I needed something fun and not too heavy to clear my mind before I dived into Kindred, and The Epic Crush of Genie Lo ended up being the perfect fit (thanks emmalita for the rave review!). Genie Lo grew up in the poor side of the Bay Area, and she wants out. She and her friend Yunie (they share the name Eugenia) are using academics and an extraordinary amount of extracurriculars as their ticket out, though Yunie’s accomplishments on the piano may give her a […]
Hellion with a heart of gold
This was supposed to be a fluffy, fun read before I tackled my Kindred re-read but instead it made me feel all emotional! I first met Vere Mallory in The Lord of Scoundrels, where he was the somewhat dense, but overall likable and easy going friend of Dain. This novel gives Vere’s extra depths, explaining why he chooses to drown his sorrows in a daze of booze, fighting, and women after losing almost everyone in his family that meant anything to him. Vere was the […]
Now This is Literature or a Defense of Kindness
It’s been such a long time since I read Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life that I realized a few chapters in that I was slightly confusing certain aspects about the family with Kate Morton’s novel The Lake House. Mostly just birthing order and Teddy’s age – I thought he was the youngest and conceived after his father’s return from World War I when he was actually born in 1914 and not the last sibling. However, I definitely remembered that he was Ursula’s favorite sibling, his […]
And Now I Have to Wait for the Next One …
I am all caught up on the Sebastian St. Cyr series, and I am so disappointed now! All the novels in the series are good with so many densely plotted mysteries, interesting recurring characters and a compelling plot line that runs through the series. Still, I admit to starting to feel less drawn into the novels at some point in the middle, only for the last three to completely suck me back into the series. And now come the minor spoilers for previous novels in […]
I Probably Shouldn’t Like A Novel Involving a Serial Killer This Much
Once Sebastian St. Cyr starts investigating a new case, he discovers street children have been disappearing for years but no one has noticed because they are at the edges of society, and its most vulnerable members. The fact that a novel about the early 19th century and its treatment of the poor, and most especially poor children, still feels relevant today is rather condemning. Of course, to paraphrase a scholarly article I barely remember, historical fiction and sci-fi are both genres that tend to say […]
Genova Has a Unique Skill: She Takes Topics That Could Easily Feel Saccharine and Maudlin and Makes Them Feel Real and Human
I loved Still Alice when I read it years ago. I was not nearly as enticed with Left Neglected, because I had a hard time relating to certain aspects of the main character. As a result, I hadn’t paid that much attention to Genova’s follow up novels, but when Caitlin_D described the premise of Every Note Played in her review I was intrigued to see how Genova would explain a woman caring for an ex-husband she still feels so much anger towards. Karina and Richard’s […]
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