American Fantasy by Emma Straub

Lynnie 

contemporary fiction 

It was easy to get into Emma Straub's novel about Annie, a recently divorced woman on a theme cruise with a few thousand of her closest friends as they spend four days celebrating their love of a boy band from the 90s. After Annie's sister breaks her leg, Annie is forced to room with a stranger on the cruise or forfeit her money, so she goes on the solo adventure she didn't know she needed. 

In American Fantasy, we see the cruise from several perspectives. Annie's of course, but also Sarah’s, a production manager who is responsible for ensuring the band is happy and that the guests are enjoying themselves and following the rules, and Keith’s, one of the members of the band, Boy Talk. 

I found it interesting to see the cruise from so many different points of view - the fans who want to see their teenage dreams of spending time with the band come true, the band members who have a variety of reasons for setting sail with their fans and, of course, the production company putting it all together. Who, exactly, is living the fantasy? 

There is humor, heart and introspection in the pages of American Fantasy and I enjoyed all of it. I definitely think this is a book that is probably going to be enjoyed more by those who know what it's like to want to revisit their younger years or are trying to figure out who they are going to be in their next chapter.

Marin Ireland narrated the audiobook and as always, did a marvelous job. I always enjoy listening to audiobooks when she's behind the mic.  

Whistler by Ann Patchett

Amy   

fiction, historical fiction

Whistler is the name of a horse (pictured on the book cover) but this novel is not about the horse. Therefore, it was an odd choice for the book name. I suppose Whistler is a metaphor for rescue or redemption. The novel follows Daphne, is a woman in her 50s, who runs into the man who had briefly been her stepfather when she was 9 years old. They had shared a traumatic experience back then before Daphne’s mother demanded a divorce and Daphne never saw him again. This book is basically about their reconnection.

None of the characters were extraordinary. Some were a little quirky. But they seemed realistic to me. There was no big driving mystery but some smaller mysteries along the way. There was no particular climax to speak of. Rather, the pages revealed Daphne’s family’s history. It was a perfectly pleasant story with fun rapport between the characters and just enough interesting situations and characters to keep it from getting boring. I would say that the main themes in the book are impermanence, family, and death.

I’ve read several Ann Patchett novels, some of which I loved and some of which I didn’t. This one falls in the middle for me.

The author narrated the audiobook. She read with a clear voice and I always love hearing an author’s intonations, emphases, and performance of their own words. However, she spoke very slowly. I sped up the audiobook to move it along. Also, she had a very small vocal repertoire which made it hard to be sure who was speaking all the time during dialogues between the main characters. But she sang—several times—which I loved. Oddly, there were a few songs she didn’t sing and just read the lyrics. I’m unsure why she didn’t just sing them all. Anyway, weighing the pluses and minuses, I’ll give her an A- for this audiobook performance.

Threshing Day (The Empyrean #3.5) by Rebecca Yarros

Amy      
Lynnie   

fantasy

Threshing Day is a collection of short stories—a novella meant to feed the fans during the lengthy gap while we await the fourth novel in The Empyrean Series. Each story is the experience of Threshing Day, the day that dragons claim their riders, for one dragon/rider pair. Not only does each story include the rider’s inner thoughts and the conversation that takes place between the rider and their dragon, but other characters also appear in many of the stories when the rider has conversations with them prior to bonding with a dragon. All of the major characters from The Empyrean series have a chapter except for Violet Sorrengail. Of course, this is because we got her Threshing Day experience in The Fourth Wing.

Amy’s Review

I thought this was a fabulous filler novella! It gave the readers some insight into the characters’ backstories and personalities. It was fun getting to know everyone better and to learn how Threshing Day was different for everyone. Rebecca Yarros put the stories in order of the riders’ ages, so the older characters were early in the novel and the newest dragon riders’ stories were at the end. It was perfect, really!

If you’re a fan of The Empyrean Series I highly recommend reading this book!

The audiobook included 14 narrators! Each riders’ section had its own voice actor. It worked very well and made their stories feel authentic and unique. Most sections didn’t require many different voices but each one had to include at least the rider’s and the dragon’s voices. All of the voice actors did a great job with their section. I won’t bother naming all the narrators but I’ll give the cast an A!

Lynnie’s Review

I generally do not like the little novellas that series writers toss into the mix to keep readers interested between releases. I rarely find them interesting and they usually make me angry that I wasted time with them. Often, they introduce chaos and confusion. That is NOT the case with Threshing Day! I loved nearly every word of this little addition to the Empyrean series.

This was a great way to get to know some of the secondary characters and their dragons a little better as we saw Threshing Day through their eyes and we learned more about the universe of the Empyrean. I’m eager to see how the breadcrumbs we got in this book will play into the larger picture.

Without spoiling anything, we learned about some of the dragons who share family lines, we learned that dragons don’t have to wait until Threshing to choose a rider (which gave me some interesting ideas the think about), and I think we got some insight into why some of the riders developed their signets.

I also just really enjoyed learning more about some of the riders. I particularly enjoyed Xaden’s, Garrick’s, and Imogen’s chapters. (I will always be an Imogen fan!) Liam’s was as heartbreaking as I expected it to be. Sloane’s was unexpectedly touching, and Aaric’s made me the most excited about what will come next in book four.

I loved all the narrators. I had only heard of a few of them, but was fascinated to learn how many of them are romance narrators after looking them up. Though, I guess, I’m not surprised knowing that Rebecca Yarros started as a romance author. 

The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook by Julie Tremaine and Carly Caramanna

Lynnie 

cookbook

A combination history book and cookbook, The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook is a fun read for any Disney fan. There's a lot of nostalgia in the pages of this cookbook no matter what decade of Disney, or which park, is your favorite, with stories and recipes covering almost every park from the beginning of the Disney story. Authors Julie Tremaine and Carly Caramanna clearly did their research.

The variety of recipes is impressive considering it's all theme park food, but in its pages you'll find cocktails, burgers, desserts, soup, and more. I was surprised by the number of drinks listed. One thing to keep in mind, for a 200+ page book, you're only getting about 60 recipes, most of which (as the title tells you), are not actual Disney recipes. Many are inspired by, or similar to, in the spirit of or is just made with ingredients that the authors seem to think will taste better. They might be right, but the final product connects these recipes to the House of Mouse with the thinnest of threads. The bulk of this book is spent on storytelling.

Still, the stories are entertaining and the recipes look tasty - I have several bookmarked to try (hello Black Truffle Macaroni and Cheese!).

The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook will be published on October 13, 2026. 

Thanks to Harper Celebrate, NetGalley, and authors Julie Tremaine and Carly Caramanna for the advance review copy.  

The One Man by Andrew Gross

Amy   

historical fiction

A very old man nearing death finally feels ready to tell his daughter the story of how he received the United States Distinguished Service Cross Medal during WWII. The novel describes his involvement in the attempt to break one Jewish man—The One Man—out of Auschwitz, where he was a prisoner during the Holocaust. Unbeknownst to the Germans, this man was the only non-German person on the planet who had critical weaponry information that the United States desired to aid the war effort. 

The story was one of incredible bravery, unbelievable luck, and extreme intelligence. Of course, a lot of terrible things took place as well. This novel was written as a thriller and, indeed, the ending was un-put-downable. Andrew Gross used a truthful historical backdrop to set his fictional story of a scientist stuck in Auschwitz and the brave man sent there for 72 hours to break him out. There were several slow sections but, outside of those, it was a gripping story—both heartbreaking and hopeful.

The audiobook was narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Edoardo Ballerini. As expected, he was terrific! But, I must admit that, though his accents and voice acting were top notch, this story didn’t lend itself to his ability to display numerous different voices for different characters. A lot of them sounded the same. So I’ll give him an A- for this one.

Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson

Lynnie 

contemporary romance

Parker Navarro is an author whose huge advance on his debut novel marked him as literature's next big thing. At least until critic Selina Chan's blistering review made that novel a huge flop. Years later, having written a new book, Navarro tries to keep the advance copy out of Chan's hand as much as she tries to avoid reviewing it, but life and literary circles have other plans, leading to another terrible review which ignites a viral feud between the two of them. As the internet and the literary world encourages their feud, Navarro and Chan begin to talk to one another privately, getting to know each other beyond the book, and have to decide what is more important, the person or the page.

I absolutely enjoyed Rioghnach Robinson's Bad Words. But I also felt like I was the intended audience for this book — someone who loves books and loves to review and recommend books. Because while Bad Words is the ultimate enemies to lovers romance, and it might be the first real enemies to lovers story I've actually read (I mean, Peter Navarro and Selina Chan really do not like each other. At. All.), it's also an examination of the role of criticism in the publishing industry.

How seriously can you take literary criticism when it really is just one person's opinion? Does it hold more weight when that criticism comes from an industry source that can sway markets and book sales, rather than the collective opinions of readers and social media? It's an interesting thought experiment and something I found myself considering. Knowing that there are certain genres I simply don't enjoy, and friends whose reading tastes I almost never agree with, I can understand that what individual readers believe make a book "good" varies not only from reader to reader, but even from year to year within my own reading experiences; a book I loved 20 years ago, may be unreadable to me today. I loved seeing that same recognition in the pages of this novel.

I also really liked the characters. While their individual quirks, insecurities and mental health struggles were often hard to read about, they felt very realistic and honest to me. And of course, I loved watching Peter and Selina get over themselves, make peace and find love. There are some very sexy scenes, but not until the book is nearly over and it's definitely not the focus of the book. I enjoyed watching all the connections form; yes, certainly between Selina and Parker, but also those with their families, their friends, authors, people in the neighborhood. Who has your back when it feels like the world wants to see you crash? 

I think this is one of those books that people will either love or hate with very little middle ground. It certainly requires patience, particularly at the beginning when Peter and his author friends are being really childish and cruel toward Selina who, I kept wanting to shout, is just doing her job. But hang in there if you can, because the payoff is worth it in my opinion.

Bad Words will be published on October 6, 2026. Thanks to Saint Martin's Press, NetGalley, and Rioghnach Robinson for the advanced reader copy.