regrets and irritations, and as a reader I was left wondering if much of it was driven by hormones and strong

I was intrigued by the real-life basis of the Halifax Explosion and the intersecting stories of two women coping with the local accident and crisis, the effects of World War I, societal limitations placed on women It's 1917 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and two women are coping with the ripple effects of World War I--and When a tragedy strikes Nova Scotia, both of the women's lives will be turned upside down--along with

In this perfect summer read, Harrison explores 1950s life for three women facing complicated personal Tennis ultimately brings together three women, formerly strangers to each other. The women feel deeply and lean on each other.

That's some strong summer reading!) If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear what you think! Yet Kingsolver keeps Demon's voice strong even as he falters and as everything he has counted on seems As always, her main characters are richly layered, struggle with terrible circumstances, retain strong Check out my reviews of So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men and the short story collection Antarctica she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women

When she emigrates to New York City, she is befriended by two strong young sisters, Anne and Alma, and

him for her prior boyfriend, and now he's all but given up on love; his last blind date involved a woman

But on today's flight, an elderly woman is causing a major disruption. He's struggling to maintain two relationships--one with Naomi, a playful younger woman, and one with

Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey This sci-fi thriller is about betrayal and revenge, but it's not the other-woman Divya has crafted strong female main protagonists who navigate the sometimes dark, always complicated When her mother disappears, Josie begins to track down the other Girls, and together the young women discover strange, unique powers as they rely on each other and attempt to unravel their shared history

in this crisis, and the premise gave the vacation structure, but it felt to me like a man bossing a woman

can to help those in need--including giving away her own papers and ration cards to a hungry Jewish woman You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World

hand, and dabbling in the Sami traditions of runes, poppets, or the playing of drums—or simply being a strong-willed woman helping to feed a village by manning fishing boats when the men are all lost—is enough to lead One standout for me was the strength of the women in the face of men's abuses of power and physical cruelty When Kacey disappears and a string of murders rock the community, everyone is suspect and Mickey's desire , adventure, strong female loyalty and friendship, love, and lots of fascinating details of life at the

situation of trapped girls who devolve into paranoia, mayhem, fury, and destruction--with a wonderfully strong The teen girls’ “magic” and its perception by the girls themselves (and especially by the men and women This book brought to mind another young adult dystopian book in which the power of young women is brought

collaboration; and historical fiction with a touch of magical realism about a brave young enslaved woman 01 Isola by Allegra Goodman Isola , based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman, shifts A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings by Leanne Her voice is a striking, uniquely nasal Southern drawl, and her Netflix special "I'm Every Woman" features Crosby Eckstine's richly detailed historical fiction explores the life of Junie, an enslaved young woman

exploration of gender roles, reimagining a rigid faith, marriage/child/parental/educational expectations for women , adventure, strong female loyalty and friendship, love, and lots of fascinating details of life at the

them: Namesake is Adrienne Young's second and, sadly, final book in her duology about the wonderfully strong , ruthless, clever young seafaring woman, Fable; A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, one of my two favorite Equation, my other favorite read of the month, Christina Lauren's heartwarming, funny story featuring strong Adrienne Young Namesake is the second and, sadly, final book in Young's duology about a wonderfully strong , ruthless, clever young seafaring woman.

So many elements of this premise are favorites for me--a strong young female main protagonist, ship life

Frankie and Zeke want to create something--something strange, something people will notice, yet something The retelling swirls with family drama, intrigue, bravery--all centered around a young woman determined Years of Lenni and Margot. 06 The Change by Kristen Miller The Change explores the power of menopausal women In Kristen Miller's novel The Change, set in Mattauk, Long Island, three women cope with various challenges The tone of The Change is largely campy, as middle-aged women heroines unite against the book's sometimes

Bossy Favorites of the Month Here are my six favorite reads of September, with a strong literary fiction This story felt smart, strange, and intriguing. I can't wait to read more books by this author. sometimes testy, often incisive, and at other times diminished--a product of the limitations of single women

The first in the series sets up a strong young Black heroine who bucks tradition as she explores her wholly independent network of magic, inheritance, bucking expectations, and pending danger for her strong

This is a feminist historical fiction story in which women--long kept quiet and still, supervised to that haunts, challenges, and pushes them to take the form of a beast, whose presence only the bravest women I loved that brave women that drive the novel in both timelines. Lisa Barr is also the author of Woman on Fire , The Unbreakables , and Fugitive Colors .

released after 22 months' imprisonment for the drunk-driving accident in which she killed an older woman But as the wedding week goes on, each woman is surprised by what she discovers about herself and the

The friends-like-family element and deep loyalty is strong among the members of Jack's group, and the

And their mother Christine is strong-willed and a force within the family, yet she has barely extricated

nonfiction account of the immense power of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and how the bravery of a young woman 01 A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Stephenson was a con man and womanizer who had told enough enormous lies to reinvent himself into one But when he met a young woman and promised her career assistance, then abused his position, she threatened

hand, and dabbling in the Sami traditions of runes, poppets, or the playing of drums—or simply being a strong-willed woman helping to feed a village by manning fishing boats when the men are all lost—is enough to lead said to be humorous, and it includes Vikings, seafaring adventure, “nefarious company,” a town run by women The main protagonist Kristin is a headstrong woman, and she escapes a convent for love. Check.

exposes age-old power mismatches; offers young characters agency; explores systemic violence against women It's about the infuriating, often tragic power mismatches between men and women, white and Black people review, please check out Hello Beautiful. 06 Weyward by Emilia Hart Emilia Hart's debut novel links women connected through the ages by power and by society's historical suspicion of strong women. rigid and at worst neglectful and cruel--and always holding the power, at least before the Weyward women

The women in the story--Cal's mother Grace, his grandmother Ella, and his best friend Isla--hold the disastrous addiction, and his town's blind focus on piety and its unfailing inflexibility, we also witness strange

who resents Penny's long-ago abandonment of him but knows that the girl he once adored is an innocent woman

Kate Quinn is also the author of the wonderful Alice Network. 02 A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler Fowler manages to capture truly wonderful details in A Well-Behaved Woman, both in the surroundings For my full review of A Well-Behaved Woman, click here. 03 The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino the Irish and other immigrant groups, as well as introducing a heart-wrenching unrequited love of one woman forced to grow up too quickly--a woman who for years feels she must push away any hopes for a life

Mackenzie is a sports agent who's constantly fighting against misogyny and double standards as one of few women and refusal to bend to societal pressures--whether by behaving in a more tough manner because she's a woman in a career where fewer women exist, or by using her femininity as a tool in that career.

In the seven years since, Belle's mother has reinvented herself as a society woman and has remarried, When she comes home alive, only Chelsey finds it strange that Ellie has left her captor and remains alive friend in her last remaining roommate, who until then seemed primarily a source of rent; she finds a strange In Michelle Moran's novel Maria , she uses two timelines to shape the story of the real woman behind

Barker's novel features Janet, a misunderstood, mocked, badly treated young woman coming of age in a

Hartnett evokes a sense of place so strong, the town felt like a character itself. Unlikely Animals is sweet and wonderfully strange, and Hartnett employs a light touch and thoughtful

character-driven mystery offers an imperfect, unassuming heroine obsessed with solving the cold cases of missing women She's an unassuming middle-aged woman and a recovering alcoholic who has a compulsion: to locate missing women and girls the authorities haven't been able to find. Frankie travels the country tracking lost women, moving into communities with little more than a change She cares about the women she's seeking, and she's not afraid to ask uncomfortable questions.

Gwendoline has strong opinions and is feeling constricted in her prescribed royal role even without the

McDaniel's novel Betty--set in the foothills of Appalachia and based upon her own family's stories--a young woman Betty is a gem, a sensitive, strong spitfire of a girl.

series by Rachel Hartman; and I'm listening to Harrow the Ninth, the second in Tamsyn Muir's very dark, strange It's the perfect reentry to the wonderfully cheeky, strong, faulted character of Tess as she tries yet

In Young's story, loosely set in the world of her Fable series, strong young Bryn fights for her own I was thrilled to find that Young's wonderful, signature strong-young-female protagonist-in-a-man's-world

school, where she struggles with imposter syndrome and individuality--and befriends Mathilde, a young woman

Thistlefoot is a strange, epic, often dark adventure tale with roots in Jewish folklore, and puppets She is only a woman. Sometimes, one cannot know until retelling what was right and what was wrong.

For my full review of this book, please see Nothing to See Here. 05 A Woman Is No Man In A Woman Is No are bright points: rare friendships emerge, sisters build intense loyalty to each other, girls and women A Woman Is No Man explores the incredible drive and bravery required by Rum's female characters to write For my full review of this book, see A Woman Is No Man. 06 In Five Years ​ Dannie is on the path to achieving She goes to sleep one night feeling satisfied, but she wakes up in another life: in a strange apartment

I love a spy book, a book about Russia, and a feisty, strong young female protagonist, and The Traitor

This historical fiction novel from Quinn is a departure from much of my favorite Quinn fiction--brave women who initiates weekly makeshift attic-apartment dinner parties and builds bonds between the disparate women But none of the women is precisely as she seems on the surface. The ladies exhibit broadening horizons, and over the course of the story, each of the women stretches

The author has created two independent, defiant, appealingly strong young women split by time (and, secondarily , complex male characters the women love as family or romantic partners). Equation. 05 Normal People by Sally Rooney In Rooney's novel Normal People, Marianne, a solitary young woman

Hamptons village to be a nanny, but the community has recently been rocked by the disappearance of a young woman Strangely, Anna looks a lot like Zoe, so she's faced with the village's pain and suspicion everywhere youngadult, #mystery, #siblings 03 A Good Girl's Guide to Murder ​ It's been years since a local young woman Two hundred years in the past, Leila is a young Muslim woman struggling to survive. claim her inheritance, but Hawthorne's surviving relatives are bitter, determined to prove her a con woman

As a woman, she won't be accepted into the guild without a chaperone, and her most likely candidate is single-mindedly set out to learn enough complex, intuitive, precise, powerful magic to become the first woman

she pokes fun at her fellow writer in a sketch about talented but average-looking men dating gorgeous women Fizzy is a straight talker, a sex-positive woman, and a successful romance writer, but she's never been about the unrealistic body images of the stars of Main Squeeze (a reality TV show in which a single woman

When a local young woman goes missing, Chloe fights her rising panic. Is there another killer who preys on young women, one paying homage to the twentieth anniversary of her

Through Bell's voice we also learn what has shaped the other women of the family: we hear rich stories the difficult relationship between Bobby and her daughter (Kalb's mother) and how it affected each woman's

Gwendoline has strong opinions and is feeling constricted in her prescribed royal role even without the I loved the strong female protagonists and their fire and grit and growth.