The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Goodreads blurb: From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and the Practical Magic series comes an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery, and the enduring magic of books. One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her? Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you. As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter ? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die? Nathaniel Hawthorne “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.” This is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.
My Take 3 out of 5. I loved the current time portion of this story. Mia’s and her mom’s plight had me in tears, and her reliance on literature to get her through the bad times was touching and endearing. And then part 2 happen and time travelling that we still don’t know how happened and I was lost. I did not see the need for it, even though it does provide a great backstory that Mia inspired her favorite book. Alice Hoffman is usually one of my favorites and this one was just ok for me. I absolutely adored the narration by Jessie Mueller because she can read the phonebook and I’m there, her voice is also so recognizable.
Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
Goodreads blurb: Bernadette , Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams , the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink―who finally pushes back. Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled―the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian . And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away. Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.
my take: 3.25 out of 5. – Although this book is described as funny, more than amusing i found it anxiety inducing. The way Grace just kept digging her grave a bit more with each action wanted me to go through the page and snap her out of it. I really appreciated the ending and it is such a great climax, the road was not that pleasurable for me
To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai
Goodreads blurb: To exonerate her best friend, one woman must mastermind a jewelry heist during the wedding of the season in this hilarious romantic-comedy caper from the author of The Dating Plan. Simi Chopra is on a bad-luck streak. She’s lost yet another job, her student loan debt won’t stop growing, her basement apartment is a certifiable flood zone, and now her best friend has been accused of stealing a multimillion-dollar diamond necklace. To put it lightly, she’s desperate for a break—that’s right when Jack waltzes out of the bushes and into her life. Jack is just as charming as he is mysterious. When he offers to help her find the missing necklace and steal it back, Simi jumps at the chance to clear her friend’s name and collect the substantial reward. But every good heist needs a crew. All she needs to do is transform a ragtag group of strangers into an elite heist crew, infiltrate a high-society wedding and steal the necklace from a dangerous criminal before the happy couple say “I do.” Meanwhile the bride is keeping secrets, a detective with a slow-burn smile keeps showing up at her door, and the ultimate robbery might not be the wedding con, but the way Jack is stealing her heart.
my take 3.5 out of 5. I rally enjoy Sara Desai’s books so I was really looking forward to this one. It is a bit of a change in genre and it is a really fun book. The cast of characters that are arranged are a hilarious, completely unmatched but you fall for everyone of them. Who know a book about a heist and a love story could actually be about friendships and found family? I liked it even if things fall a little to comfortably in place for a “crime” book
The Takeover by Cara Tanamachi
Goodreads blurb: Sometimes, when you ask the universe for your soulmate, you wind up with your hate mate instead. On Nami’s 30th birthday, she’s reminded at every turn that her life isn’t what she planned. She’s always excelled at everything – until now. Her fiancé blew up their engagement. Her pride and joy, the tech company she helped to found, is about to lose funding. And her sister, Sora, is getting married to the man of her dreams, Jack, and instead of being happy for her, as she knows she ought to be, she’s fighting off jealousy. Frustrated with her life, she makes a wish on a birthday candle to find her soulmate. Instead, the universe delivers her hate mate, Nami’s old high school nemesis, Jae Lee, the most popular kid from high school, who also narrowly beat her out for valedictorian. More than a decade later, Jae is still as effortlessly cool, charming, and stylish as ever, and, to make matters worse, is planning a hostile take-over of her start-up. sharp elbows and even sharper banter as the two go head-to-head to see who’ll win this time. But when their rivalry ignites a different kind of passion, Nami starts to realize that it’s not just her company that’s in danger of being taken over, but her heart as well.
This is an ARC review thanks to a gift from the publisher. It is out Jan 30/2024
my take: 2.75 out of 5. This book was not memorable. You mix in kind of absurd business settings with a romance that I wasn’t fully on board with and you loose me halfway through. Some points to the creatively no creative way the company’s names were done. Rainforest was quite on the nose, like you know you were dealing with Amazon without saying the name outright, props. I also feels this falls into the enemies to lovers category which is not really enemies, but you were teenager and didn’t know how to act so you bully those you love to lovers. It looses some of its impact.
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Goodreads blurb: When a father goes missing, his family’s desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another–both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek. “We didn’t call the police right away.” Those are the first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean-American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything–which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.
My take: 4 out of 5. This is a superbly written book. The timeline was stress inducing in all the right ways for a thriller of this nature. I love how new information kept popping out that tied things together. This book clearly exposed my need to have things wrapped up, and I wasn’t getting it here, but that does not detract from how well it is developed. I’m the problem its me, not the book. Because I warn you, be prepared for grey, for ambiguity and for not knowing the answers to all of the questions.
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