Claire Lynch's novel shapes two timelines separated by decades into an engrossing, complicated family story of forbidden love, secrets, impending death, and second chances, against a backdrop of everyday minutiae. I read this in a day; I loved it. In Claire Lynch's novel, we track a British family along two timelines. In 1982, Dawn, a young mother in a fine but loveless marriage finds happiness in a socially unacceptable relationship, and the legal backlash causes her to lose custody of--and contact with--her beloved young daughter Maggie. In 2022, Heron, Maggie's father, has just received terrible news about his health, and he works to come to terms with it within his carefully prescribed daily routine and regular banal conversations with Maggie and family. It becomes clear that Maggie is unaware of the particular circumstances around her parents' divorce and the reason for her mother's subsequent disappearance--until a clean-out of her childhood home reveals long-held secrets. Delving into the past allows the reader to witness the slow, lovely unfurling of Dawn. She is a young mother who had met a nice guy and followed the prescribed steps of the time: marriage, having a child, doing the washing, cooking meals, her inner self icing over as she went through the motions. When she meets Hazel, everything in her life is upended. She doesn't dare to hope for this love, this happiness, this fulfillment...until she is brave enough to begin to imagine a life that feels bright and full. We are simultaneously immersed in Dawn's adoration of her daughter Maggie: every expression, every finger and toe, every thought, every laugh. Dawn's na ï vit é is heartbreaking, as society in that time and place aggressively fights departures from the norm, and she is punished more cruelly and fully than she could have imagined. Heron's embarrassment at being left is bolstered by the outrage of the family members and legal representatives who insist upon the strongest repercussions for Dawn. It's enraging to watch him pretend to be buoyed along and tell himself he has no real power--when he had the chance to preserve his family in a newly imagined form. In the modern timeline, Heron's state of dying adds a layer Maggie's complicated emotions upon her discovery of her mother's years-long attempts at having contacted her--and her mother's eventual resolution decades earlier that leaving Maggie alone was best for her daughter. The acute mother's love Dawn feels for Maggie, which we witnessed early in the book, is a ghost, particularly heartrending to recall when a long-due reunion ultimately occurs after countless lost years. I read this engrossing family story in a day and can't wait to read future fiction by Claire Lynch. More about Claire Lynch and Family Stories Claire Lynch is also the author of Irish Autobiography and Small: On Motherhoods . For more family stories I've loved, check out the books at this link .

This short novel explores an alternate-history, near-future, post-war San Francisco in which robots come online and create a noodle shop that bridges the gaps between themselves and humans. Newitz offers a cozy story of an unlikely safe haven for all. In a San Francisco of the near future, a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned kitchen after a war in which California split from the rest of the United States. Looking for a purpose, they begin to do what they do best: cook. Before they had autonomy or options to decide their fates, they were tasked with cooking food that even they could tell was mediocre--and they can't even eat. But now they work both within and outside an upheaved system, leveraging their ability as robots to access information to figure out who owns the storefront where they've reanimated (and buy it), then optimizing their ability to make objectively delicious, appealing food for humans--while turning profits that buy freedom for those of them stuck in employment serfdom. The robots suffer from prejudice and bear the brunt of fear-mongering from much of society. But they manage to touch the lives of those in their neighborhood looking for reliable, high-quality food by producing the best (robot-) hand-pulled noodles around and offering a charming takeout storefront. When a series of vindictive, one-star reviews threaten their business, they must figure out who has it in for them and why. Being pushed to their limits calls for exceptional sleuthing, creativity, and efficiency. Without fear of ruin, each of them wouldn't so fully embrace their roles and abilities, bond as deeply--nor create the safe haven for humans and robots alike that is a gift to all. I love a science-fiction story in which elements of humanity are explored, I love an alternate-history tale, and I love a chosen-family element. Newitz provides all three in a cozy story that charmed me through both funny and poignant moments. This was sweet and strange, and I really liked it. I received a prepublication edition of this title, published August 5, courtesy of NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group. More about the Author Annalee Newitz is also the author of The Terraformers , Autonomous , The Future of Another Timeline , and other books.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading A Marriage at Sea , Sophie Elmhirst's nonfiction that reads like a novel, about a couple whose sailboat capsizes in the middle of the ocean when a whale breaches beneath it; I'm reading Claire Lynch's family story of secrets and everyday life told in two timelines, A Family Matter ; and I'm listening to Sangu Mandanna's cozy, magical novel A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst Sophie Elmhirst revisits a decades-old true story that she crafts like fiction, skillfully using dry firsthand accounts and subsequent interviews to build a fascinating, fluid (pun!), compelling nonfiction book about a couple whose ambitious sailing trip from England to New Zealand is abruptly halted when a whale breaches beneath their sailboat, capsizing it. Elmhirst manages to shape a suspenseful nonfiction work despite the couple's significant periods of isolation, struggle, and repetitive tasks. She delves into their inner lives, exploring the workings of their relationship and fleshing out an intriguing dynamic against the unforgiving backdrop of the endless-seeming expanse of ocean and 118 days of clawing for survival. A Marriage at Sea is nonfiction that reads like fiction. 02 A Family Matter by Claire Lynch In Claire Lynch's novel, we track a British family along two timelines. In 1982, a young mother in a loveless marriage finds happiness in a socially unacceptable relationship, and the legal backlash causes her to lose custody of her beloved young daughter. In 2022, Heron, Maggie's father, has just received terrible news about his health, and he works to come to terms with it within his carefully prescribed daily routine. It becomes clear that Maggie is unaware of the particular circumstances around her parents' divorce and the reason for her mother's subsequent disappearance--until a clean-out of her childhood home reveals long-held secrets. 03 A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sandu Mandanna 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 then she resurrected her (barely) dead aunt and adored guardian Jasmine, and the spell required to do so diminished Sera's powers to almost nothing. Because of the forbidden spell, she is exiled from the magical Guild. Much of this mess is due to the dubious abilities and motives of a talking fox/former witch who moves into the inn. Sera's former mentor is wreaking havoc, grasping at ever-increasing power, and frightening other witches into doing his bidding. Meanwhile, Sera realizes there is a very old spell that could restore her powers. Then a handsome, magical historian and his young sister come to stay at Jasmine and Sera's inn, and suddenly Sera and her messy, oddball chosen family are forced to consider their collective futures. Sangu Mandanna is also the author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches . You might also want to check out more cozy stories I've reviewed.

The Time-Travel Books I love a time-travel book in any genre. Time-travel and time shifts allow a story to go places it otherwise never could, allowing for unusual perspective, second chances, and realizations. Books that play with time almost always go straight on my to-read list. If you're intrigued by time-travel stories, you might also like the books on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories Six More Riveting Time-Travel Stories to Explore , and Six More Time-Travel Stories to Dive Into . What are your favorite time-travel books?   01 Recursion by Blake Crouch In Blake Crouch's Recursion , Barry Sutton is a NYC cop looking into a suicide. Helena Smith is a neuroscientist creating technology to preserve memories and allow people to relive them. People like the victim Sutton is investigating are told that their vivid recollections of their life’s memories are not real, and that they’re actually mentally ill, suffering from False Memory Syndrome. When they encounter loved ones from their memories who are now living alternate lives, in many cases they are unable to cope with their conflicting realities. While Sutton begins digging into what’s real and what’s a lie, Smith works feverishly to preserve memories and reality. Together, they have to identify and confront dark forces that might be manipulating—and destroying—the minds and the framework of society as we know it. I cared so much about Sutton and Smith and their mission. Blake Crouch writes character-driven science fiction that I love. This was sooooo good, unexpected, sweeping, and compelling. For my full review, please check out Recursion . You can find my review of Blake Crouch's Upgrade here , my review of Dark Matter  here , and of his novel Pines here . 02 Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen Kin Stewart was a time-traveling secret agent in 2142. He was stranded in the 1990s when a mission went wrong. Now he lives life as a regular guy; he works in IT, he’s happily married, and he has a beloved daughter. They have no idea about his past, which is just how he wants it. When he begins to have memory loss and other odd symptoms, he realizes it’s linked to his past time travel. Then a rescue mission arrives decades too late, to bring him to 2142 and back to another life with another family. Stewart would have to break all the rules of time travel to attempt the impossible: preserve the existence of his daughter in his current reality without destroying everything else. In Here and Now and Then Mike Chen masterfully explores: Is the past set in stone or is it malleable? Which half of Kin’s dual life is most true or immediate or valued? How much physical turmoil can one body take before giving in? What does a hero do when honesty requires putting his life at risk, yet is also essential to save it? I loooved this. Chen writes a deeply felt warring of emotions and conflicting responsibility and duty. I adore a character-driven science-fiction tale. Also, time travel! This totally hit the spot. For my full review, please check out Here and Now and Then . 03 In Five Years by Rebecca Serle Dannie is on the path to achieving her five-year goals in spectacularly efficient fashion. She goes to sleep satisfied, but wakes up in another life: a strange apartment, a different boyfriend, and an alternate set of choices behind and before her. And perhaps most confusingly of all, in this second life she's lost some of her original, lifelong, rigid plans for her future, yet she's happy. Very very happy. She returns to her original reality, but Dannie can’t shake the possibilities and uncertainty created by what felt like an actual, temporary shift in her existence. What happened? But more importantly: What does that vastly different set of circumstances and her satisfaction within it mean about how she can and should live her life? Serle's In Five Years totally hit the spot for me, and it also wasn’t exactly what I expected. The setup seems like the story is a romance, but it’s actually a story about loyalty and devoted friendship without easy or saw-it-coming resolutions, and not everything is as it seems. I loved it. For my full review, please check out In Five Years . Rebecca Serle is also the author of One Italian Summer and other novels. 04 The Ten Thousand Doors    of January by Alix E. Harrow January has lived with Mr. Locke as his ward since her beloved, offbeat father disappeared during a trip to acquire artifacts for the wealthy man’s collections. Her father has since been presumed dead, and Locke keeps her safe and cared for, if without affection. But she is growing older and is looking for answers about her father’s disappearance. When she finds a mysterious book her father had acquired, it shows January unlikely possibilities about her existence and the world at large that it’s difficult to process. When she uncovers unwelcome truths about Locke and her circumstances, she has no choice but to forge into the frightening unknown. Alix E. Harrow has crafted a lovely adventure through different wonderfully imagined worlds (including the early 1900s home base). The Ten Thousand Doors of January also explores the wondrous bravery but sometimes dark and destructive forces surrounding the explorers and collectors venturing through worlds and the wanderers desperately searching for home. For my full review, please check out The Ten Thousand Doors of January . Alix E. Harrow is also the author of the wonderful The Once and Future Witches , Starling House , and other books. 05 The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell You only value something if you know it’ll end. Teenager Holly Sykes is suddenly drawn into the world of “the radio people,” people whose voices she heard as a child. She disappears from her family and leaves behind a tragic mystery, while in her forays through new worlds she attracts dangerous powers to her. David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks is a set of six intriguing tracks through time that are full of surprises and interconnected through Holly and her various threads of reality . There are links to other Mitchell books and characters if you're paying attention, but the book can stand alone. I can say with certainty that I've never read a book quite like this before. A full genre shift around page 400 would normally make me want to throw a book through the window. But here it works somehow. This was strange and compelling. For my full review, please check out The Bone Clocks . David Mitchell is also the author of Utopia Avenue , Cloud Atlas , The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet , and more books. 06 All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai There are flying cars in the alternate reality of this book. Flying cars. I think you should know that going in, because it’s not the only awesome thing, but it is one of the awesome things in Elan Mastai's All Our Wrong Todays . Our main protagonist Tom makes a decision that strands him in our version of the world, which feels like a dystopia to him. He encounters alternate versions of his loved ones and universe, which are jarring but grow on him. He strikes out to explore time and place in an effort to figure out which reality to preserve. Mastai provides a fascinating story with time travel, alternate realities, love, loss, humor, bravery, and moments that made me laugh out loud. I didn't always follow the logic as laid out in the book--the supposed development of time travel itself and how time travelers affect realities--but I loved suspending my disbelief to be part of it. I loved this! For my full review, please see All Our Wrong Todays .

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. Sybil is no shrinking violet at the beginning of the story, but she develops a satisfyingly solid sense of self and clarity of purpose as she determines who to align herself with, picks and chooses appropriate ways to express loyalty, and remains open to discovering new sides of herself and of those she has allowed into her inner world. Gillig builds a layered fantasy world on elements of stone and water, and the moth symbolism changes in significance. Sybil's understanding of her own power and abilities shifts while she assesses the power of the elements she's always trusted. There's an evolving quest involving unlikely heroes, allies who continually reveal layers that make them even more interesting. I was hooked on each of our main protagonists (particularly Maude) and their rich, strategically revealed back stories. 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. Bartholomew! This character development hurt my heart in the best way and warmed it too. The class-warfare and discrimination against hungry sprites by the comfortable, wealthy, longstanding nobles feels like an editorial on haves and have-nots that is relevant for the current real world. The eerie, shadowy tone set up at the beginning felt like a far more gentle version of Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series. As The Knight and the Moth 's story evolves, the humorous moments make the haunted, gray setting and oppressive corruption and greed surrounding our main characters feel satisfyingly heartwarming. I can't wait for the next books in this series. More from Rachel Gillig Rachel Gillig is also the author of the Shepherd King duology. For more fantasy/science fiction stories I've loved, please check out these titles .

Amity Gaige's Appalachian Trail-set novel offers several of my favorite elements: a Maine setting, a missing-person storyline, an unforgiving wilderness, and a strong woman succeeding in a male-dominated field. This mystery hit the spot for me. But the nonbeliever is in a bind, because without God, who forgives? Human beings are pretty unforgiving. The law certainly isn’t forgiving. Forgiveness needs a messenger. Amity Gaige's Heartwood  offers the story of Beverly, a dedicated Maine State Game Warden who has fought for years for an amount of respect to match her commitment and ability, and Valerie, an Appalachian Trail hiker who has gone missing 200 miles from her final destination. Beverly is known to be able to find missing persons, and she is set upon finding Valerie. But search parties, flyovers, and rescue dogs come up empty day after day. The reader is privy to Valerie's poignant letters to her mother as she struggles to survive in the wild, and witness to 76-year-old, wheelchair-bound Lena's retirement-community existence and her rigid existence after a lifetime of pain. Lena, Valerie, and Bev are inexorably connected, and Valerie's survival depends upon the other two women's bravery and relentlessness. Meanwhile, the novel explores imperfect parenting, compounding mistakes by clinging to fear or regret, and against-the-odds second chances. Forgiveness is a concept that emerges again and again here. I loved the Appalachian Trail adventure and bonding, the in-charge warden who has worked hard and earned her place, and the behind-the-scenes gears that begin to turn and are instrumental in solving the mystery at hand. I love a Maine setting, a missing-persons story, and a tale of brave women thriving in a traditionally male career. This story is so intriguing, I had trouble putting it down. More by Amity Gaige Amity Gaige is also the author of O My Darling , The Folded World , Schroder , and Sea Wife . Check out the titles at the links here for more missing person stories and for more books set in Maine .

Nikki Erlick explores grief, loss, family conflicts, strangers' bonds, and sticky moral dilemmas related to a speculative-fiction scientific advancement, which allows certain grieving individuals to enter into a free, weeks-long induced sleep and emerge with a lessened sense of sadness--but which can carry its own devastating cost. A mysterious therapy center lies in the California desert, and its services are free, but they're only accessible to those who are desperately sad and who are able to pass a rigorous application process. The treatment available allows those who are grieving or coping with tragedy to soften their emotions and emerge better able to function without debilitating sorrow. But participation requires traveling to California, consenting to receiving mysterious, purportedly helpful injections while unconscious, and being put to sleep for a matter or weeks or months. The process is new, somewhat under the radar, often controversial and, for some, carries the potential side effect of losing all emotion around the loss--which can cause a different level of loss and another layer of sadness, particularly for other friends and family members who want to share the load of memory and grief around a loved one who is gone. After a canceled flight, a carload of people head on a cross-country journey to the "poppy fields," as the facility is nicknamed, but each has a different goal in reaching their destination, and not everyone is being forthcoming about their reasons for going. One had their application to the fields rejected, one is a hopeful participant, one lost a brother after he spent time there...and one is sisters with the CEO and founder of the system. I enjoy a novel about imagined near-future advancements, and the Poppy Fields's founder delves into moral dilemmas while also--in a realistic successful-scientist's conflict--considers the benefit of providing a free service while needing extensive funds to advance research or expand facilities. The exploration of loss and grief was a particular highlight for me. Many of the novel's characters seek escape from the painful, messy path through grief, while others--some, belatedly--acknowledge that the terrible sadness of sitting with a loss is part of acknowledging how much someone has meant to them and is a necessary part of living after the death of a loved one. (Check out the links below to Bossy reviews of other titles about mortality, grief, and loss.) The characters' back stories aren't exactly what they initially seem, and I appreciated the added depth Erlick builds for each of the protagonists. The bond between the travelers was heartwarming, and they surprise each other and themselves with the roles they play in each other's emotional journeys. I listened to The Poppy Fields as an audiobook, which I received courtesy of Libro.fm and William Morrow. (You can link to and benefit independent booksellers when you buy audiobooks through Libro.fm !) More Books about Mortality and Loss Erlick is also the author of The Measure . For more books that explore mortality, please check out these lists and titles , and please check out the links here for more books that address grief and loss .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Annalee Newitz's newest science fiction, Automatic Noodle , a novella about deactivated robots who come back online in a defunct kitchen in a postwar San Francisco; I'm listening to The Knight and the Moth , the first in Rachel Gillig's rich fantasy series with a slight romantic storyline; and I'm reading Amity Gaige's Heartwood , a missing-persons mystery set in Maine. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz In a San Francisco of the near future, a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned kitchen. Looking for a purpose, they begin to do what they do best: cook. In Annalee Newitz's novella, the robots touch the lives of their neighborhood by producing the best hand-pulled noodles around. But when a series of vindictive, one-star reviews threaten their business, they must figure out who has it in for them and why. I received a prepublication edition of this title, published August 5, courtesy of NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group. Annalee Newitz is also the author of The Terraformers , Autonomous , The Future of Another Timeline , and other books. 02 The Knight and the Moth (Stonewater Kingdom #1) by Rachel Gillig The first in Rachel Gillig's Stonewater Kingdom series, The Knight and the Moth , considers Sybil Delling 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 begin to disappear, and Sybil doubts for the first time whether their purpose is holy and noble after all. She starts to question the motivations of those with influence, including the Omens themselves. So far this is a richly built fantasy world with a minor romance aspect; it's a balance I'm really liking. 03 Heartwood by Amity Gaige Amity Gaige's Heartwood offers the story of Beverly, a dedicated Maine State Game Warden who has fought for years for an amount of respect to match her commitment and ability, and Valerie, an Appalachian Trail hiker who has gone missing 200 miles from her final destination. Beverly is known to be able to find missing persons, and she is set upon finding Valerie. But search parties, flyovers, and rescue dogs come up empty day after day. The reader is privy to Valerie's poignant letters to her mother as she struggles to survive in the wild, and witness to 76-year-old, wheelchair-bound Lena's retirement-community existence and her rigid existence after a lifetime of pain. Lena, Valerie, and Bev are inexorably connected, and Valerie's survival depends upon the other two women's bravery and relentlessness. I love a Maine setting, a missing-persons story, and a tale of brave women thriving in a traditionally male career. This story is so engaging, I'm having trouble putting it down.

Bossy Romantic Favorites The heat of August feels like a perfect time to dive into recently published romantic stories, and these have been six of my favorites this year. Check out the four titles from powerhouse romance authors (Center, Jimenez, Silver, and Fortune), plus two from new-to-me authors (Robinson, Sturino). I'm a longtime stalwart fan of my local independent bookstore and its knowledgeable and oh-so-helpful staff, Park Road Books --and I also love that an adorable romance-focused bookstore has opened in my city, Trope Bookshop ! If you're into reading lighter fiction with romance, a number of real-life issues and complications, and often some laughs, you might also like the books on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading Six More Great Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading Six of My Favorite Light Fictions Reads of the Past Year Six More of My Favorite Light Fiction Reads of the Past Year Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading Six More Great Light Fiction Stories Six of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year , and Six More of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year Have you loved any other romantic comedy or lighter fiction stories lately? 01 Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino I loved Sunny's body positivity and her self-made-woman status. I didn't fully buy into one of her love interests but was hooked on the peeks behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Sunny has deeply loyal and inspiring newly divorced friends to lean on, a body- and sex-positive lifestyle, and some tantalizing dating prospects. So why can't she simply shake off the fact that nothing in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit section comes even close to fitting a woman over a size 10? The body-positivity in Sunny Side Up was a highlight, as was the group of Sunny's bright, supportive fellow divorcee friends (and her mentee at work), but the standout for me here was the peek into the fashion industry as Sunny continually Handles It and makes her dreams come true--thereby also taking care of fashion-conscious plus-sized women everywhere. The voicing of her Queens-native love interest didn't ring true to me, and while he was very nice, I was partially turned off by his many corny jokes, which didn't land for me. Her ex is purely selfish and easy to detest, and another love interest turns out to be more focused on money than Sunny herself. Ultimately, Sunny listens to her inner voice and doesn't settle for anyone who wants her to be less than she is. I loved Sunny's independence, savvy abilities, strong will, and, of course, her fashion sense. Katie Sturino is a body-acceptance advocate who is also the author of Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life. For my full review of this book please see Sunny Side Up . 02 One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune The main male protagonist was off-putting to me in his arrogance at first, but Carley Fortune is the best at developing a lakeside romance story with characters I root for and steamy, poignant, friendship-based relationships I love. This is a great summer read. Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. Shy Alice watched more than she participated in lake life--and she took a photo of three smiling teenagers on a yellow boat, and it seemed to set everything else in motion. Now she's feeling disillusioned with the airbrushing and false scenes she's forced to create in her job rather than capturing something real. So when Nan falls and breaks her hip and needs a pick-me-up, Alice arranges for them to return to the cabin where she spent that pivotal summer. But handsome, mischievous Charlie Florek, one of the subjects of that long-ago photo, seems to be everywhere she turns--and she can't hide behind her lens anymore. Fortune drops some breadcrumbs regarding the Issue Sure to Keep Them Apart, which follows The Desire to Not Ruin the Friendship (a concern that seems heartbreakingly valid). The steamy scenes didn't invite involuntary squealing or cringing on my part--they couple is really drawn to each other, and there's a tantalizing teasing aspect to their slowing down the physical progression of the friends-with-benefits arrangement. I loved the eventual relationship between Charlie and Alice, and I loved their love. For my full review of this book please see One Golden Summer . Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake  and Every Summer After   as well as This Summer Will Be Different. 03 Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver I loved the love for books in this novel, but I did struggle with the premise, in which an actress plays the part of an author and develops elaborate, extensive lies about inspiration, writing process, back story, and more, then feels wronged when the situation blows up. In Josie Silver's newest rom-com, Charlie Francisco is a divorced, cynical, harried talent agent who desperately needs to hire an actress to play the part of a novelist--and tour in place of the reticent (the writer is famous in literary circles) author of a new blockbuster romance. Kate Elliott was once a soap opera actress, and now she's reeling from a divorce and thankful for a new job. She's ready to take on the persona of a romance novelist at readings and signings, but she also becomes entranced by the romantic story she's pretending to have authored. Over the course of an extended book tour, Charlie and Kate are repeatedly thrown together. I couldn't get comfortable with the compounding lies that were key to Kate's playing the role of an author out in the world, explaining (fake) inspiration, (made-up) personal experiences, and (invented) relevant life details. I was most intrigued by the Kate-Liv sister relationship as well as Charlie's new beginning and his complex past. (Side note and request: Can we please have books about Liv and Charlie?) And I loved the intense love for books that is evident throughout Slow Burn Summer . For my full review, please check out Slow Burn Summer . Josie Silver is also the author of A Winter in New York , One Day in December  and The Two Lives of Lydia Byrd , a book that appeared on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories . 04 The Love Haters by Katherine Center Katherine Center's sweet rom-com about a video producer and her reluctant hero of a subject is set against the colorful backdrop of Key West. The appealingly playful love story incorporates issues of body image, job insecurity, and past tragedy in a lighthearted and charming novel. Katie Vaughn has been single for a year, since her former fianc é , an up-and-coming musician, hit it big and then very publicly cheated on her with a pop star. She's a mid-level video producer on the verge of a layoff--unless she accepts a job in which she documents the life of Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hutch Hutcheson, an everyday hero who rose to fame when he happened to save Jennifer Aniston's golden retriever. And he's not interested in being filmed. The banter made me laugh at times, and I bought the attraction between Katie and Hutch, as well as the "reasons" (all solvable, folks!) that they must not be together. Katie's evolution in considering and coping with body image issues felt valuable and compelling. Supporting characters are great, colorful, and add nice layers of interconnectedness to the story. The crisis that forms toward the end felt over the top and drawn out, with a rom-com-easy resolution, but by that point I was ready for anything Center was throwing my way. This is not a racy book, and the attraction and relationship are focused on emotions and wanting to be together without being swoony or angsty. Please check out my full review of The Love Haters . Katherine Center is also the author of The Rom-Commers , Hello Stranger , What You Wish For , Things You Save in a Fire , The Bodyguard , and other books. 05 Definitely Better Now by Ava Robinson In Ava Robinson's debut novel, she offers an appealingly imperfect main character making missteps and forging a path forward while adjusting to romantic, family, and work complications after a year of sobriety. Emma is friendly but reserved with her coworkers. She's focused on extending her one year of sobriety--a fact that she doesn't share easily with others, except at her frequent recovery support meetings. When she's assigned to assist on the committee for the office's extravagant upcoming holiday party, she's thrown together with a cheesy, persistent executive who unfortunately spotted her joke of a dating profile before she pulled it down--and Ben, the intriguing IT manager she can't stop thinking about. I fell in love with Emma and her imperfect, determined path forward, her sometimes-regretful reckonings with her past, and her fight to be vulnerable for a potential relationship she begins to believe in. Her missteps felt relatable, and I was hooked by her difficult decision-making and her bravery. This is a great example of a light-fiction-feeling romance that deals with weighty, meaningful themes. It's a combination I love. This is Ava Robinson's first novel. Abby Jimenez  and Carley Fortune  are two more authors who offer deep, heartfelt situations, messy complications, and real-life consequences within a romantic structure. For my full review please check out Definitely Better Now . 06 Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me #2) by Abby Jimenez Abby Jimenez layers tough situations and messy complications into her rom-coms, and here, her main protagonists must face and overcome past and present difficulties in order to banter their way through the story and build a sweet life together. Samantha creates zippy social media posts for a local mustard company (I kept feeling surprise, but also joy, that this job seemed to provide a sustainable salary)--and she doesn't take any attitude from anyone. Xavier is a young veterinarian who feels grumpy, exhausted, and as though he may be losing faith in humanity--but he loves the animals he cares for. After one disastrous encounter involving a rescued kitten with a serious congenital disorder, then one magical, extended date, the two are falling for each other. But Xavier's painful past and Samantha's challenging present might make a future for the two impossible. Jimenez never shies away from including heavy themes and tough situations in her rom-coms. Here, childhood abuse, animal abuse, and dementia are all part of Xavier and Samantha's past and present stories, so nothing is too easy on their path to togetherness. Jimenez writes irresistible characters, and I loved the weight of the difficulties behind this sweet story of love. I received a prepublication audiobook edition of Say You'll Remember Me  courtesy of Hachette Audio and Libro.fm. For my full review of Say You'll Remember Me , please check out this link . Jimenez is also the author of Just for the Summer   (one of my Favorite Rom-Coms of the Year  last year), Part of Your World , Yours Truly , The Friend Zone , and The Happy-Ever-After Playlist .

More Funny and Sweet Light Fiction Adorable rom-coms can be perfect summertime reading. These Bossy favorites from a summer past stand the test of time. And soon I'll post another set of Bossy romantic favorites, this time titles that were published this spring and summer. If you're into lighter fiction with some romance and often some laughs, you might also like the books on these Greedy Reading Lists: Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading Six of My Favorite Light Fictions Reads of the Past Year Six More of My Favorite Light Fiction Reads of the Past Year Six Great Light Fiction Stories Perfect for Summer Reading Six More Great Light Fiction Stories Six of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year , and Six More of My Favorite Rom-Com Reads of the Year Have you loved any other romantic comedy or lighter fiction stories lately? 01 Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder Ava Wilder's rom-com takes us behind the scenes of a hit teen TV show whose lead characters once liked each other in real life but now can't stand each other. This was funny, sweet, steamy, and poignant--a fantastic summer light-fiction read that I loved. Lilah Hunter and Shane McCarthy are the stars of the popular paranormal television show Intangible , and for multiple seasons they've yearned for each other on screen, but their characters have never gotten together. Lilah has dreams of directing and of breaking into movies, but she's back for the sixth and final season of the show, in which her character and Shane's will finally get together. But in real life, Shane and Lilah detest each other. Their secret tryst at the end of season one ended badly, and they've been far from friendly ever since. I LOVED this. The premise sounded like a slam dunk for me, and the reality of the book was a funny, poignant, banter-filled, behind-the-scenes, realistically complicated, wonderful story. There's a ton of steaminess as Lilah and Shane at times can't deny their attraction and act upon it. I smiled a lot, I teared up, and I loved this perfect summer read! For my full review of this book, check out Will They or Won't They . Ava Wilder is also the author of Definitely Better Now , another book I loved. 02 Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood Ali Hazelwood's light fiction novel is wonderfully immersed in science, offering a forbidden relationship and an enemies-to-lovers dynamic, plus lots of steamy scenes. Elsie Hannaway is an adjunct physics professor, but her dream is to dedicate herself to a career in research. To help pay the bills, Elsie is a paid escort (who does not have sex with her clients, as she keeps explaining to certain men). She's fake-dating a nice man in order to keep his family off of his back. Now Elsie has the interview of a lifetime, at MIT. But a series of coincidences and misunderstandings lead to her being unaware that the head physicist on site...is her fake boyfriend's brother. I loved the significant science element here, the jargon, the exploration of academic politics, and the passion for research and discovery. I was frustrated by Elsie's lack of assertiveness, although I recognized that it was set up in order to have her ultimately find her own opinions and set her course. I found the family dynamic related to her mother's demands of Elsie absurd. The situation with her twin brothers felt slapstick and silly to me. The steamy scenes, the twisty route to the relationship, the career shifts, and the science focus were all winners for me. I'd like to read more by Ali Hazelwood. For my full review of this book, check out Love, Theoretically . Ali Hazelwood is also the author of Bride as well as numerous other contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. 03 The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren The True Love Experiment is a wonderful, romantic read about forbidden attraction and heartwarming vulnerability, with steamy scenes, will-they/won't-they tensions, funny dialogue, behind-the-scenes televised moments, and loooooooove. I loved T he Soulmate Equation from the writing team known as Christina Lauren. That book introduced the fantastic best-friend character of Felicity "Fizzy" Chen. The True Love Experiment is Fizzy's story. Fizzy is a straight talker, a sex-positive woman, and a successful romance writer, but she's never been in love, only in lust. Now she's beginning to feel like she's been selling her readers a lie. Connor Prince ( his last name is Prince! ) is a single dad and documentary filmmaker slated by his boss to create a reality TV program about finding love. He's completely out of his comfort zone and the pressure is on--but when he meets Fizzy, he just knows he's found the perfect star for the show. The True Love Experiment is an irresistible exploration of a spark of feelings, impossible difficulties, terrifying vulnerability, and hard-won joy. The issues keeping the two love interests apart felt powerful and heartbreaking and offered tantalizing tension to the story. The happy ending made me tear up and also made me want to cheer. This was a wonderful summer read for me and I loved it. For my full review, check out The True Love Experiment . The writing team of Christina Lauren also authored the books The Paradise Problem , The Unhoneymooners , In a Holidaze , Love and Other Words , Something Wilder , and Autoboyography . 04 Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon In Weather Girl , Rachel Lynn Solomon brings humor and a little steamy romance to a newsroom setting, with a fun Parent Trap -style backdrop--and weighty issues like depression that are addressed with grace. Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and now she's got her dream job: she's a junior meteorologist on TV. But her two bosses, Torrence and Seth, who are exes, seem more concerned with their long-term petty arguments and with airing personal grievances than with running the station, mentoring younger staff members, or creating professional opportunities. When Ari and kind, quiet sportscaster Russell close down the company's holiday party, they joke about Parent Trapping Seth and Torrence in order to create harmony in the TV station and allow them to better do their jobs. As they mastermind a plan to bring the exes together in Rachel Lynn Solomon’s light fiction story, Russell and Ari realize they have more in common than they thought. Weather Girl is romantic and occasionally steamy. The story is largely about accepting yourself and loving yourself--and treasuring someone who delights in you just the way you are. This is an excellent example of how authors of light fiction can take on weighty issues with grace and care. For my full review of this book, check out Weather Girl . Rachel Lynn Solomon is also the author of See You Yesterday , The Ex Talk , and Today, Tonight, Tomorrow . 05 Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter I LOVED this young adult book. It's perfectly charming, funny, quirky, and sweet, yet it deals with grief and fear, hope and forgiveness, being true to oneself and growing up, and of course love. Lynn Painter's adorable young adult rom-com Better Than the Movies is about Liz Buxbaum, a fabulously eccentric high schooler coping with the grief of having lost her mom--while navigating the sparkly idea--and messy reality--of romance, with the inspiration of her mom's favorite romantic comedies. Liz is a hopeless romantic who has been waiting her whole high school career to be swept off her feet in quintessential romantic-comedy fashion--with the perfect soundtrack playing in the background. But it looks like she may have to rely on her annoying next-door neighbor Wes to try to gain the attention of dreamy Michael with the perfect hair, who has just moved back to town. Better Than the Movies is funny funny funny and so lovely and sweet, I adored the whole story, the characters, the growth, the banter, the heartbreaking, heartwarming growth, the fun--this is basically a perfect young adult romantic comedy. For my full review of this book, please see Better Than the Movies . The sequel to this title is Nothing Like the Movies (which I didn't love quite as much) and Painter has authored other books, including the cute Betting on You . 06 Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman Charm City Rocks is sweet, interesting, and layered. I loved this story about relationships, complications, famous/everyday person romance, and a love of music that binds. Billy Perkins is a music teacher living above a record store in Baltimore called Charm City Rocks with his beloved teen son Caleb. He's content co-parenting with his ex-partner Robyn, who is remarried. Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is miserable. The former drummer of the popular band Burnt Flowers is, decades later, a recluse living in New York City. When a documentary shines a light on Margot again, Billy's longtime crush on the musician is renewed. Caleb cooks up a scheme to get Margot to perform at Charm City Rocks so his dad, who Caleb thinks is lonely, can finally meet Margot and, if all goes as planned, hopefully forge a connection. I was in love with Charm City Rocks --the Baltimore love, the embracing of the beauty in an everyday life and in straightforward affection, the heartbreak of missed chances, and the soaring hearts who find renewed belief in true love. For my full review of this book, please check out Charm City Rocks . If you like books about music, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music and other Bossy reviews of books about music .

I loved the love for books in this novel, but I ultimately couldn't get past my issue with the premise, in which an actress plays the part of an author and develops elaborate, extensive lies about inspiration, writing process, back story, and more, then feels wronged when the situation blows up. In Josie Silver's newest rom-com, Charlie Francisco is a divorced, cynical, harried talent agent who desperately needs to hire an actress to play the part of a novelist--and tour in place of the reticent (the writer is famous in literary circles) author of a new blockbuster romance. Kate Elliott was once a soap opera actress, and now she's reeling from a divorce and thankful for a new job. She's ready to take on the persona of a romance novelist at readings and signings, but she also becomes entranced by the romantic story she's pretending to have authored. Over the course of an extended book tour, Charlie and Kate are repeatedly thrown together. Can the romantic story that brought them together help them rethink their recent heartbreak? I couldn't get comfortable with the compounding lies that were key to Kate's playing the role of an author out in the world, explaining (fake) inspiration, (made-up) personal experiences, and (invented) relevant life details. I also questioned the morals of the actual author, who continues to feel badly about the complications and yet for far too long doesn't insist on stepping forward (I know, I know, this person was experiencing highly personal feelings around the story--but still). When the situation began to crash down and there was backlash from readers who felt duped (and who were told outright lies by Kate herself, after all), this felt justified and was not shocking. I didn't really believe in the Charlie-Kate romance; we are told that this relationship and its tensions are building, but I didn't feel able to buy in. There are some truly zany moments in the novel (a T. rex costume and others, literal pies in faces). For me, the title Slow Burn Summer didn't capture either the feeling of Silver's novel or the book within this book. I was most intrigued by the Kate-Liv sister relationship as well as Charlie's new beginning and his complex past. (Side note and request: Can we please have books about Liv and Charlie?) And I loved the intense love for books that is evident throughout Slow Burn Summer . I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books. More from Josie Silver Josie Silver is also the author of A Winter in New York , One Day in December  and The Two Lives of Lydia Byrd , a book that appeared on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories .

My very favorite Bossy May reads! It was tough for me to narrow down my very favorite reads this month; I read so many great titles. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think. And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 The 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 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 . 03 She's a Lamb! by Meredith Hambrock She's a Lamb! offers a delusional, self-congratulatory, single-minded, relentless would-be performer and builds tension and outrageously high stakes as the novel traces each of the unsympathetic protagonist's professional missteps and cutthroat choices, pushing toward what feels like an inevitable, disastrous climax to the campy story. In Meredith Hambrock's darkly funny, satirical novel, Jessamyn St. Germain is a performer as over the top as her name. She's booking occasional commercial jobs, but she firmly believes she's destined to become famous and perform on Broadway, singing and dancing her way to superstardom. She's hired to mind the bratty child actors for a community theatre production of The Sound of Music , but she's got her heart set on capturing the role of Maria von Trapp, and her systematic destruction of the show unfolds in gruesome detail as her powerful delusions about her talent and her deservedness shape each cutthroat decision she makes to try to propel herself onstage as the lead. After all, she hasn't sacrificed, obsessed, planned, spent all her money on voice lessons, and humiliated herself with men in powerful positions for a mediocre acting life. Not by a long shot. I often have a tough time reading about protagonists who are making poor choices, but the book's dark satire is skillful, and the situation is increasingly over-the-top. Jessamyn is so far gone, even I could give in to the fascination of reading about the growing life-and-death whirlwind of destruction she's causing. Readers will likely have a clear sense that our main character is prepared to burn it all down on her ill-advised, sledgehammer-unsubtle journey to achieve stardom, and I found it irresistible to wonder how dark things would get in her relentless quest. Meredith Hambrock's debut novel was Other People's Secrets . Please click here for my full review of She's a Lamb! 04 Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson In Kevin Wilson's latest gem, his quirky characters are irresistible and his heartwarming story is messy, strange, and lovely as a chosen-family element overshadows past tragedies and disappointments. Mad and her mother have run their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee, ever since Mad's father disappeared twenty years ago. Mad is a loner, and that's okay. But when a stranger who calls himself Rube shows up in a rented PT Cruiser and a story about how Mad is his half sister--explaining that their father has more kids spread across the country as well--Rube and Mad head out on an awkward, nerve-racking mission to find their siblings--and then try to track down their father. The tone of Run for the Hills  feels reassuring in that everything seems headed toward resolutions. Wilson allows for confrontation, and he doesn't spare our characters a messy, somewhat unsatisfying reckoning involving their dad. He is, after all, an imperfect person whose fear of failure caused him to abandon each chance at a wonderfully imperfect life. The most tragic aspect isn't that his children were left, but that he missed out on time with these quirky, caring, wonderful oddballs who find that he is, ultimately, a relatively minor note in their newly formed, forever sibling family. Kevin Wilson is also the author of Now Is Not the Time to Panic , Nothing to See Here , Baby, You're Gonna Be Mine , The Family Fang, Perfect Little World , and Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories . For my full review, please check out this link . 05 Definitely Better Now by Ava Robinson In Ava Robinson's debut novel, she offers an appealingly imperfect main character making missteps and forging a path forward while adjusting to romantic, family, and work complications after a year of sobriety. Emma is friendly but reserved with her coworkers. She's focused on extending her one year of sobriety--a fact that she doesn't share easily with others, except at her frequent recovery support meetings . When she's assigned to assist on the committee for the office's extravagant upcoming holiday party, she's thrown together with a cheesy, persistent executive who unfortunately spotted her joke of a dating profile before she pulled it down--and Ben, the intriguing IT manager she can't stop thinking about. I fell in love with Emma and her imperfect, determined path forward, her sometimes-regretful reckonings with her past, and her fight to be vulnerable for a potential relationship she begins to believe in. Her missteps felt relatable, and I was hooked by her difficult decision-making and her bravery. This is a great example of a light-fiction-feeling romance that deals with weighty, meaningful themes. It's a combination I love. This is Ava Robinson's first novel. Abby Jimenez  and Carley Fortune  are two more authors who offer deep, heartfelt situations, messy complications, and real-life consequences within a romantic structure. For my full review please check out Definitely Better Now . 06 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 .

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. “My job is about being right. Always. If I’m ever wrong, I must make use of all my means and resources to bend and align reality according to my mistake so that it ceases to be a mistake.” 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. A character's deep desire to avoid any perception of weakness leads to repeated outright falsifications of facts (facts that are, by the way, often more interesting and potentially bolstering to a powerful persona than the elaborately imagined fiction). The desire to rewrite history in this way reveals a silly, petulant wealthy main character who is easy to dislike. Throughout the book, brilliant women consistently must work against chauvinism and prejudice in order to see through their projects, to improve the world, and to reveal the truth. The peeks into the financial world of 1920s New York City was intriguing--particularly since the unorthodox approach to benefiting from it was driven by a genius of a woman (who had to work though her far less clever husband to achieve her ends). Strikingly, she is able to retain her conscience, while he loses any he once had. More about Hernan Diaz Hernan Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for Trust . He is also the author of In the Distance .

Norlin draws the reader into the eerie heart of a small group living sequestered in the Swedish forest as they gradually fall into strictly prescribed roles, adhere to limitations, remain off the grid, and push down their own desires in order to follow the charismatic Sara--until an outsider shakes up all they have come to believe. They were all strange. They were all flawed. Together, they managed to survive. They each had something that benefited the others. In Annika Norlin' novel The Colony , Emelie is looking for an escape from her bustling city life in Sweden and takes to the woods for a few days. She settles into the peaceful patterns of nature and camping near where her grandmother once lived. She spies from a distance the comings and goings of a group of seven people, some young and some older--hugging trees, singing in a circle, and playing seemingly strictly prescribed roles within the group. They are led by the charismatic Sara, and when Emelie meets the group, her entrance into the dynamic stirs up questions, disturbances, long-held resentments, and wonder about the outside world, all of which threaten to destroy the isolated colony they've evolved into over a period of years. Norlin immerses the reader into the cloistered world of seven, each of whom is hiding from something, seeking meaning, or both. They find peace and loyalty together, and part of what they first shape for each other is safety and affection. With Sara setting the tone and delineating roles and limits, each member of the group gradually subsumes their own desires, hopes, and assertions under what is said to be best for the group. Only when Emelie arrives--asking questions, becoming curious, then getting drunk and speaking frankly and critically--do the other members of the group begin to challenge the status quo. Her perspective forces each person to face the truth of what is missing from their lives and to resent or challenge Sara's authority. Sara herself seeks a sign that they are following the right path, as though falling eerily under her own spell and believing herself capable of otherworldly understanding and ability. The scenes that take place late in the book are surprising and arresting, centering around a dramatic power shift and, ultimately, characters' newfound abilities to explore the world again, with wonder instead of fear. This is Annika Norlin's first novel. More Books about Cults You might also be interested in these Bossy reviews of books about cults .

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. The family reels from the loss, feeling and casting blame, turning within themselves, and existing in a fog of grief. But the reader is also privy to the point of view of Julia, Ellis's girlfriend, who is facing unexpected news--she's pregnant. Ellis's family takes in the baby and Eva becomes a treasure to them, a gift they never expected. 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. Phil is a supportive and relaxed dad, in contrast to Sibyl, the mother of the Samuelson clan, who isn't very patient, frequently seems irritated and even revolted by her daughters, and often makes critical comments. Phil travels worldwide for his job, and his more appealing personality and our peek into his viewpoint led me to feel more forgiving toward his absences and his mistakes than I did toward Sybil with her determined focus on herself (and her own dalliance, which we don't have the benefit of watching grow and develop). Sybil is a giving teacher but is otherwise an unsympathetic character, alcoholic and bitter, and it is specifically pointed out that her deadly health crisis occurs after she refuses to be screened for cancer for an irresponsibly long time. The early portion of the novel wonderfully immerses the reader in the Northern California of the 1970s. Viewing the family's story through different members' points of view allowed for rich context through varied perspectives, but this also felt somewhat jumpy as the story built. Sally's frank observations and kind heart are the stars of the early chapters of the book, but her older years (in which she seems lost, without her younger passion for art, and also perplexingly taken in with an unpromising married man in rural New England for an extended period) seemed to stretch the focus and pacing of the novel. 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. More from Michelle Huneven 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 .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to literary fiction with a story within a story that's been on my to-read list for years; I'm reading a decades-spanning story of a Northern California family after a tragic loss; and I'm reading a novel about a commune whose balance is abruptly shaken when an outsider ventures inside. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Trust by Hernan Diaz Hernan Diaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Trust has been on my to-read list for multiple years, and I'm finally diving in. 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. Diaz is also the author of In the Distance . 02 Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven 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 and head to college, he died in a freak accident. Bug Hollow spans decades, tracking grief and then the life paths of Ellis's sisters, his parents, and his former girlfriend. Lives intersect unexpectedly, disappointments and shortfalls become clear, secrets emerge, and joy is sometimes elusive. 03 The Colony by Annika Norlin In Annika Norlin' novel The Colony , Emelie is looking for an escape from her bustling city life in Sweden and takes to the woods for a few days. She settles into the peaceful patterns of nature and camping near where her grandmother once lived. She spies from a distance the comings and goings of a group of seven people, some young and some older--hugging trees, singing in a circle, and playing seemingly strictly prescribed roles within the group. They are led by the charismatic Sara, and when Emelie meets the group, her entrance into the dynamic stirs up questions, disturbances, long-held resentments, and wonder about the outside world, all of which threaten to destroy the isolated colony they've evolved into over a period of years. This is Annika Norlin's first novel.

Bossy Favorites of the Month It's been a solid reading month for me. My favorite reads included several books from some of my very favorite authors: the next in a great historical fiction mystery series with a feminist heroine; a great lakeside summertime romance; a 1980s-set astronaut story with feminism and LGBTQ love; a Maine-set mystery solved by retired CIA operatives; an epic historical fiction fantasy told in several timelines featuring vampires; and historical fiction with a young woman passing as a boy to achieve more freedoms in Shakespeare's London. What are some of your favorite reads of July? 01 An Unexpected Peril 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 . 02 One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune The main male protagonist was off-putting to me in his arrogance at first, but Carley Fortune is the best at developing a lakeside romance story with characters I root for and steamy, poignant, friendship-based relationships I love. This is a great summer read. Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. Shy Alice watched more than she participated in lake life--and she took a photo of three smiling teenagers on a yellow boat, and it seemed to set everything else in motion. Now she's feeling disillusioned with the airbrushing and false scenes she's forced to create in her job rather than capturing something real. So when Nan falls and breaks her hip and needs a pick-me-up, Alice arranges for them to return to the cabin where she spent that pivotal summer. But handsome, mischievous Charlie Florek, one of the subjects of that long-ago photo, seems to be everywhere she turns--and she can't hide behind her lens anymore. Fortune drops some breadcrumbs regarding the Issue Sure to Keep Them Apart, which follows The Desire to Not Ruin the Friendship (a concern that seems heartbreakingly valid). The steamy scenes didn't invite involuntary squealing or cringing on my part--they couple is really drawn to each other, and there's a tantalizing teasing aspect to their slowing down the physical progression of the friends-with-benefits arrangement. I loved the eventual relationship between Charlie and Alice, and I loved their love. For my full review of this book please see One Golden Summer . Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake  and Every Summer After   as well as This Summer Will Be Different. 03 Atmosphere: A Love Story 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. 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 . 04 The Summer Guests (Martini Club #2) by Tess Gerritsen In the second installment of the series, retired CIA agents build stronger bonds with each other in rural Maine while assisting (and sometimes running over) the local police chief to try to find a missing teen and untangle past unsolved mysteries. In book two of the Martini Club, the mystery at hand--a missing teen--draws in local citizens as well as the wealthy summer residents, their murky pasts (which are uncomfortably, distantly related to the aging former agents' own histories), and unsolved disappearances from decades earlier. Multiple suspects capture the attention of the police as well as the Martini Club, and the former agents' unorthodox investigations are both intriguing to witness and lead to some valuable discoveries. The progression of the meal-focused relationship between Jo and the Club is fun, as are Jo's growing respect for the Club's hunches (which keep things interesting, as they aren't always correct), her growing confidence in her own instincts, and her ability to attempt to corral the Club into an appropriate lane for assisting behind the scenes without crossing quite so may procedural lines. A growing affection between two members of the ex-CIA crowd is a secondary element but is sweet to see. I liked this installment even more than the first book in the series. It was a fast read that kept me guessing. Please click here  for my full review of The Summer Guests. This is the second book in Tess Gerritsen's Martini Club series. The first is The Spy Coast . If you're interested in stories set in Maine, you might like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Books Set in Maine . 05 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 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 enjoyed spending time in each time period. 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. Click here   for my full review of Bury Our 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 .) 06 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 .

Death of the Author explores the connection of an author to her work--and how a story can take on a life of its own--in this novel featuring a science fiction tale within Okorafor's main story, which is that of a writer shaping her own identity and future by facing challenges and mind-blowing opportunities. Adjunct professor Zelu has just told off a foolish, privileged, antagonistic student (and then told off her boss), so now she's not only disabled and overwhelmed by her overly controlling and opinionated family as she has been for many years--she's also unemployed. At rock bottom, she allows her subconscious to develop a rich imagined world and story that are completely unlike her stilted literary attempts of the past. The book Rusted Robots takes off like a rocket in popularity, changing almost everything in her life. (The speed with which Zelu's book is fought over, paid for, published, successful, and various rights are sold all feels like a happy dream-state fantasy that prospective authors might especially enjoy.) The story meanders as Zelu struggles to determine what to do with her success and to understand what she's all about. Significant page time is spent on her worrying about how to manage situations and what to do next (often with her family's meddlesome negativity creeping in). After the feverish writing of her successful science fiction story, she is unable to write a sequel. She cements her identity and significant abilities piece by piece when she embraces challenging opportunities (augmenting her ability to be mobile with futuristic walking aids; diving into her relationship and commitment; saying yes to a trip into space) and as she copes with danger and disappointment (a violent attack when she visits Nigeria; the white bastardization of her Rusted Robots story). Zelu's ties to her parents' home country of Nigeria remain constant, as does her desire for adventure, her unwillingness to compromise, and her disinterest in doing the expected. Zelu's family aims to tear down her confidence as well as repeatedly blame her for her childhood accident that left her in a wheelchair, express negativity around her daring to dream, remain obsessed with their own needs for approval and for keeping up appearances above considering Zelu's well-being, and, occasionally, bestow tiny gifts of grudging positivity, but only after Zelu's various avenues of blockbuster success (bestseller novel, million-dollar advance, movie made, trip to space!) are undeniable. The family's collective assumption that they may, unsolicited, rightfully weigh in on Zelu's every decision was jarring and infuriating. The shifted points of view (early on and periodically, a sister shares Zelu's tale) and the various moments of foreshadowing took me out of the story's immediacy. This is literary fiction with portions of science fiction, and I adored the portions of Rusted Robots that are interspersed throughout. The excerpts highlighted commonalities between the imaginary world that poured out of her and Zelu's real life, and they presented fascinating questions. How much does physical form affect a sense of self, others' assumptions, and one's own abilities? Can lifelong prejudices be overcome? Can vulnerability and loyalty overcome deadly dangers and destruction? More from Nnedi Okorafor Okorafor is also the author of the Binti trilogy, Akata Witch , Noor , Remote Control , and other works.

I'm a huge Amy Bloom fan, and while I appreciated the strong main female character here and the World War II-era crises, for me, the story felt somewhat disjointed and flagged in pacing for me 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. The story meandered through subsequent years, and I didn't feel immersed in the novel; I was told that deep feelings (of friendship, loyalty, romantic love, or familial love) existed, but I didn't become invested so that this felt real. Gazala feels like a faded, only formerly strong character well before her actual demise. 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, which was published June 24, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group. Amy Bloom Love 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 .

The Books I'm Reading Now I've been reading several books that surprised me, turning societal norms on their head and exploring unorthodox relationships, futuristic possibilities, and stories within stories that illuminate people's complicated natures. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 I'll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom 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 received a prepublication edition of this title, which was published June 24, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group. 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 . 02 Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor Adjunct professor Zelu has just told off a foolish, privileged, antagonistic student (and then told off her boss), so now she's unemployed as well as disabled and overwhelmed by her overly controlling and opinionated family. At rock bottom, she allows her subconscious to develop a rich imagined world and story completely unlike her stilted literary attempts of the past. The book takes off like a rocket, changing almost everything in her life. Yet her ties to her parents' home country of Nigeria remain constant, as does her desire for adventure, her unwillingness to compromise, and her disinterest in doing the expected. Okorafor is also the author of the Binti trilogy, Akata Witch , Noor , Remote Control , and other works. 03 The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick A mysterious therapy center lies in the California desert, and its services are free, but they're only accessible to those who are desperately sad and who are able to pass a rigorous application process. The treatment available allows those who are grieving or coping with tragedy to soften their emotions and emerge better able to function without debilitating sorrow, but participating requires traveling to California, consenting to receiving mysterious, purportedly helpful injections while unconscious, and being put to sleep for a matter or weeks or months. The process is controversial and, for some, carries the side effect of losing all emotion around the loss--which can lead to a different level of sadness in itself. After a canceled flight, a carload of people head on a cross-country journey to the "poppy fields," as the facility is nicknamed, but each has a different goal in reaching their destination, and not everyone is being forthcoming about their reasons for going. One had a rejected application, one is a hopeful participant, one lost a brother after he spent time there...and one is sisters with the CEO and founder of the system. Erlick is also the author of The Measure .

Bossy Favorites of 2025 So Far I love looking back on my reads of the year to date and taking stock of my favorites. These are six of my most-loved titles from the first half of this year. What are some of your favorite reads of 2025? 01 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. 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 . 02 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 . 03 Atmosphere: A Love Story 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. 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 . 04 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. 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 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy Mysteries abound within McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore , but the story is largely an atmospheric story of isolation and loss set against the drama of climate change, tragedy, and finding the will to trust again. The description of Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore  immediately ticked several of my reading-interest boxes--the setting is an isolated island (Antarctica is the closest land mass), the climate is cold (check out these other Bossy reviews of titles with cold settings ), and climate change  and shifting weather patterns are bringing matters to a head. When a mysterious woman washes up half-dead on the remote island of Shearwater, home of the world's largest seed bank and formerly a research hub, she finds only Dominic Salt and his three children manning the lighthouse. The lonely, broken characters reach out to each other. Although hesitant because of past hurts, they begin to form intense bonds. There are mysteries at the center of the story, but for me this was a captivating, atmospheric dive into the pressures, pain, and hope within extreme isolation, the power of external forces, and the push to protect each other at all costs. I was intrigued throughout. For my full review of Wild Dark Shore , please check out this link . Charlotte McConaghy is also the author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves .

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. Bury my bones in the midnight soil, plant them shallow and water them deep, and in my place will grow a feral rose, soft red petals hiding sharp white teeth. 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. She reaches out and runs her fingers through the ash. Knows she should feel horrified. But as she rises to her feet, all she feels is hungry. I loved that the women of each time insist upon creating situations in which they have autonomy and agency. For some, this means becoming a vampire and escaping men's foolishness, cruelty, or simply male-dominated societal control. Within the female-focused vampirism of the story, women demand even more from their lives, refusing to be limited by other women, by expectations, or by fear. They create their own versions of freedom, however unorthodox they may be. I enjoyed spending time in each time period. 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. The pacing didn't flag, and this was a fast 535-page read. More Love for V. E. Schwab 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 .)

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. To look up at the nighttime sky is to become a part of a long line of people throughout human history who looked above at that same set of stars. It is to witness time unfolding. 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. I love an astronaut story. Reid spends far more page time on the astronaut aspect than the space aspect (and puts far more emphasis on the relationships than on the astronaut aspect). 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 constricting social standards of the 1980s limit Vanessa and Joan's freedom to express their feelings publicly, and this reflection of the real-life times is heartbreaking to read. I adored the love for Joan's niece Frances that draws the in-love couple even more deeply together. 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. More Love for the Author and for Astronaut Stories 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 .

In the second installment of the series, retired CIA agents build stronger bonds with each other in rural Maine while assisting (and sometimes running over) the local police chief to try to find a missing teen and untangle past unsolved mysteries. In book one of Tess Gerritsen's Martini Club series, we met Maggie Bird, a retired CIA operative who has made a simple life for herself in rural Maine. At first she tried not to make emotional connections and kept to herself--old habits from her former life. But unbeknownst to the other citizens in Purity, Maine, the town has drawn multiple  former intelligence agents who aren't willing to go gently into old age. Now they hold a monthly boozy book club dinner party and keep their eyes open for trouble. In The Summer Guests , they operate as a team to try to find a missing teen--both helping and annoying the new police chief, Jo Thibodeau, along the way. “You will stay right here, in your vehicle. Don't leave the road, don't try to interfere, or I swear I'll have you all in handcuffs." She turned and walked away. "I don't think she's serious," said Lloyd. "Who carries five pairs of handcuff s?” In book two of the Martini Club, the mystery at hand--a missing teen--draws in local citizens as well as the wealthy summer residents, their murky pasts (which are uncomfortably, distantly related to the aging former agents' own histories), and unsolved disappearances from decades earlier. Multiple suspects capture the attention of the police as well as the Martini Club, and the former agents' unorthodox investigations are both intriguing to witness and lead to some valuable discoveries. The progression of the meal-focused relationship between Jo and the Club is fun, as are Jo's growing respect for the Club's hunches (which keep things interesting, as they aren't always correct), her growing confidence in her own instincts, and her ability to attempt to corral the Club into an appropriate lane for assisting behind the scenes without crossing quite so may procedural lines. A growing affection between two members of the ex-CIA crowd is a secondary element but is sweet to see. I liked this installment even more than the first book in the series. It was a fast read that kept me guessing. More Books You Might Like This is the second book in Tess Gerritsen's Martini Club series. The first is The Spy Coast . If you're interested in stories set in Maine, you might like the titles on my Greedy Reading List Six Fascinating Books Set in Maine .

The Books I'm Reading Now I've been having a wonderful beachy break, and these are the titles I've been reading: The Summer Guests , Tess Gerritsen's newest Martini Club offering, which centers around a mystery in small-town Maine and an investigation that the local ex-CIA agents can't resist involving themselves in; Atmosphere , Taylor Jenkins Reid's love story about astronauts in the 1980s; and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil , V. E. Schwab's historical fiction-fantasy story about vampires linked together through centuries. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 The Summer Guests (Martini Club #2) by Tess Gerritsen In book one of Tess Gerritsen's Martini Club series, we met Maggie Bird, a retired CIA operative who has made a simple life for herself in rural Maine. At first she tried not to make emotional connections and kept to herself--old habits from her former life. But unbeknownst to the other citizens in Purity, Maine, the town has drawn multiple  former intelligence agents. Now they hold a monthly boozy book club dinner party and keep their eyes open for trouble. In The Summer Guests , they operate as a team to try to find a missing teen--both helping and annoying the new police chief, Jo Thibodeau, along the way. This is the second book in Tess Gerritsen's Martini Club series. The first is The Spy Coast . 02 Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid 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. 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 . 03 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab 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. 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 .)

Bookworms, I hope your summer is full of fun, relaxation, adventure, and some breaks from the day-to-day schedules and pressures of the rest of the year. I'm taking a short break from posting--and I hope to read some fantastic books to share with you when I'm back. I sometimes like to dig into a big nonfiction read during the summer, when I feel like time stretches out and allows me to take more time with a more dense title. But not this year! I've been rom-comming it up, and you can find lots of my favorite romantic reads on the blog--with a list of recently published favorites to come soon, as well as a Greedy Reading List featuring my favorite books of the year so far. I've got these books going at the moment: recently published fantasy-historical fiction, the second in a mystery series set in Maine, a novel about an unconventional family in late 20th century Manhattan, Victorian-England-set historical fiction, and a nonfiction title about parenting teenagers. What have you been reading, bookworms?

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. In the sixth book of the wonderful Deanna Raybourn's  feisty Veronica Speedwell series of historical fiction mysteries, Veronica remains a strong and unorthodox main protagonist who finds herself entangled in a dangerous set of circumstances. 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. Part of the mystery went in the direction I anticipated, which I didn't mind at all, and there's a ramped-up danger and secondary mystery that is chilling in its unflinching detail toward the end of the book. 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. I listened to An Unexpected Peril  as an audiobook. More Love for Deanna Raybourn 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 .

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. I was also intrigued by the crafty finishing school nemesis, the oddball teachers and quirky school leadership, the persistent young people's shifting knowledge base, and the strange mystery at hand. This is the first in the four-book young adult steampunk series Finishing School. I listened to Etiquette & Espionage as an audiobook. More Love for Author Gail Carriger I loved the first book in Gail Carriger's five-book (plus a prequel short) Parasol Protectorate series, Soulless and its sequel, Changeless .

The main male protagonist was off-putting to me in his arrogance at first, but Carley Fortune is the best at developing a lakeside romance story with characters I root for and steamy, poignant, friendship-based relationships I love. This is a great summer read. Is it even summer without a new lake-set summer romance from the wonderful Carley Fortune? My friend Rachel recommended Carley Fortune's newest book, and I'm so glad I pushed it to the top of my to-read list. Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. Shy Alice watched more than she participated in lake life--and she took a photo of three smiling teenagers on a yellow boat, and it seemed to set everything else in motion. Now she's feeling disillusioned with the airbrushing and false scenes she's forced to create in her job rather than capturing something real. So when Nan falls and breaks her hip and needs a pick-me-up, Alice arranges for them to return to the cabin where she spent that pivotal summer. But handsome, mischievous Charlie Florek, one of the subjects of that long-ago photo, seems to be everywhere she turns--and she can't hide behind her lens anymore. The character of Charlie was so very cocky at the start of the book, I found him somewhat irritating and off-putting. But he seems to be beyond confident, so Alice has nothing to lose by being herself. In fact, her shyness begins to disappear altogether as they develop a friendship--with flirting and some poignant moments of vulnerability. Fortune drops some breadcrumbs regarding the Issue Sure to Keep Them Apart, which follows The Desire to Not Ruin the Friendship (a concern that seems heartbreakingly valid). The steamy scenes didn't invite involuntary squealing or cringing on my part--they couple is really drawn to each other, and there's a tantalizing teasing aspect to their slowing down the physical progression of the friends-with-benefits arrangement. I loved the eventual relationship between Charlie and Alice, and I loved their love. One Golden Summer features characters Percy (Persephone) and Sam (Charlie's brother) from Every Summer After , which is the story of their romance. Fortune has said that readers were clamoring for Charlie's happy ever after. She felt that once she developed a strong female character with her own rich backstory, Fortune was able to tell the story she wanted to about Charlie. Love for Author Carley Fortune Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake  and Every Summer After as well as This Summer Will Be Different.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to the first in Gail Carriger's young adult steampunk mystery Finishing School series, Etiquette & Espionage ; I'm listening to An Unexpected Peril , the sixth book in Deanna Raybourn's great Veronica Speedwell series; and I'm reading We Don't Talk about Carol , Kristen L. Berry's recently published debut novel, a twisty mystery. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger Fourteen-year-old Sophronia Temminnick constantly tests her mother's patience, as she's more apt to occupy herself by dismantling a clock or 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 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 assumptions about young women to spy on unsuspecting victims. This is the first in the four-book young adult steampunk series Finishing School. I loved the first book in Gail Carriger's five-book (plus a prequel short) Parasol Protectorate series, Soulless . and its sequel, Changeless . 02 An Unexpected Peril (Veronica Speedwell #6) by Deanna Raybourn In the sixth book of the wonderful Deanna Raybourn's feisty Veronica Speedwell series of historical fiction mysteries, Veronica remains a strong and unorthodox main protagonist who finds herself entangled in a dangerous set of circumstances. It's January 1889, and Veronica and her natural historian beau Stoker are working on a memorial exhibition showcasing the achievements of 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. I'm listening to An Unexpected Peril as an audiobook. 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 . 03 We Don't Talk about Carol by Kristen L. Berry After her grandmother dies, Sydney finds an old photo that looks almost exactly like her--but she has never seen or heard about this relative before. It turns out that the mystery girl is her Aunt Carol, who was one of six Black girls to go missing in the 1960s. No one ever speaks about Carol. But as Sydney looks to start her own family, she becomes determined to first dig into what happened to her aunt and solve the long-held mystery. One complication: when Sydney worked the crime beat as a journalist years ago, she explored a young girl's disappearance--and the emotional trauma led to a psychotic break for Sydney. This is Kristen L. Berry's debut novel. I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group: Ballantine, Bantam.

A Varied List of Maine Books I was recently visiting my old stomping grounds in Maine for a whirlwind trip to see family, and I started thinking about Maine books. I felt as though each of the titles here made pretty good use of a Maine setting, which, after all, is too wonderful to be squandered. Sometimes I did wish for more of a Maine presence in these reads, but I hereby present to you A Varied List of Maine Books. The list includes: literary fiction that's part of an interconnected series; a romantic story about starting over; a memoir focused on the 1960s; historical fiction about a midwife that's based on a real historical figure; the first in a mystery series centered around former CIA agents; and literary fiction/historical fiction based upon disturbing events on a real-life, racially integrated island off the coast of Maine. Have you read any of these books? Which other books would you include on this Maine list? 01 Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout In Lucy by the Sea , familiar Strout characters Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William flee New York City for rural Maine during the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel offers introspection, vulnerability, and new beginnings. But despite her insecurities and what sometimes feels like fragility, Lucy is often able to see the difficult truth in situations and face them with stolid resolve. She alludes to her difficult childhood circumstances (which are more fully explored in My Name Is Lucy Barton ), and we see that her lifelong ability to cope with despair and grim events serve her well in her current circumstances. The nearby ocean is a haunting presence but also a steady, everchanging comfort to Lucy. To her surprise, she begins to notice and respond to the wonders of the light, the weather, the air, and the changing scenery of her daily walks in beautiful and immersive passages in the book. Strout takes us into the heart of a stressful, unusual pandemic situation in which Lucy and William, longtime friends and ex-spouses, live in intimate solitude together, wondering about and worrying about their daughters, each other, themselves, and the world. In order to feel the full weight of this book, I think it's important to first read Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton . Lucy's creation of an imaginary, supportive mother and her loving responses to and comfort for Lucy in this book absolutely broke my heart. Oh William!  is another Strout book linked to this story, but I didn't respond to that one as much as Lucy Barton  or Lucy by the Sea . For my full review, please check out Lucy by the Sea . 02 Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes Evvie Drake Starts Over , by the author of Flying Solo , is sweet, with funny dialogue, surprises, best-friendship, and a Maine setting I loved. Evvie Drake has become something of a recluse in her quiet seaside Maine town ever since her husband's death in a car crash a year earlier. Her best friend Andy is doing his best to support her. while it seems Evvie is doing her best to bury her grief. Andy's childhood best friend Dean is a former Major League pitcher--but he has the "yips" and can't throw straight anymore. Dean's escape from media scrutiny leads him to rent Evvie's apartment for a time. And as the two become friends, they make a rule: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about baseball. But having a listening ear in Dean, who is completely separate from Evvie's "before" life, means she might finally be ready to open up about what her relationship was like before she became a widow. And Evvie's ignorance about baseball means Dean can safely vent and maybe even figure out what's holding him back. They may be able to help the other find some version of peace, just by being there. Oh, this book! Linda Holmes's Evvie Drake Starts Over  is sweet and funny and lovely. I listened to it as an audiobook while I gardened, and it was a perfect summer story. I loved Holmes’s writing and Evvie’s voice. For my full review, please check out Evvie Drake Starts Over . 03 When We Were the Kennedys by Monica Wood Wood's memoir is captivating and lovely, poignant, sweet without being overly sentimental, and just all-around wonderful. In 1963 the Woods were a typical Catholic immigrant family in Mexico, Maine. But when Monica's father dies suddenly, Monica and her three sisters begin to drift, and the family seems in danger of feeling unmoored forever. When We Were the Kennedys  is a memoir about grieving deeply, leaning on family and community in a crisis and in common suffering, and figuring out the impossible: how to move on after devastating tragedy. Wood gorgeously evokes the many characters and unfathomable events that changed her family's existence--as well as that of her community and the entire country--in 1963. I loved this fantastic memoir! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid. I ate it up in a single day. For my full review, please see When We Were the Kennedys . 04 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon I loved the 1700s wintry Maine setting and the convictions of the historical fiction novel's strong midwife character, based upon a real-life figure and her diaries. Historical fiction? Check. Maine setting? Check. Female character in the medical profession during a time when this wasn't the norm? Check. Cold setting? Check! The Frozen River  ticks so many Bossy boxes, I knew this one had to zip to the top of my to-read list. Lawhon's novel is based upon the real-life figure of Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife who defied tradition and convention--and, in Lawhon's historical fiction story, the law. It's 1789, and in a  rural Maine community, a local man turns up dead--frozen face up in the Kennebec River. Many who knew him aren't sad to find that he is no longer a belligerent threat in town. But he had been one of two men charged with the rape of one of Martha's best friends, and now the sole living accused man is one of the town's most respected figures--as well as its judge. The mystery of what happened to the man is a subplot that winds through the story. I loved the details of life in the time period, as well as the unassuming women who show their true strength and conviction when it counts. Martha's position as midwife means she's privy to all sorts of secrets and truths in town. I love a story about a woman in the medical profession during an era when this was not the norm, and the details of her care for new mothers and babies was one of my favorite aspects of The Frozen River . In Lawhon's story, Martha is also a strong-willed feminist who is set on fighting for the rights of the largely powerless women in her orbit. There are no Maine accents in evidence in the audiobook, nor terminology that felt Maine-specific. The bulk of the Maine setting is established by the cold and by the mentions of the Kennebec River flowing through the town of Hallowell (which is near Augusta). For my full review of this book, please check out The Frozen River . 05 The Spy Coast (The Martini Club #1) by Tess Gerritsen A former CIA operative retires to small-town Maine--along with other former agents--to live out a quiet existence, until figures from the past roar in to turn everything on its head. Maggie Bird is a retired CIA operative who has made a simple home for herself in rural Maine. She's tried not to make emotional connections and she keeps to herself--old habits from her former life. Then Maggie is visited by someone with knowledge of her past--just before a dead body shows up in her driveway and someone tries to kill Maggie. All  of the upheaval seems connected to an operation from years earlier, "Malta"--and Maggie's perceived betrayal of key players in it. Maggie just can't figure out who's still alive and who would suddenly be after revenge. She also suspects that she can't trust the Agency after a data breach revealed the names of the Malta operatives involved. Unbeknownst to the other citizens in Purity, Maine, the town has drawn multiple  former intelligence agents (they make up the "martini club" in the series title). They didn't all work together in their former lives, but they are friends--despite habitual emotional distance--with commonalities in their backgrounds. Now they operate as a team to try to determine who is after Maggie and why. For my full review of this book, please check out The Spy Club . 06 This Other Eden by Paul Harding Harding bases his slim historical fiction novel This Other Eden  on a real-life, racially integrated island off the coast of Maine, tipping his eccentric characters farther and farther toward tragedy as mainland men motivated by greed aim to destroy the community. Back in 1792, a formerly enslaved man Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife found a safe haven on an island off the coast of Maine. A century later, the Honeys' descendants and their diverse neighbors--some have escaped from trouble, while others are seeking peace and a simple life--make up a hardscrabble community that must scratch and claw to subsist. Yet they remain on their island, safe from the judgment and danger of the mainland. When a schoolteacher-turned-missionary arrives to educate the island's children, he draws the attention of eugenics-focused authorities, who set out to forcibly evacuate the island. The secluded community in the book is like a large family, dependent on only each other, and they are focused on nature and on subsisting independently. The story is inspired by the real-life, formerly integrated Malaga Island off the coast of Maine (in the book it is called Apple Island). The story tips its island characters farther and farther toward tragedy, then plunges headfirst into the various heartbreaking consequences of mainland strangers' decisions, cold cruelties, and greedy motivations, culminating in the forceful removal of the peaceful Apple Island inhabitants. Harding's language is beautiful as it evokes the harsh landscape and the characters' connection to the weather, the terrain, and the natural world. For my full review of this novel, please check out This Other Eden .

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. Philosopher Francis Bacon allows Joan to learn and contribute more to experimental learning than she could have dreamed. She becomes invaluable to Bacon's pursuits, and in boy's dress she has freedoms she never could during the era as a young woman. But their links to Bacon--along with Sander's links to Essex, who is on the outs with Queen Elizabeth, lead the two to deeper links to Queen Elizabeth's court, into political intrigue, and to dangerous undertakings that place them in grave danger. 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. I listened to Boy  as an audiobook. More about the Author Nicole Galland is also the author of The Fool's Tale ; I, Iago ; Revenge of the Rose ; Godiva ; and Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade.

I was intrigued by the novel's premise, in which a father weaves elaborate lies to raise his daughter in a remote wilderness, away from technology. When the story moved out of the woods, it felt more fractured to me and didn't hold together as well. The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world. Jane doesn't remember living in the Bay area, where her mother died. She doesn't remember life with electricity, or neighbors, or technology. In mid-1990s rural Montana, Jane only knows the books her father gives her instead of sending her to school, the woodstove that provides lifesaving heat, and the peacefulness of the familiar woods. But when Jane becomes a teenager and starts to push her father for freedom--and for answers--she begins to suspect that their life has been built on tragedy--and lies. I was captivated by the first part of the book, in which Jane and her father are entrenched in their own world, driven by her father's mysterious, paranoid thinking and his development of his anti-technology Luddite Manifesto, as Jane begins to cobble together pieces of her past and suspicions about her true identity. When the story moved away from the wilderness, the story felt increasingly fractured to me. Jane's sheltered background--and her doubts about what is true about the world and what was made up or exaggerated by her father, the only influence in her life to this point--means that when she leaves the woods, she is na ï ve and reliant on others for almost everything. This makes sense, but doesn't make her a particularly sympathetic or dynamic character. Jane is also buoyed by magical thinking, often expending emotional energy (and spending plenty of page time) wishing the past were not what it was, feeling sorry for herself, and hoping she emerges unscathed from an enormous mess. I also didn't completely buy into the depth of her new key connection to a romantic friendship--nor the lengths the other partner was willing to go to in order to protect her after a short period. The figure of Jane's mother is easy to dislike; she reads as almost a caricature of an emotionally distant person. Jane's belief that her mother, to date a stranger, would magically resolve her many urgent challenges and problems, is part of Jane's na ï vit é , but it still feels far-fetched. When she disappoints Jane by failing to swoop in and save her, it doesn't feel surprising to anyone but Jane. I appreciated the complicated feelings Jane felt around holding her father accountable, as he plausibly went to such extremes to save her from the perceived dangers of society, but the resolution to the story and Jane's unscathed state felt a little bit too easy. The premise of the story was fascinating, and I felt drawn into the part of the novel set in the woods with a father, a daughter, and the world outside of society that they managed to create and cultivate, however misguided the reasoning for doing so may have been. I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. More about the Author Janelle Brown is also the author of Pretty Things  and other novels. You may also like these other Bossy reviews of novels about the woods and wilderness .

Molly Jong-Fast's frank memoir explores her complicated, unsatisfying relationship with her famous mother Erica as she faces dementia--and as Molly realizes that her hopes for a healthy, supportive, or caring mother-daughter connection are quickly fading away. This is the story of what happens when the bottom falls out, when all the tests come back bad, when the doctors tell you there's nothing more they can do. This is the story of the worst year of my life. Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of the feminist icon Erica Jong. Throughout her childhood, Molly found herself yearning for more time with her busy, glamorous mother. But Erica was focused on basking in the success of her book Fear of Flying , and Molly spied her mother in magazines, on TV, but rarely at their home. Molly was raised by a loyal nanny who held traditional values and imparted schedules on Molly, attempting to counteract the chaos, drinking, instability, and drama that her mother steadily imposed upon the household when she was present. There was no version of Mom who was just for me.... Her fans got the same Erica Jong I did. There was no private individual. There was just Erica Jong, Feminist Icon, except that she was really not that feminist, and really not that iconic. In 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia; her husband, Molly's stepfather, suffered physical and mental weakness; the Fasts' beloved dog fell deathly ill; and Molly's husband was diagnosed with a rare cancer. While trying to keep her head above water, Molly wrote this book, trying to turn an honest eye on her past, acknowledge her own fallibilities, and process the events of her life with a frank, sometimes bitter, and, often, forgiving point of view. I was of course thinking about this book you are now, for better or worse, reading. This book was now going to destroy my life, I had decided. This book about the myriad ways I had betrayed my mother, and the strategies I had used to stay alive. I had a little bit of survivor's guilt about my childhood, I guess. How to Lose Your Mother is a poignant, sharp, darkly funny memoir of a challenging, volatile relationship, and, when faced with loss, accepting another person's limitations and facing what feels like the impossible: letting go. Everyone was dying. Everyone was always dying, all the time. For my whole life, no one ever died, and now everyone was dying all around me. Jong-Fast's self-reflection is powerful, particularly when she considers her present-day unwillingness to take in her alcoholic, very ill mother and stepfather and her guilt in settling them in a nearby retirement community, selling their apartment and its contents, and retaining the aides they relied upon when they were working to assist them on site--all while they each begged to return "home." Jong-Fast recognizes late in the book that her complicated relationship with her mother caused her to discount her longtime stepfather's steady presence in her mother's and her own life, but her childhood pain at never garnering her mother's attention or care got in the way of any closeness she and her father may have developed. The author explores her lifelong adoration of her mother, her mother's limitations (Erica often told Molly and others how much she loved Molly, but she didn't express this through time, dedication, or caring; and Molly reflects with pain that her mother didn't protect her, for example, from inappropriate attention from a fellow grown-man houseguest when Molly was just 14), and her longtime desire to have a more fulfilling relationship with her mother--with the crushing realization that because of her dementia, the little hope Molly held out for this would be quashed. About the Author--and More Memoirs Molly Jong-Fast is a journalist, political commentator, and the author of The Social Climber's Handbook , Normal Girl , Girl , and The Sex Doctors in the Basement . I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Viking Books. For more Bossy reviews of memoirs, please check out the titles and lists at this link .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Slow Burn Summer , Josie Silver's newest rom-com, in which a divorced actress is hired to play the role of a reclusive romance author for an extended book tour; I'm listening to Boy , Nicole Galland's gender-swapping historical fiction set in Elizabethan London; and I'm reading One Golden Summer , Carley Fortune's newest romance, in which main protagonist and photographer Alice returns to the cabin where her teenaged self was inspired to pursue her career. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver In Josie Silver's newest rom-com, Charlie Francisco is a divorced, cynical, harried talent agent who desperately needs to hire an actress to play the part of a novelist--and tour in place of the extremely shy author of a new blockbuster romance. Kate Elliott was once a soap opera actress, and now she's reeling from a divorce and thankful for a new job. She's ready to take on the persona of a romance novelist at readings and signings, but she becomes entranced by the romantic story she's pretending to have authored. Over the course of an extended book tour, Charlie and Kate are repeatedly thrown together. Can the romantic story that brought them together help them rethink their recent heartbreak? I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books. Josie Silver is also the author of A Winter in New York , One Day in December , and The Two Lives of Lydia Byrd , a book that appeared on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories . 02 Boy by Nicole Galland In Nicole Galland's historical fiction tale Boy , 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. Joan Buckler is Sander's best friend. She's curious about everything and 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. A link to philosopher Francis Bacon leads the two to deeper links to Queen Elizabeth's court, to political intrigue, and to dangerous undertakings that place them in grave danger. I'm listening to Boy as an audiobook. 03 One Golden Summer by One Golden Summer Alice's career as a photographer really began the summer she spent with her grandmother Nan at family friends' lake house. She took a photo of three smiling teenagers on a yellow boat, and it seemed to set everything else in motion. Now she's feeling disillusioned with the airbrushing and false scenes she's forced to create in her job rather than capturing something real. So when Nan falls and breaks her hip and needs a pick-me-up, Alice arranges for them to return to the cabin where she spent that pivotal summer. But handsome, mischievous Charlie Florek, one of the subjects of that long-ago photo, seems to be everywhere she turns--and she can't hide behind her lens anymore. Carley Fortune is also the author of Meet Me at the Lake and Every Summer After .

My very favorite Bossy June reads! These were my favorite reads in June. I had several literary fiction reads, a dystopian fantasy, and a fun nonfiction book. If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think. And I'd also love to hear: what are some of your recent favorite reads? 01 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 . 02 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 . 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 Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show by Tommy Tomlinson Dogland  explores what makes a show dog "best" and what happens behind the scenes of dog shows in this intriguing, good-natured, and heartwarming look at one promising champion and his caring handler as they strive to win Westminster Dog Show. Tommy Tomlinson's playful, intriguing nonfiction Dogland takes an engaging look at dogs--particularly show dogs, but also beloved pets as well as humans' connections to these onetime wild beasts. Reporter and SouthBound  podcast host Tomlinson found himself watching the Westminster Dog Show and wondering, Are show dogs happy? What's life like for a dog whose life is all about grooming, standing still, and moving in an orderly fashion around a ring? And: How did these wild beasts end up here, anyway? In a fascinating, heartwarming, lovely account, Tomlinson spends three years traveling dog shows across the country, using backstage access to witness the hard work, discipline, obsession, and affection of "the Fancy." At times he good-naturedly highlights the absurdity of this world, at least for those looking in from the outside, and draws occasional correlations to the satiric comedy Best in Show--a movie that inspires mixed reactions from those in the competition scene. Dogland  is often fun, intriguing in its peeks behind the scenes, and heartwarming in the deep dog-human connections that Tomlinson highlights. For my full review, please check out this link . 05 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 . 06 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 .

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. I often bristle at a reliance on or seeming glorification of trauma within a story, and here, Gordon is emotionally and physically abusive to Cora in each timeline. His abuse is wide-ranging, nefariously creative, horrifyingly oppressive, and potentially deadly. Cora is a strong young ballet dancer when she meets her future husband, and it is excruciating to repeatedly witness her spirit becoming dismantled and her body broken. I'm fascinated by alternate timelines. While I feel resistant to Knapp's placing of the weight of the main characters' fates on Cora's shoulders so that all of the key characters' futures are dependent on the varied levels of bravery Cora shows on the day she officially names her son, the premise is intriguing. And which would be better? To have those days boiled down into one intense burst of color, or to have the pin removed from the thorax every now and then, dusty wings fluttering back to life, a little more time eked out before being locked away again? 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. More Novels that Play with Time I love a story that plays with time through alternate timelines, time travel, second chances, or other structures. For more Bossy reviews of books that play with time, please check out these titles .

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. So this was having a family. You might mean well but hurt them anyway. They had reactions and felt disappointments you couldn't predict. 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. There are also murmurings that Brendan surely came from among them somehow--for how could a baby in a half barrel lined with aluminum foil survive a long journey? (And, the most cynical among them gripe, what fool thought that aluminum foil was a worthwhile addition to the barrel?) Yet the tough, hardscrabble citizens largely suspend their disbelief and build Brendan into an almost mythical figure, calling him for the rest of his life the Boy from the Sea. These parents knew you could never tell how a child would turn out, naturally yours or not. They had learned, fundamentally, every child washes in from the sea, washes up against the ankles of their parents, arms outstretched, ready to be shaped by them, but with some disposition already in place, deep set and never quite knowable. 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 surrounding community is so essential to the novel, the story is told in an omniscient point of view from the perspective of the town. The Bonnar family who adopt Brendan are amazed by his presence and adoring of him--with the exception of Declan, two years his senior. Declan's petty cruelty and frequent refusal to acknowledge Brendan as a brother persists for years and shapes Brendan's personality and manner. Their father Ambrose is a fisherman with a big personality, daring ideas, and no head for business; money is a struggle for the family. And their mother Christine is strong-willed and a force within the family, yet she has barely extricated herself from her gruff, sexist, demanding father and her bitter older sister, who is desperate for Christine's company and determined to undermine her happiness from their childhood home just down the lane. 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. More Irish Story Adoration For more Bossy novels set in Ireland, please check out the books at this link .

While I probably should 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. The leader of Silver Elite is the gorgeous, curt archetype of a masculine man, Cross Redden. He is intrigued by Wren's rejection of his Elite unit's (puns!) desirability and by her poorly disguised exceptional talent. Will these two, who are definitely not allowed to be together, end up together? They will! The slow burn of attraction lasts far longer than their togetherness, and their intimacy didn't induce cringing on my part in its odd specificity or skewed power dynamic (as some other "romantasy" books do). I probably need to stop reading "romantasy" or "romantasy"-adjacent books, because I love fantasy stories and I love romantic comedies , but for me, the intersection of romance and fantasy is often unsatisfying. However, the forbidden attraction in Silver Elite lasts a tantalizingly long time, and while the "romantasy"' aspect is front and center for the final portion of the book, most importantly for me, the adventure, elite training, secret powers, double-edged quest, unrevealed personal history, and spy/counterspy elements kept me completely hooked for the vast majority of the novel. 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. The Mystery of Dani Francis This is the first book by Dani Francis, and her anonymity on social media invites speculation that this is a famous author using a pen name.

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading the novel The Names , Florence Knapp's exploration of three possible futures stemming from three different names bestowed upon a baby boy; I'm reading the first in Dani Francis's dystopian romance series, Silver Elite ; and I'm listening to Garrett Carr's literary fiction about a baby that washes up in a small Irish seaside community and how his presence shapes the path of those in the town. What are you reading, bookworms? 01 The Names by Florence Knapp 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; in a second, she makes a less aggressive but unsanctioned name choice; in a third, she registers her baby's name as "junior" to her brutal husband. The three paths diverge dramatically, and the whole family's destiny is shaped in different ways for each option. 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. This is fascinating so far. 02 Silver Elite by Dani Francis 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 inconsistently, incite--forcing others to do her bidding. But one careless move 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 earn her way into Silver Elite, a small unit sure to access more sensitive information that could assist the rebels. This is the first in a series. 03 The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr In a seaside Irish town in the 1970s, a baby is washed up on the shore. As the community wonders at his mysterious appearance, they embrace Brandon, as he is ultimately named, as one of their own yet hold him separately and credit him with the power of bestowing blessings upon them. But this is not magical realism; it's grounded in day-to-day stressors and challenges. The country is reeling from economic troubles; Brandon's older brother deeply resents his presence; and conflicts and complicated dynamics underscore friendships, family relationships, and the community as a whole. I'm listening to The Boy from the Sea as an audiobook. For more Bossy novels set in Ireland, please check out the books at this link .

Royalty, Intrigue, and Magically Wonderful Stories It's tough to fall in love with the first book in a series and then twiddle thumbs waiting for the next installment, then scramble to try to dive back into the setting and emotional investment while trying to remember what the heck happened in book one. But each of these series is complete , so if you haven't started them yet, you won't have to wait years for the sequels to be published. You are welcome! Another series that would fit perfectly within this list is the wonderful Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden. I reviewed the first book, The Bear and the Nightingale , here , and I mentioned the series, which is set in Russia and has a dark fairy-tale tone, in the Greedy Reading List Six Magical Fairy Tales Grown-Ups Will Love . Have you read any of these books? What other series that have to do with court, queens, and royalty would you include on this list? 01 The Conquerer’s Saga series by Kiersten White White's And I Darken , the first book in her Conquerer's Saga series, has cover art that to me evokes fantasy, but the series is actually captivating historical fiction. I loved the Ottoman Empire setting, the strong female main protagonist, and the complications and sometimes burdens of loyalty, love, and and conflicting allegiances. The next books in Kiersten White's trilogy are Now I Rise and Bright We Burn . In Now I Rise , Lada is tough as nails but faulted, and we see her forge her identity more fully through every ruthless or merciful move she makes, buoyed by the loyalty of her dedicated followers. Bright We Burn is brutal, unrelenting, and fierce. I thought this final book in the trilogy was wonderful. Resolutions were graceful and fitting without being too easy. I gave each of these books four stars. 02 His Fair Assassin series by Robin LaFevers Grave Mercy is the first in LaFevers's five-book His Fair Assassin series. Main protagonist Ismae escapes an arranged marriage, arrives at a convent, and is ultimately trained as an assassin and must eliminate her victim within the high court of Brittany. I loved this book and was so engrossed, I could have read it in one fell swoop--except for the fact that it's 500+ pages. It's a little dark, consistently fascinating, sometimes funny, and very satisfying. This blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and paranormal continues with LaFevers's Dark Triumph , Mortal Heart , Courting Darkness , and Igniting Darkness . In Dark Triumph , the book's point of view traces events concurrent with those in the first book, so the reader can see how it all overlaps. I was absolutely hooked. Mortal Heart offers a melding of tidier-than-likely resolutions and dramatic romantic situations that I had no argument with--I found it all fabulously satisfying. I gave each of the first four books in LaFevers's His Fair Assassin series either three and a half ( Mortal Heart ) or four stars ( Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph ), and I just recently realized that I initially thought this was a trilogy and haven't finished this series, so I'm eager to read the last two installments, Courting Darkness and Igniting Darkness . 03 The Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo I loooove me some Leigh Bardugo. Shadow and Bone is my favorite among multiple great Bardugo series, and it's also the title of the first book in Bardugo's trilogy. In book one, Alina, a refugee, uncovers an unlikely depth of powers with the ability to destroy or to heal. She finds that she may be the only hope to save her war-torn country. I love Bardugo's pacing, dialogue, twists and turns, character development, all of it, and I gave this book five stars. In the second book of the series, Siege and Storm , The Darkness emerges with a destructive and dangerous plan to crush everything Alina has ever known and loved. She is forced to reckon with the potential end to her land, her people, her love--and even her own powers. Bardugo doesn't take the easy way out with the plot, and the dialogue here is funny and smart. She builds on complicating elements, and character development is satisfying but the interpersonal relations are believably tricky at times. I gave it four stars. In Ruin and Rising , The Darkness is ruling Ravka, and the light and power meant to weaken him seem far away, holding little hope. I adored this final installment in the trilogy and gave it five stars. It's dark and darkly funny, with twists, turns, and satisfying relationship growth. 04 The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black The Folk of the Air is a young adult fantasy trilogy from Holly Black. The Cruel Prince is the first book, The Wicked King is the second, and the final book, The Queen of Nothing , is currently in "just started" position on my bedside table. In The Cruel Prince , Jude and her sister are sent to live with the enemy in the High Court of Faerie after their parents are brutally murdered. I was hooked from the first scene. There was some story meandering and I would have liked to see more character development for Taryn, but I enjoyed the forays back and forth from the human world to the faerie, the various things-aren’t-what-they-seem plot elements, and how things weren’t black-and-white. In The Wicked King , surprising revelations, shifting alliances, opaque political machinations, and enmity between main characters all complicate things for Jude. I loved the intrigue, clever plotting, complicated loyalties and desires, creatures of all kinds, plus: a twist...and double twist! And a cross...and double-cross! The final book in the series, The Queen of Nothing, catches up with Jude, who has been exiled. A dormant curse and dark power is unleashed, threatening humanity. Jude must determine whether her power to rule or the needs of her people will win out in her loyalties, while also facing confusing and maddening feelings for her former nemesis. 05 The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner Oh, these books! In The Thief , we're introduced to the irresistible character of Gen. He's plucked from the royal prison to help the king's magus find an ancient treasure. Things aren’t exactly what they seem in this first installment of the intriguingly twisty, turny series. The Thief is a book that frankly would stand alone beautifully, but instead, luckily for us, it begins Turner's six-book series, which offers wonderfully flawed characters, plot twists and revelations, great banter, and endings you may not predict. The Queen of Attolia , The King of Attolia , A Conspiracy of Kings (this was possibly my favorite among favorites), Thick As Thieves , and Return of the Thief are the other books in the series. These six books were published over a period of almost twenty-five years, and the story trail traces the charismatic Gen through what are consistently and, for me, wonderfully unexpected developments related to plot, character arc, point of view, morality, origin stories, conflict, despair, and love. If you haven't read this series yet, consider me envious. I just adored it and constantly recommend it. 06 The Queen of the Tearling series by Erika Johansen Exiled Princess Kelsea is trying to reclaim the crown her mother squandered away, while also fighting off the evil powers of The Red Queen in Mortmesne and securing safety for her people in their land, The Tearling. Queen of the Tearling traces the backstories of key characters and offers varied points of view. Queen of the Tearling was Johansen's debut novel. The Invasion of the Tearling offers more history of the Crossing, which led people to settle in The Tearling. In The Fate of the Tearling , the final book in the trilogy, J ohansen offers peeks at her characters' pasts as well as the forces that shaped the Tearling, and she plays with time and reality to create an ending to the trilogy that I didn't anticipate. In Beneath the Keep , the trilogy's prequel, the kingdom's evils are intensely detailed and extensively explored; this motivates characters to seek change, but also made the book a little difficult for me to read. I reviewed The Fate of the Tearling here , and Beneath the Keep , the trilogy's prequel, here .

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. She often felt that they all lived such separate lives that any one of them could be a murderer or a god come down to earth and not one of the others would have known. I bought O Caledonia  at Powell's Books the last time I visited my best friend in Oregon and am finally reading this modern classic. 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. More Gothic Tales For Bossy reviews of other Gothic stories, please check out the titles at this link . This is Elspeth Barker's only novel.

I loved Sunny's body positivity and her self-made-woman status. I didn't fully buy into one of her love interests but was hooked on the peeks behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Sunny Greene is a 35-year-old, recently divorced head of her own PR firm. She's struggling to find clothing to complement her plus-sized figure, and she's determined not to go to her little brother's pending wedding without a date. She's got deeply loyal and inspiring newly divorced friends to lean on, a body- and sex-positive lifestyle, and some tantalizing dating prospects. So why can't she simply shake off the fact that nothing in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit section comes even close to fitting a woman over a size 10? The body-positivity in Sunny Side Up was a highlight, as was the group of Sunny's bright, supportive fellow divorcee friends (and her mentee at work), but the standout for me here was the peek into the fashion industry as Sunny continually Handles It and makes her dreams come true--thereby also taking care of fashion-conscious plus-sized women everywhere. The voicing of her Queens-native love interest didn't ring true to me, and while he was very nice, I was partially turned off by his many corny jokes, which didn't land for me. Her ex is purely selfish and easy to detest, and another love interest turns out to be more focused on money than Sunny herself. Ultimately, Sunny listens to her inner voice and doesn't settle for anyone who wants her to be less than she is. I loved Sunny's independence, savvy abilities, strong will, and, of course, her fashion sense. More about Sunny I received an audiobook version of Sunny Side Up courtesy of Libro.fm and   Macmillan Audio. Katie Sturino is a body-acceptance advocate who is also the author of Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life.

I loved the premise, in which a golden girl and barrel-racer returns home to small-town Wyoming to figure out her future. I was looking for more assertiveness from Emmy and less of a dynamic in which men solve women's problems, but this was entertaining, spicy, and sets up Lyla Sage's Western romance series. In Done and Dusted , the first book in Lyla Sage's modern-day Western romance series, Clementine "Emmy" Ryder is the golden girl of Meadowlark, Wyoming. Her unexpected return to her hometown delights her sassy best friend, protective older brothers, grizzled and loving father, and the rest of the town. But Emmy hasn't told anyone that her ADHD impulsiveness led her to pack up and leave her barrel-racing career after a bad fall that shook her confidence and made her question everything in her life--except her home, Meadowlark. Luke Brooks is a local bar owner, a recognized womanizer, Emmy's brother's longtime best friend, and an honorary member of the Ryder family. He and Emmy have always irritated each other, and their age difference meant they were in different worlds as teenagers. But Luke and Emmy are older and wiser than when they last saw each other--and Luke and his muscle tees seem to be cropping up everywhere these days. Can Emmy overcome her secret fears of riding and get back to her love of horses again? And in the meantime, can Luke help get her mind off her troubles with his handsome face and irresistible bad-boy attitude? I love the novel's p remise, in which Emmy returns home to rethink her life and figure out her future while working hard and getting back to her roots. The family r anch is an irresistible setting for potentially entertaining dynamics with her brothers and father, and for outdoorsy activity and tough-girl demonstrations of knowledge and ability as Emmy gets back on her feet. The men in Done and Dusted , particularly Luke, are largely determined to show that they are capable and in charge, strut their muscles, and save little ladies from themselves. This is not a dynamic I'm totally comfortable with, but I loved the promise of Emmy's reinvigorated, independent new outlook--and I acknowledge that a rugged ranch setting might very well involve strong characters demonstrating their strength. Spoiler: there are, fairly promptly in the book, highly detailed intimate scenes between Luke and Emmy. And within these (then also within everyday encounters), Luke frequently calls Emmy "Sugar." This seems like a minor point, but it felt both condescending and potentially (creepily) fatherly to me within their very verbal sexual encounters--and unfortunately, it comes up often. I'm not looking to nitpick sex scenes, but Luke felt so immediately bossy and in charge during their passionate encounters (while making demands of "Sugar"), I was instantly annoyed. I was looking for more of Emmy's assertiveness and hoped for a turning of the tables. Ultimately their dynamic feels egalitarian in the bedroom--and if he is more domineering, Emmy's fine with it. But Luke's desire continues to seem to be centered around dominating her, what she can do for him, and pushing her to tell him how much she wants all of this, versus his focusing on serving Emmy, and I was increasingly irritated by this. For example, his fantasies upon seeing her wearing red lipstick take an instantaneous, (for me) alarmingly dominating turn, and I strongly wanted him to take it down a notch in general. It's possible that I might  have processed the sexual and general power dynamic more generously if I'd realized that Sage envisioned Luke Brooks as a grown-up Tim Riggins-type of character ( Friday Night Lights ), which she mentions in her notes at the end. (But even so, the "Sugar" nickname was a nonstarter for me.) It's not fair for me to want a Western romance to be less romance and more Western, but I did, and even more so, I wished that Emmy held more of her fate in her own hands. The trauma of Emmy's getting back on a horse feels quite easily addressed--and, somewhat unsatisfyingly, the transformation from fear to confidence largely relies upon Luke. I yearned for Emmy to take charge of facing her own horse-related fears, ideally while taking charge of Luke in private moments, but this isn't quite the dynamic Sage builds in the novel. Yet Done and Dusted is entertaining, spicy, and sets up a long-term Emmy-Luke romance. I read Done and Dusted  as an audiobook. There are three more books in this series. For more romantic books you might like, please check out the books at this link . And for Western books I've liked, check out these titles .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Molly Jong-Fast's memoir about her tumultuous relationship with her mother and other challenges, How to Lose Your Mother ; I'm listening to Lyla Sage's Western rom-com, the first in a series, Done and Dusted ; and I'm reading Elspeth Barker's modern literary fiction classic, O Caledonia . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir by Molly Jong-Fast Molly Jong-Fast is a podcaster and political writer--and the only child of the feminist icon Erica Jong. Molly found herself yearning for more time with her busy, glamorous mother. Erica was focused on basking in the success of her book Fear of Flying , and Molly spied her mother in magazines, on TV, but rarely at their home. In 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia, and Molly's husband was diagnosed with a rare cancer. How to Lose Your Mother is a poignant, sharp, darkly funny memoir of a challenging, volatile relationship, and when faced with loss, accepting other's limitations and facing what feels like the impossible: letting go. I received a prepublication version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Viking Books. 02 Done and Dusted (Rebel Blue Ranch #1) by Lyla Sage In the first book in Lyla Sage's modern-day Western romance series, Clementine "Emmy" Ryder is the golden girl of Meadowlark, Wyoming. Her unexpected return to her hometown delights her sassy best friend, protective older brothers, grizzled and loving father, and the rest of the town. But Emmy hasn't told anyone that her ADHD impulsiveness led her to pack up and leave her barrel-racing career after a bad fall that shook her confidence and made her question everything in her life--except her home, Meadowlark. Luke Brooks is a bar owner, womanizer, Emmy's brother's longtime best friend, and an honorary member of the Ryder family. But Luke and Emmy are older and wiser than when they last saw each other--and Luke and his muscles seem to be cropping up everywhere these days. Can Luke help Emmy overcome her fears of riding and get back to her love of horses again? And in the meantime, can he help get her mind off her troubles with his handsome face and irresistible bad-boy attitude? I'm reading Done and Dusted as an audiobook. There are three more books in this series. 03 O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker I bought O Caledonia at Powell's Books the last time I visited my best friend in Oregon and am finally reading this modern classic. 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 her 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 and an immersive, atmospheric story that follows.

The Summer Favorites These titles aren't classic, light "summer reads," but they were my favorite reads from a summer past, and they all stand the test of time. In case you missed them the first time around, I'm reposting them as this summer begins so you can add to your to-read list at will. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! For classic light fiction and rom-com titles that are also great for summer reading, check out these titles and Bossy reviews . 01 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Bennett explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning. In The Vanishing Half , Bennett follows the history of the fictional Vignes twins, Desiree and Stella, as they grow up in a town made up of those who identify as light-skinned black people. As teenagers they run from a prescribed future as maids in the small town, where tragedy in the form of evil white men took their father from them and left their mother scrambling to provide for them. Upon reaching freedom, their paths diverge. One twin secretly passes at work for white, then vanishes into a life based upon this premise. The other twin marries a dark-skinned black man and lives as a black woman. The book explores the complicated implications of perception as reality when it comes to race and its meaning; the subjectivity of and intense power within race labels; and the tension of living under false pretenses. For my full review, see The Vanishing Half . 02 Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland Atlantic City just before WWII, with its giant hotels, piers, and general hubbub, is the backdrop for the story of a few summer months in the life of an extended family. I loved watching the story's events unfold in this lovely debut from Rachel Beanland. Florence Adler Swims Forever , the story of a few summer months in the life of an extended family--including a stolid patriarch and matriarch, a free-spirited daughter, a spunky and fantastic granddaughter Gussie, a daughter with another grandchild on the way, a deadbeat son-in-law, and family friends to round out the group. There’s an undercurrent of concern about Hitler and his increasingly punitive behavior toward Jewish families’ businesses and emigration in Germany. I loved watching the book’s events unfold—even if I could predict some of them. Anything that was wrapped up a little too neatly didn’t bother me at all; I was all in and satisfied. Beanland based some of the basic events of her debut novel on her ancestors’ experiences, which I thought was fascinating but didn't realize until the end. Click here for my full review of Florence Adler Swims Forever . 03 Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. It's action-packed yet character driven. Bug is a respectable business owner nowadays with a family. But some old acquaintances show up with an idea that might offer some financial breathing room--if the others on the job can keep their heads on straight, and that's looking like a big if . Blacktop Wasteland took a little while to get going for me, but just shy of halfway through, the setup is complete and the action starts singing along. I'm not inherently interested in the preparation and modification of vehicles or in skillful evasive driving, but I was all in for S.A. Cosby's writing about all of it. Bug is a wonderfully faulted character. who when not in crisis takes stock of himself and aims to be a better person. He's forced to consider what loyalty means, and to face how dark the path ahead might become when the bad guys are truly evil, very powerful, and the stakes couldn't be much higher. The ending of Blacktop Wasteland is a little abrupt and opaque, but not without hope. See my full review of Blacktop Wasteland here . 04 Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell In Utopia Avenue , Mitchell takes us through the twists and turns of a fictional psychedelic British sixties band on its rocky rise to popularity. Utopia Avenue explores the band members' crises, joys, fears, and triumphs. Mitchell made me care about a singer connecting with an audience, the cathartic heartbreak-writing of songs, and the magic spark of a performance. The book contains endless imagined cameos, fictional adventures, and gems of wisdom from real-life musicians like David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, and members of the Rolling Stones--not to mention wild parties, betrayals, leaps of faith, breakups, and tragedy. But Mitchell expertly builds the band members into rich characters you're rooting for through their individual ups and downs as well as through the triumphs and setbacks of the band Utopia Avenue. Mitchell doesn't provide too easy or neat of an ending to this weird and wonderful book, but it felt fitting and left me satisfied. This was a really captivating story that kept me intrigued throughout. For my full review of Utopia Avenue , please click here . 05 When These Mountains Burn by David Joy Joy offers an often dark work of Southern literary fiction through which bubbles of hope emerge. Ray has outlived his beloved wife in the mountains of North Carolina. He has a precious old girl of a dog, a fascination with (and healthy fear of) coyotes, a love of reading, and a no-nonsense manner that makes clear he doesn't brook fools. He has almost resigned himself to the heartbreaking idea that his addict son is too lost to be saved. There's an undercover cop nearby who's trying to help take down a robust drug ring, and then there's Ray, who uses old-fashioned methods and his knowledge of mountain terrain to address injustices in a straightforward way. When These Mountains Burn isn't always easy to read, but it isn't over the top, and Joy's characters are fascinatingly faulted and keep you humming right along. I read this in 24 hours while wishing I were making it last longer. For my full review of When These Mountains Burn , click here . 06 This Is All He Asks of You by Anne Egseth Luna has a unique and lovely voice and is an irresistibly odd bird of a twelve-year-old girl. I read this book years ago and still think of it fondly. I just loved This Is All He Asks of You. Luna stumbles into encounters that shape her life dramatically, in unorthodox and heartbreakingly meaningful ways. She is facing her mother’s decline in health and exploring her own identity and meaning in her life, and she shapes her sometimes practical but often mystical thoughts and reflections through writing letters to her father, who she has never met, in the conversational tone of a pen pal writing to someone who will love her and her words unconditionally. I simultaneously wanted to scoop up Luna and take care of her and to follow the lead of this wise-beyond-her-years, intensely spiritual young person. She has a unique and lovely voice and is an irresistibly odd bird of a twelve-year-old girl. For my full review of This Is All He Asks of You , click here .

Ocean Vuong's literary fiction offers unexpected bonds between characters coping with desperation, addiction, lies, hunger, and past tragedies in this examination of societal ills that doesn't offer easy resolutions for the story's protagonists. He was nineteen, in the midnight of his childhood and a lifetime from first light. He had not been forgiven and neither are you. Nineteen-year-old Hai is standing on the edge of a bridge in the industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, feeling that he's out of options and ready to end it all. But Grazina, an elderly widow who lives next to the bridge, calls him down, and the two strike up a friendship. Grazina is suffering from dementia, and Hai, whose prospects are slim, jumps at the chance to become Grazina's caretaker, have a roof over his head, and befriend Grazina. It's an unorthodox situation, and Hai is far from fallible when it comes to being tempted by medications and cash, but he is an imperfectly perfect friend to Grazina. He dives into her perceived reality and actively participates within it in order to calm her down; he buys her favorite frozen food and supervises her meds; and he cares for her more deeply and frequently than her own son. Issues of memory, chosen family, history, loneliness, and love shape Vuong's novel, and the author forces readers to confront uncomfortable realities of low wages and desperation; addiction and limited recovery resources; and significant consequences of mistakes that can't be glossed over. The section on hog butchering may be an eye opener for anyone (anyone?) who doubts that industry's brutality. The scenes here were so extended, they felt like a jumbled departure from the rest of the storyline, and they were so detailed, they felt gratuitously violent and seemed clearly intended to manipulate emotions and set readers on edge. "You know, I've been cutting up these hogs for three years now. I don't regret none of it. They were born to die. And I'm just a hammer. Somebody else is using the hammer, I know that. I just don't know if it's that dude up there...or the motherfucker down here." The novel offers a powerful examination of a group of minimum-wage earners and their inability to make ends meet--and, in this story, their deep bonding to each other across differences in race, age, gender, past experiences, and sexuality. The unexpected bonds that form throughout the book, both at the fictional fast-food chain HomeMarket and beyond, give the story heart and poignancy. This is literary fiction with a bite; Vuong's prose is often luminous or gritty, and the author doesn't pretend to have easy answers for the beleaguered main protagonist or his fellow humans in this messy world. The long-ago brutal death of a young woman in the town was introduced early but faded in weight in what felt like a deliberate take on our society's growing callousness to violence and loss. The story ends with some satisfying resolutions, but other characters' lives remain suitably complicated and in some cases persistently tragic. More from Ocean Vuong Ocean Vuong is also the author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous , Night Sky with Exit Wounds , Time Is a Mother , and other books.

Katherine Center's sweet rom-com about a video producer and her reluctant hero of a subject is set against the colorful backdrop of Key West. The appealingly playful love story incorporates issues of body image, job insecurity, and past tragedy in a lighthearted and charming novel. Katie Vaughn has been single for a year, since her former fianc é , an up-and-coming musician, hit it big and then very publicly cheated on her with a pop star. She's a mid-level video producer on the verge of a layoff--unless she accepts a job in which she documents the life of Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hutch Hutcheson, an everyday hero who rose to fame when he happened to save Jennifer Aniston's golden retriever. And he's not interested in being filmed. He lives in Key West, and much of the footage will be taken in and around the water. Katie doesn't disclose that she can't swim, but surely there will be precautions taken, life vests forthcoming, and she can probably even film from the deck of the boat...right? The banter made me laugh at times, and I bought the attraction between Katie and Hutch, as well as the "reasons" (all solvable, folks!) that they must not be together. Katie's evolution in considering and coping with body image issues felt valuable and compelling. Supporting characters are great, colorful, and add nice layers of interconnectedness to the story. While the roadblock issue of not swimming is easily resolved (in convenient fashion, so that the two main protagonists can spend time together), a bigger, more problematic secret emerges to keep the tension going. The famous ex fades away as an issue as the story goes on. The crisis that forms toward the end felt over the top and drawn out, with a rom-com-easy resolution, but by that point I was ready for anything Center was throwing my way. This is not a racy book, and the attraction and relationship are focused on emotions and wanting to be together without being swoony or angsty. I received a prepublication version of this title (which was published May 20) courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. More Katherine Center and Rom-Com Love Katherine Center is also the author of The Rom-Commers , Hello Stranger , What You Wish For , Things You Save in a Fire , The Bodyguard , and other books.

I was taken with the premise of conflicts and mystery in a post-colonial West African city, but I didn't feel very connected to or invested in the fantastical elements or the revelations around them in this slow build of a novel. In Tochi Onyebuchi's fantasy mystery, main protagonist Boubacar is a war veteran and a private investigator whose cases have been few and far between for a while now. But when a young woman shows up bleeding at his home, then mysteriously disappears, he is shocked into action and determined to find out what's going on. He must delve into his own past connections and dredge up painful, complex past dynamics and loyalties, while forming an unlikely alliance with a young, scrappy thief and imagining an unorthodox future. Harmattan Season  is a dark, broody, mysterious fantasy story that takes place in an unnamed city in post-colonial West Africa, with tensions between the indigenous dugulen and the French at the forefront. Bouba himself is part of both worlds, a "deux-fois," half French and half dugulen. His ability to pass in and out of each circle allows him insights and knowledge--but also invites assumptions and criticism from both groups. "Harmattan season" refers to a months-long time that spans the end of one year and beginning of the next, when dry, sandy winds blow into West Africa from the Sahara Desert. Bouba's current-day situation is similarly fraught and difficult. As Bouba explores recent mysterious events, he realizes that the upcoming election is corrupt and has been secured with bribery and violence. He's reliving his own past missteps and crimes that occurred in the name of duty. And he's horrified that the inexplicable explosions and floating bodies in the sky aren't caused by bombs, but are powered by elements and powers more sinister, base, and brutal than he could have imagined. I was taken with the premise of this novel, but I found the revelations slow, and I because Bouba comprehended little of what was occurring for the majority of the book, his scope felt small and constrained. The denouements felt somewhat tedious to me, and the fantastical aspects (the floating buildings and bodies) were an aspect that felt disjointed from the heart of the story. I had to push myself to finish this one. I listened to this as an audiobook. More about Tochi Onyebuchi Onyebuchi is also the author of Riot Baby and Goliath .

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm listening to Tochi Onyebuchi's dark, broody fantasy mystery, Harmattan Season ; I'm listening to Katie Sturino's upcoming rom-com with body positivity at the center, Sunny Side Up ; and I'm reading Janelle Brown's recently published novel, What Kind of Paradise . What are you reading, bookworms? 01 Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi In Tochi Onyebuchi's newest fantasy mystery novel, main protagonist Boubacar is a war veteran and a private investigator whose cases have been few and far between for a while now. But when a young woman shows up bleeding at his home, then mysteriously disappears, he is shocked into action and determined to find out what's going on. Harmattan Season is a dark, broody, mysterious fantasy story that takes place in post-colonial West Africa, with tensions between the indigenous dugulen and the French at the forefront. Onyebuchi is also the author of Riot Baby and Goliath . I'm listening to this as an audiobook. 02 Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino Sunny Greene is a 35-year-old, recently divorced head of her own PR firm. She's struggling to find clothing to complement her plus-sized figure, and she's determined not to go to her little brother's pending wedding without a date. She's got deeply loyal and inspiring newly divorced friends to lean on, a body- and sex-positive lifestyle, and some tantalizing dating prospects. So why can't she simply shake off the fact that nothing in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit section comes even close to fitting a woman over a size 10? I received an audiobook version of Sunny Side Up , which is scheduled for publication in all formats June 24, courtesy of Libro.fm and Macmillan Audio. 03 What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world. Jane doesn't remember living in the Bay area, where her mother died. She doesn't remember life with electricity, or neighbors, or technology. In mid-1990s rural Montana, Jane only knows the books her father gives her instead of sending her to school, the woodstove that provides lifesaving heat, and the peacefulness of the familiar woods. But when Jane becomes a teenager and starts to push her father for freedom--and for answers--she begins to understand that their life has been built on tragedy and lies. I received a prepublication version of this title, published June 3, courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. Janelle Brown is also the author of Pretty Things and other novels.