Review: No Judgments

I've been reading Meg Cabot for eons and am always really happy when she writes new adult titles. No Judgments popped up on my radar not long before it was being published and I knew I'd have to read it. I blew through this one in one sitting but it left me wanting a little bit more - and I'm not totally sure why.

Here's the synopsis:

The storm of the century is about to hit Little Bridge Island, Florida—and it’s sending waves crashing through Sabrina “Bree” Beckham’s love life…
When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island—as well as its connection to the mainland—twenty-five-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried . . . at first. She’s already escaped one storm—her emotionally abusive ex—so a hurricane seems like it will be a piece of cake.
But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can . . . but to do so, she’s going to need help—help she has no choice but to accept from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker.
But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her penitent ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

First, I have to say it's a very weird thing to read a book about a hurricane while there's a thunderstorm raging outside. I had to keep reminding myself that there was not a hurricane outside every time I looked up and was surprised I was not in Florida bracing for a major storm. No, I was on my couch in southern Ontario with no chance of a hurricane hitting. It was still so eerie though to have heavy rain pounding the roof and windows while reading this one!

This is one of my very, very delayed reviews as I read the book before it was published back in September. I know I've been behind but part of the reason I haven't gotten to this one yet is because I really don't know what I want to say about it. Like I said, I read it in one sitting and was very content to stay snuggled on the couch and lost in the story. But I wasn't exactly...thrilled with it? I felt like a lot was missing and I wasn't as into it as I wanted to be.

I think a big reason I wasn't connected to this story was because of Bree. I didn't dislike her. But I didn't understand her. She seemed so naive and refused to listen to the islanders as they prepared for the storm. The islanders weren't panicking, they'd been through this sort of thing before and were having hurricane parties, but they at least had the emergency equipment to get them through. Bree? She had no idea what was coming.

Her backstory was also...odd. Every part with her mother was a bit of a headscratcher and the eventual resolution with her ex was bizarre. I'm glad she was able to put that behind her but it didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the story.

I did like that she was able to mobilize a community so all the pets on the island were looked after. I'm sure a number of people would be concerned but she actually did something about it. She knew what to do and put the plan in action and was able to take care of all the pets. It was really fun and sweet to read.

No Judgments is the first book in the Little Bridge Island series, the second is No Offense and is due out this August. I don't think I'll be checking out the next book but I wouldn't rule it out completely. I do love Meg Cabot so I may end up reading it after all.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Playing House

I had super high hopes for Playing House by Ruby Lang. The premise sounded so cute and it grabbed me right away, plus it was the start of a series so there was potential for so many more cute books. In the end, it was alright but it didn't really wow me.

Here's the synopsis:

Romance blossoms between two city planners posing as newlyweds in this first in a bright new series by acclaimed author Ruby Lang
The last thing Oliver Huang expects to see on the historic Mount Morris home tour is longtime acquaintance Fay Liu bustling up and kissing him hello. He’s happy to playact being a couple to save her from a pushy admirer. Fay’s beautiful, successful and smart, and if he’s being honest, Oliver has always had a bit of a thing for her.
Maybe more than a bit.
Geeking out over architectural details is Oliver and Fay’s shared love language, and soon they’re touring pricey real estate across Upper Manhattan as the terribly faux but terribly charming couple Darling and Olly.
For the first time since being laid off from the job he loved, Oliver has something to look forward to. And for the first time since her divorce, Fay’s having fun.
Somewhere between the light-filled living rooms and spacious closets they’ve explored, this faux relationship just may have sparked some very real feelings. For Oliver and Fay, home truly is where their hearts are.

Reading as Oliver and Fay pretended to date and then got to know each other was my favourite. The relationship was bound to be a good one as soon as they realized they actually had true feelings for each other. Their chemistry was great, even though it took awhile (like most romance books) for them to realize they belonged together.

OK, I may have been wrong...I think the fact that they were going and checking out all these houses and geeking out over architecture was my favourite. I wouldn't say I'm into architecture but I love the idea of wandering around old houses and being able to see the great old bones of a place. Makes me want to look into some historical walks offered by museums in my area!

I think the biggest issue I had was that it was just so short! I think this story would have benefited from being a full length novel instead of a novella. There was so much more potential and I feel like I could have fallen in love with the book and characters had I been given more of their story.

All in all, Playing House was a nice rom com that was ultimately forgettable. If you want something sweet that'll give you an escape, the first book in Ruby Lang's series is something to check out. You'll be entertained enough while reading it and you can move onto the next in the series (Open House) or a whole new book.

*An egalley was provided by the publisher, Carina Press (Harlequin), via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Nanny

The Nanny totally hooked me. I was so invested in Gilly MacMillan's latest book (I say latest but it was published back in September) when I was reading it and so unsure about what was actually going to happen. I've only read two of her books but I might have to check out her backlist and will definitely keep an eye out for whatever she writes next.

Here's the synopsis:

When her beloved nanny, Hannah, left without a trace in the summer of 1988, seven-year-old Jocelyn Holt was devastated. Haunted by the loss, Jo grew up bitter and distant, and eventually left her parents and Lake Hall, their faded aristocratic home, behind.
Thirty years later, Jo returns to the house and is forced to confront her troubled relationship with her mother. But when human remains are accidentally uncovered in a lake on the estate, Jo begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Then an unexpected visitor knocks on the door and Jo’s world is destroyed again. Desperate to piece together the gaping holes in her memory, Jo must uncover who her nanny really was, why she left, and if she can trust her own mother…
In this compulsively readable tale of secrets, lies, and deception, Gilly Macmillan explores the darkest impulses and desires of the human heart. Diabolically clever, The Nanny reminds us that sometimes the truth hurts so much you’d rather hear the lie.

If you have a problem with problematic characters, this is not the book for you. No one in this book is without flaws (except maybe Ruby, Jo's daughter and that's because she's still young and innocent) and those flaws get them into all sorts of trouble. It was so interesting to see how the characters reacted to their circumstances because they way they went about things in ways that I can't imagine. I mean, I've never been in their situations so I can't say for sure but they reacted in very...troubling ways. It makes sense though because when someone is backed into a corner, they'll do anything to protect the ones they love.

On a related note, every character has something to hide in this book (even someone who you think wouldn't have secrets actually does but it's not really a secret because they just simply don't remember it because of trauma. Yep. It's layered). It's because of all these secrets (and, to be honest, a terrible human being) that a family was totally destroyed. The easy judgement to make is that everyone should have been honest with one another from the get go but the web of lies is so convoluted that it's hard to imagine things turning out any other way.

The way the story is told is almost too confusing. Virginia and Jocelyn each tell their own story from a first person perspective. There are times when it's in the present and times when it's in the past. The detective investigating the skull in the lake also gets his own chapters throughout. Finally, there are chapters from Hannah's perspective but from the past and in third person. A bit much, right? It gives all the details the reader needs though - and there are a lot of them - and MacMillan manages to keep it from getting too convoluted.

I also have to admit that I was totally picturing Downton Abbey-esque lives for the characters in both the present and past timelines even though that was all kinds of inaccurate. I blame it on the bingewatch of the show I had completed prior to the movie being released last year. Geographically, it made sense. Old, English house and countryside and so on. But timeline? Not at all. It was entertaining, if not confusing for my poor brain!

I've read a number of thrillers in the past couple of years, more than I ever used to, and The Nanny was one that really riveted me. Gilly MacMillan is a great author and I'm looking forward to reading her backlist. No word yet on when her next book will be released but I'll be on the lookout for that one too.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Albatross

I've written before that I was late to the Terry Fallis reading game. I had heard of him and had sold a number of copies of his first book during my time working at a bookstore in university. I read No Relation back in 2014 (review here) and have since read most of his new ones (for some reason I missed One Brother Shy). Albatross was published last August and I was very much looking forward to it. Verdict: I really enjoyed it.

Here's the synopsis:

Adam Coryell is your average high-school student-well, except for that obsession with fountain pens-when his life changes forever. Based on a study by a quirky Swedish professor that claims that every human being, regardless of athletic inclination, has a body that is suited to excel in at least one sport, it turns out that Adam is good-very good, in fact-at golf. Even though he'd never even picked up a golf club.
Almost instantly, and with his coach, hard-nosed Bobbie Davenport by his side, Adam and his new-found talent skyrocket to a prodigy-level stardom that includes tournament titles, sponsorship deals, throngs of fans following his every move, and fodder for tabloids.
But here's the catch: Adam doesn't really like golf. And as the life he once knew slips away-including the love of his life, the dream of being a writer, and everyday normalcy-he can't help but wonder if all this success and fame is worth it...or if it's enough for him.

You kind of have to suspend your beliefs ever so slightly with this novel. If you can accept there's some mathematical equation that proves every person can be good at one sport, well, you're in for a great ride. I don't know how Fallis came up with such an idea but it works in the most outlandish way. And the Swedish professor is a total oddball (I pictured a weirder Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory) so his scenes were a lot of fun to read. Even though I knew it was a made up study, I couldn't help but wonder what sport I would excel at. I played basketball growing up (I'm 6' and yes, did play sports but no, the weather is no different up here) but maybe I'm better suited to...I don't know...curling or archery. I've tried golf. Not so successful.

The story takes place over a number of years. I wasn't expecting that so it threw me for a bit of a loop when I realized Adam's high school career is only a fraction of the overall story. Once I adjusted my mental timeline for the book, I found I was happy that it followed Adam's life through and past high school. It was a great coming of age kind of story about someone who really shouldn't have had much of a story to tell. You see, Adam would have been totally forgettable had he not been apparently born to play golf. I liked him and enjoyed the hell out of his story but he's an average kid who would have become an average adult. And I kind of really liked that.

I've been lucky enough to hear Fallis speak twice - once for Poles Apart (which I absolutely loved - read it!) and then again back in October as he discussed Albatross. Do yourself a favour, fellow Canadians, if you see a book event with Terry Fallis on the schedule: get a ticket. He is a wonderful speaker and is so engaging and funny. You'll learn more about his writing and where he gets his ideas. For example, there's always something personal about his books and with Alabtross it was that both Terry and Adam share a love of fountain pens.

If you have yet to read a Terry Fallis novel or if you've only read a couple, I highly suggest you check out his books - especially right now. Things are really, really hard for all of us at the moment and Fallis' books are a great antidote. They're funny without being ridiculous and they're full of heart without being overly dramatic. Start with his newest, Albatross, or read his backlist. The stories will make you smile and we could all use one of those right now.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, McClelland & Stewart (Penguin Random House Canada) in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Get a Life, Chloe Brown

You might have been seeing Get a Life, Chloe Brown everywhere late last year. It was a romcom that a lot of people were loving because Chloe Brown wasn't your typical romcom heroine and everyone, myself included, was here for it. Talia Hibbert created a character who was so much fun to read about and who you couldn't help rooting for.

Here's the synopsis:

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items?
• Enjoy a drunken night out.
• Ride a motorcycle.
• Go camping.
• Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
• Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
• And... do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

Chloe is an absolute delight. She's smart and sassy and so incredibly strong. She's also built up a lot of emotional walls because it's easier to do that than really let anyone, other than her family, into her life. Red really sees her and sees through her defense mechanisms and it was so wonderful to read as they start to trust each other and learn more about who the other really is, deep down.

While I called this book a romcom off the top, it deals with a lot of heavy issues that sometimes make it far more dramatic than comedic. Hibbert balances things beautifully and keeps the story from becoming too heavy without making light of some serious issues. The romance part though? Very much present and the steam factor is off the charts.

Good news for those who like the sounds of Hibbert's writing, she's turned this into a series where each book will focus on a different Brown sister. Next up will be Take a Hint, Dani Brown which is set to be published in June.

And this cover! I am a fan of the illustration covers that are really big right now and this one just makes me so happy.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown is one of those books that's really hard to describe why it's good or why I liked it so much. It just is and I did. It's uplifting but real. It's funny and sexy. It's sweet and dramatic. It ticks all the boxes so I definitely think you should pick up a copy of Talia Hibbert's novel. And then maybe preorder the next book in the series.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Family Upstairs

Hi, my name is Kaley and I'm a book blogger who has finally read her first Lisa Jewell book. I saw her books in the bookstores and online but never picked one up until the fine folks at Simon & Schuster Canada sent me an ARC of her latest, The Family Upstairs. I've been trying to read more thrillers, especially by women, so I thought, fellow bloggers are raving about her book (which published in the fall), I should probably hop to it. And hop I did. The story was addicting and I needed to find out what happened to the families that were intertwined in this novel.

Here's the synopsis:

Be careful who you let in.
Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

This novel was...interesting. I read it awhile ago but even after I finished it I wasn't sure what I thought of it. Like I said, I really needed to know how it ended. Jewell wrote a really twisted thriller and I had no idea what was going to happen. But...I'm not sure if I particularly liked it? I was left with a sort of "ick" feeling when reading the book because of how twisted it was...but I couldn't look away.

The story is told from three different characters. Libby, who's mentioned in the synopsis, Lucy, who you're not really sure who she is or why she's involved, and Henry, who was somehow connected to the mystery twenty-five years ago. That means there's a lot of information coming at the reader from a number of sources, and covering a couple of time periods, too. I think that helps make the mystery, well, more mysterious.

While I think the multiple perspectives helped the mystery overall, I'm not sure if it was as helpful from a character perspective. There were competing personalities that led to some characters, Libby in particular, to not be as interesting to read about. I think I sort of felt that, even though Libby was the reason the mystery was coming to light, she wasn't really necessary for the story.

Overall, The Family Upstairs wasn't a winner for me. Do I think this will turn me off Lisa Jewell's books forever? Not necessarily. I'll give her another shot because I think it was just the story in this one that I really wasn't a fan of rather than the way she created the story.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Evvie Drake Starts Over

I've been wondering how on earth I would review Linda Holmes' Evvie Drake Starts Over since I read it (last July...) because I just loved it so much. It's one of those books that I just want to yell "READ THIS!" while shoving it into your hands. If that's all you need, perfect. Go forth and read. If you want to learn more about why I enjoyed this book so much? Read on - I just hope I make some sense.

Here's the synopsis:

In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn't correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy's childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the "yips": he can't throw straight anymore, and he can't figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button.
When Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house, the two make a deal: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about Dean's baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken--and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. But before they can find out what might lie ahead, they'll have to wrestle a few demons: the bonds they've broken, the plans they've changed, and the secrets they've kept. They'll need a lot of help, but in life, as in baseball, there's always a chance--right up until the last out.

One of the things I liked about this book was it had a really great and realistic baseball element to it. I don't know for sure if Holmes is a baseball fan but she really wrote like she is. She gets the underlying feeling of the game when you're a fan (and when you live with a pitcher...as I do...though my boyfriend is not MLB level). Baseball is more than "just" a game and seeing how much Dean was struggling was really heartbreaking.

I loved reading about Evvie and Dean. They were interesting characters who have had their lives turned upside down at a time when they should be feeling pretty settled. They learn, together, that keeping secrets can eat at you and sometimes they're not secrets that should be kept. They learn that sometimes you find someone who you immediately trust and feel good with and you should trust that feeling even though your past relationships are making you scared of such a connection. And they learn the family can look different for everyone and finding your own family can make all the difference.

Holmes is a great writer. She tells a dramatic story full of pain, grief, and anger. But there's also hope, love, and humour. It's smart. It's real. It's such a good read.

Sometimes it's really hard to write about a book I enjoyed so freaking much. Evvie Drake Starts Over is one of those books. I thoroughly enjoyed Linda Holmes' debut novel and I think it's one of those books that will really appeal to a lot of different readers so I highly recommend checking this one out.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House of Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*