The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs (The Physick Book #2) by Katherine Howe

Amy   

fantasy

Picking up 9 years after the first novel in the series, Connie Goodwin’s life takes an unexpected turn that pushes her to seek new discoveries regarding her ancestors.

I had read the first novel in the series long ago and, while I remembered that Katherine Howe's The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane had not wowed me, I thought that I’d found it interesting enough to read this new installment being released 10 years after the original.

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs was alright but never grabbed me.  In fact, I really find myself at a loss for words to say about it.  It had its moments but it also had a lot of boring overly-detailed sections.  I kept listening because it wasn’t unlikable.  I just don’t have anything amazing or profound to say about it.  I almost hate to publish this blog since there isn't much meat to this entry.

The narrator was Barrie Kreinik and she did a good job.  She had a few different voices and her voice acting was good.  I’ll give her an A-. 

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

Lynnie

historical fiction

The Masterpiece was a fun book and I enjoyed the time hopping between the 1920s and 1970s. Taking place alternately in and around Grand Central Terminal at the beginning of the Great Depression and later, during the campaign to save the terminal from demolition, I enjoyed how Fiona Davis created stories that were both vastly different, but skirted around one another throughout.

I admittedly enjoyed Clara’s chapters more because I loved the descriptions of the 1920s art scene. Virginia’s chapters were more difficult for me to connect to, but at times had some of the most charming moments. I had an inkling early on what would bind the two women together and I was not disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed the way Davis wrapped the stories around one another in the final chapters to provide a really satisfying ending, even if it was a bit too neat.

The time jumping trope seems to be growing in popularity in recent years (or maybe I’m just jumping on board), but when it’s done well it’s thoroughly enjoyable and this is one of those times. Fans of historical fiction will find a winner in The Masterpiece.

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

Amy    

fiction

In The Friend, the unnamed narrator’s best friend has just committed suicide and she spends the novel discussing the fallout from his death as well as their histories. Written in first and second person, the narrator is addressing her comments to her dead friend for most of the novel.  Through her monologue, she explains their relationship, their individual life situations, and their stories.  At about the 1/6 mark, she is given this friend’s dog after his death.  After this, the main focal points of the novel are about pet ownership in general and professional writers/writing.  This is unfortunate since I was bored with these topics before the novel’s halfway mark.  I only kept reading because this was a book club selection. In the very last part of the novel, the narrator addresses her comments to the dog instead of the friend.

I never would have read this book if it weren’t for book club because I have a policy of avoiding "animal books" (and movies).  This one, while not strictly a book about the dog, had the dog as the sole cover subject which made me dread reading it.  It was funny when the book, itself, addressed the very reason I avoid animal books--something bad always happens to the animal.  As it turns out, spoiler alert--nothing bad happened to this dog!  My fear in this regard was unfounded! 

Interestingly, the dog, Apollo, is the only character whose name is provided during the entire novel (and the author also points out this fact near the end but she should have felt that her readers were wise enough to figure that out) other than names that are provided anecdotally.  Sigrid Nunez includes a lot of quotes as anecdotes and proof of her points throughout the story telling. I don’t care for this style of writing.  I’m not a “quote person” (haha--no pun intended)—especially this large volume of quotes.  To me, quotes make specific points and should be used sparingly.  Nunez, obviously, has a different philosophy on the matter and seems to use them so often that the novel starts to feel like a research paper with citations.  This barrage of quotes serves to break up the flow of the narrative and bugged me while I was listening to the audiobook.

The narrator, Hillary Huber, while clear to understand and not a bad voice actor during the tender parts, tended to speak very slowly and a bit too robotically for much of the narrative.  She was finally able to shine near the end of the novel when there was an actual discussion between two characters that is longer than a few sentences.  This allowed Huber to do some voice acting! However, the robotic narrative for most of the novel was annoying so I give her a B+.

A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #4) by Ransom Riggs

Lynnie

young adult, adventure, fantasy, series

I have to admit I didn't even know that a fourth Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children book was coming out but based on A Map of Days' cliffhanger ending, we can expect a 5th as well (the cliffhanger is the reason that it's 3 1/2 stars rather than 4).

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spend some more time with Ransom Riggs' characters and thought the story was a lot of fun. Like the third book in the series (Library of Souls), I was glad that Riggs narrowed the focus to a few of the peculiars- it really helps the story flow when you aren't keeping track of 10-15 different people at once. Also like the previous two books though I thought the photos were not used as well or effectively as in the first novel. In my review of Library of Souls I wrote that the photos were used "as if they found a picture, wrote a small paragraph about it and then stuck that into the novel when they thought they needed another picture." That's pretty true in this book as well although some of the photos end up being the inspiration for locations and I think those were both more interesting and effective.

I enjoy the world that Riggs has built so I'm sure I'll read the next book whenever it appears. If you've read and enjoyed the previous three Peculiar Children books, you'll find plenty to enjoy in this one.

The Kiss Quotient, The Bride Test, and The Heart Principle (The Kiss Quotient #1, #2, #3) by Helen Hoang

Amy    

romance

In The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, Stella, a brilliant mathematician with Asperger's Syndrome, decides she needs some lessons on dating and sex in order to help her meet the right man and satisfy her mother’s desires for grandchildren.  She finds an escort willing to help.  This is definitely a summer beach read.

Every time I thought I had this novel figured out and tried to pigeonhole it, the story changed gears in an appealing way.  It is like a combination of The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding, and Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James plus the movie Pretty Woman but where the gender roles are reversed.  This novel contains lots of very detailed sex.  So, if you don’t like reading that sort of thing, this novel is not for you.  Despite the illegality at the heart of the basis of the storyline, and the fact that I feel the author must have been a single child because the scenes involving siblings seemed exaggerated and unrealistic, I really enjoyed the ride.  I found the characters endearing (although, not very deep) and the storyline to be fun and creative.  However, the ending, while happy, was anti-climactic and rushed. Still it was a great novel with which to unwind amidst the stress of moving to a new house.

The audiobook was narrated by Carly Robins who did a great job.  It wasn’t an overly challenging novel for a narrator but she seemed well-suited for it.  I’ll give her an A.

Amy  

In The Bride Test, Esme, a single Vietnamese mother down on her luck, was asked to come to America to be a bride by a woman who wanted to arrange a marriage for her son. Esme initially felt weird about the proposal but her own mother convinced her that her future would be better in America. 

This was another fun romance by Helen Hoang.  I loved the story setup and the characters and the hurdles.  It’s mostly just a romance so I don’t have much to say about it.  If you like romances with lots of sexual tension, you’ll enjoy this one. Adding to the quality of the story, the main characters each had significant hurdles to mount (as with The Kiss Quotient, one of them is autistic) and were easy to like.

I listened to the audiobook and Emily Woo Zeller did a marvelous job.  She had male voices and accents and was a great voice actor.  I give her an A+.

Amy  

In The Heart Principle, Anna and Quan are both dealing with life issues when they find each other on a dating site and decide to have a quick hookup with no strings attached to blast them out of their respective blues. Except, that night turns into another and another until they begin to realize they’ve developed a relationship and that they care about each other. But they still have their personal issues when more problems are added to their piles. How will they get through this?

I really enjoyed the first half of the novel. The characters were cute and their blossoming relationship was fun. But then Anna became annoying to read about. Her family situation was extremely frustrating. It’s not that the situation was unrealistic—it was that it was depressing and not what I wanted to be reading about. And then Quan, who had always felt very unreal to me, went off the deep end. I skimmed a lot of the last quarter of the novel. There was no question that they would end up together in the end and I didn’t care enough about them to read all the gory details of their crises. I just wanted to get to the part where they realize they need to be together. Plus, after having really loved Helen Hoang’s first two novels, I wanted to finish it. But this novel, sadly, was nowhere near as good as her first two.

I understand that Anna is based largely on the author herself, as a sort of memoir. I’m sorry Hoang had a difficult time and I’m glad that she was able to work through it. And I’m sure that there will be readers who appreciate her honesty and can find themselves in the pages too. I myself had to assist with my mother’s care when she was dying and I can relate to that part.