The Charm Offensive

I'm going to attempt (and expect to fail spectacularly) not to gush about this book. I went into it expecting a cute LGBTQIA+ romance and got a witty, heartwarming story that had a lot more depth than I anticipated. 

I simply loved it!

The story is set around a Bachelor-type reality TV program. I am not a Bachelor/Bachelorette fan, so I only knew the basics about these relationship reality TV shows, but it was enough to get the gist of the setting and backstage drama for this queer romance. 

This is the debut from Alison Cochrun, and it is a sweet romance that has a perfect balance between emotion, character development and depth. But it was its ahhhmazing focus on mental health and gender identity that impressed me the most.

Cochrun also adds an impressive diversity to her cast with wonderful LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent representation. The two main characters are easy to connect with and are supported by a gaggle of secondary characters who hold their own. I particularly liked Charlie's BFF Parisa whose talent for slinging sassy one-liners and her fab banter added great tidbits of humour.

This absolutely charming, witty, wow-I-can't-believe-this-is-a-debut read and gets a high five, a chef's kiss and a rose from me. Look for it in stores September 7th from Atria Books (or preorder it now!)

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for my advanced copy provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Alison Cochrun

Genre: LGBTQ, Romance

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Atria Books

First Published: September 7, 2021

Opening Lines: Dev Deshpande knows the exact moment 

he started believing in happily ever after.

Book Description from GoodReads: Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.

Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.

As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.

In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer.

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half is a Bookstagram-Made-Me-Read-It kind of book. It's received lots of praise, been a book reviewer favourite and a GoodReads 2020 Choice winner but it's the premise is what hooked me. This is a story about twin African American girls whose light skin could pass for Caucasian. One sister lives as a Black woman and the other decides to live as a white woman. Sounds intriguing, right? 

Unfortunately, I was not a fan. 

The story provides a great opportunity for several issues - race, discrimination, identity, family dysfunction - but the execution of this plot was weak, and I was bored for most of the book. My issues stem from the superficial handling of the topics, the glossing over of why characters behaved the way they did, and the jumps in time that gave the story a disjointed feel. Despite the compelling premise and thought-provoking issues, this book dragged for me the entire way and I didn't connect or like any of the characters except for Reece. He was the trans character who it seemed was used as a vehicle to equate his 'passing' as male with Stella's desire to pass as white. If that was indeed his purpose, it didn't sit well with me.

So, when you add in the farfetched, serendipitous meetups between characters in huge metropolitan areas, the feeling that this book was trying to do too much and the disjointed feel, this was a frustrating read for me that I struggled to finish. I'm in the minority with this book and I would have/should have DNF'd it, but due to the kudos from other readers, I thought there would be a literary Hail Mary to explain the praise. Sadly, that wasn't the case, and I was left quite disappointed and underwhelmed with this book. 

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Author: Brit Bennett

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, BIPOC author, LGBTQ

Publisher: Riverhead Books

First Published: June 2, 2020

Opening Lines: The morning one of the lost twins 

returned to Mallard, Lou LeBon ran to the diner to 

break the news, and even now, many years later, 

everyone remembers the shock of sweaty Lou pushing through 

the glass doors, chest heaving, neckline darkened with his own effort.

Book Description from GoodReads: The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

The Most Precious Substance on Earth

The Most Precious Substance on Earth is told in short vignettes that focus on different times in the life of Nina, a young woman of South Asian descent who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through these brief scenes, the reader sees snapshots from Nina's life beginning when she's an awkward 14-year-old and progressing into her 30's.

The first thing I noticed about this book was how Bhat creates a wonderful nostalgia for anyone (particularly Canadians) who grew up in the late 80's and early 90's. I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the eras and the pop culture and Canadian references. 

But this is not a light and fluffy story and readers are soon introduced to complex and emotional (possibly triggering) topics. These make for a good pick for book club discussion, but this character-driven series of vignettes wasn't a good fit for me. As a person who enjoys a faster paced story with a clear plot and who isn't a fan of short stories, this book lacked a sense of urgency, and I didn't enjoy the disjointed feel. I felt disconnected with Nina but enjoyed the levity her parents brought to the story as they supported their daughter. 

Please note that even though this wasn't a good pick for my reading tastes, it is being well received by many other reviewers. It is a thought-provoking read and while I enjoyed the Canadian/pop culture references and could appreciate this bleak story filled with trauma and struggles, I didn't feel drawn into Nina's life and struggled to finish this book. 

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to McClelland and Stewart publishers for providing me with a complimentary digital advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Author: Shashi Bhat

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Canadian, BIPOC author

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: McClelland and Stewart (Penguin Random House)

First Published: August 24, 2021

Opening Lines: I started reading Beowulf about a week ago, 

not because it was on the syllabus, but because 

I am in love with my English teacher.

Book Description from GoodReads: A humorous coming-of-age novel and a sharp-edged look at how silence can shape a life, from the winner of the Journey Prize. A Chatelaine Summer Reads pick. Named one of the most anticipated books of the fall by CBC Books and 49th Shelf.

"But wait, what happened to the girl?"
"I don't know," I say. I don't tell him that what will happen to her is what happens to every girl.

Nina, a bright, hilarious, and sensitive 14-year-old, doesn't say anything when her best friend begins to pull away, or when her crush on her English teacher intensifies. She doesn't say anything when her mother tries to match her up with local Halifax Indian boys unfamiliar with her Saved by the Bell references, or when her worried father starts reciting Hindu prayers outside her bedroom door. ("How can your dad be happy when his only daughter is unsettled?")
And she won't speak of the incident in high school that changes the course of her life.

On her tumultuous path from nineties high school student to present-day high school teacher, Nina will learn difficult truths about existing as a woman in the world. And whether she's pushing herself to deliver speeches at Toastmasters meetings, struggling through her MFA program, enduring the indignities of online dating, or wrestling with how to best guide her students, she will discover that the past is never far behind her.

Darkly funny, deeply moving, at times unsettling and even shocking, Shashi Bhat's irresistible novel examines the fraught relationships between those who take and those who have something taken. Rich with wry humour and sharp-edged insight, The Most Precious Substance on Earth is an unforgettable portrait of how silence can shape a life.

When The Summer Was Ours

Historical Fiction is one of my favourite genres and ever since I read and enjoyed Roxanne Veletzos' debut The Girl They Left Behind in 2018, I've been eager for her to write another book. 

Her latest book, When The Summer Was Ours publishes this coming week and follows young star-crossed lovers who live near Budapest, Hungary in the mid 1940's. Eva is a well-to-do young woman who is engaged to a doctor and Aleandro is a Romani artist who becomes Eva's unexpected love interest. Veletzos shows the couple's struggles, how the Romani were treated at the time and the atmosphere in Hungary during WWII and afterwards when the country was under Soviet occupation.  

As with her previous book, my favourite part of the book was Veletzos' focus on the aftereffects of the war and that despite the end of a war, people continue to struggle for years. The main characters each have their own flaws, but Aleandro easily outshone Eva who was a hard character to connect with. The story itself is sweet (if a bit predictable), slowly paced and unfortunately falls victim to 'too much telling and not enough showing'. This is a story filled with tragedy and ill-fated lovers, but the emotional elements felt skimmed over leaving me with a story that didn't have the impact I was anticipating. 

When The Summer Was Ours is a Historical Fiction read with themes of romance and resiliency that stays on the lighter side of the genre. While it fell a bit short for me in its emotion and grit, it gives readers an interesting perspective and I feel this lighter historical fiction read will appeal to fans of Kristin Harmel, Kelly Rimmer and Natasha Lester. 

My sincere thanks to Atria Books for my advanced copy of this book given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Roxanne Veletzos

Genre: Historical Fiction (WWII)

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Atria Books

First Published: August 24, 2021

Opening Lines: Sopron, Hungary Summer 1943: As the Budapest 

streets with their clatter of trams and hurried pedestrians 

began to thin out, Eva Cesar reclined against the cool leather 

of her father's town car and let out a long breath.

Book Description from GoodReads: Hungary, 1943: As war encroaches on the country’s borders, willful young Eva César arrives in the idyllic town of Sopron to spend her last summer as a single woman on her aristocratic family’s estate. Longing for freedom from her domineering father, she counts the days to her upcoming nuptials to a kind and dedicated Red Cross doctor whom she greatly admires.

But Eva’s life changes when she meets Aleandro, a charming and passionate Romani fiddler and artist. With time and profound class differences against them, Eva and Aleandro still fall deeply in love—only to be separated by a brutal act of hatred.

As each are swept into the tides of war, they try to forget their romance. Yet, the haunting memory of that summer will reshape their destinies and lead to decisions which are felt through generations.

From the horrors of the Second World War to the tensions of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and beyond, When the Summer Was Ours is a sweeping story about the toll of secrets, the blurred lines between sacrifice and obsession, and the endurance of the human spirit.

Book Love

Book Love caught my interest because I'm a big 'ol book nerd.

This is a cute book for the bibliophile who dwells within you. I could relate to many of the ideas/situations and while it was sweet and charming, it was a little dull and cheesy if I'm being honest. It has a Hallmark greeting card feel to the 'jokes' which were simple but became repetitive and clichéd after awhile.

It has the requisite book nerd topics like "books can take you to magical places" or "reasons why I read", but I was expecting something more along the lines of a Sarah Andersen graphic novel with humour and book nerd shenanigans. This book covers similar stuff, just with a much quieter and simpler tone.

Book Love will ring true for many book lovers. It's a very quick read that shows that book nerd experiences and our unfailing love of books are universal, but there's no new ground covered here.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author:  Debbie Tung

Genre: Graphic Novel, BIPOC author

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

First Published: January 1, 2019

Book Description from GoodReads: Bookworms rejoice! These charming comics capture exactly what it feels like to be head-over-heels for hardcovers. And paperbacks! And ebooks! And bookstores! And libraries!

 
Book Love is a gift book of comics tailor-made for tea-sipping, spine-sniffing, book-hoarding bibliophiles. Debbie Tung’s comics are humorous and instantly recognizable—making readers laugh while precisely conveying the thoughts and habits of book nerds. Book Love is the ideal gift to let a book lover know they’re understood and appreciated.

The Family Plot

Desolate, eerie, and downright sinister, The Family Plot is set on a small island community that was host to a serial killer many years prior. It is also the home of the Lighthouse family who are obsessed with honouring the victims of serial killers and live in a secluded home dubbed 'the murder mansion' by locals. How's that for an attention getting premise with a true crime vibe!? 

The story is narrated by Dahlia, one of the four now grown Lighthouse children who were each named after victims of serial killers. This family is an extremely dysfunctional bunch with dark and twisted pasts which are touched on and through this eclectic group, Collins weaves a unique tale. 

Unfortunately, the Lighthouse family was a bit too odd to be believable and didn't develop as more than one-dimensional characters. The story gets full points for its eerie atmosphere, and I liked that we're given several options for culprits (even though I guessed the reveal early on), but the intensity fizzles midway as the plot gets bogged down with repetition and excessive telling instead of showing resulting in a bit of an underwhelming read for me.

While this wasn't a big hit with me, it is an intriguing, dark and sinister whodunnit story that will appeal to many readers who are ready for a chilling read about a family you won't soon forget.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for my advanced copy provided in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Megan Collins

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: ebook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Atria Books

First Published: August 17, 2021

Book Description from GoodReads: When a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch, horrifying secrets are exposed upon the discovery of another body in his grave in this chilling novel from the author of Behind the Red Door and The Winter Sister .

At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse has a lot to learn when it comes to the real world. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has spent the last several years living on her own, but unable to move beyond her past—especially the disappearance of her twin brother Andy when they were sixteen.

With her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house she has avoided for years. But as the rest of the Lighthouse family arrives for the memorial, a gruesome discovery is made: buried in the reserved plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.

Each member of the family handles the revelation in unusual ways. Her brother Charlie pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister Tate forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic façade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.

Hostage

This is my second hostage-scenario book this summer. I wanted to read Hostage as soon as it came out but after reading (and loving!) Falling by T.J Newman earlier this summer, I decided to wait a bit to read this book. Cleanse my palate with some other genres and themes, if you will. I'm happy to say both books blew me away and also made me rethink booking my post-Covid flight for quite awhile!

Clare Mackintosh is one of my auto-read authors and Hostage fits the bill for her signature thriller reads. Told with two POVs - Mina a flight attendant on an inaugural 20-hour non-stop flight from London to Sydney and her police detective husband Adam who is on the ground with their special needs daughter, Sophia. 

Equal attention is given to both POVs, each with their own suspense and different issues. The locked room setting for Mina ups the tension and claustrophobic feel for the reader and I appreciated how Mackintosh gives readers snippets of background on several of the passengers, giving readers a few suspects for the terrorists. Adam also holds his own. He has his hands full caring for their daughter, as well as dealing with secrets and threats.

Within these two vastly different settings, Mackintosh has created a hard-to-put-down, addictive read that has action, twists, familial angst, and important societal messages. The tension wavers a bit in the middle but then escalates to a fever pitch towards the end so readers should be prepared for this book to take precedence over their lives until they've turned the final pages. 

Buckle up, my bookish friends and be prepared to be taken hostage by this gripping, heart-pounding read and its fantastic, twisty ending.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Clare Mackintosh

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

First Published: June 22, 2021

Opening Line: "Stop that, you'll fall."

Book Description from GoodReads: You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most.

A claustrophobic thriller set over twenty hours on one airplane flight, with the heart-stopping tension of The Last Flight and the wrenching emotional intensity of Room, Hostage takes us on board the inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney.

Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems of her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination. Someone who needs Mina's assistance and who knows exactly how to make her comply.

It's twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours.

All the Lonely People

All The Lonely People came on my radar a few weeks ago when other readers were singing its praises, many of whom called it a great pick for people who loved A Man Named Ove by Fredrik Backman. I'm a huge fan of Ove so those were some mighty big curmudgeonly shoes to fill.

The story is told in two timelines, one following Hubert, a Black octogenarian Jamaican' immigrant who has lived in the UK for six decades and the other during Hubert's younger years. But besides Hubert's relationship with his neighbours, Hubert is not like grumpy ol' Ove, but he is easy to like, and his early years and current loneliness will endear him to readers. I kept trying to imagine his Jamaican accent, but I don't feel the writing portrayed it clearly on the page. 

My favourite part of the book was how Gayle included important topics (immigration, racism, loneliness, and loss) into his story. Unfortunately, none of them were given a great deal of depth leaving readers with more of a character-driven story than a plot-focused tale which for the most part was very slowly paced (and a little dull in parts). There is a plot twist later, but it felt contrived and didn't pack its intended punch with me.

All The Lonely People is a sweet story with an important focus on social isolation, loneliness in different generations, friendship, and racism, but while I connected with the issues, the story got too bogged down in the middle and was a bit of a struggle to finish. 

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Mike Gayle

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

First Published: July 13, 2021

Opening Lines: Moments before Hubert met Ashleigh 

for the first time, he had been settled in his favorite 

armchair, Puss curled up on his lap, waiting for Rose to call.

Book Description from GoodReads: In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it's a lie. In reality, Hubert's days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul.

Until he receives some good news -- good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on. The news that his daughter is coming for a visit.

Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out.
Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship, and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . .

Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows, will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?

Elvis, Me, and the Lemonade Stand Summer

Elvis, Me and the Lemonade Stand Summer is an engaging late elementary/early middle school read from debut author Canadian Leslie Gentile who is an Indigenous writer/singer/songwriter of Salish and settler ancestry. This story is centred around eleven-year-old Truly Bateman, a young mixed-race girl living with her single mom in the late 1970's in a trailer park in an Indigenous reserve on Vancouver Island, BC. 

It is a heartwarming (and a bit heartbreaking) story with characters readers will enjoy. Through Truly's POV, Gentile introduces issues of microaggressions and discrimination against Indigenous peoples as well as family dysfunction and neglect, but in a way that is understandable and at an appropriate age level for children. 

This is also a story about community and family, in all its many and varied forms. Readers' hearts will go out to Truly who is such a lovely soul, despite her dysfunctional family life. Her sweet temperament and connection to those around her, particularly her bond with Andy El (her elderly Salish neighbour) is endearing and through their unique bond, and the connection Truly has with her community in the trailer park, we see the true meaning of family and the adage 'it takes a village to raise a child'. 

Elvis, Me and the Lemonade Stand Summer is a sweet story that tackles bigger issues in bite-sized pieces that are easy for kids to digest and a great way to start conversations about racism, respect for different cultures and the different forms families can take.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Leslie Gentile

Genre: Children's Fiction, Middle School, Canadian, 

Indigenous, BIPOC author

Type and Source: Paperback from public library

Pages: 192

Publisher: Cormorant Books

First Published: March 27, 2021

Book Description from GoodReads: It’s the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis Presley has been dead for a year. But not eleven-year-old Truly Bateman – because she knows Elvis is alive and well and living in the Eagle Shores Trailer Park. Maybe no one ever thought to look for him on an Indigenous reserve on Vancouver Island.

It’s a busy summer for Truly. Though her mother is less of a mother than she ought to be, and spends her time drinking and smoking and working her way through new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise as much money for herself as she can through her lemonade stand … and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the one and only King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. And when she can’t find motherly support in her own home, she finds sanctuary with Andy El, the Salish woman who runs the trailer park.

The Perfect Family

The Perfect Family is the latest book by Canadian author Robyn Harding and is a suspenseful story that includes complicated family dynamics, secrets, and the struggle to keep up the façade of having the 'perfect family'. 

The Adlers appear to be the ideal middle-class family which includes sought-after home stager/mom Viv, her successful realtor husband Thomas, their college-aged son Eli, and teenage daughter Tarryn. But when someone suddenly begins harassing them and vandalizing their perfect home, the secrets that they've kept from each other are revealed. 

By using the POVs of each of the Adlers, we see how their secrets are tied into the overall story and could potentially be the reason for the family to be targeted. These four characters were well-developed, each with their own flaws and motives and this bird's eye view into their lives will have readers second-guessing their initial predictions. I think readers will be hard pressed to figure out who is terrorizing this family and why, which makes for an interesting and entertaining read.

The strength of this book is in the writing with the complicated family dynamics and the building tension as their stories/secrets converge. The ending was a bit weaker than expected, but still satisfying. While I wouldn't call this a thriller per se, The Perfect Family is my favourite Robyn Harding book to date and is an engaging domestic whodunnit with wonderfully flawed characters, making it a perfect addition to your summer reading.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Robyn Harding

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada

First Published: August 10, 2021

Opening Line: I stood alone in the street, watching 

the silent house turn down for the night.

Book Description from GoodReads: The bestselling author of the The Swap explores what happens when a seemingly perfect family is pushed to the edge... and beyond in this “propulsive, constantly surprising” (Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, author of The Girls Are All So Nice Here) thriller.

Thomas and Viv Adler are the envy of their neighbors: attractive, successful, with well-mannered children and a beautifully restored home.

Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs. It’s a prank, Thomas insists; the work of a few out-of-control kids. But when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry. Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. And the police dismiss the attacks, insisting they’re just the work of bored teenagers. Unable to identify the perpetrators, the Adlers are helpless as the assaults escalate into violence, and worse. And each new violation brings with it a growing fear. Because everyone in the Adler family is keeping a secret—not just from the outside world, but from each other. And secrets can be very dangerous….

This twisty, addictively page-turning suspense novel about a perfect family’s perfect façade will keep you turning pages until its explosive ending.