogance send members of the Company, along with native guides, to seek out further riches. But the Hudson Bay Company's boorish John Shaw and bookish Thomas Hearn, who are pushing the expedition, clash as Shaw brutalizes an innocent during the long journey north, and the repercussions of his wrongdoing aren't fully realized until the journey's end. I received a prepublication edition of White River Crossing courtesy of NetGalley and Crown Publishing. I mentioned Ian McGuire's novel The North Water in the Greedy Reading List Six Chilly Books to Read in the Heat of Summer . 03 Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived. My knowledge of Egypt is limited but my interest was sparked by one of my favorite childhood reads, The Egypt Game . In Saara El-Arifi's Cleopatra , the author tells the story from Cleopatra's point of view of the infamous, fabled, often maligned figure who ruled Egypt as Pharoah from 51 to 30 BC--and whose relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony have added to the reductive caricature of Cleopatra as a seductress. The tone of the book is one of setting the record straight, illuminating Cleopatra's many facets, and bringing the reader into the titular subject's inner workings, fears, and complicated motivations. I received an electronic prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books; and I received an audiobook version of Cleopatra thanks to Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. Saara El-Arifi is also the author of Faebound and The Final Strife .

Six Bossy Favorite Historical Fiction Reads from Last Year Historical fiction is one of my favorite reading genres, and this is the first of three historical-fiction favorite lists I'll have for you as I revisit my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can click to read about past Bossy historical favorites . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite historical reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 Boy by Nicole Galland Galland offers a detailed peek into the London of Shakespeare's company and the life of starring "boy player" Alexander Cooke, his best girl Joan, who dresses as a boy to explore scientific pursuits, and the palace intrigue that occurs when their allies conflict with Queen Elizabeth. In Nicole Galland's historical fiction tale Boy , Alexander "Sander" Cooke is a famed, sought-after "boy player" in Shakespeare's company, and his roles skillfully playing lovely women have led highbrow ladies and gentlemen alike to seduce him with favors and attention. His apprenticeship is nearly over, and he has neither an assurance of steady work as a young man playing male roles with his company, nor a sponsor to support him. Joan Buckler is Sander's best friend. She's curious about everything and is the smartest person Sander knows. But her female sex holds her back from being able to find the knowledge she seeks, and she dresses as a boy to gain access to medical lectures and more. I wished for more behind-the-scenes peeks at Shakespeare's shows, and I was least interested in the political conflicts and drama, although they were essential to the conflict of the book. I loved the romantic connection between Joan and Sander, Joan's scientific pursuits--particularly the botany-related efforts she enters into with her eccentric friends, and how Galland deftly places the reader in the story's place and time with rich details. For my full review of Boy , please check out this link . 02 An Unexpected Peril (Veronica Speedwell #6) by Deanna Raybourn While Veronica and Stoker stay close to home while entering into danger and solving the mysteries in book six of this series, Raybourn repeatedly evokes images of the fictional European country Alpenwald. Gruff Stoker conveys his adoration of Veronica in a poignant, lovely way. It's January 1889, and Veronica and her natural historian beau Stoker are working on a memorial exhibition showcasing the achievements of mountain climber Alice Baker-Greene. But evidence indicates to Veronica that Alice may have been murdered. And Princess Gisela of the Alpenwald, a dear friend of Alice's, goes missing just after Veronica shares her suspicion--requiring Veronica to pose as the princess in order to preserve a secret peace treaty that's being brokered. While Veronica and Stoker stick close to home for their adventures in this installment of the series, there's plenty of intrigue, and Raybourn evokes repeated images of mountain climbing in the Alpenwald, a fictional country sandwiched between Germany and France, as well as extensive forays into the country's traditions, political interests, and its royal family's interpersonal conflicts and loyalties. The LGBTQ+ love conveyed in the story is lovely, and Veronica's matter-of-fact approach to this relationship as well as cross-class romance is typical of her no-nonsense, pro-love (and, for her, anti-marriage) stance established in earlier books. The evolution of Stoker and Veronica's own relationship in this book is understated yet beautifully poignant; I teared up at one point when the gruff Stoker conveyed his feelings to Veronica. Raybourn is the author of A Curious Beginning , as well as the sequels A Perilous Undertaking , A Treacherous Curse , A Dangerous Collaboration , and A Murderous Relation . (There are currently nine books in the series, with a tenth scheduled for publication in 2026.) Raybourn is also the author of the wonderful title about retired middle-aged assassins, Killers of a Certain Age , and its sequel Kills Well with Others . For my full review of this book please see An Unexpected Peril . 03 I'll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom I'm a huge Amy Bloom fan, and I appreciated the strong main female character here and the World War II-era crises. At times the story felt somewhat disjointed and flagged in pacing as it addressed various events of the characters' later years . Gazala must be crafty, humble, and alert to get by as a Jew while World War II envelops Paris. When she emigrates to New York City, she is befriended by two strong young sisters, Anne and Alma, and Gazala's adopted brother Samir joins them in Manhattan. I'll Be Right Here  tracks decades in their lives, including victories, pain, unorthodox choices, and love. I was invested in Gazala's young life; the concessions, cleverness, and compromises necessary during desperate times; and particularly her ability to navigate a potentially deadly and complex wartime crisis with sometimes ruthless focus. I appreciated the highlighting of various shapes of relationships. I had significant difficulty getting past the fact that an adoptive sibling pair fell in love, while appreciating that the unprecedented trauma of World War II and the importance of human connection were essential factors in this. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group. For my full review please check out I'll Be Right Here . Bloom is also the author of White Houses , which I gave 5 Bossy stars, the heartbreakingly beautiful In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss , Away , Lucky Us , Come to Me: Stories , and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories .) 04 Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall In Hall's Broken Country , characters do their duties, find wondrous love, feel heartbreak, suffer tragedies, sometimes act impulsively, and reel from the consequences of all of the above. A mystery surrounds a deadly moment, and the book ends with a hopeful, imperfect, heartbreaking way forward. Beth and her kind husband Frank live and farm outside the small English village where they grew up. They love each other, but they are able to stay married only because they push down the memories of tragedies that could haunt them, and because secrets from the past stay buried. But when Frank's brother shoots a dog going after the family's sheep, the gunshot sets into motion events that will change everything. The dog belonged to Gabriel Wolfe, Beth's childhood love, and his return to town brings back long-suppressed complications around jealousies, love, choices, and the weighty consequences of the past. Broken Country  is a study of an extreme, life-and-death-stakes fallout after heartbreaking tragedy, but it's also a story of young love blossoming, then shriveling under the first pressures of the outside world; it's a mystery in which duty overpowers the difficult truth; and it's a hopeful view of how an imperfect set of characters can find their clumsy, sometimes beautiful, way forward. I read this immersive story in a flash. For my full review of this book please see Broken Country . 05 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid I love an astronaut story, and while Reid spent far more page time on relationships than on the astronaut or space aspects, there was plenty of each to go around in this novel that was the perfect book at the perfect time for me. I loved it--and I listed this book as one of My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads . Joan has always been fascinated by the stars, and as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, she teaches her passion to college students. On the side, she shows her beloved young niece the sky and serves as a second parent alongside her sometimes-trying single-mother sister. When she sees an ad seeking for the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program, Joan becomes obsessed with being part of the 1980s training and with becoming one of the first women in space. The complicated interpersonal situations added wonderful depth to the complexities of astronauts' training, stresses, competition, and life-and-death goals of entering space. The women's fights to fully be part of a traditionally male-dominated field and the various ways in which they navigated this were particularly captivating to me. The carelessness that partially leads to the crisis in space felt unrealistic to me, and the high drama and gasping reveal regarding the pivotal space scene toward the end could have felt over the top, but as usual, I was putty in Taylor Jenkins Reid's hands, ready to embrace every bit of it. This was exactly the right story for me at the right time, and I hugged it to my chest when I finished, then immediately began telling everyone how much I loved it. Taylor Jenkins Reid is also the author of Carrie Soto Is Back , The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo , Malibu Rising , and Daisy Jones & the Six . You might also want to check out these other Bossy reviews of books about astronauts  and space . 06 All the Broken Places by John Boyne All the Broken Places is a novel that is linked to Boyne's novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas . The exploration of gray areas between good and evil was the most intriguing aspect to me as our elderly protagonist faced a difficult past. Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby is living out her days in a posh flat in London. She's friends with her younger across-the-hall neighbor Helen, who is coping with dementia, and Gretel's three-times-married-and-divorced grown son lives in the city, but otherwise Gretel keeps to herself. When a couple and young son move into the flat below her, Gretel begins to worry that the man of the house is harming his wife and child, and her hesitant involvement leads him to discover elements about Gretel's youth in Berlin during World War II that she never wanted to face again . The present-day "bad guy" is a gleefully rotten, abusive, sinister character who is easy to detest. Gretel's unwanted bond with the young boy downstairs brings memories flooding back from her own childhood, and her resistance to his bond and then her deep loyalty to him lead to a ending that is centered around revenge, consequences, and justice. John Boyne is the author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas , and this novel is linked to that one. I found that book somewhat frustrating in the suspension of disbelief necessary for the plot to work, but the premise was also horrifyingly fascinating. Click here   for my full review.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to SenLinYu's 1000-plus-page fantasy novel Alchemised , which started as dark Harry Potter fan fiction; I'm reading Benjamin Wood's northern-England-set quiet, mysterious story Seascraper ; and for my book club I'm reading Lisa Ridz é n's story about a Swedish man aging and looking back at his memories, When the Cranes Fly South . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Alchemised by SenLinYu This beast of a fantasy novel (it's 1040 pages) tracks a healer and alchemist suffering from significant memory gaps through three periods of time in her life. When we meet Helena Marino, she is a prisoner. All of her fellow Resistance members have been captured or killed, and Helena is treated cruelly and largely cared for by a staff of animated undead. On paper, she is a figure of little importance, but the deliberate tampering with her memories of the final months of the Resistance leads many to believe she was an essential part of their fight--and that she may be the key to understanding the entire system. But Kaine Ferron, a dark necromancer who is attempting to release her memories, turns out to be a key part of Helena's past, unbeknownst to her, and the book eventually begins to illuminate their complicated enemy/friend/destroyer/savior history. The heart of this story was originally a work titled Manacled , and it was dark Harry Potter fan fiction about Hermione, who had an Order secret buried in her mind, and Draco, tasked by Voldemort with unearthing it. Alchemised is SenLinYu's first published novel. I'm listening to Alchemised as a library audiobook through Libby. 02 When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridz é n Bo is an elderly Swedish man living in the woodland cabin where he grew up. He exists in somewhat of a haze between naps, frequent carer visits, calls and check-ins from his son Hans, short walks with his beloved elkhound Sixten, and vivid memories of his life--which sometimes feel more real than his reality. His wife, who suffers from dementia, is in a care center, and his memories of her pop up in painful, poignant vibrancy. Bo yearns for a deeper connection with his son. But when Hans determines that rehoming Sixten is best for all involved, Bo is devastated, angry, and unsure whether his shaky relationship with his son can be repaired. I'm reading When the Cranes Fly South for my book club. This is the author's debut novel. 03 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood Young adult Thomas Flett lives a quiet life as a shanker scraping the shore for shrimp with a horse and cart in a small seaside northern English town. He lives with his overbearing mother, who had him when she was quite young and has never revealed much information about his father. They bristle at each other, bicker, yet they live cooperatively: she feeds him and he pays the bills and fixes things around the house. Thomas's knowledge of the shoreline, its hazards, its topography, and staying safe among its many sinkholes and dangers, proves to be a ticket to adventure when he meets Edgar, a passionate American filmmaker eager to use the setting as a backdrop to his new film. But all Edgar says may not be the truth, and Thomas becomes more and more deeply entrenched in the drama, inspiration, unexpected twists and turns, and whirlwind of the stranger's orbit of existence.

This 1000-page fantasy novel is intense, brutal (significant trigger warnings are warranted), extremely dark, and not at all a universal recommendation. I struggled with and was also fascinated by the fact that in its original form, the story was Harry Potter fan fiction about Hermione and Draco. The structure and timeline is intriguing and illuminating. This beast of a fantasy novel (it's 1040 pages) tracks a healer and alchemist suffering from significant memory gaps through three periods of time in her life. When we meet Helena Marino in medias res, she is a prisoner. All of her fellow Resistance members have been captured or killed, and Helena is being treated cruelly largely by a staff of animated undead, directed by evil masterminds. On paper, Helena is a figure of little importance, but the obvious and deliberate tampering with her memories of the final months of the Resistance has led many to believe that she was an essential part of their fight--and that accessing her memories may be the key to understanding the entire Resistance system. But Kaine Ferron, a dark necromancer who is attempting to release her memories, turns out to be a key part of Helena's past, and the book eventually begins to illuminate their complicated enemy/friend/destroyer/savior history. The heart of this story was originally a work titled Manacled , and it was dark Harry Potter fan fiction about Hermione, who had an Order secret buried in her mind, and Draco, tasked by Voldemort with unearthing it. I didn't recall this when I first began the book, and I developed complex feelings about this premise and its implications. This begins as a dark, dark novel. The setting is literally dark, and more importantly, Helena is imprisoned, confused, grieving those she lost, and reeling from the trauma of the stasis in which she was conscious but unmoving, unspeaking, and unacknowledged for many months. She continues to be imprisoned, fully reliant on her captors, and discussed and treated as an owned object. Her body and mind are used to her enemy's desired ends. Rape, forced entry into her brain, and practical starvation are all part of her life. This was brutal text to dive into, and reading about her mental and sexual violation for significant page time in SenLinYu's novel almost sent me packing. But if you can steel yourself to continue, you might find the structure fascinating, as I did. The cruelty is real, and tough to take, but when, after the first grim, nerve-racking section ends, we skip back in time to read the origin story of Helena and Kaine, we find an unlikely love story built within a time of upheaval; trust overshadowing secrets and deception; and an opposites-attract scenario that serves as ballast for the novel. Context doesn't erase the horrors that we read about initially, but it softens some of the blows after the fact. An eventual second skip in time in the book follows chronologically from the first section, so it picks up the story and explores what happens to all surviving characters in the end. Mental images of Hermione and Draco slipped in and out of my mind as I read the book, causing uncomfortable feelings that were at times difficult to sit with yet, admittedly, fascinating. This is not a universal recommendation because of the shocking abuse (and the novel's significant length), but fantasy die-hards might want to test their mettle with this read. I listened to Alchemised as a library audiobook (it was over 36 hours long), narrated by the fantastic Saskia Maarleveld, through Libby. More Dark Fantasy Novels Alchemised  is SenLinYu's first published novel. The intense darkness and necromancy of this novel reminded me at times of Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb series; Gideon the Ninth is the first book, followed by Harrow the Ninth , Nona the Ninth , and the future publication Alecto the Ninth .

In Wood's slim book, a practical young man is scratching out a life in a small seaside English town when an energetic young American filmmaker bursts into town. Thrills and inspiration follow--along with danger and and uncertain implications for the future in this atmospheric, eerie, beautifully written novel. Young adult Thomas Flett lives a quiet life as a shanker scraping the shore for shrimp with a horse and cart in a small seaside northern English town. He lives with his overbearing mother, who had him when she was quite young and has never revealed much information about his father. They bristle at each other, bicker, yet they live cooperatively: she feeds him and he pays the bills and fixes things around the house. Thomas's knowledge of the shoreline--its hazards, its topography, and how to stay safe among its many sinkholes and dangers--proves to be a ticket to adventure when he meets Edgar, a passionate American filmmaker eager to use the setting as a backdrop to his new film. But all Edgar says may not be the truth, and Thomas becomes more and more deeply entrenched in the drama, inspiration, unexpected twists and turns, and whirlwind of the stranger's orbit of existence. The book has a dark-ethereal quality, and the foggy coast with its literal deadly pitfalls hidden throughout the sand perfectly reflects the mysterious, brooding tone of the book in which the truth is uncertain and the future is suddenly anything but assured. There are a few indications of the time period ( Lawrence of Arabia is showing at the movie theater, and Elvis Presley is referenced), but the story feels largely to exist outside of time. Edgar begins to demonstrate that he is delusional, but the reader is left wondering if that diminishes his artistic eye and ability to create something or is irrelevant to his art. Thomas has always been practical, barely looking past the next moment, and when he enters Edgar's tumultuous universe, he is thrust into dangerous, unexpected situations, yet his desire to explore his own artistic musicality is cemented. In a near-death experience, Thomas hallucinates an afterlife, encounters his father, and understands the man's true nature. (I wasn't convinced that this experience and the "return to life" that occurs afterward weren't all part of Thomas's post-death consciousness, but I believe that this is supposed to reflect a recovery from almost dying and a fresh start with hopeful new directions indicated for every aspect of Thomas's life.) This slim story (the book is 176 pages) is eerie and unforgettable. More from This Author Benjamin Wood's Seascraper was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is also the author of the novels The Bellwether Revivals , The Ecliptic , A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better , and The Young Accomplice .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to bookseller Jeannine A. Cook's memoir about books and her inspiration in Harriet Tubman, Shut Up and Read ; I'm reading Charleen Hurtubise's novel about a woman who's escaped her past and living in Ireland, Saoirse ; and I'm reading Anna Quindlen's novel about friendship and family history, More Than Enough . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett’s Bookshop by Jeannine A. Cook Jeannine A. Cook was raised by a blind librarian, and books have always been an important part of her life. She always imagined that she'd write a book of her own, and she imagined opening a bookshop in her old age. But instead, she found herself working three jobs, stressed out and without time to read, much less craft something of her own. In her journal, she began an imaginary conversation with Harriet Tubman about the woman's strength and resilience. And in 2020, Cook opened a bookstore called Harriett's Bookshop in Philadelphia, which was one of Harriet's first stops on her Underground Railroad journey. But then Covid hit, and Cook had to shutter the store. But because of Cook's strength of spirit--and the power of books--Harriett's Bookshop remains open today. I'm listening to Shut Up and Read courtesy of Amistad and Libro.fm. 02 Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise When she was old enough, Sarah ran from an emotionally cold childhood in Michigan to the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she now lives as an artist and goes by the name Saoirse. She and her partner and two daughters live peacefully, and Saoirse often paints the members of her beloved family. But if the truth of Saoirse's secrets came out, it would upend her existence, and she is terrified that her past will somehow become revealed. When a piece of her art wins a competition, she garners added attention and publicity that might uncover all she has done to escape her origins. I received a prepublication edition of Saoirse courtesy of NetGalley and Celadon Books. 03 More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen Polly is a high school English teacher who leans on her close-knit, longtime book club for support, reason, venting, and laughter. Along with her husband, they are her closest people. They gift her an ancestry DNA kit, and when she lightheartedly submits her results, she is matched to a stranger. Sure that it's an error, Polly digs into her family history to make sure she is who she has always thought. But the truth throws everything into question. Anna Quindlen is also the author of After Annie , One True Thing , Every Last Thing , Object Lessons , and other books.

Six More Favorite Fantasy Reads This is the third of three fantasy-favorite lists I've developed as I've scoured my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. You can find my first list of favorites from the past year here and my second list here . You can also explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can read about past Bossy fantasy favorites here . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite fantasy reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 Katabasis by R. F. Kuang I loved the dark--and often darkly funny--journey of Cambridge postgraduate magick students Alice and Peter to hell, a quest they undertake because their advisor has died and they really  need his recommendations. Also, they each fear they're the one who killed him. In Kuang's dark academia fantasy novel Katabasis , Alice Law is a postgraduate student in a ruthlessly competitive analytic magick program at Cambridge. She is intrigued by and also deeply irritated by her academic rival, Peter Murdoch, who seems to be showing her up at every turn in their relentless slog of blood, sweat, and tears. Luckily, recommendations from their selfish, brilliant advisor, Professor Grimes, should set them up for successful careers. But Grimes dies a grisly death while trying to enter the underworld, and Alice and Peter are separately, secretly convinced that they are each the one who killed him. What else is there to do but journey to hell together to try to get him back--and preserve their precious recommendations? This is a clever, strange, dark, and often darkly funny fantasy. The pacing flagged for me throughout the middle of the story, during the slog through various avenues of hell, and the worldbuilding felt slim and glossed over during some of the many courts of hell. I was, ultimately, here for the character development and redemption, which Kuang provides in satisfying fashion . The bendable, undefined rules of hell (which I didn't understand and which kept being sprung upon the reader) turned out to be quite convenient, and after Peter's disappearance, Alice shines as the sole problem solver, capable of sacrifice and dealmaking. R. F. Kuang is also the author of Yellowface , The Poppy War , Babel , The Burning God , and The Dragon Republic . Another book that involves an attempted escape from hell is Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent . For my full review of this book please see Katabasis . 02 Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim In this first installment of The Bleeding Empire, Kim sets three characters on paths to discover their worth, their purpose, and their power. When the protagonists' journeys intersect, the story ramps up in intensity and in epic scope. In Blood of the Old Kings , dead sorcerers power the empire, which has long been run on a system of necromancy and sacrifice. Arienne knew since she was a young girl that because she was born with magic, her future would end with her locked in chains in a casket, an essential, dark end used to benefit others by generating immense power. But when a long-dead sorcerer takes the shape of a voice in her head and pushes her to question the rules she's always lived by, Arienne dares to dream of defying her fate. Cain is savvy, street-smart, and living in the capital. When his best friend goes missing, he'll do anything to find out what's happened to her. Loran is a brokenhearted widow and a skilled swordswoman willing to make deep sacrifices to ally with the fated, powerful, dangerous dragon who might empower her and save them all. This three-character-driven plot sets the scene by exploring the unrest within the empire, the desperate struggles of its people; and the dark intents of those ruling it all. Each of the three main protagonists begin to understand their own power--and when their paths intersect, they realize that together, they are more formidable than they could have ever imagined. For my full review, please see The Blood of the Old Kings . 03 Voyage of the Damned by Frances White This wonderfully creepy lesbian vampire story is largely about female empowerment, but also about love, discovery, reinvention, and revenge. I loved each time period and the evolution of each strong female character . Schwab's lesbian vampire tale spans centuries, beginning in 1532 Santo Domingo de la Calzada as a young woman named Maria makes choices to shield her from being a man's pawn and vessel for children until her death--then enters into a future she never could have imagined. In 1827 London, naive young Charlotte lives a sheltered, lovely pastoral life, until an indiscretion results in her banishment to London society. There she encounters an intriguing widow with promises of freedom with deep repercussions. And in 2019 Boston, Alice is trying to break out of her shell at college, and a one-night stand feels like a daring start. But the evening leaves her forever changed, and she's bent on finding answers--and revenge. I loved that the women of each time insist upon creating situations in which they have autonomy and agency. The storyline threading the three timelines together is deliciously intriguing, and a character that was initially a wilting flower finds her strength, her purpose, and her desire for vengeance, all of which is satisfying to witness. For my full review please check out Bury My Bones in the Midnight Soil . Schwab is also the author of The Fragile Threads of Power , Vengeful , and the wonderful Invisible Life of Addie LaRue , as well as the Shades of Magic series. (The first two books in that series are A Darker Shade of Magic  and A Gathering of Shadows , each of which I gave four Bossy stars. You can check out my review of book 3, A Conjuring of Light , here .) 04 A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher This was dark, sometimes wryly funny, haunting, and intriguing, and the resolutions to the significant dangers at hand required the messy found-family to employ their collective intelligence, creativity, and teamwork. For some reason this was my first T. Kingfisher (this is Ursula Vernon's pen name) read, and I loved this retelling of the Grimm Brothers' story Goose Girl . Young Cordelia is becoming aware of her mother's significant power and reach, and she is terrified senseless. She is made to be magically "obedient" to her mother, and as such she is incapable of warning others about how dangerous her sorceress of a mother is--and how extensive and dastardly her plans are for those around her. The novel is sometimes funny, and it's consistently suspenseful and character-driven. I appreciated that resolutions weren't obvious or easy, that friendship and bonds were key, and that some overlooked, unlikely-seeming characters played important roles in the undoing of the evil at hand. Kingfisher's characters love, but they're never swoony. In an extreme version of keeping a stiff upper lip, they sometimes carry on wryly funny conversations, even in the midst of the quite dark forces threatening them. And the found-family element is a favorite of mine; Kingfisher builds this aspect poignantly, messily, and wonderfully. This story felt smart, strange, and intriguing. I can't wait to read more books by this author. I listened to this novel as an audiobook. Kingfisher/Vernon is a prolific author who has published many standalone novels as well as multiple series. For more fantasy novels I've loved, please check out the titles at this link . For my full review of this book please see A Sorceress Comes to Call . 05 The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig The shadowy, eerie tone of the first title in Gillig's Stonewater Kingdom series gives way to heartwarming, sometimes funny moments as an unlikely pack of allies sets out on a journey of discovery, complete with battles, evolving loyalties, and an increasingly high-stakes quest. The romantic aspect is less essential than the fantasy elements, which I appreciated. The first book in Rachel Gillig's Stonewater Kingdom series, The Knight and the Moth , considers Sybil Delling ("Six") and a group of five other foundling girls who have given up ten years of their lives to serve as Diviners, dedicating themselves wholly to being submerged in magical waters and conveying their visions and dreams of Omens at her abbess's whim. But the shrouded girls, who have bonded over the years like family, begin to disappear, and Sybil doubts for the first time whether their collective purpose is holy and noble after all. She starts to question the motivations of those with influence, including the abbess who has tasked them with the violent drowning dreams and the Omens themselves. I don't love an overly swoony, melodramatic "romantasy" story in which characters' energy is spent on pining and obsessing, where dramatic declarations overshadow a novel's fantasy elements. The Knight and the Moth  is built on a spare yet satisfying fantasy world with a limited number of characters and an essential engaging romance aspect that is far more than a swoony distraction. I really, really liked this balance. I can't wait for the next books in this series. For my full review, please check out this link . 06 The Summer War by Naomi Novik Novik's novella The Summer War  reads like a fable, with unexpected twists and turns; duty, clever evasion, and curses; a strange world full of vengeful creatures; and satisfyingly proud, brave moments for each of our main protagonists. The Summer War is a novella by one of my favorite authors. The day young Celia's oldest brother Argent left the house in their war-torn homeland, determined to head to battle, he did so with barely a backward glance, and she was furious with her idol. But she didn't know that her enraged curses, uttered in the heat of the moment, carried immense weight. Until that moment Celia didn't understand that she held magical powers, nor that in spouting off angry words, she would dooming her brother to a life spent seeking fame for brave acts without the possibility of feeling love. Celia must try everything she can to undo the hex she placed on her beloved Argent. The key might lie within the centuries-old war her people have waged against the ruthless summerlings--and the ferocious grudges those mysterious creatures have nurtured against the humans. The story dives into the plot with little hesitation (we do have to get going, after all--we only have 144 pages!), and its somewhat spare, streamlined structure made it feel like a fable or fairy tale. I don't read very many novellas, and regarding Novik and her rich world-building, charming supporting characters, and intriguing subplots, it was probably inevitable that I was going to be left wanting more at the conclusion of this short work. But that's due to my greedy reading habits and my active denial throughout reading this that this was always going to be fewer beloved Novik words than I wanted. Naomi Novik is the author of richly wrought fantasy novels featuring main protagonists I love: Uprooted  and Spinning Silver  as well as the story collection Buried Deep  and the Scholomance trilogy: A Deadly Education , The Last Graduate , and The Golden Enclaves . Novik has also written the Temeraire series of nine fantastic books about dragons, their riders, their friendships, and their wryly funny interactions. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Del Rey. Click here   for my full review.

Kitasei's stark dystopian science fiction sets sisters adrift in a future world where oceans have risen and consumed much of the earth. Leaving a stressful daily life of scarcity, two sisters embark on a far-fetched rescue mission for the third in this messy, danger-filled journey that tests each of their mettle. In a near-future world reeling from environmental catastrophe, oceans have risen and destroyed the cities along the world's coasts. Skipper and Carmen are sisters getting by with Carmen working and Skipper selling scavenged plastic from the water so they can get by and help care for their gruff, ailing grandmother. Their oldest sister, Nora, left home years earlier to try to help develop crops to sustain the world. Food shortages, job shortages, risen waters, mutated and often toxic wildlife, and scarcity in all areas mean life is stressful. They all have enough daily concerns to stop them from dreaming of anything more. But when Carmen and Skipper receive a desperate, cryptic plea for help from Nora, the younger sisters begin to worry that she's gotten mixed up in the dark underbelly of the business of chemicals, pollution, fortunes, and great power involved in crop production. They decide to set out across the dangerous sea and into the unknown to try to save her. Much of the novel centers around the sisters' unlikely, disaster-ridden ocean voyage, with dips into the past to revisit memories and further illuminate the reasons for their current-day dynamics and personality traits. Kitasei considers matters of duty and loyalty versus desire for individuality and imagination; emotional frigidity in the face of a crushing desire for warmth; and love, complications, and disappointments around family ties and friend bonds. The story is sectioned into disparate parts, and at times the sisters are privy to little or no information about the situation at hand. This creates a cold, distant tone for periods of the book. But the hard-fought connections between the sisters is often powerful and moving. The sisters persist in their ever-changing mission, never giving up and boosting one another when they despair, and, against all odds, they drive themselves forward, sometimes seemingly only by the force of their will. Kitasei offers multiple almost feral, incredibly strong female protagonists making their way in an unforgiving future world decimated by earlier populations, carelessness, and mistakes. The bonds between the sisters are never too easily forged, and the novel is never earnest-- Saltcrop is gritty, unrelenting danger balanced with adventure and layers of back story. It seems amazing that anyone lives through the novel's many challenging situations. More Books You Might Enjoy Yume Kitasei is also the author of The Deep Sky  and The Stardust Grail . You can find other books about life near the ocean , ocean voyages , and environmentally focused novels on this Bossy blog.

McCurdy translates the singular voice she displayed in her candid, darkly funny memoir into fiction with a story about a taboo relationship that serves as a catalyst for an increasingly strong young protagonist to reject what doesn't work for her and move forward with her life. McCurdy's unique voice came through loud and clear in her personal, unflinching memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died . The premise of her debut novel Half His Age  made me cringe, and I wasn't sure I was going to ultimately be able to read it, but I wanted to find out how McCurdy's significant command of narrative nonfiction storytelling would translate into fiction. Waldo is a seventeen-year-old senior working at Victoria's Secret after school, binge-buying cheap clothing online to fill the emotional void she often feels, and often sleeping alone in the trailer where she lives with her often-absent, man-crazy mother. She becomes wildly, lustily fixated on Mr. Korgy, her fortysomething, married creative writing teacher who shows her hints of encouragement in her work. McCurdy plunges the reader into a fascinating, deeply uncomfortable scenario in which Waldo, a young woman--legally underage at 17 when the story and relationship begins and certainly morally off-limits regardless of her official age--aggressively, sexually pursues the one character in the book who inspires her and seems to believe in her creativity, intellectual ability, and promise: her off-limits high school teacher. Waldo is eager for affection but in many ways is not a desperate young woman, nor is she gleefully testing the limits of the power of her sexuality. She is an untapped well of deep thought; she is an alternative mind in a small town seemingly without alternatives to the mainstream; and in terms of self-sufficiency and practicality, she is somewhat of an older soul in a nubile young body. Yet her youth--or at least her youthful fallibility--comes through in her frequent, obsessive online shopping. She realizes she cannot afford to do this, and sometimes she fills her cart without clicking through to pay, but she recognizes the act provides stimulation and dopamine hits she yearns for. She recognizes the shame spiral she creates with her buying-and-returning cycle (she feels that returning the cheap items comes with judgment about her income and class), but until she's in an all-encompassing situation with Mr. Korgy, this shopping is a frequent crutch. In Half His Age  McCurdy offers a complicated story about an illegal, inappropriate, mystifying, all-encompassing obsession. But the book is primarily about Waldo and her path forward. I had the feeling that if it hadn't been Mr. Korgy, Waldo would have wrestled with some other testing force, and it felt clear that she was always destined to emerge from a messy scenario as more fully herself, stronger, and increasingly determined. If--and this is an enormous if --we can consider the legal and moral atrocities of the relationship that drives the book somehow separately and compartmentalized from the story, it's clear that Half His Age features a strong main character who moves past sex, a desire for love, and a need for affection as the drivers of her actions. We watch Waldo (within a consensual but morally horrifying relationship) grow into herself as a young woman who knows what she wants, understands that her life could be expansive and hopeful, and recognizes that she can shed what is holding her back: limiting people, class judgment, poverty, and a lack of knowledge about the vast possibilities out there. McCurdy ultimately challenges the reader to see past the erotic relationship to the person Waldo is and the person Waldo becomes. Waldo wants what she wants--a grown-up relationship with someone who knows about culture and literature, someone who believes in her. She isn't allowed to desire Mr. Korgy (who she calls "Mr. Korgy" throughout the book, eeks), and he isn't allowed to accept her advances, yet they each do. But most importantly to me as a reader, as Waldo more fully lives into herself, Mr. Korgy, who takes up so much of her emotional energy and so much page time in the book, ultimately seems destined to fade away as a blip on her radar screen; while he has imploded his life and show himself to be small-minded, immature, and shallow, his presence in Waldo's life is a catalyst for the changes that take her away from her small existence and out into the world. McCurdy offers powerful, darkly funny, and suprisingly poignant moments with an edge. In Half His Age , she builds outstanding storytelling around a taboo, discomfiting situation. I listened to a prepublication version of Half His Age , which is wonderfully narrated by Jennette McCurdy, courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group. More Books You Might Like You can click this link for my Bossy review of I'm Glad My Mom Died . On the blog you can also find Bossy reviews of books about forbidden love , unconventional relationships , and books that intrigued while making me uncomfortable .

I really liked the magical realism, details of life in 1800s England, the young widow main character, the ocean voyage scenes, and the romance, but I had trouble pinning down the tone and the heart of the story, which followed a somewhat predictable path. In early 1800s England, Isabel is a young widow who is suddenly poor and plagued by destructive rumors after the Napoleonic Wars. She must flee her London home, and she heads for the Cornish coast where she was once mysteriously washed up as an orphaned small girl, wet and alone. While grieving her husband George, who she never had enough time to deeply know because of his naval career, she is thrust into a self-sufficient life, learning for the first time to make her own fires, shop at the market and cook, clean her house, and care for herself. Her kind, adoptive parents have passed on, and Isabel realizes that in her long absence, rich folklore has grown up around her in the community, and the locals largely believe that she is the daughter of a sea spirit, the Sea Bucca. This association carries powerfully held superstitions about her luck and good fortune. Isabel has always been a strong swimmer and loves the water, but she doubts this outlandish fable and her own role in it, although as time goes on she becomes more receptive to the possibility. When some of the smugglers who regularly run up and down the coast (widely providing eager customers in this area of England with French goods that would otherwise be too dear for anyone to consider) show up at her door with their injured captain, Jack, Isabel thinks of her husband, who suffered deadly injuries in the war and is now gone, and she takes in Jack to nurse him back to health, although this is considered an act of treason. Isabel is drawn to Jack, and she ultimately feels destined to head to sea--in a time in history when it was unacceptable for a woman to sail, much less sleep on a ship of men. Meanwhile she is trying to figure out the truth about her past. A local, self-important, creepy Revenue Officer who aims to hang any smugglers he can threatens not only Jack's but Isabel's safety. He is a thorn in the side of the couple. His role in the story, his bad-guy positioning, his threat of sexual predation, and his holier-than-thou views lead fairly predictably to his demise. The cover of this novel is gorgeous; the seaside setting is a favorite of mine, the ocean voyage is a particular love--and I adore a sprinkle of magical realism in my novels. I had trouble feeling invested in the novel, however. Wilgus often tells instead of showing, and it was difficult for me to pin down the tone and the heart of the story. The romance is a large element, and in this adventure-romance, as with many romance novels that follow a general pattern, I easily anticipated the broad strokes that occurred. The Jack-Isabel romance was set up cleanly and was clearly going to occur; the bad-guy Revenue Officer was going to serve as the villain; the Sea Bucca was going to serve as a mysterious but key force in an important moment; and Isabel and Jack would end up together. I especially appreciated the details of life in Isabel's tiny cottage, of the constraints of society of the time, of oceanfaring voyages, and of the swirling romance budding between Isabel and Jack. I received an electronic prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine and a beautiful hardcover edition of this title courtesy of Ballantine Books. This is Linda Wilgus's first book. More Seafaring and Related Novels You might want to check out these Bossy reviews of books about ship life , books set in the seaside , and books about ocean voyages . For more books set in the 1800s, take a look at these Bossy reviews .

Six More Favorite Fantasy Reads This is the second of three fantasy-favorite lists I'll have for you as I mine my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. You can find my first list of favorites from the past year here . You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can read about past Bossy fantasy favorites here . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite fantasy reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna Mandanna's is a fun magical story featuring an oddball cast of characters, satisfying justice, love, chosen family, funny dialogue, and heartwarming moments . Sera Swan was one of Britain's most powerful young witches. She showed so much promise, her skill threatened to overtake that of her belittling, greedy mentor. But she uses a forbidden spell to save the beloved aunt who raised her, and she is exiled from the magical Guild. Sera returns home to her magically enhanced inn, run by her treasured aunt. Sera's former mentor is out in the world wreaking havoc, grasping at ever-increasing power, and frightening other witches into doing his bidding. Meanwhile, Sera realizes that a very old spell exists that could restore her powers. Then Luke Larsen, a handsome, grumpy magical historian, comes to stay at Jasmine and Sera's inn along with his neurodivergent young sister, and suddenly Sera and her messy, oddball chosen family are forced to reconsider their collective futures. I loved Sera's discovery of her inner strength and her willingness to rewrite her future. This is heartwarming and shies away from being too cute yet is consistently charming. The dialogue is lovely, and the oddball set of characters is nicely developed. For my full review, please check out A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping . 02 Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger The first in the author's young adult steampunk Finishing School series offers wonderful, typically strong Carriger women with unique talents, clever minds, a nose for mystery, and next-level bantering capabilities . Fourteen-year-old Sophronia Temminnick constantly tests her mother's patience, as she's more apt to occupy herself by dismantling a clock or to arrive to tea disheveled, having climbed a nearby tree to ponder life's mysteries, than she is to master the proper curtsy or perfect her needlework, as is becoming to a Victorian-era young lady. So she is horrified to learn that she's been enrolled in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But Sophronia soon realizes that the students at Mademoiselle Geraldine's aren't simply learning to dance and dress, but to use household items as weapons, use their feminine wiles to distract, and use diminishing assumptions about young women to craftily spy on unsuspecting victims. Sophronia is an immensely likable, clever, quick study who defies societal expectations. I loved the steampunk aspects--the airship transport, steam-powered mechanical animals, and the mechanical robot servants within the alternate Victorian England setting. For my full review, please check out Etiquette & Espionage . I loved the first book in Gail Carriger's five-book (plus a prequel short) Parasol Protectorate series, Soulless  and its sequel, Changeless . 03 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab This wonderfully creepy lesbian vampire story is largely about female empowerment, but also about love, discovery, reinvention, and revenge. I loved each time period and the evolution of each strong female character . Schwab's lesbian vampire tale spans centuries, beginning in 1532 Santo Domingo de la Calzada as a young woman named Maria makes choices to shield her from being a man's pawn and vessel for children until her death--then enters into a future she never could have imagined. In 1827 London, naive young Charlotte lives a sheltered, lovely pastoral life, until an indiscretion results in her banishment to London society. There she encounters an intriguing widow with promises of freedom with deep repercussions. And in 2019 Boston, Alice is trying to break out of her shell at college, and a one-night stand feels like a daring start. But the evening leaves her forever changed, and she's bent on finding answers--and revenge. I loved that the women of each time insist upon creating situations in which they have autonomy and agency. The storyline threading the three timelines together is deliciously intriguing, and a character that was initially a wilting flower finds her strength, her purpose, and her desire for vengeance, all of which is satisfying to witness. For my full review please check out Bury My Bones in the Midnight Soil . Schwab is also the author of The Fragile Threads of Power , Vengeful , and the wonderful Invisible Life of Addie LaRue , as well as the Shades of Magic series. (The first two books in that series are A Darker Shade of Magic  and A Gathering of Shadows , each of which I gave four Bossy stars. You can check out my review of book 3, A Conjuring of Light , here .) 04 Silver Elite by Dani Francis While I should probably stop reading "romantasy" because I prefer my fantasy and romance to remain separate, I was taken with the double-edged quest, elite training, magical abilities, and complex conflicts between classes in the first in this dystopian series. In Dani Francis's dystopian novel, Wren Darlington is a Mod who has lived under the radar for her twentysomething years. A select few fellow members of the rebel Uprising are aware that she is psychic, but no one but her adoptive uncle is aware that she can, dangerously and inconsistently, incite--forcing others to do her bidding. But one careless, heroic move by Wren draws the attention of the enemy, and the military forces her to enlist in a training program for Silver Block. Wren attempts to sabotage her own success, but in order to aid the resistance she must excel and earn her way into Silver Elite, a small unit sure to access more sensitive information that could assist the rebels . Francis explores issues of class and race through her characters' strongly held assumptions and prejudices surrounding Mods and Primes, and Wren's fierce loyalty to her kind is complicated by the secrets she's keeping about abilities that would make her even more feared, a deeper outcast, and a terrifyingly unknown quantity to both types of person in her world. This is the first in a series and I'm really looking forward to reading the next installment. For my full review please check out Silver Elite . 05 The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty I loved the worldbuilding and the headstrong, powerful loose cannon of Nahri, as well as the Middle Eastern fantasy setting. I found myself yearning for the expert pacing, intrigue setup, and rich character development of my beloved Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi  by the same author . Nahri makes a living on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, skillfully thieving and honing her skills as a con artist. The only thing that isn't a lie is her mysterious ability to instinctually, instantaneously heal others and herself. During a con she accidentally summons a djinn warrior, Dara, and the two must flee across the desert to Daevabad, a magical city whose most powerful citizens rely on fire. But the city is split between two groups, those holding the throne and palace and those eking out a living on the streets. Centuries-old resentments and conflicts threaten to bubble up into war--and Nahri and Dara's arrival only serves to feed the flames of conflict. I loved the headstrong, powerful but untrained main character Nahri, the complex cultural backgrounds clashing in the book, and the Middle Eastern-based, fantastical worldbuilding. Chakraborty is also the author of the wonderful novel The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi , the first in the series of the same name; she published that book under the name Shannon Chakraborty. I listed Amina in the Greedy Reading List Six Four-Star (and Up) Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads I Loved in the Past Year . Click here   for my full review of The City of Brass . 06 The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman Grossman's reimagined Arthurian legend gives center stage to a ragtag band of misfits, celebrates diversity, and builds a patchwork of adventures, discovery, and widened horizons culminating in a satisfying new, reimagined path forward. Collum is an instinctually gifted, strong knight who has literally fought for sword training as a lowly ward; his family has little use for him; and his heart is set upon joining King Arthur's court. But when he finally makes his way to the Round Table, only elderly, impaired, has-been knights are left, and he learns that Arthur was killed weeks earlier. But Collum refuses to believe that a life as a knight is no longer possible for him. Along with Merlin's apprentice, Nimue, he becomes determined to usher in a new age, where Excalibur will be reclaimed, Camelot will be secure from would-be usurpers, and the kingdom will be inspired again by bravery and might . I appreciated the epic length of the book (688 pages), in which each remaining knight gets page time and a recounting of key adventures. But the many points of view and meandering stories also felt a little broad at times, and I wished for more focus on Collum, while understanding that his early-days position didn't warrant the majority of the storytelling. Grossman addresses issues of diversity in satisfying fashion; a transgender knight, a Muslim knight, and a gay knight are all represented. The full roster of knights--and the women who hold important roles in the tale--are all misfits who don't inspire great confidence, but collectively, they fight to find a path forward in a world that is changing around them. I listened to The Bright Sword  as an audiobook (it was twenty-three hours long). Click here   for my full review.

The second book in the series takes big swings with two large-scale mysteries (one that is hauntingly realistic and one that feels more outlandish) that only the wonderfully peculiar, genius PAR unit members of the FBI can solve. The mysteries take most of the focus, but we also witness some character development that I loved. The initial installment of John McMahon's police procedural series introduced Gardner Camden, a genius, socially awkward leader, and the rest of his special team of FBI investigators who reinvent methods of finding their culprit. That first book was a smart, intriguing, and satisfying mystery. In the second book in the Head Cases series, Camden is back on the job--with two enormous, strange, urgent, intersecting cases that it seems only the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) Unit can possibly unravel. The story twists and turns through confidential informants, militias arming themselves with black-market guns, a serial killer, and missing women with something bizarre in common. The two mysteries feel gigantic, with extensive ripples and effects. Their scale almost overshadows the character development I loved in book one. One of the mysteries is so strange and horrifying (and, seemingly, outlandish), I found myself physically cringing as I heard aspects of a big reveal of its specifics late in the book. But McMahon emphasizes the family connections for Gardner here as he does in Head Cases , seamlessly harkens back to important interpersonal issues and complications that helped shape the first book, and, ultimately, also allows some minor Gardner-related romantic groundwork to build. The personalities and individual strengths of each of the PAR members from book one shine and contribute to the solving of the complex mysteries at hand. Multiple characters have anguishingly close calls with death. I read Inside Man  as a library audbiobook through Libby. Will Damron was excellent as the narrator. I first heard about this series in a roundup of mystery novels recommended by national security agents. I'm in for all the books in this series. Please keep them coming, John McMahon! More Mystery Books to Check Out John McMahon is also the author of Head Cases , the first in this mystery series, as well as the P. T. Marsh series and other books. For more Bossy reviews of stories involving law enforcement officers, please check out the titles at this link . And for more mysteries I've reviewed, check out these lists and titles .

This classic memoir is told through letters between Hanff, living a passionate reader and writer's life in New York City, and a group of booksellers across the ocean who are struggling in postwar Great Britain. The structure allows for poignancy and wonderfully frank self-reflection. In interviews about her wonderful book The Correspondent , Virginia Evans mentioned another epistolary book, the 1970 classic memoir 84, Charing Cross Road , and I hadn't ever read it so I decided to dive in. This slim book consists of the charming twenty-year correspondence between a hotheaded, opinionated New York writer (Hanff) and an antiquarian bookseller in London, Frank Doel. Deep friendships build across the ocean through Hanff's particular book requests and life commentary, Frank's steady, warm replies, Hanff's postwar parcels of food and treats for the staff, and the grateful reactions sent her way. Along with Helene ("HH") and Frank's correspondence, the gradual expansion of Helene's communication to others working in the shop, Frank's wife, and, ultimately, his daughters, paints a poignant picture of the significant roles the pen pals played in each other's lives. The memoir's back-and-forth gems illuminate the evolving wartime struggles of British citizens such as the booksellers and their loved ones, and in comparison we hear of the relative largesse Hanff is able to provide from across the ocean. Yet it becomes clear that Helene lives a frugal New York City existence focused on books, self-taught education, writing, and stimulating her mind. Her generosity is significant, but her ability to share her meager resources emphasizes the chasm between the existences of the parties who are corresponding with each other. A much-anticipated, repeatedly postponed visit between the pen pals seems destined to never occur, yet the emotional bonds between the various parties are meaningful and substantial. Candid observations and occasional confessions flow freely between the friends who have never met in person. When one side suffers a loss, it is a blow felt on the other side of the ocean. The correspondence is only half Hanff's, but this epistolary memoir structure and its rich content allow for poignant self-reflection, honest observations, deep connections, and a rich portrait of the author. More from Hanff and More Epistolary Gems Helene Hanff is also the author of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Q's Legacy . You can find my review of The Correspondent here ; and for more Bossy reviews of epistolary novels, please click this link .

DeLozier's debut novel is richly detailed historical fiction set in fourteenth-century Avignon. Eleanore is an herbalist who finds herself thrust into the role of an essential healer as the Black Death looms, dangerous rumors of witchery threaten, and she juggles family, a forbidden romantic interest, and her own shaky future. In Elizabeth DeLozier's historical fiction Eleanore of Avignon , it's 1347, and the titular character Eleanore is a young midwife and herbalist in Avignon living with her beloved, betrothed twin sister and their kind father. Eleanore is in the woods gathering herbs when she has a happenstance meeting with Guy de Chauliac (Guigo), the personal physician to Pope Clement. Eleanore talks herself into the role of his assistant and shares her deceased mother's tried-and-true herbal remedies, while he teaches her about surgery and allows her access to a rich library of knowledge. Her class, her gender, and the pervasive rumors of witchery involving her mother threaten to destroy Eleanore before she can even begin her future. At various turns, DeLozier showcases historically accurate, dangerous demonstrations of men's fears of capable, educated women. Eleanore's sudden access to Pope Clement as an increasingly respected and effective healer means that the scope of her world explodes. She occasionally speaks frankly in front of the Pope or asks blunt questions, and this feels satisfying to me as a reader, however unlikely that may have been. When a pregnant, storied Queen Joanna arrives in Avignon to stand trial for the murder of her husband, Eleanore is presented to her as her midwife, and Eleanore's power--and the danger if she should fail--grows. When the looming, terrifying Black Death reaches their lands, Avignon citizens, friends, and family members begin dying horrible deaths, and some days it seems that only Eleanore and Guigo, desperate to understand the disease's nature and treatment, stand between the plague and the decimation of their city's entire population. A dark, deranged figure from Eleanore's past reemerges, spouting rumors of witches and growing in influence. When Guigo falls ill, Eleanore tries to hold together all the pieces of her world and each of her immense challenges without being destroyed herself. Eleanore's sudden access to great figures is overly convenient, but this moves the story along nicely. DeLozier's research into the Middle Ages, plague, and the city of Avignon feels evident, and I particularly enjoyed the details that made the time and place feel immediate. The religious fervor, fears, and the queasily specific medical practices of the time (lancing buboes! cleansing the blood! burning fires to clear the air!) help the story come alive. Romantic storylines for the twin sisters diverge and serve as important elements in the plot and in the young women's character development. I liked the book's ending! More Books You Might Like I listened to Eleanore of Avignon  as a library audiobook via Libby. One of my favorites, Saskia Maarleveld , is the narrator. Elizabeth DeLozier's second book, The Whitechapel Full Moon Society , set in Victorian London, is slated for publication in August 2026. If you're interested in other books about female doctors, please check out the titles at this link .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Tayari Jones's newest novel, Kin , about childhood friends and the diverging paths of two Southern women; I'm listening to Inside Man , the second book in the Head Cases mystery series about a special FBI unit solving complex mysteries; and I'm listening to memoirist Jennette McCurdy's debut fiction about an inappropriate obsession, Half His Age . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Kin by Tayari Jones Young Annie and Vernice were best friends in small-town Louisiana. Both grew up without mothers, but then their paths diverged. Vernice headed to Spelman College, befriending powerful young women, fighting inequality, and finding her voice. Annie became fixated on her mother's absence, and her search for her place in the world led to adventure and bordered on self-destruction. Tayari Jones is also the author of An American Marriage . I received a prepublication edition of Kin courtesy of NetGalley and Knopf . 02 Inside Man (Head Cases #2) by John McMahon The initial installment of John McMahon's police procedural series introduced Gardner Camden, a genius, socially awkward leader, and the rest of his special team of FBI investigators who reinvent methods of finding their culprit. That first book was a smart, intriguing, and satisfying mystery. In the second book in the Head Cases series, Camden is back on the job--with two enormous, strange, urgent, intersecting cases that it seems only the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) Unit can possibly unravel. The story twists and turns through confidential informants, militias arming themselves with black-market guns, a serial killer, and missing women with something mysterious in common. I'm reading Inside Man as a library audbiobook through Libby. John McMahon is also the author of Head Cases . I heard about this series in a roundup of mystery novels recommended by national security agents. 03 Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy McCurdy's unique voice came through loud and clear in her personal, unflinching memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died . The premise of her debut novel Half His Age made me cringe, but I had to find out how McCurdy's command of narrative nonfiction storytelling would translate into fiction. Waldo is a seventeen-year-old senior working at Victoria's Secret after school, binge-buying cheap clothing online to fill the emotional void she often feels, and often sleeping alone in the trailer where she lives with her often-absent, man-crazy mother. She becomes wildly, lustily fixated on her fortysomething, married creative writing teacher, and in Half His Age McCurdy offers a complicated story about an illegal, inappropriate, mystifying, all-encompassing obsession. I'm listening to Half His Age , which is narrated by Jennette McCurdy, courtesy of Libro.fm and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.

Bossy Favorites of the Month Please enjoy this roundup of my six favorite reads of February--three medieval-set fantasy stories I loved; a messy family story of feuding and forgiveness; historical fiction about strong women and the power of books; and the first in an FBI procedural mystery series. I hope you've read some great books during this shortest month of the year. Have you read any of these titles? What were some of your favorite reads this month? 01 The Once and Future Queen (Lives of Guinevere #1) by Paula Lafferty A medieval setting, time travel, a quest, and intriguing complications--did Paula Lafferty write this book especially for me? She wrapped some of my favorite elements in funny banter, poignant (non-swooning) romance, and enough plot complexity to keep the whole thing chugging along and keep me riveted. I loved this . Twenty-two-year-old Vera is feeling generally aimless and unseen. Then a strange man comes to town, telling Vera an unbelievable story of her true origins and her destiny. He says that she is actually from Camelot, in King Arthur's time, and that he himself is Merlin. Oh, and that her full name is Guinevere, as in "Queen." He says that she was placed in her current time to grow up in safety into the woman she needed to be. The existence of the kingdom and magic itself are reliant upon Vera's time-travel back to Arthur's world, and only she can save them . Upon her arrival, she must figure out how to help the kingdom. Meanwhile, she finds that the traditional thinking about a Guinevere-Lancelot romance is off base, but Vera builds a friendship for the ages with Lancelot. This funny, poignant, powerful connection is one of my favorite aspects of the novel. I liked the injection of just enough modern feminism into a medieval setting (running! speaking her mind! wearing that modern underwear! jousting!). A newly imagined relationship with Arthur is hard-won and lovely. For my full review, please see The Once and Future Queen . 02 The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin The tone of The Secret Book Society  is darker than I'd anticipated, but appropriate as Martin explores weighty issues for women in Victorian England. The power of books and of friendship ultimately triumph in Martin's historical fiction . The women in Madeline Martin's Victorian London exist within tightly constrained rules and at the whims of their fathers' or husbands' often controlling, sometimes abusive, always limiting requirements. But when three women, all strangers to each other, are invited to the reclusive, three-times-widowed Lady Duxbury's home for tea, they discover a space where they can speak frankly about their lives and also about the revolutionary, modern, feminist books they secretly trade among themselves (and must hide from the aforementioned men). If you'd like to raise your blood pressure by reading about a bunch of destructive men subjugating women--sometimes seemingly on a whim and at other times systematically, in order to destroy their spirit and force complacency--this book should do the trick . The story becomes truly dark as it progresses, which I had not expected, but the issues explored within that time around women's lack of autonomy in all areas of their lives warrant a grim tone. The end of the story involves a dramatic death and the promise of solidarity for the women who move forward in their lives with each other's support. For my full review of this book please see The Secret Book Society . 03 Head Cases (Head Cases #1) by John McMahon The initial installment of John McMahon's police procedural series follows a genius, socially awkward leader and a special team of FBI investigators who reinvent methods of finding their culprit in a smart, intriguing, and satisfying mystery. Head Cases  tracks FBI agent Gardner Camden (who has a brilliant analytical mind but is interpersonally awkward) and his group of agents in the Patterns and Recognitions (PAR) unit. A recent murder victim's DNA matches a long-dead serial killer, and a string of bodies hold clues that seem to be left specifically for Gardner to find. He and his unorthodox team must use their areas of expertise and their instincts to solve the riddles and catch the serial killer who is killing serial killers--before he harms their loved ones and gets away with it all. This group of genius, odd, complementary main protagonists often felt like an FBI version of Slough House in Slow Horses , in the best way . This was smart, intriguing, action-packed at times, and both the complexity of the investigation and its resolution felt satisfying. I hope Head Cases  is made into a movie . Inside Man is the newly published sequel. For my full review, please check out Head Cases . 04 The Second Death of Locke (The Hand and the Heart #1) by V. L. Bovalino Bovalino's story hooked me with a main protagonist who's a female knight, her best-friend mage, intriguing magic, a terrifying destiny, showstopping secrets, danger and adventure, and a deep romantic connection. I loved every bit of the first book in Bovalino's Hand and the Heart series . Captain Grey Flynn is a knight pledged to protect the mage Kier, who she has known since she was a child. She is not only a blade but a source of magic, a well. Unbeknownst to others, she and Kier have gone through a forbidden process to become tethered, so that magic flows between them like an unspoken language. But Grey is also secretly in love with Kier . This, my friends, is my sweet spot for romantasy. There is no Outrageous Character Swooning meant to stand in for actual character development or used as a shortcut to attraction and bonds. Bovalino offers a wonderful in medias res  introduction to the deep emotional and platonic, affectionate connections between Grey and Kier. What keeps the main protagonists apart is a realistic-feeling set of emotional barriers intended to preserve their lifelong friendship--the stakes of messing with their friendship are understandably high. And Grey is keeping a significant secret; it keeps her somewhat at an emotional distance from Kier. All of this feels warranted. The magic in Bovalino's world is strange and the circumstances around the island feel like a grayscale, murky pause in the book's action and a potentially heartbreakng tease of a second chance. The pacing sloooowed during this section, but I was invested. You can read my full review here: The Second Death of Locke . 05 This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman The many points of view within Allegra Goodman's novel made it feel somewhat disjointed, but the peeks into each character's internal struggles, motivations, and emotions coalesced into final gathering scenes that felt poignant and hopeful for individual characters and for the family as a whole. This Is Not About Us  is poignant and wryly funny . Allegra Goodman's This Is Not About Us  is a story of an extended Jewish-American family. The three matriarchs are split by a death and then a feud (the impetus of the bitter rift is the making of a family-favorite apple cake after an agreement not to do so) that promptly blows up between the two remaining, elderly sisters and ultimately threatens to stretch on until their own deaths. The story is told through multiple points of view as the various Rubinstein family members navigate the dramas large and small that make up their individual and collective lives. The story's small moments are heartbreaking; the dialogue is often wryly funny; and the words that are unspoken are at times the most powerful communication between characters who flounder as they try to get out of their own way in order to love each other. The various perspectives allow for a more full picture of each character yet create a somewhat disjointed-feeling book as the novel jumps from person to person. The final section of the novel captures many of the characters in extended scenes together. This part of the book felt the most powerful to me, as I was able to witness interactions and dynamics among the larger group (after being privy to each person's inner workings) as the situation played out and to see the heart behind their foibles, struggles, and attempts to support and love each other. I received a prepublication edition of This Is Not About Us  courtesy of NetGalley and Random House (The Dial Press). Goodman's novel Isola   was one of my favorite reads of 2025. Click here   for my full review of This Is Not About Us . 06 The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri The Isle in the Silver Sea  offers a medieval setting, magical elements, a story within a story, romantasy without swooning,  and characters fighting to reimagine their futures. This fantasy novel about the power of storytelling was wonderful . In an alternate medieval England, an island exists because of stories. Those who play key roles in tales die and are repeatedly reborn into various versions of the characters they must play, and they are fated to reenact their own battles, love stories, and ends so that the isle and those on it may continue to survive. Simran is a strong female knight sworn to the queen, and Vina is a witch of the woods. They each know they have been called to be in a story, but when they meet, they feel an instant link--and it goes well beyond their roles in the story that they discover has been scripted for the two of them. Evil forces are in play, and Vina and Simran are discovering their fates, whether with or without each other, while also determining how to preserve their world. They fight, they figure things out, and they fall in love. They are reimaging what is possible, while remaining brave, worrying about their found-family members, and trying not to implode the future of civilization on their isle. I love romantasy that doesn't involve me to suspend my disbelief in order to buy into the relationship, and Suri offers up a wonderfully romantic, possibly doomed love story to feel angsty about and to cheer for. For my full review, please check out The Isle in the Silver Sea .

The tone of The Secret Book Society is darker than I'd anticipated, but appropriate as Martin explores weighty issues for women in Victorian England. The power of books and of friendship ultimately triumph in Martin's historical fiction. The women in Madeline Martin's Victorian London exist within tightly constrained rules and at the whims of their fathers' or husbands' often controlling, sometimes abusive, always limiting requirements. But when three women, all strangers to each other, are invited to the reclusive, three-times-widowed Lady Duxbury's home for tea, they discover a space where they can speak frankly about their lives and also about the revolutionary, modern, feminist books they secretly trade among themselves (and must hide from the aforementioned men). The guidance from Lady Duxbury, their new friendships, and their new reads are rejuvenating and inspiring forces for the young aspiring poet, the outspoken American with a fortune, and the mother cowering from her cruel husband. But all of the women of the time have a great amount at stake: they could find themselves committed unvoluntarily--and potentially permanently--to an asylum if the men in their lives determine that they are too headstrong, passionate, or inconvenient. If you'd like to raise your blood pressure by reading about a bunch of destructive men subjugating women--sometimes seemingly on a whim and at other times systematically, in order to destroy their spirit and force complacency--this book should do the trick. The male characters in The Secret Book Society are generally one dimensionally negative figures, although one father seems mildly redeemable and one husband feels promising in showing potential layers and redemption. Only one love-filled marriage is put forth. The characters spend little time discussing books (although now-classic feminist novels are mentioned), as their life issues become their collective focus for discussion and support. The story becomes truly dark as it progresses, which I had not expected, but the issues explored within that time around women's lack of autonomy in all areas of their lives warrant a grim tone. The end of the story involves a dramatic death and the promise of solidarity for the women who move forward in their lives with each other's support. I listened to The Secret Book Society  as a library audiobook through Libby . More Books about Books and Victorian-Set Novels I've Loved For Bossy reviews of other books about books, please check out the titles at this link . For other Victorian-set novels, check out this link . Madeline Martin is also the author of The Librarian Spy , The Last Bookshop in London , The Keeper of Hidden Books , and The Booklover's Library .

The many points of view within Allegra Goodman's novel made it feel somewhat disjointed, but the peeks into each character's internal struggles, motivations, and emotions coalesced into final gathering scenes that felt poignant and hopeful for individual characters and for the family as a whole. This Is Not About Us is poignant and wryly funny. Allegra Goodman's This Is Not About Us  is a story of an extended Jewish-American family. The three matriarchs are split by a death and then a feud (the impetus of the bitter rift is the making of a family-favorite apple cake after an agreement not to do so) that promptly blows up between the two remaining, elderly sisters and ultimately threatens to stretch on until their own deaths. The story is told through multiple points of view as the various Rubinstein family members navigate the dramas large and small that make up their individual and collective lives. The story's small moments are heartbreaking; the dialogue is often wryly funny; and the words that are unspoken are at times the most powerful communication between characters who flounder as they try to get out of their own way in order to love each other. Goodman thrusts the reader into the fraught dealings among husbands and wives, wives and wives, young siblings, grown siblings, partners, nieces and nephews, parents and children, and exes, including passive-aggressive snips, long-held resentments, well-meaning interference, stubborn anger, heartfelt confessions, and hints of growth and redemption. Unspoken messages are intuited; simple phrases belie perceived slights or underlying criticisms; and characters often assume to know each other's unvoiced motivations and intentions. (Often, the characters' imagined understanding of each other is accurate.) Characters repeatedly struggle to overcome their worst impulses; some connect deeply with animals, music, dance, or writing in ways that change them (and sometimes in ways that connect to ancestors' passions); and some fight for independence and privacy. Jewish tradition is interwoven through many of the family gatherings, sometimes reimagined into new iterations of long-held ways of connecting with the past and each other. The reader can see patterns of behavior snaking through generations, while other long-held conventions are snapped off abruptly, allowing for new paths and fresh beginnings. "Take it anyway." Surely Helen had hit rock bottom, not just giving, but forcing aid on those in need. "Please," she said. "Do me a favor. Take this from me." The various perspectives allow for a more full picture of each character yet create a somewhat disjointed-feeling book as the novel jumps from person to person. The final section of the novel captures many of the characters in extended scenes together. This part of the book felt the most powerful to me, as I was able to witness interactions and dynamics among the larger group (after being privy to each person's inner workings) as the situation played out and to see the heart behind their foibles, struggles, and attempts to support and love each other. Goodman captures the nuances of messy situations and layered interpersonal dynamics among a complex set of characters. I sympathized with the busybody grandmothers who can only sometimes hold their tongues, their blunt delivery of advice as they age and their time on earth runs short, and their superhuman attempts to open their rigid minds to modern and for them, unorthodox, scenarios. Goodman also presents sympathetic younger characters withholding information to avoid unsolicited feedback or, heartbreakingly, to preempt loved ones' too-intense emotional investment and potential disappointment. Goodman offers unvarnished peeks into the internal challenges and thoughts of each of the divorced characters in the novel's most sticky relationship, doling out equal responsibility for the marriage's end and equal credit for the newly imagined shape of their family. I received a prepublication edition of This Is Not About Us courtesy of NetGalley and Random House (The Dial Press). More Love for Allegra Goodman Allegra Goodman is a longtime favorite author for me. I first read her work 25 years ago, when I enjoyed her novel Kaaterskill Falls . Since then she has published many more novels, including Sam . Her novel Isola   was one of my favorite reads of 2025.

Sullivan's debut dystopian romantasy novel presents a fraught futuristic world where an elite group rules through laws around eugenics. I found myself wanting more worldbuilding and more depth for our main character in this first book in the series. Ariel Sullivan's futuristic world is centuries past a catastrophic world war that eliminated much of the human race, and things are run by an elite group of powerful people called the Illum. They mandate all marriage and procreation in the land for the Elite as well as for Major and Minor Defects. And in secret, the Illum control far more. Young adult Emeline lives a largely solitary life as a Minor Defect. She spends her days underground viewing holograms of artwork (the book references actual works of art) and clicking on many of them for permanent destruction, per her instructions from an unseen boss. Then an Illum does the unthinkable: for the first time in decades, an Illum intends to take a Mate. And it's a Defect: Emeline. Emeline is thrust into a whirlwind, mingling with powerful people and their traditions and conformity, instantly attracted to her prescribed Mate Collin, a brooding, doting toward Emeline, but professionally cruel and cutthroat man. Yet she is also drawn to Hal, a mischievous young man who is far from part of the Elite and who makes her think about the world differently than she ever has. (He shows up for the first time as the book begins, appearing in Emeline's underground workspace, the only person ever to do so, which seems oddly convenient for the story; he also seems to almost certainly be the purportedly mysterious Reaper.) But the love triangle that is taking shape has repercussions beyond anything Emeline could imagine. Strict class division, segregation, selective breeding, and eugenics are at the heart of this story and its conflicts. For such weighty, fraught, creepy, troublesome matters, the implications feel largely unexplored. This could be a case of setting up for book two. I wanted to understand Emeline's inner self more fully. But there seemed little depth to her. She demonstrates a generally flighty manner, ready to swoon over any male in her path, and she doesn't yet know her own mind. She shows unquestioning follow-through at work (Why is any person needed to click buttons to confirm destruction of art that is already designated for destruction? In a futuristic world, surely this could be automated?). She is caught between sympathizing with the resistance (including the Reaper) and her new position, poised to officially join the Elites. The glacial speed of her realization that she must choose sides doesn't feel justified and is somewhat frustrating to witness. Romance-wise, Emeline experiences an almost-immediate attraction to two men who are nearly precise opposites. Her swooning attraction doesn't seem based in the factors we are privy to. She experiences a constant anguish over her own inability to determine which of the two contradictory men she is most attracted to, and this mental back and forth feels interminable and bordering nonsensical. Note that she is, conveniently, also almost immediately irresistible to both of these men in turn. I enjoyed what was present in the novel, but the characters, the plot, the details, the worldbuilding, the overarching conflict, the feelings, and the motivations all felt too surface-level to achieve a cohesive story with enough depth to dig into. For me, Conform didn't dig into its dystopia or its romance fully enough to make me believe in or feel particularly invested in either. I wanted more. Much of the book feels designed to set up for later books, but I felt that this first installment in the series simply didn't deliver as much as I wanted it to. I listened to Conform as a library audiobook through Libby.com . Other Books You Might Enjoy Conform is Ariel Sullivan's first novel. The next installment in this series is scheduled for publication in March under the title Beneath . Click the links here to explore Bossy reviews of other dystopian , fantasy , and romantasy titles.

The Bright Years tracks a family through years of life shaped by alcoholism, secrets, tragedy, and messy redemption. The story kept me at an emotional remove, but I was most struck by Damoff's characterization of addiction and those in its orbit. Sarah Damoff's novel begins with a young couple, both reeling from past traumas, who forge a future together. But secrets, addiction, and disappointment are threads that run through their lives and largely keep them apart. The Bright Years follows multiple generations through ups and downs, and tracks the messy mix of joy and sadness that make up the many days, months, and years in the characters' lives. The book's synopsis paints a picture of a potentially charged story, but Damoff tells us this story rather than showing it, which kept me somewhat removed from its immediacy and from feeling a strong emotional link to it. Details at times felt too cute for me and took me out of the moment. The sometimes too-clean links placed in the reader's path made me feel a little undervalued as a reader able to draw my own links, and for me this also made the novel feel a little bit overplanned and less authentic than it might have felt. (One minor example: When Gette is a grown woman, she conveniently recalls a moment when she was a very young child and her mother cried when reading a story to her, and she specifically recalls that the book was Are You My Mother? which ties in quite neatly to a key secret within the book.) For me, the strongest element of the novel was the laying bare of the unreliability, heartbreak, and hopelessness of addiction. Because we spend the majority of time in Lillian's point of view (we later hear from Ryan and daughter Georgette--called Gette), we witness the struggle to exist in the orbit of someone floundering through life with alcoholism without being sucked into a loved one's whorl and destruction. She raises Gette alone, first lonely, then resigned, then, terrifyingly, hopeful again. When we hear from Ryan, we view his crooked logic; his wreck of a path forward; his pattern of behavior, which is shaped by his life in the shadow of his broken father; and, ultimately, some redemption. I loved that Damoff didn't make the reconciliations among characters too fast, clean, or easy. After prolonged disappointment, hardened hearts, failed attempts, and years of heartbreak, coming back together requires imaginging and building a new version of relationships and boundaries, forgiveness and forgetting, and Damoff deftly handles this realistically muddled jumble of confusion and the hints of hope that slowly emerge. I received a prepublication edition of The Bright Years , which was published last spring, courtesy of NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. More Family Stories If you like reading stories about families, you might want to check out the books at this link . For more books that address addiction, please take a look here . Check out this link for redemption stories, this link for books with family secrets , and for stories about difficult family situations, check out these books .

A medieval setting, time travel, a quest, and intriguing complications--did Paula Lafferty write this book especially for me? She wrapped some of my favorite elements in funny banter, poignant (non-swooning) romance, and enough plot complexity to keep the whole thing chugging along and keep me riveted. I loved this. Twenty-two-year-old Vera is the beloved only child of two dear parents, but the rest of her life is a shambles. Her love Vincent died in an accident, her father is very ill, she's waiting tables, and she feels generally aimless and unseen. Then a strange man comes to town, telling Vera an unbelievable story of her true origins and her destiny. He says that she is actually from Camelot, in King Arthur's time, and that he himself is Merlin. Oh, and that her full name is Guinevere, as in "Queen." He says that she was placed in her current time to grow up in safety into the woman she needed to be. The existence of the kingdom and magic itself are reliant upon Vera's time-travel back to Arthur's world, and only she can save them. Was this premise developed for me and my personal reading enjoyment? I happily fell into this story hook, line, and sinker. When Vera plunges into the past, she retains reservations about the situation (she also insists on bringing her jog bra, modern underwear, and running shoes; this complicates things in time-travel world but I loved it), and Arthur clearly harbors reservations about her. She wants to help as directed but isn't sure how to achieve her goal of saving Camelot. And growing conflicts, puzzling developments, and murky motivations and loyalties complicate everything. Vera struggles against the powerful, mysterious former presence of herself as Guinevere, looming like a specter, and she frequently must puzzle out the meaning behind her prior acts and feelings as that other version of herself. I was disappointed that she doesn't dig into her former self's memories enough to unlock a real connection between her current and prior times and existence; I was hoping to more deeply link the Vera we know to the Guinevere of the past and to witness her reconciliation between them and better understanding of her whole self. She finds that the traditional thinking about a Guinevere-Lancelot romance is off base, but Vera builds a friendship for the ages with Lancelot. This funny, poignant, powerful connection is one of my favorite aspects of the novel. I liked the injection of just enough modern feminism into a medieval setting (running! speaking her mind! wearing that modern underwear! jousting!). A newly imagined relationship with Arthur is hard-won and lovely. Lafferty handily skirts the logistical difficulties of time travel and modern-medieval (Middle English) communication with a "magic will automatically translate" solution that I was all in for. Vera naughtily and hilariously brings a few minor modern elements into the past (high-fiving; rock paper scissors) while Merlin frowns about the implcations. One frustration I had with the book: Vera is not in fact essential to discovering why magic is seeping from the realm as Merlin originally posited, so her uprooting of her life and everyone else's years-long workarounds were not necessary--except for my own significant reading enjoyment. I found this unsatisfying but loved the rest of the book so much, I was ready to overlook it. Gawain (a favorite, scene-stealing character) is key to that discovery. And we are all set up for a book two. I listened to The Once and Future Queen as a library audiobook via Libby . It's narrated by the fantastic Julia Whelan. My friend Jamie told me about this book, and as we both read it we messaged each other with our adoration for the whole situation. The Once and Future Queen is the first in a series from Lafferty about Vera/Guinevere. (She first funded this book's publication as La Vie de Guinevere through Kickstarter.) The second installment is not yet published. More Books You May Love For more books I've read with medieval settings, please check out the titles at this link , and feel free to check out these Bossy reads about knights . For more books about time travel, one of my favorite narrative devices, please check out these titles .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Sarah Damoff's novel about family generations, patterns, and the fascinating, messy nature of life, The Bright Years ; I'm listening to Elizabeth DeLozier's historical fiction, set in 1347 France as the plague begins to spread, Eleanore of Avignon ; and I'm listening to Helen Hanff's short epistolary memoir, the classic 84, Charing Cross Road . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff Sarah Damoff's novel begins with a young couple, both reeling from past traumas, who forge a future together. But darkness and pain drive them apart, and secrets, addiction, and disappointment are threads running through their lives and keeping them separate. The Bright Years follows multiple generations through messy phases of life--ups and downs, and the many days, months, and years that built upon both great joy and intense sadness. I received a prepublication edition of The Bright Years , which was published last spring, courtesy of NetGalley and Simon & Schuster . 02 Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier In Elizabeth DeLozier's historical fiction Eleanore of Avignon , it's 1347, and titular character Eleanore is a young midwife and herbalist in Avignon. After a happenstance meeting with Guy de Chauliac, the personal physician to Pope Clement, Eleanore talks herself into the role of his assistant. She shares her deceased mother's tried-and-true herbal remedies, and he teaches her about surgery and allows her access to a rich library of knowledge. But when the Black Death reaches their lands, citizens, friends, and family members begin dying horrible deaths, and some days it seems that only Eleanore and Guy, desperate to understand the disease's nature and treatment, stand between the plague and the decimation of their city's entire population. 03 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff In interviews about her wonderful book The Correspondent , Virginia Evans mentioned another epistolary book, the classic memoir 84, Charing Cross Road , and I hadn't ever read it so I decided to dive in. This slim book consists of the charming twenty-year correspondence between a hotheaded, opinionated New York writer (Hanff) and an antiquarian bookseller in London, Frank Doel. Deep friendships build across the ocean through Hanff's particular book requests and life commentary, Frank's steady, warm replies, Hanff's postwar parcels of food and treats for the staff, and the grateful reactions sent her way. Along with Helene ("HH") and Frank's correspondence, the gradual expansion of Helene's communication to others working in the shop, Frank's wife, and, ultimately, his daughters, paint a poignant picture of the significant roles the pen pals played in each other's lives.

Six Favorite Fantasy Reads This is the first of three fantasy-favorite lists I'll have for you as I mine my reading for the best of the best from the past year. You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can read about past Bossy fantasy favorites here . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite fantasy reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow The Everlasting  involves jaunts through multiple versions of the same story, as our fantastic main protagonists shift and change, bravely outsmart those who would control them, dare to hope for a future together, and fight dark forces until the bitter end. This is adventure-heavy, sometimes tender, and always intriguing. I loved it. Centuries after the death of the legendary Sir Una Everlasting , spindly, awkward, cowardly historian Owen Mallory unearths her story--and becomes inexorably intertwined with the events of Una's life as they occur in the past. Harrow's tale involves multiple do-overs and attempts to shift events and alter reality--while the unlikely couple of Una and Owen fall in love again and again. The Everlasting  is filled with rich adventure; twisty jaunts through time; tragedy and loss; dark turns, boundless hope; messy, happy discoveries; outsmarting those in power; and noble victories. It ticked a million boxes for me as a reader. This is the type of romantic fantasy I adore. No swooning, childish behavior, or foolishness, just hard-won connections, deep character development, bravely defying expectations, and absolutely lovely love. This broke my heart and mended it over and over, in the best ways possible. For my full review, please check out The Everlasting . The Everlasting was one of my favorite reads across all genres in 2025. You can check out my full list of favorites here . 02 The Book of Love by Kelly Link In Kelly Link's wonderfully oddball debut novel The Book of Love , she uses every bit of the book's 640 pages to build realities, possibilities, magical developments, quirky fun, deep connection, and second chances you'll be cheering for. Teenagers Mo, Daniel, and Laura have tragically disappeared from their hometown of Lovesend, Massachusetts, and have been presumed dead. One year later, they find themselves sitting in a fluorescent-lit classroom in their seaside town with Mr. Anabin, their high school music teacher, before them. They soon realize that Mr. Anabin is capable of powerful magic, that he knows where the teens have been trapped for the past year and why, and he's advising them on what to do next. Along with a quirky, sassy magical being whose intentions are unclear, Mr. Anabin offers them a chance to compete in magical tasks in order to reclaim their lives. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but I also appreciate that Link didn't take an easy way out in which the teens and their allies fix everything, voila! Some aspects are resolved, while others are left in a limbo that feels appropriate in its uncertainties and dark shadows. This is twisty and odd, quirky and fun, and has lots of heart. At almost 650 pages long, there's enough page time for Link to build various realities, tear them down, and reimagine new ones while the reader scrambles to keep up. The Book of Love  explores reality, connections, loyalty, possibilities, and second chances. I was hooked. I received a prepublication edition of this book (which was published the year prior, oops!) courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. For my full review, please check out this link . 03 Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1) by Sebastien de Castell Kellen begins as a principled, headstrong young man lacking in the magic crucial for power, familial stability and social standing in his world. By the end of the book he is satisfyingly resolved, stronger, and accepting of his complicated fate. “I’m a woman, kid. You probably haven’t met one before, coming as you do from this backward place, but it’s like a man only smarter and with bigger balls.” Kellen is struggling in his mage's trials aimed at earning him a name among his privileged people, the Jan'Tep. And the struggle feels even worse because his younger sister is living up to the family's powerful name by demonstrating more powerful magic than any student in their school. But Kellen's magic hasn't come in--and he fears that it never will. But as he uses his smarts, his unlikely allies, and his loyalty to get by, he finds himself discovering uncomfortable truths about his family and his community--and questioning everything he thought he knew. I loved the characters' dynamics, the outsider Ferius Pargosi who becomes a mentor and deeply loyal friend, the quest, the uprising of the downtrodden, and the setup to book two, Shadowblack , which I definitely want to read. I also appreciated witnessing Kellen's tough road to self-acceptance--particularly in light of his discovery that his parents have hidden, tamped down, and diminished his particular type of magic, deeming it destructive to Kellen and to the family's status. I can't wait to see him come into his own in book two. For my full review please check out Spellslinger . 04 Hemlock & SIlver by T. Kingfisher Based on my two Bossy reads so far, T. Kingfisher writes my favorite kind of fantasy novel: a wonderfully oddball main protagonist, a strange adventure, a mystery to be solved, and simmering romance with No Swooning or Annoying Drama whatsoever. I loved this story about an expert in poisons, with banter and clever deduction in an imagined world. In Hemlock & Silver , Anja is a healer who since her young cousin's preventable death has obsessively focused on learning about, combating, and teaching others about poisons. To determine antidotes and treatments, she must regularly ingest deadly substances, but duty calls. She's somewhat of a loner, part of a beloved family, and a merchant's daughter, but she's plainly dressed, tall, work-driven, and uninterested in social niceties, so she spends her time exhaustively researching and trying to help those who have ingested a potentially harmful substance. But when the king personally arrives at her workshop, desperate for help with his sole surviving daughter, who he suspects is being poisoned, Anja must not only navigate the ins and outs of royal customs, adjust her practical wardrobe, and leave her personal research behind to travel to the king's distant palace. I am allllll in on Kingfisher's novels. Everyone who recommended this author's work to me was correct, and I have no one to blame but myself for the delay in diving in. Kingfisher imagines richly imagined fantasy worlds, and within them she slots fantastically imperfect and wondrous main protagonists whose thoughts, dialogue, motivations, and actions have me completely hooked. Romantic undercurrents are wonderful, and there is No Swooning or Ridiculousness. This is my fantasy sweet spot. For my full review of this book please see Hemlock & Silver .   05 The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path #1) by Antonia Hodgson The first book in Hodgson's trilogy is smart, mysterious, charming, and layered. I loved the dark academia setting; the brilliant, socially awkward, unlikely heroine Neema; and the strange elements, such as talking, opinionated, sensitive ravens that are not only linked to Neema but a part of her . Neema Kraa has been keeping busy as High Scholar in the land of Orrun, and her focus hasn't been on making friends. The imperious genius is eager to preserve the peace that has reigned for twenty-four years--but forces that she doesn't yet understand are tearing apart the kingdom. A representative from each of the seven regions must compete to replace their ruler, who is about to step down. The ruthless young competitors are warriors and strategists who have been cultivating the skills and cunning for this their whole lives. And after a series of unlikely, unfortunate events, bookworm Neema becomes one of them--the least threatening, as she is clearly doomed to fail the dangerous challenges and battles and probably won't survive the ordeal. The Raven Scholar  is smart, charming, and wonderfully weird. I love the headstrong, unyielding, unlikely-heroine Neema and the dark-academia elements. There is a romantic element, but this is, happily for me, a richly built fantasy and not a romantasy. The romance is lovely, poignant, and just enough. Click here   for my full review of The Raven Scholar . 06 Shield of Sparrows (Shield of Sparrows #1) by Devney Perry This first installment in the series sets up an overlooked princess who becomes a heroine; deadly monsters who may be being treated unfairly; an enemies-to-lovers romance; and shifting loyalties. The dialogue is often dramaaaatic, but I'm in for the next book. Odessa is the oldest daughter of a king, but she has always felt like a placeholder; her father has always focused on vigorously teaching and training her younger sister May as his heir. You might predict that Odessa will be the unlikely heroine of this story when you find out that she has red hair . This character is not going to go along with the plans set out for her, everyone! Dear reader, she is going to end up being brave, and finding love, and and Doing the Right Thing. I knew all of this was coming, but I didn't mind it. I did, however, grow weary of Dess's repeated rhetorical questions and revisiting of the same issues over and over, neither of which felt like it moved the plot forward. The dialogue is sometimes dramaaaaatic, but generally the pacing rolled right along in this one. This first romantasy in Perry's planned trilogy offers monsters, royalty, secrets, hidden identities, battle training, some oddly modern-seeming profanity, and, abruptly, some steamy scenes. The swearing felt modern, but the setting felt more medieval. I listened to this as a TWENTY-HOUR audiobook. For my full review of this book please see Shield of Sparrows .

Bovalino's story hooked me with a main protagonist who's a female knight, her best-friend mage, intriguing magic, a terrifying destiny, showstopping secrets, danger and adventure, and a deep romantic connection. I loved every bit of the first book in Bovalino's Hand and the Heart series. Captain Grey Flynn is a knight pledged to protect the mage Kier, who she has known since she was a child. She is not only a blade but a source of magic, a well. Unbeknownst to others, she and Kier have gone through a forbidden process to become tethered, so that magic flows between them like an unspoken language. But Grey is also secretly in love with Kier. Early in the story Grey, Kier, and choice members of their army are assigned to the protection of a young woman and told to spirit her through the mountains to safety. She is believed by many to be the key to the land's future and the heir to its magic. But she is not who the army thinks she is...and Grey herself is hiding an enormous secret about her own identity, which not even Kier knows. This, my friends, is my sweet spot for romantasy. There is no Outrageous Character Swooning meant to stand in for actual character development or used as a shortcut to attraction and bonds. Bovalino offers a wonderful in medias res introduction to the deep emotional and platonic, affectionate connections between Grey and Kier. What keeps the main protagonists apart is a realistic-feeling set of emotional barriers intended to preserve their lifelong friendship--the stakes of messing with their friendship are understandably high. And Grey's secret is significant; it keeps her somewhat at an emotional distance from Kier. All of this feels warranted. As danger intrudes upon the story and everything Grey and Kier have known feels up in the air, their relationship changes, and the dramatic development of a romantic relationship when death is breathing down their necks feels warranted, perfectly complicated, and heartstoppingly saucy. When the swooning arrives, it's after Bovalino has set the perfect stage for it. The magic in Bovalino's world is strange and the circumstances around the island feel like a grayscale, murky pause in the book's action and a potentially heartbreakng tease of a second chance. The pacing sloooowed during this section, but I was invested. I found the ending a little bit unsatisfying, but I didn't expect the direction the story took, either. Bovalino doesn't offer easy answers, but messy, fought-for, and deserved resolutions. I loved this. I listened to The Second Death of Locke  as a library audiobook on Libby . Please check out these Bossy reviews of medieval-set books . You can click this link for more books about knights. More from V. L. Bovalino The second book in the Hand and the Heart series is currently scheduled for publication in fall 2026 and is titled The Thief and the Traitor Bride . Bovalino writes young adult novels under the name Tori Bovalino; this is her first book for adults.

The premise and wild tangle of storylines--not deep character development--are the highlights in this story about an easy-to-hate villain and his shocking, dastardly deeds. Strong women prevail in a messy lead-up to imperfect but ultimate justice. I've been continuing my cold-weather mystery-reading habits, and Lisa Jewell is always a good bet for an intriguing story, so I was excited to listen to another of her novels. After Nina Swann's semi-famous chef husband Paddy is killed, Nina receives a condolence card from a stranger to her, one of Paddy's former colleagues, the handsome Nick Radcliffe. Nick follows up with in-person charm and comfort. But Nina's young-adult daughter Ash thinks Nick might be too smooth, and the timing of his entrance into their lives seems strange to her. Meanwhile, Martha is running a small-town florist shop, sometimes with the help of her husband Alistair. But lately he's been acting oddly, leaving town suddenly and remaining unreachable for long stretches of time. As the female characters in Don't Let Him In  begin to ask questions about the men in their lives, they head on a crash course straight toward each other--and the truth. I was hooooked on this premise (spoiler alert!) in which a man lives out multiple overlapping lives, deceiving and lying all the while. Jewell offers a peek at the psychologically twisted motivations of the story's main protagonist, his dissatisfaction with his lot in life, his greed for the next conquest, and his misguided hope that he will be satisfied by a "perfect" woman and can attain an ideal set of life circumstances. The stakes grow ever higher as his irrational fixations come up short--and as various women begin to find cracks in his story. Some of the lengths he goes to feel at times extreme and dramatic, but I was fine with rolling with all of it, because so are his self-crafted tangle of identities, hidden crimes, and delusional, I-deserve-this pie-in-the-sky dreams. I was in for the over-the-top mania and the slow unraveling of his terrible lies, all of which pick up speed as various women race to unmask the man and reveal his chillingly methodical manner of imploding the lives around him. Dipping in and out of the protagonist's various identities and life paths (and those who surround him) doesn't allow for significant depth in character development, but that's not what Don't Let Him In is built upon. The creepy premise, the interwoven story structure, the dark plot, the psychopathic impulses, and the eventual mission of renegade justice are what drive this story and offer its intrigue. I physically cringed each time another vulerable female character who was, understandably, looking for companionship, adoration, and love fell into the web of this abomination of a man-child who thinks he deserves anything he lays eyes upon and who resists any sense that his deadly entitlement warrants repercussions and punishment. Nothing can fully undo the wrongs of the past, but Jewell makes things satisfyingly messy and complex as the story draws toward a close, and the novel's final scenes offer some justice. Strong, determined women prevail! I listened to Don't Let Him In  as a library audiobook on Libby . More Mystery Love Lisa Jewell is also the author of The Family Upstairs , None of This Is True , and other books. You might want to check out the lists and titles at this link for more Bossy mystery reviews.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Allegra Goodman's newest novel, which follows members of an extended Jewish-American family through life dramas large and small, This Is Not About Us ; I'm listening to Paula Lafferty's first novel in a series about a modern-day young woman told she is actually Queen Guinevere and asked to return to Camelot to save magic, The Once and Future Queen ; and I'm reading Yume Kitasei's climate fiction featuring two sisters determined to save their oldest sibling, Saltcrop . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman Allegra Goodman's This Is Not About Us is a story of an extended Jewish-American family. The three family matriarchs are split by a death and a feud that promptly takes place between the two remaining, elderly sisters and threatens to stretch on until their own deaths. The story is told through multiple points of view as the various Rubinstein family members--grown children, grandchildren, exes, and partners--navigate the dramas large and small that make up their individual and collective lives. I received a prepublication edition of This Is Not About Us , which was published February 10, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House (The Dial Press) . I first read Allegra Goodman's work 25 years ago, when I enjoyed her novel Kaaterskill Falls . Since then she has published many more novels, including Sam . Her novel Isola was one of my favorite reads of 2025. 02 The Once and Future Queen (Lives of Guinevere #1) by Paula Lafferty Twenty-two-year-old Vera is the beloved only child of two dear parents, but the rest of her life is a shambles. Her love Vincent died in an accident, her father is very ill, she's waiting tables, and she feels generally aimless and unseen. Then a strange man comes to town, telling Vera an unbelievable story of her true origins and her destiny. He says that she is actually from Camelot, in King Arthur's time, and that he himself is Merlin. Oh, and her name is Guinevere, as in "Queen." He says that the kingdom and magic itself are reliant upon Vera's time-travel back to Arthur's world, and that only she can save them. This is the first in a series from Lafferty about Vera/Guinevere. The second installment is not yet published. For more books I've read with medieval settings, please check out the titles at this link , and feel free to check out these Bossy reads about knights . 03 Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei In a near-future world reeling from environmental catastrophe, oceans have risen and destroyed the cities along the world's coasts. Skipper and Carmen are sisters getting by selling scavenged plastic from the water so they can care for their ailing grandmother. Their oldest sister, Nora, left home years earlier to try to help develop crops to sustain the world. But when Carmen and Skipper receive a desperate, cryptic plea for help from Nora, they must set out across the sea and into the unknown to try to save her. Yume Kitasei is also the author of The Deep Sky and The Stardust Grail .

Six More Favorite Contemporary Fiction Reads This is the third of three contemporary fiction lists I've put together as I've mined my recent-past reading for my favorite reads of the past year--you can find my first list of contemporary fiction favorite reads from last year here and my second list here . And you can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can read about past Bossy contemporary fiction favorites here . If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think! What are some of your favorite contemporary fiction reads, whether from the past year or beyond? 01 The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Desai's first novel in decades is a 688-page tale that meanders through India, New York, family and romantic relationships, and career false starts, with missteps, mysterious, powerful magical realism elements, and an undercurrent of darkness and despair. The messy resolutions felt appropriately hard-fought after the characters' extended struggles. Sonia is living away from her Indian family while she studies writing in Vermont, and after growing up used to having multiple family members around, feeding and speaking to her constantly, Sonia is still adjusting to the quiet of college, only having one housemate, and the cold and snow. Sunny is a journalist in New York City, eager to escape his overbearing family home in India. This is not a straightforward novel. Desai offers an ambitiously meandering tale in which many issues stretch out, increasingly twisted and unresolved, for much (sometimes all) of the book, often with little sense of progress for our characters. Desai weaves darkness, powerful superstition, and magical realism through a wide-ranging story about family, tradition, fear, missteps, danger, and obtuse elements whose significance only in the end become clear(er) to our main protagonists. The situations around relationships and life choices are often messy, complex, mystifying, and frustrating. Current-day conflicts link to generational trauma, storytelling, and mysterious power. Kiran Desai is also the author of The Inheritance of Loss . I listened to the 688-page The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny  as a 25.5-hour audiobook. You can read my full review by clicking this link . 02 Bunny (Bunny #1) by Mona Awad Bunny begins with an outcast main protagonist in a MFA program who's infuriated by her twee fellow seminar students. It builds into an increasingly unhinged, intriguing phantasmagoria, equal parts dark nightmare and outrageously silly absurdity. Samantha is a scholarship MFA student at the progressive Warren University in New England. An outsider, a solitary type immersed in her own sometimes dark writing, she is disgusted by the rest of her cohort--childish women who call each other "Bunny," dress in twee outfits, speak in high voices, and, aside from their hilariously outrageous creations, seem to be of one unimaginative mind and to operate in a mindless echo chamber of nonsense. But then the Bunnies invite Samantha to their "Smut Salon" and into their hive mind of dottiness. She becomes oddly entrenched in their circle, then increasingly unsure of herself and vulnerable. She ditches her few true friends, also outsiders, and feels at a loss to determine the line between reality and richly imagined dark, seemingly impossible developments. Just as the novel felt as though it were lasting too long for me and began to teeter toward the tedious; just as I wondered if I could stand to listen to the Bunnies' perfectly horrible, put-on baby voices for another couple of hours (narrator Sophie Amoss deftly handles the voices in this novel to great effect), the story went in a truly unhinged direction that intrigued me. It's difficult to describe how bonkers this story is. I was surprised by how hooked I became on it. This is not a book I would universally recommend, but for an audience that appreciates cutting satire and a bananas story, this one will fit the bill. For my full review of this book please see Bunny .   03 The Names by Florence Knapp Knapp's novel explores three life paths for a set of characters, all set into motion by the naming of the youngest child--whimsical, Mom's choice, or named for his cruel father. The trauma was difficult to read, but the various timelines were fascinating, as were the intersections of events and characters among them. Florence Knapp's novel The Names  explores three paths in a life--determined by three different names given to a baby upon his birth. In one timeline, an abused wife makes a stand for a whimsical name suggested by her daughter Maia, Bear; in a second, she makes a less aggressive but unsanctioned name choice that's her favorite, Julian; in a third, she registers her baby's name as "junior" to her brutal husband Gordon. In this sliding-doors story, the three paths diverge dramatically, and the whole family's destiny is shaped in different ways for each option. Each timeline produces a vastly different boy, a significantly shaped sister Maia, drastically different paths for mother Cora, and altered futures for father Gordon. Supporting characters make Easter-egg appearances in other timelines. None of the paths are too easy or perfect, but each offers varied satisfaction and challenge in the form of justice, tragedy, self-realization, fulfillment, confidence, and hope. The epilogue surprised me; I wasn't sure it was necessary or that I bought into the point of view and the version of a reckoning that it offered, but it was an interesting way to set up slight closure to the story. I found this novel fascinating. Please click here  for my full review of The Names. 04 The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner Jennifer Weiner's newest novel offers a behind-the-scenes peek at the music business, songwriting, and the pressures of fame, layered with complications from clashing sisters, devastating tragedy, and a messy path toward reconciliation. Cassie and Zoe Greenberg are sisters who have always been opposites. Cassie, a musical prodigy, loved losing herself in and expressing herself through playing and singing, but avoided the limelight. Zoe dreamed of stardom since she was a child and was driven more by fame than the music itself. But Zoe realizes that Cassie is key to any musical future, and she convinces Cassie to join her on stage, beginning their meteoric climb to stardom. For one year when they're young adults, the sisters reach mindboggling heights of fame as the pop duo The Griffin Sisters--featured in Rolling Stone , performing on Saturday Night Live , and making videos for MTV. Then their run abruptly ended, and for the public, the reasons for their breakup were a mystery. Twenty years later, Zoe is a housewife and Cassie is a recluse who hasn't spoken to her sister at all. But when Zoe's headstrong daughter Cherry becomes determined to become a star, she digs into the past and forces a confrontation between the estranged sisters at last. This is a great behind-the-scenes look at the music business, musical creativity and songwriting processes, and body-image pressures on women earning a living by being in the limelight. Griffin Sisters  also takes on deep familial conflicts, coping with loss and a devastating blow for future plans, lies and betrayals, and, finally, a messy but hopeful chance for reconciliation. If you like to read fiction about music, you might also like the titles I included in the Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music . Click here   for my full review. 05 The Sideways Life of Denny Voss by Holly Kennedy This bighearted novel holds a mystery, but its main focus is  neurodivergent main protagonist Denny and his dogged persistence, ambitious acts, decisiveness, wisdom, and loving kindness as he gets into increasing trouble, touches lives, faces loss, and establishes just who he is and wants to be. Denny lives a quiet life in small-town Minnesota, caring for his elderly mother with the companionship of his blind and deaf Saint Bernard, George. A developmental delay--caused by an accident at his birth--means that his options are limited, but Denny seems to keep finding himself in grave trouble. There was the time he kidnapped a neighbor's pet goose, the time he accidentally aided and abetted a bank robbery, and now he's under arrest for the murder of a candidate for mayor. As Denny's big personality, kindness, and discerning views become clear, the story tracks the lead-up to the recent death in the community and how Denny became a murder suspect. We see how he touches strangers' lives, frustrates neighbors, is ambitious in addressing societal wrongs, and we (and he) begin to understand previously unknown elements of his origin story--which he refuses to allow to define him. The Author's Note details how Kennedy's main character and some of the story's side plotlines were built from relatives and loved ones in her own life. The Sideways Life of Denny Voss  is a bighearted novel with an irresistible main protagonist and surrounding players, and the mystery keeps the story humming along. I loved this story. For my full review, please check out this link . 06 The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett In this heartwarming story of wonderfully faulted characters who face tragedy and often make a mess of things, loyalty and steadfastness overcome all and allow a makeshift family to heal, find adventure, discover their individual strengths, and realize that they're meant to be together forever. PJ Halliday is 63 and won the million-dollar lottery. Now he's about to set off on a cross-country road trip to track down his high-school sweetheart following the death of his former nemesis and rival. But not everything in his life has been luck and adventure. PJ has weathered terrible tragedies in his life.  Before he can set out for Arizona to try to win back his young love, his estranged brother dies, and PJ becomes the guardian for his brother's grandchildren. So he packs them into the car, enlists his grumbling grown daughter to help him, and hits the road. Tough situations are real but are surrounded by lighthearted, zany circumstances; characters are faulted and make missteps but learn to forgive themselves and those around them; loyalty and steadfastness serve as bridges to love and caring; and animals work with magical realism to shift and affect outcomes. While the characters in The Road to Tender Hearts  face sometimes devastating turns of events, the tone of the story is such that you won't wonder whether a happy ending is coming. Past hurts aren't erased, but love overcomes, and the ending is sweet sweet sweet. Annie Hartnett is also the author of the wonderful novel Unlikely Animals , which was one of my  Bossy Favorite Fiction Reads of the Year  when I read it. Click here   for my full review of The Road to Tender Hearts .

The initial installment of John McMahon's police procedural series follows a genius, socially awkward leader and a special team of FBI investigators who reinvent methods of finding their culprit in a smart, intriguing, and satisfying mystery. Head Cases  tracks FBI agent Gardner Camden (who has a brilliant analytical mind but is interpersonally awkward) and his group of agents in the Patterns and Recognitions (PAR) unit. A recent murder victim's DNA matches a long-dead serial killer, and a string of bodies hold clues that seem to be left specifically for Gardner to find. He and his unorthodox team must use their areas of expertise and their instincts to solve the riddles and catch the serial killer who is killing serial killers--before he harms their loved ones and gets away with it all. This group of genius, odd, complementary main protagonists often felt like an FBI version of Slough House in Slow Horses , in the best way. There seems to be someone on the inside of the FBI assisting the killer, or at least compromising the investigation, and McMahon made me question who this might be without cheap red herrings or manipulation. The crimes essential to the plot were disturbing and gory, but McMahon doesn't glorify the gore, and the book's heart is the PAR's power and success in inventing fluid approaches to solid procedure--here, carried out by unorthodox, possibly neurodivergent, not politically savvy, and excellent investigators. This was smart, intriguing, action-packed at times, and both the complexity of the investigation and its resolution felt satisfying. I hope Head Cases is made into a movie. I listened to Head Cases  as a library audiobook through Libby . I believe I heard about this book in a roundup of mystery novels recommended by national security agents. Bossy Love for Mysteries The next installment of this series, Inside Man , was recently published. McMahon is also the author of the Detective P. T. Marsh series. For other Bossy reviews and mysteries I've loved, please check out the books at this link .

I love a book that explores issues around mortality. Vigil , by the author of the strange, wonderful novel Lincoln in the Bardo , introduces fascinating elements such as fate, responsibility, and forgiveness, yet Saunders doesn't dig into them, which left me feeling unsatisfied with this slim book. Vigil has been one of my most-anticipated reads of 2026. In Lincoln in the Bardo , Saunders explored the worlds of characters existing in limbo between life and death. His novel Vigil touches on mortality and deathbed reflections. The story involves the otherworldly "Doll" Blaine, who is preparing to usher yet another soul peacefully into death. But her charge, K. J. Boone, is a powerful, wealthy oil company CEO facing his end with no regrets. Many live and beyond-the-grave souls demand a reckoning with Boone, requiring apologies and recognition--and often disputing Boone's accounts of events. This all leaves our main protagonists Doll and Boone in uncharted territory as death draws nearer for the earthly former executive and he refuses to take responsibility for grave harm to the earth and those living upon it so that he may pass peacefully into the next world. Doll's own memories flit in and out, and she experiences moments of clarity about her past. Remembering her worldly life causes her form to become temporarily more solid and her emotions stronger (and shows us that truthful consideration of the past is, in Saunders's story, what helps make us human and vulnerable). At other moments Doll is focused on the job task at hand: serving as a facilitator for her current charge as he hopefully begins to consider his mistakes, repents, and seeks and finds peace before death. I felt a familiar, powerful truth being beamed into me by a vast, benificent God, in the form of this unyielding directive: Comfort. Comfort, for all else is futility. But Boone is largely set upon whitewashing the past and reaffirming his own willful version of events in which he has been brave, inspiring in his ambition, and intent upon moving the world forward--and not , as others suggest, to blame for widespread manipulation, outright lies, and his own almost-singlehandedly driven environmental destruction of the earth and the lives upon it, possibly forever. He has moments of wavering guilt but then in full bluster talks himself around difficult issues and out of uncomfortable feelings around his actions and their significant consequences. Boone's beloved daughter inserts doubt into his solid self-absolution, but when she is not present he takes up his convenient, delusional ways again. As Doll enters into and drifts out of Boone's deathbed room, she reveals her own life in bits and pieces. She met an early, untimely, dramatic end, and we witness the first time that the supernatural version of Doll delves into what happened on earth in the aftermath of her accident. This was the most poignant aspect of the novel for me: a heartbreaking and maddening yet distantly comforting set of circumstances showing Doll how the world kept turning without her. Issues around immense wrongdoing and forgiveness for wrongdoing, even if the forgiveness is not sought, seemed to promise complex explorations and nuances. But Saunders didn't delve deeply into the many possible weighty issues around fate, responsibility, repentance, and amnesty. Saunders might have pursued this concept of unconditional forgiveness from God within Vigil . But there is a difference between blanket absolution and the idea that a human was always fated to do and become what he did and became, and Vigil has this teed up yet doesn't explore it. Gradually he came to seem, if I may say it this way, inevitable .... Who else could he have been but who he was? To consider, as Doll does--apparently as a directive from God--that Boone, a key figure in the destruction of the planet, might have been "inevitable" and thereby incapable of being or doing better (which in this case sets a particularly low bar) feels like a shocking, undeserved erasing of his decades of knowing, lie-filled, greedy pushing of his own agenda in order to be noticed and "succeed." The "inevitable" concept carried forward by Doll and, presumably, the others tasked with similar deathbed jobs, which apparently comes directly from God, seems to shrug shoulders about responsibility for self, for actions taken, and for resulting events. This letting Boone off the hook with a simplistic Popeye-esque "I yam what I yam," "boys will be boys," "what was he gonna do, after all" felt particularly jarring in light of present-day, famously bullheaded mindsets that seem consider little else besides exerting power. This feels like a shocking blanket absolution for anyone taking actions that are harmful to individuals, whole groups, society, and the world at large. It feels facile and unproductive to support a small-minded shrugging-shoulders approach positing that a destructive, unthinking fool would be fated to do what he did and that he was incapable of other paths or of change and improvement. Saunders offers a system of comfort provided by otherworldly angel creatures after their dying charges seek and find forgiveness. (When they do not genuinely seek clemency, horrors await, as we see ultimately with Boone.) But Vigil introduces many other complex questions (about the common earth, selfishness, advancement, preservation, change, safety, responsibility for future generations, not to mention theological questions), and this short (192-page) book didn't really dig into them. I received a prepublication version of Vigil courtesy of NetGalley and Bloomsbury ANZ. Please check out the reviews and lists on the blog if you're interested in books that address mortality . Love for Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders is also the author of the Booker Prize-winning   Lincoln in the Bardo   as well as Tenth of December , A Swim in the Pond in the Rain , Fox 8 , and other books.   I included Lincoln in the Bardo  in the Greedy Reading List   Six Fascinating Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War .