This week, our protagonists struggle with their finer and more monstrous instincts, seeking peace in the face of difficult circumstances. Each has their own demons (some more literal than others) and pushes the reader to ask, “Who is worthy of love and happiness? And what price are we willing to pay for these things?”
Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim: A moving story about finding your true family and learning to believe in yourself. Despite being very readable, it took until almost the halfway point for the book to really pull me in, and there were a few elements that didn’t quite click for me, personally. The plot thread about the heroine’s relationship with her abusive parents was well done but hard to read and much darker than anything I expected going into this book. On the other hand, I fell head over heels for the Old Ducks and for the heroine’s amazing bestie Yanmei — we should all have people like them in our corner. Still, I can only recommend this with reservations, for the reasons stated above and because the final act falls into a common trap for books with elderly characters, which I won’t spoil but that you can probably guess. My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope: My friend Amanda of Certified Noonas threw this book in my path because she knows the recipe for Becca Happiness is heists, magic, and a jazz-age setting. And this is why it’s important to have good friends who look out for you — and look out for books you’ll like — because it would be a shame to miss out on this novel, which is full to the brim with heart and hijinks. The story is a classic heist tale, with a ragtag band working together to steal an object… for a shadowy figure who’s not telling them everything. I loved all of the characters (fellow Leverage fans, read this if you want a 1920s Parker!), and the setting in 1920s Washington, D.C. adds rich history to the story. One of the great happy surprises of 2022, The Monsters We Defy checks all my boxes, and I’m still having fun thinking about it days later.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a masterpiece of quiet tragedy, as moments of heart-piercing joy and despair are delicately balanced atop each other, only to fall and shatter in an instant. I can’t say I love it as much as The Age of Innocence, but it’s another example of Wharton drawing out the beauty, as well as the ugliness, in illicit acts and feelings and lending sympathy to flawed people caught in intricate webs of desire and resentment. I may never read it again, but I suspect I’ll be thinking about it for years to come.
The Siren of Sussex (Belles of London #1) by Mimi Matthews: As soon as I received an ARC of The Belle of Belgrave Square, I knew I had to reread Siren first. It’s been a few months, and I wanted to reintroduce myself to this enchanting world of bluestockings who fight for happiness on their own terms. I fell in love with Evie and Ahmad all over again, watching them grow closer with each encounter. Even beyond the swoony romance, I love how deeply the novel dives into the other elements: the fashion, the horses, the family issues, the spiritualism that was fashionable at the time (especially in the wake of Prince Albert’s death), and the obstacles facing a mixed-race couple in Victorian England. Nothing is shied away from or whitewashed, but that doesn’t mean happiness is impossible, either, and I love how Matthews brings it all together in the end.
The Belle of Belgrave Square (Belles of London #2) by Mimi Matthews: A worthy follow-up to The Siren of Sussex, The Belle of Belgrave Square has all the things we loved in the first book while still adding something of its own to the series. A love letter to Gothic romance and fairy tales, it’s complete with dramatic backstories and locked tower rooms, all wonderfully grounded by Matthews’s humor and warmth. The deep bond between the bookish beauty and beast stole my heart away, and I’m already looking forward to adding it to my reread shelf alongside Siren. My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Ravenels #2+#6: I’m still hopping around in Kleypas-land and having a grand ol’ time. Chasing Cassandra, of course, is one of my happy reads because Tom and Cassandra are just so incredibly sweet and entertaining (poor Tom and his expanding list of emotions!), and I enjoyed it as much as I always do. Marrying Winterborne was a bit of a rockier read, as so much of Kleypas’s bibliography depends on you liking the characters, and even if Rhys amused me immediately, it took a little while for me to warm up to them. Even then, I think my vast enjoyment of the last half of the book was largely due to the melodramatic plot (freakin’ finally) kicking in with birth secrets and blackmail, which my drama-loving heart found quite entertaining. So, a slow start but overall a decent read.
I hope your reading week is going as well as mine and that you have plenty of stories (and good tunes) to bright your day. We’re halfway to the weekend!
—b
Book It With Becca 