Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Amy   

fiction

Elsie, an 81-year old formerly known as the youngest jailed Australian Mad Mabel, is forced back into the spotlight when her elderly next door neighbor dies and someone divulges to the police that Elsie is really Mad Mabel.

This is another old curmudgeon redemption story. You’ve read others like this, no doubt. An elderly person who’s experienced trauma avoids people until meddling neighbors kindheartedly ruin their peaceful, miserable solitude. In this novel, that meddling neighbor is a lonely 7-year old who lives across the street.

I’ve read five other Sally Hepworth novels and they average 3-1/2 hearts in my reviews which means I generally like her novels. But I’ve not been interested in reading all of her novels. Mad Mabel was getting early rave reviews and I also liked the cover art. Sadly, this is my least favorite of all of them.

Why? Unbelievability, depressing vibe, and unoriginal storylines. I know that sounds harsh. I’m sorry about that.

Despite the happy ending and some really fun characters, I just had a hard time swallowing the main premise—that a parent would go around badmouthing his child to such a degree for something that happened when she was 3 years old. Sure, he was likely feeling guilty. But could he feel cornered and narcissistic enough to carry on a long-running smear campaign against his own child? And even if that is to be believed, the idea that other grown adults would be spreading that stigma against a small child and carrying it on for years is ludicrous to me. Sure, it was the 1940s and 50s but I wasn’t buying it.

Most of the time I was reading this novel, I felt a pervasive sense of sadness and dread because poor Mabel was failed by grownups at practically every turn. She lost the opportunities to experience true friendship and was led astray by multiple people who should have been protecting her. On top of that, there are two reveals in this novel which, I imagine, were intended to surprise readers at the end. However, I’ve read those storylines in other novels and could see them coming before the halfway point.

Overall this book was depressing. Even the “happy ending” was bittersweet because positive change came so late in Mabel’s life.

The audiobook narrators were Hannah Fredericksen (voicing young Mabel) and Jenny Seedsman (voicing old Mabel). They both did a great job—especially Seedsman who had more diverse material to work with. I’ll give them an A- as an ensemble. Although, I feel one narrator could’ve carried this novel.

Paper Ghosts by Sarah Addison Allen

Amy           

Lynnie       

 

magical realism

In Hen Town, North Carolina, generations of residents have had strong opinions about the Wester women; some want to be them, others fear them and still others want to ruin them. Once in a while, someone even loves them.

Paper Ghosts begins with the story of Willamena "Wills" Wester as a high school student. As a member of the school's popular clique, she felt trapped by her family's expectations for her future. In an attempt to rebel, she sealed her fate to stay in Hen Town and Wester House for the rest of her life. Years later, when her son moves back to town with his daughter, Bailey, Wills tries not to repeat her own grandmother's mistakes as Bailey grows up, but the ghosts of Wills' past turn out to be hard to avoid and Bailey is a lot more like Wills than anyone would like to admit. 

Amy's Review

The Wester women tend to be wealthy, reclusive, all-knowing, and intimidating so, through their generations, the townspeople sometimes call them witches. It’s as if the Wester women have eyes and ears everywhere. In the 1970s, teenage Willamena Wester generally follows all of her grandmother’s rules but, when Willamena makes a last-minute decision of her own, tragedy strikes. She becomes ruled by fear and resentment and eventually molds her granddaughter into the person she thinks she should be. 

I always adore Sarah Addison Allen’s magical realism and her southern characters and settings. I loved the concept that photographs of dead people are “paper ghosts”. All her novels are entirely different from each other, which is incredible. While the magic in this one was creative, as expected, Allen didn’t allow us to get to know her main characters very well because she had to keep their motivations and impulses mysterious. Because of this, I did not particularly care all that much about them. They were portrayed very stoically with their primary personality traits being bossiness, self-imposed loneliness, and secrecy. 

The secondary characters were more interesting to me, even though they were on the lower end of the Sarah Addison Allen Quirky Scale. Unlike the Wester women, the other characters were free to do anything and become whomever they wanted to be. Perhaps the moral of the story is to live the life you want to live. Make mistakes, face consequences, and don’t lock yourself away. Don’t make drastic life decisions because of one situation. And understand that you also have to let your children become their own people. 

Lynnie's Review  

In many ways, this book is darker and has a more gothic feel that many of Sarah Addison Allen's earlier books (I didn't realize I had read most of them before we started this blog!). I felt a lot of empathy for all of the characters and generally enjoyed watching them grow throughout the book. I was eager to see how their stories would be resolved and hoped to get answers to many of the questions I had as I read. I did get answers, but only to some of the questions.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with the Westers and the rest of Hen Town just as I knew I would when opening a book by SAA; it often left me feeling like I was getting a cozy fall hug. While this book was a little less magical and a little more paranormal than a typical SAA book, I think her usual fans will really enjoy it.

Paper Ghosts will be published on September 1, 2026.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley and Sarah Addison Allen for the advanced reader copy.

Ideal Life by Evelyn Skye

 

 

Lynnie  

contemporary fantasy, magical realism 

In Evelyn Skye's Ideal Life, Talia Morgan is an idealistic tech whiz, about to sell her startup company which creates wearable tech featuring a personal assistant that helps individuals analyze and adjust their habits and decisions to be their best selves. After discovering a bug in the software, Talia wakes up with a mysterious watch on her wrist and discovers that she can rewind time. After going back in time to fix the bug, Talia begins to reverse time to experiment with making other corrections to her life. As you can imagine, things don't go as well as she would like and, as every movie and book have ever warned, the fallout of these timeline changes are unpredictable for Talia, her company and everyone else in her life.

I loved Skye's previous novel, The Incredible Kindness of Paper, so my hopes were high for Ideal Life. Unfortunately, while I liked this story, I also found it frustrating. The idea of it was really intriguing, but I found much of the story repetitive and predictable, and never really connected with any of the characters. Some aspects of the book were never properly explained, and others were over-explained to the point that I found myself skipping paragraphs just to get through.

There are multiple points of view in this book and I found myself wondering if that was necessary. Did Erin the intern's viewpoint add anything to the narrative? Honestly, not really. However, I did love the connection of this book to Chloe and Oliver from The Incredible Kindness of Paper - that section made me smile more than anything else in this novel, which might say more about this book than anything.

I do think the overall message of this novel is an important one, living in the moment and not allowing technology to control us. But I fear that it gets lost in some of the meandering plot points.

Ideal Life will publish on August 18, 2026. Thank you to Atria Books, NetGalley and Evelyn Skye for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez

Amy       

romance

Samantha and Xavier meet when Samantha brings a newfound kitten to Xavier’s veterinary clinic in Minnesota. They eventually reconnect and have a very fun, memorable date. But Samantha moves to California the very next day and the two of them try to forget each other since it’s impossible for either of them to leave their respective cities.

I had much higher hopes for Say You’ll Remember Me after enjoying several of Abby Jimenez’s novels this year. But it really dragged and grew monotonous. The vast majority of the novel is the two of them complaining and stressing about missing each other and being unable to visit each other due to limited finances. And another huge chunk is about Samantha and her family caring for her mother who is suffering from dementia. It was depressing and not what I expect in romance novels. In fact, there wasn’t really much romance. It was instant falling in love and then the whole story was their inability to be together. That was it. Finally, at the end, they do live happily ever after. But it was a fairly frustrating reading experience.

I wish I had more to say about it but there wasn’t much to the story. *shrug*