The Change

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Change

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publisher: William Morrow & Company

Release Date: 5.3.22

Publisher’s Summary 

Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick--a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp feminist revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers--putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.

In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment...

After Nessa James's husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she's left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn't take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead--a gift she's inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.

On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn't left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriet's life is far from over--in fact, she's undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.

Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw--until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.

Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl's murder leads to more bodies, and to the town's most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don't apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriet will take matters into their own hands...

My Review

All the stars! 

Seriously, ALL. THE. STARS!!!  

I am absolutely RAVING to everyone about this one. This is the kind of book that I've been waiting for--a feminist revenge fantasy featuring mature women. Jo's rage and razor-sharp tongue take down men twice her size, Harriet's unapologetic sexuality and understanding of plants have the town talking, and Nessa can see the ghosts of murdered dead girls. This trio bands together to not only solve the murders that have taken place in Mattauk but to take down the web of people who've allowed them to happen. Seriously, these women are badass! The storylines hooked me immediately, the excellent writing had me flipping pages way past my bedtime and, despite the serious nature of the novel, the witty banter and dark humor are Grade A. The Change is currently holding the top spot as my favorite novel of the year and it is going to take a freight train of a book to knock it out of that spot. 

Like a House on Fire

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Like a House on Fire

Author: Lauren McBrayer 

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Release Date: 4.26.22

Publisher’s Summary 

After twelve years of marriage and two kids, Merit has begun to feel like a stranger in her own life. She loves her husband and sons, but she desperately needs something more than sippy cups and monthly sex. So, she returns to her career at Jager + Brandt, where a brilliant and beautiful Danish architect named Jane decides to overlook the “break” in Merit’s resume and give her a shot. Jane is a supernova—witty and dazzling and unapologetically herself—and as the two work closely together, their relationship becomes a true friendship. In Jane, Merit sees the possibility of what a woman could be. And Jane sees Merit exactly for who she is. Not the wife and mother dutifully performing the roles expected of her, but a whole person.

Their relationship quickly becomes a cornerstone in Merit’s life. And as Merit starts to open her mind to the idea of more—more of a partner, more of a match, more in love—she begins to question: what if the love of her life isn’t the man she married. What if it’s Jane?

My Review

I went into this one a bit apprehensively. I wasn't sure where it was going to go. Love triangle? Office romance? Midlife crisis? Cheesy drama? Instead, I read some very authentic depictions of mature relationships. The characters are definitely imperfect but each one is well-rounded and relatable. This might get labeled as "queer romance" but I found it to be more of a "mature bildungsroman." I hope this book is wildly successful so publishers will grab up more books with headstrong 40/50-year-old female main characters.

Darwin’s Radio

 

Title: Darwin's Radio (Darwin's Radio #1)
Author: Greg Bear
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: first published 5.4.99


Publisher’s Summary
Molecular biologist Kaye Lang's theory--that ancient diseases encoded in the DNA of humans can return to life--has become a chilling reality. The shocking evidence: a "virus-hunter" has tracked down a flu-like disease that kills expectant mothers and their offspring.

Publisher's Weekly Review (8.2.99):
 In an ice cave in the Swiss Alps, Mitch Rafelson, a renegade paleontologist, discovers a frozen Neanderthal family, including an oddly evolved infant. Meantime, in Soviet Georgia, Kaye Lang, a microbiologist, is investigating a massacre site, where pregnant women were exterminated. These events relate--by way of elliptical scientific reasoning--to a retrovirus being hunted by U.S. government scientist Christopher Dicken. Called SHEVA, it causes genetic mutations in embryos and may also be an agent of evolution, ushering into being a new race of humans. Is it a sexually transmitted disease? Or, more sinister, is it a God-sent means of delivering up a new Adam for the millennium? When Mitch and Kaye fall in love, then decide to bring their own SHEVA baby to full term, they are about to find out the truth firsthand.

My Review
An ancient disease encoded in human DNA has been unlocked, causing a flu-like disease that kills pregnant women. 😱

This book has been on my TBR for a very long time. Reading this originally published in 1999 science fiction novel in 2022 added another layer to the book. I was awed at author Greg Bear's depictions of public reactions to a devastating virus. I also cringed at some of the text that did not age well (ex: Bill Cosby doing PSAs for the CDC...oof).  Overall, I loved the entire story (the plot, the characters, and the pacing). I am excited to read the sequel, Darwin's Children and might be leaning into more medical thrillers in the future. 

Do you have any favorite medical thrillers?

The Children on the Hill

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: The Children on the Hill

Author: Jennifer McMahon 

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Release Date: 4.26.22

Publisher’s Summary 

A genre-defying new novel, inspired by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein, which brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us.

1978: at her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

The Children on the Hill takes us on a breathless journey to face the primal fears that lurk within us all.

My Review

I have read two previous novels by Jennifer McMahon and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. When I saw that she had a new book ready to release, I instantly hit that "request" button on Netgalley. Now after reading my third book, McMahon is now an auto-buy author for me. Her eerie writing style is so perfect. She keeps me questioning every character's motive and guessing about the trajectory of the story. While I predicted a few of the twists, there were still a couple that I did not, and for that McMahon gets major props from me. I think most contemporary mysteries/thrillers are pretty lame and predictable but that is definitely not the case with her novels. I definitely recommend this one!

Search by Michelle Huneven

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Search

Author: Michelle Huneven 

Publisher: Penguin

Release Date: 4.26.22

Publisher’s Summary 

From critically acclaimed, award-winning author Michelle Huneven, a sharp and funny novel of a congregational search committee, told as a memoir with recipes

Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Southern California. Just as she's finishing the book tour for her latest bestseller, Dana is asked to join the church search committee for a new minister. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she agrees, and resolves to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, Search, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates--and becomes its own media sensation.

Dana had good material to work with: the committee is a wide-ranging mix of Unitarian Universalist congregants, and their candidates range from a baker and microbrew master/pastor to a reverend who identifies as both a witch and an environmental warrior. Ultimately, the committee faces a stark choice between two very different paths forward for the congregation. Although she may have been ambivalent about joining the committee, Dana finds that she cares deeply about the fate of this institution and she will fight the entire committee, if necessary, to win the day for her side.

This wry and wise tale will speak to anyone who has ever gone searching, and James Beard Award-winning author Michelle Huneven's food writing and recipes add flavor to the delightful journey.

My Review

I didn't love (or even like) this book but it's my own fault. While the summary (and title) specifically stated that this novel would be about a search for a new minister, I expected there to be more of a focus on food. The main character is a restaurant critic and food writer, much like the James Beard Award-winning author Michelle Huneven, but by the 20% mark she had only had one meal at a restaurant and there weren't any details. I had to throw in the towel. 

 

Unmasked by Paul Holes

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Unmasked

Author: Paul Holes 

Publisher: Celadon Books

Release Date: 4.26.22

Publisher’s Summary 

From the detective who found The Golden State Killer, a memoir of investigating America’s toughest cold cases and the rewards--and toll--of a life solving crime. 

I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake.

Crime-solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me, for better or worse, to the point of obsession.

People always ask how I am able to detach from the horrors of my work. Part of it is an innate capacity to compartmentalize; the rest is experience and exposure, and I’ve had plenty of both. But I had always taken pride in the fact that I can keep my feelings locked up to get the job done. It’s only been recently that it feels like all that suppressed darkness is beginning to seep out.

When I look back at my long career, there is a lot I am proud of. I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburg homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer.

But a deeper question eats at me as I ask myself, at what cost? I have sacrificed relationships, joy—even fatherhood—because the pursuit of evil always came first. Did I make the right choice? It’s something I grapple with every day. Yet as I stand in the spot where a young girl took her last breath, as I look into the eyes of her family, I know that, for me, there has never been a choice. “I don’t know if I can solve your case,” I whisper. “But I promise I will do my best.”

It is a promise I know I can keep.

My Review

I'm not someone who stays up late reading. I just can't do it. No matter how good the story is, when my bedtime rolls around, my eyes are closing. Not the case with Unmasked! This book was exponentially better than I expected...and I already expected it to be good. Readers are given insight into Holes' personal (nightmares, anxiety, marital problems) and professional (incompatible technologies, reluctant assistance from other counties and bureaus, unwanted promotions) struggles throughout his career. He shares his successes (small and large), but I found it fascinating that he shared his mistakes. When we hear about solved cases, we are almost always given the timeline of a crime and a successful story of how the detectives connected the dots. Rarely do we hear about the dead ends or how different departments/people prioritize themselves over the cases and victims. Holes brings the inside scoop on the bureaucratic red tape blocking the genetic matching, arrest, and final conviction of the Golden State Killer. 

I stayed up way too late reading this because I literally could not stop. It might only be April, but I'm pretty sure this will be my favorite nonfiction book of 2022. I'll be pushing this one on anyone who will listen. 

Heiresses by Laura Thompson

 

I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies

Author: Laura Thompson 

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: 2.1.22

Publisher’s Summary 

New York Times bestselling author Laura Thompson returns with Heiresses, a fascinating look at the lives of heiresses throughout history and the often tragic truth beneath the gilded surface.

Heiresses: surely they are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets and Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions.

Heiresses tells the stories of these million dollar babies: Mary Davies, who inherited London’s most valuable real estate, and was bartered from the age of twelve; Consuelo Vanderbilt, the original American “Dollar Heiress”, forced into a loveless marriage; Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress who married seven times and died almost penniless; and Patty Hearst, heiress to a newspaper fortune who was arrested for terrorism. However, there are also stories of independence and achievement: Angela Burdett-Coutts, who became one of the greatest philanthropists of Victorian England; Nancy Cunard, who lived off her mother's fortune and became a pioneer of the civil rights movement; and Daisy Fellowes, elegant linchpin of interwar high society and noted fashion editor.

Heiresses is about the lives of the rich, who—as F. Scott Fitzgerald said—are ‘different’. But it is also a bigger story about how all women fought their way to equality, and sometimes even found autonomy and fulfillment.

My Review

I listened to this book while doing my housework for a few days, and all I kept thinking is, "these poor women." I thought, "maybe cleaning this toilet isn't so bad" 😆 The heiresses that author Laura Thompson discusses have access to large sums of money, but there are so many strings attached. They're married off as business transactions, lovers hustle them, they're kidnapped, they're locked away in asylums...their fortunes bring so many obstacles and problems. I had heard of a few of these heiresses before, but not all of them. For example, Mary Davies, whose marriage was agreed upon when she was 8. At the age of 12, she married her 21-year-old husband and eventually gave birth to 3 sons. After her husband's death, Mary ran off to Paris at the age of 36 and remarried. Her family was so upset that they tried to have her marriage annulled, and at the age of 40, they had her committed to an asylum. The only downside to this book is that it is EXTREMELY detailed and I am not sure if I would recommend the audio version. I think a physical copy where I could have seen the overall trajectory of each chapter and the book as a whole would have been easier to process.