Monthly Book Review: May 2022

I had the best of intentions to post on June 1st. There was no reason I didn't other than not making it a priority and then we went to Phoenix/Tucson for a week so here we are. 

I was ready for an English countryside "bodice ripper" and The Beastly Earl by Mia Vincy delivered. I'm so glad that Bridgerton has made these cool and I'd call this Bridgerton meets Beauty and the Beast. It was a bit predictable but delightful nonetheless. I was hooked when it began with Thea's three rules of mischief. Thea is on a mission of revenge against a former beau and is all-too-happy to help her sister in a rouse so that her sister can skip town to marry her true love (his family does not approve of her). But the joke is on Thea when she is caught in the Earl of Luxborough's own rouse and ends up marrying him while posing as her sister. But he knows who she truly is and wants a disposable wife so he can inherit his family's fortune. Oh what a tangled web.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane reads like a modern Greek tragedy. Two cops in the 70's move next to one another in the suburbs and this sets their lives on a course neither could ever imagine. The Gleeson's are down-to-earth with loving parents and three girls. The Stanhope's - Brian, Anne and son Peter are just ... off. It's clear Anne Stanhope is not "regular", but no one knows how irregular until she snaps when Peter Stanhope and Kate Gleeson form a close bond. I love a story that delves into the flaws lurking in us all and Ask Again does not disappoint. Love, disappointment, forgiveness and happiness in the little things of everyday life.

I almost stopped reading Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones at least three times, but I hadn't read a novel by a black author in too long and wanted to stick with it. The opening line “My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist” sets the tone. Dana is the secret daughter, fiercely devoted to her mother and cannot stop thinking about her father's "real" daughter. The first or two-thirds is from Dana's point of view and the last is from Chaurisse's. The ending left me a bit confused after feeling royally ticked by James' choice.  

TBR List

• Castle of Water by Dane Huckelbridge
• One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
• Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
• The Mountain and the Sea by Kwame Dawes
• The Joy of X by Steven Strogatz