I didn’t know quite what to expect when I accepted an ARC of Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror. As you know, I love reading all different types of horror. While I’ve enjoyed novels by authors Cynthia Pelayo and Leopoldo Goût and Isabel Cañas, there are a lot of authors that I've never heard of contributing to this collection of short stories. I’m super glad I took a chance on Something Followed Us Home. It contains some...
My 50-page rule strikes again! It took me a little while to become invested in Mirror Me. I’m glad I persevered because I ended up really enjoying this unique and twisty psychological thriller from Lisa Willamson Rosenberg.
What’s Mirror Me about? Mirror Me is about Eddie, who dramatically demands entrance to a psych hospital one night after thinking he murdered his lover, Lucy (who also happens to be his brother’s fiancé…). The...
You won’t believe how many people tell me to read Crying in H Mart after learning that I run a book-inspired recipe blog. It's probably the first book recommendation out of people's mouths. After reading just a few pages of Michelle Zauner's memoir, though, it's easy to understand why: her story is a love letter to Asian-American food culture.
Interestingly, though, I didn't love Crying in H Mart as much as I'd hoped to.
What is Crying...
I really wanted to love Namrata Patel’s newest novel, The Curious Secrets of Yesterday. I absolutely adored Patel’s debut, The Candid Life of Meena Dave. While I didn’t get a chance to read her sophomore book, Scent of a Garden, I was excited when Kaye Publicity approached me about an ARC for book #3.
Unfortunately, The Curious Secrets of Yesterday is getting added to the DNF pile for me. Let’s talk about why.
What’s The Curious...
I seem to be on a Jane Austen retelling kick lately: first Once Persuaded, Twice Shy, and now Relative Strangers, which is a modern reimagining of Sense and Sensibility.
What’s Relative Strangers about?
Amelia Bae-Wood ((ahem, Marianne Dashwood) goes to live with her widowed sister Eleanor, her widowed mother, and her niece Margaret after her glamorous foodie-preneur lifestyle falls apart. Her family has been rendered near penniless...
The Hacienda is one of those books that’s received a lot of buzz – and I’m happy to report that it lived up to the hype.
I’ve seen a lot of bloggers/reviews comparing The Hacienda to Mexican Gothic, which was a DNF for me. So, it took me awhile to gather the courage to attempt The Hacienda.
I’m not sure why people keep comparing these two novels. Maybe -- disappointingly -- it’s because they’re both set in Mexico?? Sigh. It's a...
Let's jump right into it: I loved The Candid Life of Meena Dave. Like, really loved it. As in, I give it all the stars! You guys know my fondness for the "unexpected inheritance" trope, so when Kaye Publicity asked me if I wanted an ARC of The Candid Life of Meena Dave, I was like, You had me at "inherits a Victorian brownstown in historic Back Bay, Boston." I love Boston, and, like most people, my favorite area of the city is Back Bay...
Homegoing is one of those novels that I’ve borrowed from the library various times, only to return it, time and time again, unread. It’s been recommended to me by several people, but it wasn’t until my blogger friend Literary Dates posted about this powerful book that I actually cracked it open and began reading. What I loved about Homegoing Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is everything people promised it would be. It's gripping, it's...
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Mexican Gothic is the latest bestseller to fall into the DNF pit. Let me start off this book review by saying that I'm not only disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy this Gothic suspense -- but I'm very surprised by it. Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic made HUGE waves last year among bookstagrammers and book bloggers, for its book cover alone! Which is, admittedly, gorgeous. ...
I'm pretty sure that Party of Two is not author Jasmine Guillory's best work. I know, I know: that's a pretty bold statement to make right off the bat. Guillory’s first book, The Wedding Date, made huge waves when it published a few years ago, but I never got around to reading it. I picked up Party of Two because it was the only Guillory title my library had on hand during COVID quarantine. Given all the fuss surrounding the author and her...
