Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (11.25.22)

Tokyo Dreaming by Emiko Jean (★★★★☆)

Tokyo Dreaming is the second book in the Tokyo Ever After series. I read the first book in less than 24 hours and could not get enough of the adorable love story. This book didn’t have that same level of magic, but it was still a great read. In this book, Izumi (who discovered her father was the Crown Prince of Japan in the previous book) is settling into imperial life and dealing with the rigors that come with being a princess. She’s trying to live up to the elegance of her twin cousins (the press loves her cousins, not so much Izumi), touring universities in Japan, and figuring out her next steps when those steps are highly scrutinized. One of the things I really loved about this book was learning more about present-day imperial customs and Japanese culture. It was really interesting! All in all, a very cute YA book that won’t change anyone’s life but it will be an enjoyable, palate-cleansing read should you need that.

The Wife Before Me by Laura Elliott (★★★★☆)

Oof, this book was rough. It’s the kind of book I cannot really recommend, even though I gave it 4 stars, because there is so much violence against women. About 100 pages in, I wanted to abandon it but I decided to keep going because a) I didn’t have any other reading material on Sunday when I was at my mom’s and b) it has a high Goodreads rating for a thriller, so I want to keep going and see what all the buzz was about. The novel is about Elena who has just lost her mom when a suave and handsome man sweeps into her life. Nicholas is also going through his own grieving process—his wife has been missing and presumed dead for two years—so they connect over their grief. Early on in their relationship, Elena realizes all is not well with Nicholas, but she ignores red flag after red flag because she’s so in love with him. This story comes with all of the trigger warnings: domestic violence, grief, cancer, death, and violence against women. If you can get past all of that, I think the story was super engaging and page-turn-y. The ending is a bit wild (so wild, I had to read it a few times to make sure I didn’t miss anything!), but satisfying, too.

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson (★★★★☆)

The fourth book in the Truly Devious series takes us away from the elite Vermont boarding school where amateur detective Stevie Bell and her friends spend most of their time and drops us into a summer camp where a quadruple homicide occurred over 40 years ago. The homicide has never been solved, and the camp’s owner wants Stevie to help him solve the case and make a podcast about it. I just absolutely loved this mystery. It was fast-paced and engaging, and I loved the setting of a summer camp. I also really liked the way this book explored the nature of true crime podcasts and how exploitative they can sometimes be on communities and families. I wish the author had explored that idea a bit more, but I did like the way she pitted Stevie against the camp owner, and showed the differences in their approaches to solving this crime. Stevie wanted the families to have some closure while the owner was simply looking to make the next Serial (or so it seemed). All in all, a very fun mystery and I’m excited that there’s a fifth book in this series coming out next month. Woohoo!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (11.16.22)

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (★★★☆☆)

E-Book • Libby • Contemporary Romance • 2022

The Bodyguard is a contemporary romance about Hannah and Jack. Hannah is an Executive Protection Agent (aka, a bodyguard) whose next job is to keep wildly successful actor Jack Stapleton safe from a stalker while he visits with his mom who is sick. Hannah doesn’t seem like the typical bodyguard for a man like Jack, but that’s what makes her so good at her job. But in order to sell her presence in Jack’s life while he spends time with his mom at their family ranch, Jack and Hannah have to pretend to be dating. Ahhh… the fake-dating trope! It’s one of my faves, for sure. I really liked this book, but there was just something missing the mark for me. It was hard for me to understand the love story between Jack and Hannah—I could see them developing a close friendship after all of this, but I didn’t feel any chemistry between the characters nor see what made Jack fall in love with Hannah, or vice versa. I thought the ending was clever, although I could have done without the epilogue. All in all, a good romance but not one I’m rushing out to recommend.

The Smart One by Jennifer Close (★★☆☆☆)

Print • Owned (Thriftbooks) • Contemporary Fiction • 2013

The Smart One is a book about the Coffey family. There’s Weezy, the mother who might be a little overbearing at times. There’s Martha, the oldest daughter who is living at home and working in retail after burning out quickly in her career as a nurse. There’s Claire, the middle child who just broke up with her fiance and is in dire financial straits. And there’s Max, the youngest child who is away at college and just started dating Cleo. The story follows the perspectives of Weezy, Martha, Claire, and Cleo as they navigate life and family and careers and mental health struggles. It’s a character-driven novel, but the characters are just so awful and hard to root for. I wouldn’t say I need to like my characters to enjoy a novel, but when it’s a character-driven novel like this, I really want to be able to root for someone. Honestly, though, I don’t even know if I hated the characters as much as I disliked the writing. I wanted more for these characters, but the writing failed to live up to what they could be. They deserved better, I guess.

The 57 Bus: A True Story About Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Libby • YA/Nonfiction • 2017

This book was… incredible. It’s part-fiction and part-nonfiction. The novel part, which is based on a true story, takes the story of a nonbinary teenager named Sasha who is involved in a horrific accident on the bus one day. A Black teenage boy named Richard thought it might be funny to take a lighter to the skirt Sasha is wearing. Sasha is sleeping on the bus at the time, but Richard thinks, surely, they will wake up before the skirt erupts in flames. Sasha does not wake up until they are engulfed, and some bus passengers have to help them put out the flames. Sasha then must undergo surgery and treatment for the burns while Richard is arrested for the crime. The novel flashes between Sasha and Richard’s stories, and between those chapters are nonfiction chapters. Information about the gender spectrum, about Black teenagers’ incarceration rates, about the justice system, about burn treatment, etc. It’s such an interesting way of telling a story, and I found myself truly awed by it.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (11.7.22)

Everything’s Trash But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson (★★★☆☆)

E-Book • Owned (Amazon) • Nonfiction • 2018

I liked Phoebe Robinson’s first book of essays, and I was hoping for more of the same magic in this book, but unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me. In this collection of essays, Phoebe covers a range of topics, from the problems with white feminism to societal beauty standards and more. She has a really powerful essay where she breaks down her history with money and the time period when she had $19,000 of consumer debt to her name. That essay made me feel a lot less alone in my own struggles with money that I experienced in my twenties and part of my thirties. But not all of the essays worked for me, such as the one on singleness. For most of the essay, she describes some of the benefits of being single but a lot of the benefits were just a bit concerning to me. “You don’t have to hide purchases from your partner!” “You can watch whatever shows you want!” etc. I get that she’s trying to have a comedic angle, but some of this made me wonder how many toxic relationships she’s been in. Hiding purchases from your partner is not normal! My main gripe with this book, though, was the writing.  Phoebe had so many important things to say in this book, but it was hard to read about the importance of intersectional feminism when all of her points are drowned out in a sea of silly hashtags, fake URLs, and meandering analogies that don’t make any sense. All in all, a book that had a lot of potential but unfortunately, not one I would recommend to many people.

To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn (★★★☆☆)

E-Book • Libby • Historical Romance • 2009

I am continued to be flummoxed about the fact that the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn was chosen out of every other Regency romance series to be adapted for Netflix. Like, I am so glad something was chosen because romance is such a popular genre but there are way too few adaptations of our beloved books. But damn, this series? Nahhh. I was looking forward to reading To Sir Phillip, With Love, since it’s Eloise’s story and she’s the Bridgerton I feel most connected to. I just love her spunk and her wit and her desire for things other than marriage and motherhood. But those are the things I get from Eloise from Bridgerton, the TV series. Eloise in the books is very, very different. She starts up a correspondence with a man named Sir Phillip after she finds out his wife has died, as she was Eloise’s distant cousin. And then, out of the blue, in one of the letters, Phillip proposes marriage to Eloise, which she was not expecting. And yet… the request intrigues her, which is why she finds herself fleeing town and hiring a carriage to meet him. At his house. Without telling him she is coming. IN REGENCY TIMES. I mean, this would be a crazy thing to do today, but it’s especially odd in the 1800s for an unmarried woman to leave her family, not tell them where she is going, and travel to a stranger’s house. It’s a very odd choice, but whatever, I went along with it because sometimes, that’s what you have to do in romance novels. The rest of the novel played out in a mostly pleasing way. I did love Eloise and Phillip’s connection to one another, mostly because Eloise is sunny and chatty while Phillip is more introverted and broody at times. There were themes of depression and mental illness running through this novel and I think Quinn handled this topic very poorly. Obviously, mental illness was not something that was handled well by anyone in the Regency era, but I think there’s a way to stay true to the reality of that time period while handling the topic with the care it deserves. That aside, I loved Phillip and Eloise together and I think these kids will make it work. And I’m super, super interested in how their story will be portrayed on the Bridgerton series!

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Libby • Nonfiction • 2022

While I am still WILDLY UNCOMFORTABLE with the name of this book, I understand why McCurdy named her book this way and I think she deserves to feel whatever way she wants to feel about her mom. Jeannette McCurdy is a child actor who got her big break as Sam Puckett on iCarly, which was a Disney show starring Miranda Cosgrave. I never watched the show, but it’s one I was somewhat familiar with. This memoir delves into the dark side of child acting, and it’s one that is deeply sad and incredibly infuriating. Throughout her life as a child actor, which is something she only did because she was pushed to do it by her mom, she endured countless years of abuse at the hands of her mom. Her mom encouraged her to have an eating disorder (she eventually struggled with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating, and is now in recovery). Her mom was also emotionally manipulative and sexually abused her until she was 16. This memoir is difficult and I think it’s going to make me look at all child actors in a very new light. I listened to this book on audio, which McCurdy reads, and she has a mostly flat affect throughout the book. I didn’t mind it, but it could bug some people. This memoir was powerful, visceral, and filled to the brim with trigger warnings so please take care. I am so glad McCurdy is in a space where she can talk about the abuse she suffered and the help she has gotten since, and I can only hope she continues to heal from this traumatic upbringing.

What are you currently reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (10.26.22)

A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold (★★★★★)

Print • Owned (Thriftbooks) • Nonfiction • 2016

Sue Klebold’s son, Dylan, was one of the killers of the Columbine massacre that occurred in April 1999. This book is her attempt to make sense of what her son did and help other parents better understand their children. It’s a difficult book, as Sue is grappling with immense amounts of grief—grief over losing her son to suicide, grief over coming to terms with what was going on in her son’s brain to lead him to commit mass murder, and grief for all of the people her son killed and their families. Whenever the identity of a mass shooter is released to the public (and how sad that these mass shootings are so common now that this is a typical process we’re used to), I always think of the family of that shooter. What must it be like to know that your child or sibling or cousin or grandchild or niece or nephew committed such a heinous act? In this book, Sue gives us an up-close look at this kind of grief and bewilderment. I don’t believe the Klebolds did anything wrong here. I believe they missed some signs of depression in Dylan, but those signs are so, so easy to miss (and even easier 25 years ago when mental health and depression weren’t common things we talked about). This was an incredibly hard read but also an enlightening one, and I am so impressed with Sue’s courage to write this book and be totally honest about what she experienced and the emotions she went through.

Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi (★★★★☆)

Audiobook • Libby • Fiction • 2021

This book begins in 1978 Kabul where 10-year-old Sitara lives a charmed life. Her father is the president’s right-hand man and she experiences all of the privileges that come along with that. Everything changes though when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s family along with them. Suddenly, she’s an orphan in a place that doesn’t feel like home. Sitara is soon taken in by an American diplomat who takes her to America and changes her life completely. Thirty years later, Sitara—now Aryana—is a renowned surgical oncologist and is thrown from a loop when the very same guard who smuggled her out of the palace where she lived during the coup (and possibly, the same guard who killed her whole family) shows up in her examination room as a patient, upending the tidy world she has created for herself. There is so much to love about this book: it’s propulsive and enlightening and fascinating. There are badass female characters and beautiful scenery and an uplifting ending. I have some quibbles with the plot and the way some things were revealed while others were not. It also felt overly long in places, especially in the middle. (I think I would have grown very weary of it, had I not been listening to it on audio.) All in all, though, a really fantastic read about a part of the world I read very little about!

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (★★★★★)

Print • Owned (Amazon) • Contemporary Romance • 2022

You guys, I loved this book so much! Christina Lauren’s books just always work so well for me. I don’t know what it is about this writing duo, but their books give me all the sappy, happy feels. In this novel, there’s a new dating service in town called GeneticAlly that matches people up based on their DNA (there’s a whole scientific reasoning behind it, but I couldn’t explain it to you if I tried. Something about genes and how certain ones can help show compatibility?) All you have to do is send in a spit sample, and select what type of match you want—do you want to keep your options open and allow any percentage of matches? Or do you want to hold out for only the top matches, someone who is 80-100% genetically compatible with you? Single mom Jess opts for the top matches and is shocked when she receives a 98% score with GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. Never having seen a score so high, the team has a proposition: Spend three months getting to know River and attending events to promote their business, and they’ll pay her. Okay, okay. I know that sounds kinda sleazy, but I promise it does make sense in the context of the book. And, ugh, I just loved Jess and River and their connection so much! It was a slight enemies-to-lovers trope, but they weren’t enemies for very long and it was so heartwarming to watch them fall for one another. This novel has some fantastic side characters, too, including Jess’s daughter who added a special precociousness to the book. It was sappy and romantic and everything I love in my romance novels. Were there issues? Yes, absolutely. But if I’m rating based on how the novel made me feel, it’s a solid 5 stars.

What are you reading right now?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (10.17.22)

Happy Monday, friends! Whew… October has been a very slow reading month for me. We’re halfway through the month and I’ve only finished three books! It’s been a busier-than-usual month with lots of things going on, and it leaves a lot less time for reading than usual. But that’s life, isn’t it? And I don’t mind being busy right now. It’s feeling very good. But I do hope that the second half of October will allow for more reading time!

I have three book reviews for you guys today: a book I liked, a book I loved, and a book I didn’t care for. The full gamut! Let’s discuss.

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson (★★★★☆)

The third book in Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series provides a sense of closure of everything that’s happened to the students at this elite academy in Vermont, and allows them to move forward with their lives. The majority of the novel takes place during a snowstorm, with a bunch of the students (including Stevie, our main character, and her friends) snowed in and just trying to figure out how to pass the time. Except Stevie uses this time to continue her detective ways, and she really wants to figure out the reason behind all the crazy things that have been happening to students at this academy. All in all, I thought this was a really great way to wrap up the series (although a fourth book in the series released this year, so I can still follow my favorite teenage detective, yay!) I think the author could have pared it down a bit (there was a lot going on and so many different storylines and characters to keep track of!), but I still really enjoyed reading this novel and I’m looking forward to what’s next for Stevie!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (★★★★★)

Oh man, how I loved this book! It is going to be extremely hard to pick an overall favorite book of the year because I have read so many excellent ones, and Lessons in Chemistry definitely falls into that category. This novel is about Elizabeth Zott, a chemist. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is trying to break into the chemistry field in the 1960s, a time when women were not welcome in scientific spaces. Instead, after a series of mishaps, she finds herself hosting a cooking show for housewives—but she decides to put her own spin on it, showing her audience just how much chemistry is involved in cooking and how you can utilize chemistry’s basic building blocks to make incredible food for your family and maybe change your life as well. This book is delightful in so many different ways, between Elizabeth herself, her highly intelligent dog Six Thirty, and the friends Elizabeth makes along the way. However, you should also know that there are some harrowing things Elizabeth goes through. After all, she’s working in a male-dominated industry in the 1960s, a time when rape, sexual harassment, and misogyny claims were not taken seriously. I knew that there were going to be some really hard things in this novel, but it felt really, really important to include them and really, really true to the experiences of women like Elizabeth. It’s not easy to read about, but it’s something that should be talked about more. And the least I can do, as a woman who has benefitted greatly from all of the women who came before me, is read their stories. (Yes, this is about a fictional chemist, but the difficulties she experienced are not.)  All in all, though, I really enjoyed this novel and could not get enough of the characters or the story. A new favorite!

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur (★★☆☆☆)

I don’t know why I keep reading Alexandria Bellefleur’s books. I am sure she is a lovely person and I am so glad she is writing queer romances, but man oh man, her books are just so bland to me. These characters do nothing for me and I don’t even get excited for the characters to kiss or have sex or profess their love. There’s just always something missing for me, where it’s hard for me to believe in the romance. In this novel, Margot is reunited with her first love Olivia when she learns that Olivia is the wedding planner for the wedding where she is going to be the “Best Man.” Cue awkwardness! Even worse, Olivia suddenly discovers she needs a place to stay after a mishap at her apartment and, of course, why not just bunk with Margot for a few weeks? Sparks fly when they become roommates and the women are forced to deal with their past to move forward into the future. This novel requires suspending your belief again and again and again… and it all just felt forced and unrealistic. Near the end, I found myself skimming the book just so I could be finished with it. A rave review, eh?

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?