Review: Yours Cheerfully

A.J. Pearce's Dear Mrs. Bird was one of my favourite books of 2018. I loved the hilarious historical fiction novel she had written and the intriguing character of Emmeline Lake. Yours Cheerfully, published on August 10, carries on not long after the previous book ended and allows readers back into the wonderful, if hard and terrifying, lives of Emmy and her friends. I finished it in a day and absolutely adored it.

Here's the book's description:

London, November 1941. Following the departure of the formidable Henrietta Bird from Woman’s Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the challenge of becoming a young wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles (now stationed back in the UK) is blossoming, while Emmy’s best friend Bunty, still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, is bravely looking to the future. Together, the friends are determined to Make a Go of It.
When the Ministry of Information calls on Britain’s women’s magazines to help recruit desperately needed female workers to the war effort, Emmy is thrilled to be asked to step up and help. But when she and Bunty meet a young woman who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must tackle a life-changing dilemma between doing her duty and standing by her friends.

Because it had been two years (almost exactly) since I read Emmy's first story, I was a bit fuzzy on what, precisely, happened. But Pearce does a great job of reminding readers what had happened in the previous book while avoiding a boring info dump. You don't have to read Dear Mrs. Bird before this one - though I do wholeheartedly recommend it! Each book has it's own sort of feel so they work well on their own but are even better together. 

Emmy is the star of the novel but what makes her such a delight are the people she pulls into her orbit. Her best friend Bunty (whose story absolutely breaks my heart but I have a good feeling about a third book and what might happen next) is wonderful and the friendship between the two is ultimate BFF Goals. The team at the magazine are a delight and the new friends Emmy makes in Anne and the women at the munitions factory were an amazing addition to the story.

Whereas the first book focused on the Blitz (and I still marvel at Pearce's ability to make a novel about such a horrifying time so heartwarming and funny), Yours Cheerfully takes a closer look at what war was like for the women. It's 1941, England has been fighting for years now and, with all the men going to the battlefields, there are holes in the workforce. So many women stepped up (do you ever wonder what you would have done during the war?) but they faced so many hurdles when they did. Married women with children had to earn for their families (especially if they were widowed) but shift work at the factories meant it was almost impossible to arrange childcare. And the men running the factories didn't care. Part of it was they didn't understand but so many of them didn't want to understand. Women made a "fuss" and they came with "baggage" and "men would never ask for time off for the children" and so on and so forth. Easier to sack a woman for having to bring her children in because her mother (if she was lucky enough to have a mother nearby able to provide childcare) was ill than put the effort into creating a Government Nursery like they were supposed to. It was absolutely infuriating, even for a woman like me, in today's world with no children. Pearce wrote about these issues so well and it's a great addition to the many WWII books out there.

Emmy does have a sweetheart and I loved them together (even though they were hardly ever physically together). In addition to being adorable, her relationship with Charles was used to show what it was like for couples during the war. Early on, so many women lost their husbands and fiances that no young couple wanted to wait to get married because they didn't know how long they'd have together - and they usually had hardly any time actually together to even have a wedding. It was common to have hasty weddings before the man shipped off, just in case. Honeymoons were one night spent on leave in a small hotel nearby the train station he had to leave from the next day. It's heartbreaking but also...inspiring, maybe? They were faced with the worst and yet made sure to take the time to marry their sweetheart. Yes, there were monetary gains to be had by being married, I know, but Emmy and Charles' relationship is so sweet that it has me casting a rosy glow over it all. 

Yours Cheerfully is a must read for historical fiction fans. It paints a picture of what it was like in England in 1941 as WWII finally becomes a true world war. Emmy is a character who is smart but also real, in all her bumbling, well meaning actions. She and her friends will make you laugh out loud as you read their story. I cannot wait for A.J. Pearce's next novel!

My review of Dear Mrs. Bird is here.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by Simon & Schuster Canada via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Cover Reveal: Watch Out for Her

If you've been around awhile (thanks!), you know that Samantha M. Bailey is one of my favourite humans. I've known her for a long time now and I've been so thrilled to see her continued success with Woman on the Edge. This week, CBC Books had the exclusive cover reveal of her upcoming novel, Watch Out for Her, which is due to release next April. Needless to say, I was more than happy to share the news on Books Etc. as well so you can see the great cover and hear about what the new book is all about!

Here's the book's description:

A tense psychological thriller about a mother who must keep watch at all times if she wants to keep her family safe—from USA TODAY and #1 national bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey.
Wherever you go…
she’ll be watching.
Sarah Goldman, mother to six-year-old Jacob, is relieved to move across the country. She has a lot she wants to leave behind, especially Holly Monroe, the pretty twenty-two-year-old babysitter she and her husband, Daniel, hired to take care of their young son last summer. It started out as a perfect arrangement—Sarah had a childminder her son adored, and Holly found the mother figure she’d always wanted. But Sarah’s never been one to trust very easily, so she kept a close eye on Holly, maybe too close at times. What she saw raised some questions, not only about who Holly really was but what she was hiding. The more Sarah watched, the more she learned—until one day, she saw something she couldn’t unsee, something so shocking that all she could do was flee.
Sarah has put it all behind her and is starting over in a different city with her husband and son. They’ve settled into a friendly suburb where the neighbors, a tight clique of good citizens, are always on the lookout for danger. But when Sarah finds hidden cameras in her new home, she has to wonder: has her past caught up to her, and worse yet, who’s watching her now?
A spine-tingling, page-turning novel from USA TODAY and #1 national bestselling author Samantha M. Bailey, Watch Out for Her is psychological suspense at its very best—a chilling look at trust, voyeurism, and obsession in the modern age, and how far we will go to watch out for those we love.

Does that not sound so thrilling? Eep!

Ready for the cover to go along with the description?

I like that the colours fit in with her last book ever so slightly. 

If you want to read an excerpt of the novel, check out the CBC Books article here.

If you already know you want to buy it, here's where you can find the pre-order links:

Pre-Order in the US

Pre-Order in Canada

At the very least, make sure you add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Here's a little bit more about Samantha:
Samantha M. Bailey is the USA TODAY and #1 national bestselling author of Woman on the Edge, which has sold in eleven countries. She is also a journalist and freelance editor; her work has appeared in NOW Magazine, The Village Post, and Oxford University Press, among other publications. Her next book, Watch Out for Her, releases April 19, 2022. She lives in Toronto. Connect with her on Twitter and on her website at SamanthaMBailey.com.

Hope you're as excited about this cover and title as I am!

Blog Tour: The Wildest Ride

The Wildest Ride, Marcella Bell's latest romance novel, had a lot of potential. It's the first in a new cowboy/rodeo series - which sounded really interesting - and featured a kick ass heroine. Ultimately, this novel let me down. It was too long and too descriptive, and too many plot points didn't fit or didn't come together properly. I was really bummed.

Here's the book's description:

Rodeo meets reality-TV with this never-before-seen Closed Circuit competition, where an undefeated city-boy champion goes head to head with his world-class, kick-ass female rival. Romance ensues as they battle for the million-dollar prize.
At thirty-six, undefeated rodeo champion AJ Garza is supposed to be retiring, not chasing after an all new Closed Circuit rodeo tour with a million-dollar prize. But with the Houston rodeo program that saved him as a wayward teen on the brink of bankruptcy, he’ll enter. And he’ll win.
Enter, Lilian Sorrow Island. Raised by her grandparents on the family ranch in Muscogee, OK, Lil is more a cowboy than city-boy AJ will ever be. It shows. She’s not about to let him steal the prize that’ll save her ranch, even if he is breathtakingly magnificent, in pretty much every way going.
The world watches on as reality-TV meets rodeo in a competition like no other. In front of the cameras they’re each other’s biggest rivals. Off screen, it’s about to get a whole lot more complicated…

I think I'll start with how looong this novel was. Goodreads tells me it was 400 pages. And it felt it. No romance novel needs to be that long. And to make matters worse, so much of it was because of overly descriptive nonsense. I'm not going to quote any of it because I read an advanced copy and don't have a finished copy to compare it to but also because there were so many instances of just...way too much. And it was awfully repetitive. Lil's eyes were described way, way too often (so was her hair) and if I had to hear about the size discrepancy between the pair one more time (she's so tiny, how is she a cowgirl. He's so tall and broad and massive and swoony), I may have thrown my ereader out the window. 

And even with the incredible length of this book, so many things were left unfinished. There was no real drama in the reality show because they set up the top three who would battle until the end right off the top. And the third place cowboy was a total dick but it felt like there was supposed to be more to him but there wasn't. If he ends up being the hero in an upcoming novel, I would be so pissed. He faced no real consequences for his actions and there was a mention of potential sabotage that led nowhere. 

Lil is very cautious about who she dates because her mother was a "wild woman" who got pregnant by a cowboy on the rodeo circuit who rode out of town and she never told her family who Lil's father was. She died from an overdose and Lil's grandparents raised her themselves. I can understand being wary about relationships. But she throws all caution to the wind and makes out with AJ in the world's most unexpected first kiss and then they end up sleeping together but, surprise, she was a virgin and this was just not a discussion that was had. At all. Ever. AJ brings it up once he realizes what Lil meant with a throwaway comment (which I don't understand how he put two and two together, to be honest) but they never discuss it. Am I old fashioned in my old age of 34 and feel like perhaps that's a thing you should mention to your partner? Or does it even matter? Also, a condom is brought out the first time they almost sleep together and I am all for these scenes in romances because it's actually less sexy for the couple to fall into bed without having discussed birth control. But I didn't notice a mention of protection in the following sex scenes. Does this matter? No, not really. But my annoyed self clocked it and it did not help my feelings.

Speaking of Lil's unknown father...and maybe this is a spoiler but I'll still try to be vague...she does find out who he is near the end of the book. And it was so ridiculous I would have yelled at the book had I not wanted to disturb my household (the boyfriend was watching TV and the rabbit was lounging...it would have been rude to scream "COME ON" and toss my ereader across the room). 

So. Yeah. I was not a fan of The Wildest Ride. I think it comes down to the way Marcella Bell wrote her novel. I also think her editors let her down. This story had potential for so many reasons but I'm hard-pressed to find anything I really did like about the book and I know I won't pick up the next book in the series. I hate not liking a book but, as I always say, not every book is for every reader and I can tell from early reviews that others really enjoyed this one.

About the Author
Marcella Bell was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She is a registered yoga teacher, an avid reader, a honeybee enthusiast, and a lover of travel, corvids, and karaoke. A wife, mother, and child of a multicultural household, Marcella is especially interested in writing novels that reflect her family history, as well as the people and places she’s known throughout her life. 

Connect with the Author
Website * Facebook * Goodreads

Buy the Book
BookShop.org * Harlequin * Barnes & Noble
Amazon * Books-A-Million * Powell’s

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Harlequin, in exchange for a review for the purpose of a blog tour. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: If the Shoe Fits

If the Shoe Fits was my first ever Julie Murphy book. I know, I know! I've been hearing rave reviews of all of her books since Dumplin' was just about to release way back in 2015. I just hadn't read her books since YA isn't my go to anymore. Cue her latest novel, just published on August 3, which featured a new grad in a Cinderella-esque story. I was all in. And when I read it? I was the heart eyes emoji personified the entire time. I loved it.

Here's the book's description:

After having just graduated with a degree in shoe design, and trying to get her feet on the ground, Cindy is working for her stepmother, who happens to be the executive producer of America's favorite reality show, Before Midnight. When a spot on the show needs filling ASAP, Cindy volunteers, hoping it might help jump-start her fashion career, or at least give her something to do while her peers land jobs in the world of high fashion.
Turns out being the only plus size woman on a reality dating competition makes a splash, and soon Cindy becomes a body positivity icon for women everywhere. What she doesn't expect? That she may just find inspiration-and love-in the process. Ultimately, Cindy learns that if the shoe doesn't fit, maybe it's time to design your own. 

This novel was too much fun and had characters I completely fell in love with. I was rooting for Cindy the entire time and it's no surprise viewers of Before Midnight loved her too. She was smart and funny and I wanted to hang out with her and her best friend, Sierra. Cindy was floundering, as one does when one has lost both their parents and is dealing with finishing up college with no real idea how things will go after graduation. Her grief is real but it didn't define her or her story. Murphy created a heroine who was so real and and layered. Reading as Cindy learned how to write her own Happily Ever After was wonderful.

Murphy found a great balance of poking fun at the Bachelor(ette) franchise while also not alienating anyone who enjoys the show. As someone who used to watch it all the time, I appreciated that balance so much. It is ridiculous but, as Beck, Cindy's stepmom's protege, explains, it's a massive platform that can be used for good. Like having a plus size woman trying (and maybe succeeding?) to win an eligible bachelor's heart on national television. The behind-the-scenes scenes were so good and helped remind the reader that reality tv really isn't reality. 

I really liked that this was a kind of sort of but not really Cinderella type story. Given I have my own evil stepmother (who, thankfully, hasn't been part of my life in eons), this can sometimes be a trigger (which is a problem when I love Cinderella stories...). Sooo I was really happy when the relationship between Cindy, her stepmom and stepsisters was rock solid. Plus, being a lover of Disney's Cinderella, I thought it was TOO CUTE that one of Cindy's triplet half-siblings was named Gus! 

I'm absolutely thrilled that If the Shoe Fits is the first in a series and I cannot wait to read the next book. The first installment was so funny and smart and also swoony and had an ending that I thought was absolutely perfect. I'm definitely going to try to make some time for Julie Murphy's backlist sooner rather than later.

*An egalley was provided by the publisher, Disney Books, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Fresh

Prior to last year, I would have said Jane Austen's Emma wasn't on my list of favourite reads. I read in it university for a film course and it was fine but Emma kind of drove me nuts. Fast forward to late 2020 and I reread Emma with a new bookstagram friend. And guess what? I liked it a lot more. I also watched two adaptations that had come out since I was in uni. Emma had grown on me. So when I heard Margot Wood's debut novel Fresh (which I was already pumped about) had some Emma elements to it? Oh, I was suddenly way more excited to read it. And, dear reader, I loved it. So very much.

Here's the book's description:

Some students enter their freshman year of college knowing exactly what they want to do with their lives. Elliot McHugh is not one of those people. But picking a major is the last thing on Elliot’s mind when she’s too busy experiencing all that college has to offer—from dancing all night at off-campus parties, to testing her RA Rose’s patience, to making new friends, to having the best sex one can have on a twin-sized dorm room bed. But she may not be ready for the fallout when reality hits. When the sex she’s having isn’t that great. When finals creep up and smack her right in the face. Or when her roommate’s boyfriend turns out to be the biggest a-hole. Elliot may make epic mistakes, but if she’s honest with herself (and with you, dear reader), she may just find the person she wants to be. And maybe even fall in love in the process . . . Well, maybe.

Even though I just reread Emma in October, I'm sure I missed a good number of references to Austen's novel. But that's ok! I caught enough and I was absolutely delighted. Thanks to Clueless way back when, we already know Emma makes for a good modern story and Wood's novel, which is about as loose an adaptation as the film, is a fantastic addition to the world of Austen retellings. Austen's wit and observational skills are timeless and Wood brought that into Elliot's story with her own twist that worked so, so well.

But this novel is so much more than an Austen adaptation. (Most people wouldn't even realize it is but, as an Austen fan, I picked up on it so of course that'll be the first thing I talk about.) No, it is a real, raw, all the feels inducing tale of a young woman going off to college and failing, hard. There are a lot of tough life lessons Elliot learns throughout the course of the novel and even if you had a fairly smooth transition into the college lifestyle (uh, did anyone have that?), you can still identify with a lot of what Elliot goes through. In one of the first scenes, Elliot is dropped off at her dorm by her dad and, though I moved into my residence 16 years ago this September, I felt like I was right back there. 18 and excited and terrified and wanting to embrace my new life while also clinging to my mom because I didn't want her to leave. I was amazed at how much those feelings hit me but that's a testament to how well Wood writes and the style of her writing, too. Elliot speaks to the reader, which may not be for everyone, but I loved it and felt it worked well. It made me feel like I was right alongside her as she crashed and burned and tried to dig herself out of the hole she made for herself.

For those who have been around the book world (whether that's blogging or booktubing or bookstagramming or just being a super avid reader) for a long time, may remember Wood as part of the team that started Epic Reads with HarperCollins in the US. I didn't read a ton of YA then (still don't) but Wood's enthusiasm was infectious and I loved tuning into their videos. *book shimmy* I would have be interested in Wood's novel for that reason alone but the description of this one really sold it for me. I'm so very happy I loved it.

There's a ton of humour (and sex...and swearing) in this book but there's also a lot of really hard things too. Elliot is a mess. It's going to be hard for some people to care about her but I adored her. No one is perfect and she was a joy to read abut. She's so smart (even though she was making some really dumb choices), is totally comfortable with her sexuality (she's bi and enjoys all the sexy times) even though she's terrified of intimacy, and she's funny AF. I really felt like I was there with her (but also really wanted to actually be there hanging out with her and her friends). Back to the hard stuff - at about halfway through the book a sexual assault takes place and it's tough to read but, in my opinion, was handled really well. 

I feel like I could gush about Fresh all day.  Margot Wood's debut novel was an absolute delight and I think everyone should read it. It's funny and smart and real and so so so good. Now, what are you waiting for? Head to your local bookstore and get a copy!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Pique Beyond/ABRAMS Kids, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Love Next Door

I'm always excited when a new Helena Hunting novel is released. The Canadian romance author has a knack for creating really enjoyable (and often steamy) reads that are lots of fun. Love Next Door is her latest, which just published at the end of July, and I was really looking forward to it. Ultimately, it was good but there was something about it that I felt was lacking.

Here's the book's description:

When Dillion Stitch left her hometown, she had no intention of going back. But when her brother gets into trouble, Dillion reluctantly agrees to return home to take her place at the family business.
Being back in Pearl Lake after all these years feels familiar, but also brings a few surprises. She’s quick to notice that someone new has shown up at the cottage next door. Dillion gets more than an eyeful when she goes to check out the newcomer and meets Donovan “Van” Firestone—her beloved neighbor’s grandson—in all his unclothed glory.
Having gotten off to a rocky start, it’s not long before they begin bickering with each other all over town. All that back and forth inevitably sparks an undeniable attraction. But Dillion’s family has issues, Van’s family resents him, and neither Dillion nor Van feels truly at ease in the small town. For these Pearl Lake exiles, home isn’t just where the heart is—it’s where things get complicated. 

Just like Dillion and Van got off to a rocky start, I think their story was rocky for me at the beginning. I thought Dillion was an idiot for wearing high heels while driving a moving van to a super small lakeside town. Does any woman really love high heels that much? It was like she had something to prove, like just because she was leaving the city didn't mean the city was leaving her. And who decided that high heels were a city thing? It did not endear me to her right away and it was really hard for her to win back my affection. And how on earth did they never spend time together when they were teens if Dillion was as important to Van's grandmother as we're led to believe? At the very least Van would know who Dillion was when he was emailing with her and wouldn't assume it was a dude. There were just too many boneheaded moves right at the start and it was hard to come back from that.

In addition, the issues with Dillion's brother seemed to come out of left field. I think it is extremely important to normalize discussions around mental health and getting the help one needs with no stigma but...the actual way this all came about? Left me scratching my head. It's really hard to explain but it was just like I couldn't believe that Dillion was the only one to pick up on the issues and I also didn't really think that she had. It was really strange.

All that being said, the relationship between Dillion and Van, once they realized that they were not mortal enemies, was super hot. Their (annoying) bickering at the start turned into something that was real and I was rooting for them. I knew they'd have to have a Happily Ever After (duh, this is a romance novel) but I really wasn't sure what that was going to look like. I was really happy with the way things all turned out. 

I also loved the setting. Technically this is set in a small town outside Chicago but during a recent Zoom chat with Hunting and my bookstagram friends, she mentioned that it was totally inspired by the small town in Muskoka (cottage country in Ontario - though some people will say there are other cottage locations in the province, I grew up just south of "true" Muskoka so it totally has my heart). It definitely made me want to drive north to find a cottage near my hometown (curse you, COVID!) but it was a testament to how talented Hunting is in setting the scene so you could really feel like you were there (and really wish that you were in front of a lake while reading it!)

I didn't love Love Next Door - I don't even know if I particularly liked it - but I'll still read Helena Hunting's next novels. Her stories are never the exact same and I like that she writes all sorts of different romances. This is the start of a new series and I think I'll still check out book two.

*A copy of this novel was provided by Thomas Allen & Son, the Canadian distributor, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Sisters in Arms

I read a lot of WWII books. I love that there are still new stories to be told and from different perspectives. That was part of why I was so excited when I heard about Kaia Alderson's Sisters in Arms. This historical fiction novel just released today and I was interested because it featured two Black women from New York City and their war story - something I haven't encountered before in my (very white) WWII reading. The idea was amazing but the actual execution of the story let me down.

Here's the book's description:

Grace Steele and Eliza Jones may be from completely different backgrounds, but when it comes to the army, specifically the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), they are both starting from the same level. Not only will they be among the first class of female officers the army has even seen, they are also the first Black women allowed to serve.
As these courageous women help to form the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, they are dealing with more than just army bureaucracy—everyone is determined to see this experiment fail. For two northern women, learning to navigate their way through the segregated army may be tougher than boot camp. Grace and Eliza know that there is no room for error; they must be more perfect than everyone else.
When they finally make it overseas, to England and then France, Grace and Eliza will at last be able to do their parts for the country they love, whatever the risk to themselves.
Based on the true story of the 6888th Postal Battalion (the Six Triple Eight), Sisters in Arms explores the untold story of what life was like for the only all-Black, female U.S. battalion to be deployed overseas during World War II.

It sounds so good, right? I think my issue was how the story was actually told. Which, uh, wasn't well. There are two main characters but their stories didn't seem to be told in equal measures. For example, there's a Major Thing that happens to one of the women but it took ages for the story to get back to her to find out how she was coping - it was so strange. I also never really got a good handle on either woman. Their actions didn't always seem to match their personalities or what the reader was told, at least, that's how I felt. They also didn't really feel like fully fleshed out characters. So much of what we knew about Grace was her ability to play piano and, for Eliza, it was that she came from a wealthy family. I'm sure Alderson wanted to have two women from very different economic backgrounds to give a better idea of what it was like for these women but I think it would have been better to have it focus on one woman and another just being a really good friend who could tell her stories to the other women.

I also felt like the story dragged on a bit. Which is strange since it started in 1942, years after the war actually started, and ended not too long after VE Day in May 1945. But it felt much longer. I know why it made sense to have the story span all that time - it was important to know why it was such a big deal for these Black women to be accepted into service and the show the struggles they faced even when they were allowed in. Their work was heavily administrative - important work, to be sure - but it didn't exactly allow for an exciting read. 

I wasn't surprised to read about the sexist and racist behaviour the women faced. That said, I was still appalled. Their superiors didn't know how to deal with women in the army and they had no interest in even pretending they wanted anything to do with "coloured" women. These women had to work so much harder to prove to white men (and women) that they were just as good as anyone else. They couldn't afford to make any mistake. And what's frustrating is I've read books and interviews from present day where women of colour are still saying the exact same thing. Over 70 years later. Something has to change.

I know Sisters in Arms didn't thrill me but I still think it's an important addition to WWII set novels. I'll keep an eye on Kaia Alderson and see what she writes next.

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