CBR18 Book 47: "Book Club Boyfriend" by Jenny Holiday

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

CBR18 Bingo: Craft (this book dwells a lot on writing as a craft - both novels and screenplays)

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is on sale now.

Blair Kellermoon (former rom-com star, now powerful producer) has adapted several novels as movies and TV series and runs a book club, and the books she picks usually get huge sales boosts and are again likely to be optioned for adaptation. Suffice it to say, most authors are thrilled when being asked to be part of her book club.

Jack Branksome is not one of those authors. When receiving the offer from her via Zoom, he rather coldly rejects her, and while this was a private meeting, it is widely reported in the press. After Jack also says something that could be seen as rather unflattering about Blair in a magazine interview, he texts her to apologise, and this becomes the start of their friendship.

Blair is recently divorced, and both her children are away at college. She is finding the empty-nest situation more difficult than she was expecting, and it's clear to the reader that she has several mental health issues that need to be dealt with that she's clearly not ready to acknowledge within herself. Jack's debut novel was a huge success, but he's now struggling with writing anything for the second. He's already had to ask for an extension on his deadline once. Blair invites Jack to come stay in her pool house, anIntd the friendship they began via phone develops further.

Both Blair and Jack are very observant people who are very good about pushing away anything to do with themselves. Jack's father is also an acclaimed novelist, and his elitist views on literature and culture, which have clearly affected Jack, combined with the pressure of trying to write something as well received as his debut book, make it very hard for Jack to get out of his own head and get something new written. 

Blair has been trying to adapt a YA novel, but the lack of a good script means it's hard to find funding for the movie, and because she's heard too often from men in her life that she's a great actress, but not a writer, she scoffs at Jack's suggestions that she write the script herself. 

Jack can see that Blair is struggling with depression, anxiety and OCD. Blair can see that Jack has massive daddy issues. Neither of them is looking for romance, and they keep denying that their deepening friendship has any romantic undertones, yet they also become extremely adept at anticipating each other's needs. This book is extremely slow-burn, and a lot of the story concerns itself more with how Jack and Blair can become better at taking care of themselves than how they can build a lasting relationship.

If I had to list some tropes for this book, it would probably be antagonists to best friends to lovers, and also grumpy meets sunshine. Jack was an aloof and grumpy supporting character in Holiday's previous romance, Into the Woods. I remember wondering if Holiday was setting up Jack as a future hero when reading that one. Blair is clearly inspired by Reese Witherspoon, both looks- and career-wise. She's blond, beautiful and bubbly. She used to be a beloved rom-com actress who has reinvented herself as a Hollywood producer and champion of books and reading. 

This book turned out to be rather different from what I was expecting, and the romantic payoff comes rather late in the story, but it's such a well-written and enjoyable book that it didn't bother me. I am really glad I got an ARC of this one, and look forward to Holiday's next contemporary (I find I like her contemporaries more than her historicals, in general). 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR17 Book 61: "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 3 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 25: A Bookish Memoir/biography

CBR17 Pie Chart: Education

CBR17 Bingo: Citizen (Nafisi lived and taught in Iran during increasingly more dictatorial strictures against its citizens)

Official summary:

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

I got this in an e-book sale during the summer of 2018, because it sounded interesting and like something I should own. It fit in a number of my reading challenges this year, so I decided to read it this summer. Unfortunately, while some of the stories Nafisi told about the increasing totalitarianism that was introduced in her country were really interesting, the actual literary analysis was rather boring, and even the historical events got a bit dry after a while.

This book is a mix between a biography, writing about Nafisi’s life in Iran as it became subject to an increasingly more authoritarian government. One of the reasons I had trouble sticking with it was that, sadly, the news cycle was so depressing and so much in the real world America was mirroring things I was reading about that it was distressing to read. With the world being the way it is at the moment, escapist reading is becoming more and more essential for my mental health. 

So I have to confess that while I didn't DNF this book, I also didn't manage to read all of it. I ended up skipping probably about half, reading the first few sections, then skipping to the last one, to see how everything ended. I also think it’s important to mention that while this book wasn’t really for me, it may be a better fit for someone else. It does feature a lot of literary analysis, though, mostly of books I have neither read nor have any interest in ever reading, so I should possibly have researched it more closely before I started it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 25: "Thank You for Listening" by Julia Whelan

Page count: 400 pages

Audio book length: 11 hrs 15 mins

Rating: 4 stars

Sewanee (pronounced Swanie, several characters call her Swan) Chester was a child actress on a popular sitcom, but a serious injury while filming her big break as an adult led to her losing an eye and becoming permanently scarred, so now she makes her living as an audiobook narrator. While it may not be as glamorous as acting, she's very good at it and has won several awards. Early in her career, she also narrated romance novels, but now her cynicism makes it too hard for her to believe in Happily Ever Afters, and so she's retired the pseudonym she used to narrate that genre with. 

Normally, Sewanee doesn't go to big conventions, but her boss Mark, is unable to make the Vegas Book Convention and sends her instead. It also gives her a chance to hang out with her best friend, Adaku, who is still an actress and a rising star in Hollywood. Adaku has just been given a very lucrative job offer, and wants Sewanee to come stay in her swanky, all-expenses-paid suite so they can properly celebrate. However, Adaku has to fly to LA to meet with a movie producer, leaving Sewanee alone in a bar, nursing her drink and trying to drown her disappointment, both at not being able to spend more time with her friend, but also because of the way her life has turned out. Her evening looks up as a handsome stranger, Nick, approaches her and insists on buying her a drink. Since his flight is due to leave in a few hours, they are only supposed to have a brief window together, but a freak snowstorm strands him in Vegas for the night, and he and Sewanee spend it together. 

Sewanee's beloved grandmother has Alzheimer's, and the nursing home she is in is expensive, so when Sewanee is offered a frankly staggering amount of money to return to romance narration, unearthing her old pseudonym, she doesn't really have much choice but to accept. The fact that she gets to work with probably the sexiest and most mysterious male narrator in the business, Brock McNight, doesn't hurt either. The two of them gradually strike up a friendship via e-mails and messages, but even with the undeniable chemistry she seems to have with Brock, Sewanee can't quite get Nick out of her head. Of course, she has no contact details for the man, and told him her name was Alice and that she was a book editor, so he would have no way of tracking her down either, should he so want to. 

Sewanee has a choice to make when it turns out Brock is coming to LA for a weekend. She agrees to meet him for dinner - never suspecting what strange plot twists life has in store for her.

This is Julia Whelan's second novel, but to anyone who listens to audiobooks, she's much more famous for her narration. According to her website, she has performed in over 600 audiobooks, and the New Yorker called her the "Adele of audiobooks". You are sure to have heard her voice at some point. While there are several similarities between Sewanee and the author (who is a famous audiobook narrator who also used to act on a popular TV show when she was younger), Whelan is very clear in her author's note that this is in no way autobiographical, it's just another example of write what you know. I did discover that in the aftermath of writing and publishing this, Whelan actually wrote a version of the romance novel that she has Sewanee and Brock narrating, so fans of the novel can actually hear the whole thing, should they so wish. 

Sewanee's motivation for taking the new narration job is that her grandmother has dementia, is starting to deteriorate and needs to be moved into the full-time care ward at her care home. This costs considerably more money, and Sewanee's father isn't inclined to help, as he thinks she could be moved to a cheaper home. My mother passed away two years ago. She had Lewy Body dementia, and as she deteriorated, she was no longer able to live by herself anymore and had to be moved into a closed dementia ward, where she could have 24-hour care. Sewanee's grandmother seems to really love the care home she's in, which is why Sewanee is so determined to let her stay, despite the costs, but my Mum was miserable and kept asking us to take her home, which we obviously couldn't, cause she kept getting hurt or wandering off and getting lost when she wasn't monitored. So reading the parts of this book that dealt with Sewanee's grandmother's worsening condition was really hard, and even writing this paragraph is harder going than I was expecting. 

Even with this subplot, I really enjoyed this book. Julia Whelan obviously knows a lot about audiobook narration, and it was nice to get a glimpse behind the scenes, so to speak. Romance novels where the heroine doesn't have female friends seem really strange to me, so a good and close friendship is always a plus. 

Having really enjoyed this, I think I will also check out Whelan's debut novel, My Oxford Year. 

Judging a book by its cover: A romance cover not featuring people is unusual, but I like it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 7: "Ne'er Duke Well" by Alexandra Vasti

Page count: 354 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 25: Recommended by a friend (see, Des, I finally read it!)

Buzzwords 2025 Cover Challenge: Foliage

Peter Kent has lived most of his life in America, and certainly never expected to inherit a dukedom. Now he's the Duke of Stanhope and desperately trying to be granted custody of his younger half-siblings, both of whom treat him with disdain and claim they are perfectly happy living with their decrepit guardian. It doesn't help his case that Peter's inexperience with English high society keeps inadvertently landing him in scandalous situations. He needs help to rehabilitate his reputation and turns to the cleverest woman he knows.

Lady Selina Ravenscroft has an impeccable pedigree and a flawless reputation because no one knows that she organises and runs a circulating library of erotic literature for women. The way to clean up Peter's somewhat shaky image would be for him to court and preferably marry a thoroughly respectable woman, preferably before the court hearing about the custody of his siblings. Selina quickly makes a list of three perfectly suitable young women and tries to coach Peter on how best to court them. Unfortunately, the only woman Peter feels any sort of interest in is Selina, and the more time they spend together, trying to make him fall for another woman, the more certain he becomes that the only woman he wants to marry is her. 

My friend Desdemona has been nagging me to read Alexandra Vasti for absolutely ages, since long before this novel was even published. I did take her advice and read the first of Vasti's Halifax Hellions novellas last year and enjoyed it, but then got distracted by something else shiny on my ever-expanding TBR list, and I never got around to reading any more. When I was granted an ARC of Vasti's second novel through NetGalley (so exciting!), it seemed natural to read this one first. As far as I understand, that novel's heroine is Selina's best friend Lydia (also the name of my best friend!), who here features as one of Peter's potential brides-to-be. Unfortunately, Lydia has crippling social anxiety, frequently vomits in potted plants at balls, and can't seem to manage to speak to anyone outside her immediate family and friends - so doesn't really respond too well to Peter's advances. Plus, it's obvious to her and everyone who sees them together that Peter is mad for Selina, and he doesn't have eyes for anyone else when she's nearby.

There were several scenes in this book that felt a bit farcical, but I enjoyed the chemistry and banter between Peter and Selina enough to overlook a lot of it. Peter's half-siblings are given enough characterisation to not just be plot moppets, and his determination to become their guardian and give them safe and happy lives is explained once the reader is given insight into his past and the half-sibling he lost while growing up in America. I love a nursing back-to-health scene in a romance, but not really involving potentially dying children - that's just a bummer all-round. 

The supporting cast, featuring Selina's family members (her twin brother Will only appears in letters they exchange - he's off being a soldier, mourning his dead wife and child), and her various friends who she tries to set Peter up with, are mostly a delight. I would not be surprised to see all of them in future novels of Vasti's, finding their own HEAs. I also liked that there was no actual villain in this story. The baron who is set to judge the court hearing is portrayed as stern and concerned with traditional values, but he clearly adores his wife and seems somewhat concerned that Peter may not be up for the task of raising headstrong children (which, considering his townhouse barely has furniture when Selina first moves in(!) is a fair thing to be concerned about. 

This was a fun little romance, and a heroine who takes it upon herself to educate the women of the ton in matters of sexuality, to ensure that they're not woefully unprepared for married life is impossible not to admire. 

Judging a book by its cover: If there have to be animated covers (and what romance doesn't have those these days?), at least it's nice to see one that tries to depict something close to a scene that actually appears in the novel. Not that the character supposed to be Selina looks like she just took a swim in a river. So points deducted for that. I do like all the blues and greens on the cover - they please the eye.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR17 Book 3: "Bookshops & Bonedust" by Travis Baldree

Page count: 356 pages

Audiobook length: 8 hrs, 1 min

Rating: 3.5 stars

Buzzwords 2025 Title Challenge: Contains punctuation

Twenty years before the events in Legends & Lattes, Viv is a young and relatively inexperienced mercenary, who gets badly injured fighting undead monsters while hunting for a powerful necromancer. Her mercenary band leave her in the quiet and mostly empty seaside town of Murk to heal up and recuperate. She worries that the group are going to leave her there, but thankfully, to take her mind off her fears, she encounters the local bookshop owner, who manages to persuade her (Viv has never exactly been a big reader) to buy a book, which she is surprised that she can barely put down. 

Soon a beautiful friendship is born. Viv spends most of her days hanging out in Fern the Ratkin's rather run-down store, trying to help her come up with ways to make the place a bit less dilapidated and more inviting to customers. Fern keeps giving Viv new books, and after having eagerly completed a few, Viv stops trying to pretend that reading isn't for her. There are some added complications involving a fierce gnome fishing for an invitation to Rackham, Viv's employer; a suspicious city guard captain, and the discovery of the corpse of the sinister fellow who Viv got into a very public fight with after he was rude to Fern's pet. 

Viv also befriends the local bakery owner, a cheerful dwarf who keeps bribing Viv with delicious baked goods. They develop the chastest of romances, which basically amounts to them talking walks, feeding the fish and holding hands occasionally. Both know that Viv isn't going to be staying in Murk for very long, so their flirtation has a definite end date. 

While Viv is worried that her time in Murk is going to be too uneventful and boring, some strange artefacts left behind by the dead fellow on the beach, turn out to be rather exciting and may have links to the necromancer that Viv's mercenary band were hunting. 

This was the December pick for my IRL book club, and we met in early January to discuss it. While most people liked it, a few people disliked it because they felt it was just too bland and uneventful to really hold their attention. Most of the readers agreed that the book was not without its flaws, but you don't read a book like this when you want to be overly critical and therefore they weren't too bothered. This, like Legends & Lattes is like candy for your brain, and the occasional plot inconsistency or lack of consistent world-building shouldn't distract from the silly cosiness of the read. The majority of us were in agreement that we liked Legends & Lattes more, and a few of the flaws with this book came from the fact that it was a prequel and therefore hampered by a few things already established in Baldree's first book. 

One of the readers pointed out that the way the book depicts what a great experience reading can be, and the way it opens Viv's eyes to adventures and new perspectives through reading is very pedagogical, and that a book where so much of the plot centres around books, how great hanging out in a bookshop, and reading can be, it will hopefully get more reluctant readers to try more books. Which can only be a good thing. 

Judging a book by its cover: The cover of my paperback copy of this is in the same style as that of the first book, with more seaside elements and the mysterious book Viv finds very much the focal point. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR15 Book 13: "By the Book" by Jasmine Guillory

Page count: 325 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Isabelle (her friends call her Izzy) was so elated when she got a job as an assistant editor for a big publishing company. It was like a dream come true. Several years later, when she's overworked, underappreciated and still living with her parents at twenty-five, without even getting a promotion, she is starting to wonder if she should change careers. After having her own attempts at writing a book politely criticised by one of her more senior colleagues, that's another dream she's shelved, and now, despite her generally optimistic attitude, she is starting to consider giving up the whole publishing business.

After a conference in LA, Izzy hears her boss Marta complain loudly about one of their most difficult clients, infamous wild child Beau Towers, who got a massive advance on his celebrity memoir and then hasn't delivered so much as a page for over a year. Izzy impulsively offers to stay behind an extra day, drive to Santa Barbara and confront Towers personally, on the company's behalf. She's hoping that this extra effort might make her more likely to get a promotion, and if nothing else, it's another day in sunny California, rather than in wintery New York. 

When she arrives at the gorgeous mansion where Towers is apparently hiding away, she is met by the man's assistant. Towers himself doesn't even want to see her. How is she going to give him an optimistic and motivating pep talk if he won't even come out of his room? After Michaela, Towers' assistant trips and sprains her ankle as she's walking Izzy to her car, Izzy has no choice but to stay behind at the house to help ice and bandage the injured limb, and gets to see first how angry and terrifying Beau Towers can be to strangers, but also how friendly and gentle he is to his friends. Once he realises Michaela is hurt (he calls her Kettle), he completely changes from an angry grump to someone considerate and caring. He reluctantly agrees to let Izzy stay for dinner and listens to one of her pep talks, only to mock her mercilessly, causing Izzy to flee to the luxurious second-floor bedroom set aside for her. Having drunk too much wine with dinner, Izzy has no choice but to stay the night, and in the morning, Beau apologises for his rude behaviour and persuades her to stay for a few more days. 

The few days keep being extended, to one month and then another, and while it's clear that Towers has a volatile temper and can be rather grouchy, Izzy quickly realises that he's actually determined to write his memoir without any assistance from ghostwriters or the like, he just has no idea where or how to start. As the son of a famous supermodel and an award-winning screenwriter/director, Towers has lived a life of privilege and luxury. He clearly has no idea how much Izzy has to work just to make ends meet and how lucky he is to be able to isolate himself from the world in a ginormous mansion, without ever having to worry that his money is going to run out. However, he's also very lonely, having only interacted with Michaela for the past year, and as Izzy gets to know him, she discovers how conflicted he is about his dead father and the way both his dad and he treated his mother in the past. The main reasons for his failure to deliver any book pages isn't laziness, it's guilt and shame.

Even when Beau starts listening to Izzy's pep talks (she also discovers that he's been reading her weekly e-mails, despite them getting more and more informal as she became convinced they ended up in his spam folder) and they start working together to get him to write, it takes him several tries and quite a few temper tantrums before he's ready to really be open, honest and emotional in his writing. Beau's efforts at writing his memoir also motivates Izzy to consider her own writing again, and after being persuaded by Beau that her editor colleague clearly meant to sabotage her efforts with his harsh critique, she reassesses what she wrote and starts accepting that her own writing may have merit. 

Spending literally months together in a big house, working together daily in the gorgeous library, and having dinner together every night obviously make the two grow closer. Izzy fights her growing attraction to Beau, however, convinced she's only imagining the increasing moments of sizzling chemistry. She's also determined to stay professional. Besides, Beau is a rich recluse living in California and Izzy's life and job are still waiting for her back in New York. Once she gets Beau to complete the book, she'll never see him again. Right?

There are a lot of very clever and cute nods here, as you would expect. Our heroine is called Isabelle (Belle). She feels so lonely in Beau's big mansion during her first weeks there that she starts having imaginary conversations with the furniture. Beau calls his cook/housekeeper Kettle. There's a sweeping staircase up to the second floor. At one point, Izzy walks down it wearing a beautiful yellow dress. There's obviously a gorgeous library. There's even a rose garden. At work in New York, the colleague who keeps trying to sabotage Izzy (although it takes her so long to realise it) is called Gavin (Gaston). Nevertheless, the story also works in its own right, and I thought it was a fun twist on a well-known story, without ever getting too dark or angsty. 

I should note that this book is completely fade to black in terms of love scenes. The only heat you get is some passionate kisses, and this romance is a very slow burn, it takes Izzy and Beau a frustratingly long time to actually realise that they both feel the same way about each other, and smooching would be totally OK (and even strongly encouraged, in this reader's case). I'm guessing that's the Disney influence, can't have impressionable readers overwhelmed by actual sexy times happening (they clearly are, we just don't get to read about them).

This is the second book in the Meant to Be series, contemporary romance novels commissioned by Disney to retell their most famous animated movies. I've not read the first in the series, a Cinderella retelling written by Julie Murphy, but after this, I'm probably going to check it out, because this was charming as heck. I love a good fairy tale retelling and have a large collection of historical romances, contemporary romances and fantasy books that are all variations on Beauty and the Beast. It's important to note that this is a retelling of the Disney movie, not the original fairy tale. But since the Disney Beauty and the Beast was one of my favourite Disney movies growing up, this didn't present any problems for me. This might not be for everyone, but I thought it was a lovely February read (where I try to combine it being Valentine's Day - so romance, with Black History Month, so books by black authors, preferably with protagonists of colour). 

Judging a book by its cover: Every so often, a cartoony cover comes along to completely charm me, despite my general dislike of these sorts of designs. This is very much one that I adore, it's just so cute. The flowers, the heroine sitting up at the top, the flowing pages, the hero catching them. More of this, please, publishers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR14 Book 15: "Book Lovers" by Emily Henry

Page count: 398 pages

Rating: 5 stars

You know in a lot of romantic comedies, the hero already has a girlfriend, but she's stern, and demanding and seems to have absolutely no feelings that don't revolve around her career and probably living in the big city? The woman who eventually gets left, so the hero can get with the charming, free-spirited, understanding and much more laid-back heroine of the rom-com?

Nora Stephens is that woman. She loves her life in New York City, she loves her Peloton bike, she loves her designer shoes and she really doesn't give a fig for the outdoors. However, the fourth (!) time one of her boyfriends goes out of town for a few weeks to small-town America, only to call her to let her know that they won't be back, because they've realised their careers in the big city are hollow and they need to do something completely different with their lives, she is understandably quite upset. That the break-up phone call happens right before she's about to have a very important business meeting, causing Nora to be late (she's never late) is possibly even worse. 

The meeting does not go well. Charlie Lastra, known in the publishing industry as the Storm Cloud, seems entirely uninterested in editing and publishing the book Nora is trying to pitch to him. Obviously, Nora feels rather triumphant two years later, when the book is a massive bestseller with a film adaptation in the works. However, she's also worried about her pregnant little sister, who seems utterly exhausted and has decided that she needs a break from her husband and two daughters, so she (Libby) and Nora will go away for a month to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, which just so happens to be the setting of Nora's author's very successful novel. 

Nora's life is pretty much her work, where she is the most cutthroat literary agent in Manhattan, who will do anything for her authors, especially make sure they get excellent publishing deals, and Libby, the reason she works so hard in the first place. Raised by a single mother who came to New York to chase her dreams and frequently kept having them crushed while trying to make ends meet to support her girls, Nora and Libby were both devastated when she died. For a long time, they've only had each other, and Nora has worked hard her entire adult life to make sure neither Libby nor she ever faced the sort of difficult financial burdens their mother did. She can't really say no to Libby, even though she's unsure about a whole month away from NYC and the very long checklist of items her sister seems to want them to get through during that month (one of which includes saving a failing business). 

Nora is worried Libby is going to be disappointed with Sunshine Falls, which is a lot more run-down and deserted than the best-selling novel made it seem. Libby, however, seems perfectly happy to be there, it's Nora who's feeling like a fish out of water. Imagine her surprise when on one of her very first days in Sunshine Falls, she runs (literally) into Charlie Lastra, her grumpy publishing nemesis, and very quickly, they not only seem to have struck up a friendship but are pretty much constantly flirting via e-mail or text. Turns out one of the reasons Charlie passed on the novel is that he's from Sunshine Falls, and didn't really like the way his childhood home was romanticised in the pages of the book. Now he's back home, helping his parents (his father had a stroke and needs a lot of physical rehabilitation), running the family bookstore while his dad recovers, and working long-distance as an editor. 

While Nora and Charlie's first meeting may not have been the best, it's very quickly clear that they are two peas in a pod, and care deeply about most of the same things. They also have absolutely sizzling chemistry, but as they end up working together to edit the new manuscript for Nora's top author, they are both determined to keep everything professional. Not that Charlie seems all too pleased about Libby's plan that Nora just needs to become the heroine of her own small-town romance, and to do so, Libby wants her to go on dates with at least two of the locals. Of course, the first one seems deeply intimidated by how tall Nora is and how big her shoes are, while the other one turns out to be Charlie's cousin, and while he's got the good looks, charm, intelligence, and humour of a perfect small town leading man - Nora just keeps thinking about Charlie's scowl and prominent eyebrows. 

Nora can't stand not being in control of every situation and being in North Carolina has put her very much out of her comfort zone. She can't sleep well with all the silence of the countryside. To add to her worries, Libby is clearly hiding things from her, when in the past, the sisters have always confided in one another. Charlie Lastra is nothing like the men she's dated in the past, where she could keep her head cool when things inevitably imploded. She realises far too quickly that she's falling hard for him, and he keeps insisting that their flirtation, much as he clearly returns her feelings, is not leading to a HEA. 

While I in no way disliked People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry's last release, it felt rather disappointing to me compared to her first romance novel aimed at adults, Beach Read, which was one of those books I had trouble putting down and kept wanting to read more of, because I loved spending time with the protagonists so much. Well, I'm happy to say that I think Book Lovers is her finest romance yet, and it completely transported me. It's incredibly obvious from the very first chapter that Henry knows every romance trope there is, and she carefully sets out to deconstruct a lot of them over the course of this book. Making her heroine the supposed ice queen, the driven, career-obsessed and unashamedly ruthless (on behalf of her clients and/or her sister) woman is a beautiful touch. Having her dumped a whole FOUR times by selfish jerks who decide to follow their dreams with carefree waifs in small towns seems rather cruel, but it's only to highlight how absolutely perfect Charlie is for her instead. Her equal in exacting professionalism, another terror of the NYC publishing world, not only is he in no way threatened by Nora and her drive to succeed and her workaholic tendencies, he applauds them and makes her realise that they may not, in fact, be flaws. 

Charlie Lastra, raised in the beautiful North Carolina countryside, who always felt uncomfortable and out of place until he moved to the city, understands why stunning sunsets, hiking, and camping under the stars are not what Nora wants or needs. She wants to take care of her sister and if completing the rather ridiculous checklist is what Libby wants, then Nora will camp, bake and try to put away her phone at 5pm each afternoon to be "present" for her sister. Yet the only time she really feels comfortable is when she's trading notes with Charlie on the manuscript they're co-editing, or even better, fighting their growing attraction and stealing kisses where no one can see them. 

Like in Beach Read, grief and the processing thereof, play a major part in this story. While their childhood was far from ideal, Nora especially adored her mother and has internalised her mother's love of New York. Losing her while she was still barely a teenager and having to act as a guardian for her younger sister, while they were both processing their loss and emotions is one of the reasons Nora has become so emotionally closed off. Having to act as a parent for her sister made her think that she could never be the vulnerable one, and that starts taking its toll the longer she spends in Sunshine Falls. 

This book does a very good job of showing that people can want vastly different things, and neither of the options are bad ones. Wanting to live in a New York loft and have a career and never raise children of your own does not make you a soulless monster, nor does wanting to have multiple children and live in a big house in the countryside make you more worthy of love and happy endings. 

This book made me very happy and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a comforting spring read. The beautiful thing with romances is that even when it seems like the protagonists are never going to be able to find a way to make their relationship work (and things look pretty bad here for a while), there WILL be a satisfying happy ending eventually, in this case, one that made me grin like a loon.

Judging a book by its cover: Still not a fan of the cartoon covers (surely this trend must end sometime soon), but at least this is quite a cute one. The man and woman look exactly like Charlie and Nora are described and I love how absorbed they are in a book each, while also reaching out and sharing books between them. Any romance based around the love of books is probably going to work for me. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Books 4 and 5: "84 Charing Cross Road" and "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" by Helene Hanff

Combined page count: 230 pages
Rating: 5 stars

In October 1949, New York writer sends off a letter to a bookshop in London, Marks & Co, on 84 Charing Cross Road. She is looking for reasonable second-hand books and luckily the staff at Marks & Co are able to help her. By Christmas, as she has heard that everyone in the UK are still on rationing, she has ordered a whole ham and a lot of powdered eggs to be shared out among the staff and her generosity prompts the mysterious FPD that she's been corresponding with is in fact called Frank Doel.

The outgoing and often very impulsive American writer and the more restrained English bookseller carry out a correspondence over the years, with the occasional letter included from other people in the store, and later Frank's wife Nora, who are all blown over by Ms. Hanff's continued generosity. She keeps insisting on sending food parcels to the store around every big holiday, and before long, she is receiving Christmas presents from the thankful staff as well. The correspondence, which chiefly focuses on the books Ms. Hanff requests, and a love of reading, come to include stories of their everyday lives, information about their families and career ambitions (in the case of Ms. Hanff). Her many eventual friends in the UK keep admonishing her to visit, but every time she gets closer to her goal of saving up enough, something big interferes and she has to put it off for a while longer. Sadly, in January 1969, after nearly 20 years of letters back and forth, Ms. Hanff is notified by a secretary at Marks & Co that Frank Doel has passed away. His daughter gives her permission to publish his letters, however, in what became 84 Charing Cross Road.

Said book and it's strange and wonderful success is what finally allows Helene Hanff to travel to London, but not until the summer of 1971, while still recovering from a hysterectomy. For five weeks, she is able to visit her beloved London, although she's terrified when she gets off the plane. She gets to meet several of the friends she made during her many years of corresponding, even though the bookshop Marks & Co is now closed. Her English publishers put her up in a lovely little hotel in Bloomsbury and various friends, family of former correspondents and fans of her book all insist on treating her to the time of her life, hence the title of her next book, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. She really feels wonderfully pampered during her stay, and while sadly she never manages to see the inside of the Tower of London, she nonetheless gets to visit a fair amount of locations in the London and its surroundings.

Made up from her diary entries while she was in England, the book gives somewhat more insight into Ms. Hanff and her dreams, fears and insecurities. I'm not surprised that she has adoring fans that want to show her every courtesy, I loved both books immensely. They're both such quick, witty and entertaining reads. I know that there is a film based on 84 Charing Cross Road, I should probably try to find a copy and watch it. The paperback I got at my local library contained both books, and even so, I was able to read both in a couple of indulgent afternoons. I've heard of both the film and the book, and am delighted that I finally read it.

Judging a book by its cover: A delicate creamy golden colour for the cover, with the shopfront of Marks & Co, where Ms. Hanff bought her books for so many years (but which had sadly closed by the time she visited London) at the bottom, showing the reader just what the bookstore looked like and allowing the reader to imagine its loyal employees, who all became such dear friends to Ms. Hanff. An open second-hand book at the top shows the reader that they are most certainly also central in this story.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR3 Book 25: "One of Our Thursdays is Missing" by Jasper Fforde

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: March 28th, 2011
Date finished: April 1st, 2011

This is the sixth book in the Thursday Next series, and I can absolutely assure you that it makes little to no sense if you haven't read several of the others in the series. The first book in the series, The Eyre Affair, is excellent, so go start there if you're interested. Also, may contain spoilers for previous books etc. etc.

There's a war brewing in the Book World, and Thursday Next, the famous heroine and literary detective who is needed to manage the peace talks, appears to have gone missing. No one seems to know where she is, and the life of her fictional counterpart is starting to take odd and unexpected turns as a result.

Yes, that's a super short summary of the book, but I'm really at a loss to even begin to explain the intricacies of the plot of this book. Jasper Fforde's literary universe is a very complex one, both with his alternate version of reality, where the real Thursday Next lives, and the one he explores more closely in this one, the Book World. Simply put, every time someone in the real world reads a book, the fictional counterparts in the Book World act that story out. When the reader puts the book back down, they can go on with their normal lives. The fictional Thursday starts out being very little like her real-life counterpart - she's calm, sedate, a bit boring, and a bit of a tree hugger. As increasingly more complicated puzzles and challenges get thrown her way, she starts realizing that she has the potential to change and be so much more.

The previous novel in the series, First Among Sequels, took me ages to get into, and I didn't really feel that it got good until shortly before the end. In this one, Fforde suddenly explores an entirely different aspect of his world, and very different characters, and it just didn't grab me much. Several people have given this book a very enthusiastic review, so I had high hopes for it. It did not live up to my expectations, and at this rate, I'm not going to be in a hurry to read any more books in the series either.

CBR3 Book 1: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page count: 256 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Date begun: January 1st, 2011
Date finished: January 4th, 2011

Juliet Ashton is travelling around Britain in 1946, promoting her wildly popular book Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War, a collection of humorous newspaper columns written all through the Second World War. She is trying to come up with a topic for her next novel, and having very little luck. One day, she receives a letter from a man in Guernsey, who's ended up with a book she once owned, telling her interesting things about something called the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, founded quite accidentally during the war. Juliet is fascinated by the story of its founding, and is soon corresponding not only with Dawsey Adams, who wrote her the first letter, but with a number of diverse members of the Literary Society.

As she continues to travel around, talking up her last book, being wined and dined and wooed by a wealthy American publishing magnate, she keeps getting letters from the members of the Society at Guernsey, and learning more and more about both the society, and life for the people of Guernsey during the war. She makes a number of dear friends, and decides to travel to the little island to do research for a possible new book, all about the German Occupation of Guernsey.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was written by Mary Ann Shaffer, but finished by her niece Annie Barrows after Shaffer became very ill after the manuscript was sold to a number of publishers, and unable to edit and finish it herself. It is an epistolary novel, the entire narrative is made up of letters. Letters from Juliet to Sophie, her best friend, who is married to a Scotsman and living in Oban. To Sidney, Juliet's publisher and Sophie's older brother. To and from Dawsey Adams, Amelia Maugery, Eben Ramsey, Isola Pribby and other members of the Literary Society, and through the various letters we get to know Juliet, Sidney and all the rich and complex characters of Guernsey, as well as the fascinating story of how the Literary Society was founded to cover up a secret roast pig dinner from the Germans. All the letters have very distinct voices, and although there are a number of characters to keep track of, I never found it difficult to follow the plot or keep the people apart, as they have such distinctive personalities and writing styles.

The book is in turns very funny, delightfully quirky and at times deadly serious and very sad. Mary Ann Shaffer did a lot of research on Guernsey during the Second World War, and the Occupation was not an easy one. While the book is a work of fiction, it is based on real event and inspired by real people, and while for the most part I was smiling broadly while reading, certain parts also brought tears to my eyes and nearly had me crying. It's not a very long book, but very well written, and the impression that you get the privilege of peeking at other people's personal correspondence made it a somewhat different, but very pleasant reading experience.

CBR2 Book 8: "First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Page count: 404 pages
Rating: 2 stars
Date begun: November 30th, 2009
Date finished: December 4th, 2009

In this fifth book about Thursday Next, Fforde's unusual heroine has seemingly retired from her busy and dangerous career as a literary detective and enforcer of justice in the Book world. Her husband thinks she's working with her former colleagues in a carpet laying business, but of course, she is just as busy as before trying to sort out the many complications and problems that occur in literary fiction.

Reading rates in Outland, as the literary denizens like to call the real world, are falling drastically. The attention span of the common man is getting shorter and shorter, only very extreme reality programming such as Celebrity Kidney Swap seem to be holding their attention, and Thursday and her fellow Jurisfiction agents are not sure what to do about it. Sherlock Holmes appears to have been murdered. Bookworld beaureucrats want to turn Pride and Prejudice into a reality reading experience, where readers can vote off characters they don't like. One of Thursday's literary counterparts is trying to take her place, and her son Friday is failing spectacularly to live up to his future potential.

I really loved Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair when I discovered it many years ago. It was original, funny, clever and made me look at Jane Eyre in a completely different light. The second and third book in the series were enjoyable too, but as the series has progressed on, I'm not sure I'm as fond of Fforde's ideas anymore. It took me nearly a week to finish First Among Sequels, which is unusual, considering it's not a very long book. It also took me a year and a half from buying the book to actually reading it, because I just wasn't that bothered about finding out what happens to Thursday. What used to be funny and clever just doesn't seem as good anymore, and while Fforde's writing is still good, I may think about giving up on the series.

The action of the book is slow at first, but picks up towards the end. I may give the sixth Thursday Next book a chance, whenever it comes out, but if it fails to live up to my now-reduced expectations.

The Cannonball Read

Last year, Pajiba, a website I read nearly daily, started a challenge among their readers. It was called The Cannonball Read, and the point was that all the participants were to read 100 books in a year. The books had to be at least 150 pages long, and the participants were also supposed to write a little about each book on their blog/website, so others could share in their experiences.

I did not actually join, but thought about it, and did, like in 2007, set myself the goal that I would try to read at least 52 new (by new I mean books that I have never read before, not new as in just published) books in a year. In 2007 I managed to hit that goal exactly. Last year, in 2008, I read a total of 140 new books, I reread 17 books, and in addition, I read 6 comic trade paperbacks. Since 2007, I have written down all the books or comics collections that I read.

This year, in 2009, as well as writing down the books and what date I finished them, I am also dividing my reading into months, and I write down the page numbers of the books. So far in 2009, I have read 99 books, and I'm currently reading book 100. I have reread 18 books, and I have also read the entirety of 100 Bullets, which spans 13 trade paperbacks, and more than 2200 pages in itself. I'm not sure why I've decided to myself that comics trades don't count. The rereads don't count as I strive to experience new books, but I will obviously add the page count of all the books and comics trades together at the end of the year in morbid curiosity of how much I actually do read.

This year, starting on the 1st of November - Pajiba are doing another Cannonball Read. This year, participants only have to finish 52 books in a year. I know I can do that part. My goal of reading 52 books this year was reached in the middle of May - I've now read nearly twice that. The challenge for me will be that they want people to blog about each and every book, posting a little review, of at least three paragraphs. I'm not good at sticking with a blog, and I prefer rating things with stars out of 5 rather than actually formulate my thoughts carefully in writing about the things I read or watch. Apparently, reviews of participants might be published on the Pajiba website. I don't know how I'd feel about that. I wouldn't mind my friends reading what I wrote, but complete strangers...

Still, because I read a lot, and because I think the challenge sounds fun, I will try to do this. Hence I have started this blog, where I will mostly write about books, but if I get round to it (extremely unlikely) may post about other things as well. I'm sure I will be able to read the 52 books demanded, and more, as my most favourite pasttime, and the thing that keeps me sane, is reading. We shall have to see about the reviews. I did notice they didn't specify that the reviews had to be very good. Wish me luck.