Making Up by Lucy Parker (★★★★★)
E-book • Owned (Amazon) • Contemporary Romance • 2018
Short synopsis: Former circus star Trix Lane is thrust back into the spotlight just as her old nemesis, disgraced makeup artist Leo Magasiva, reenters her life, sparking a fiery, complicated romance.
I’m rereading all of Lucy Parker’s romances right now and this was a delightful read once again. It was such a unique setting—a Cirque du Soleil-type act where Trix performs on the silks—and I loved that Leo is a straight man who is also a makeup artist! (He mostly does special effects makeup, but had a mishap with an actor on a movie set, so he’s taking whatever work he can get at this point.) Trix is healing from an emotionally abusive relationship and I felt that the author did a beautiful job expressing how that relationship affected Trix in myriad ways, from her professional life to her romantic relationships. What I love most about Lucy Parker’s books is that she doesn’t rely on miscommunication subplots to create tension in the novel. She still manages to create high stakes between the couple, but it always feels so much more original and true to life.
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard (★★★☆☆)
Audiobook • Hoopla • Thriller • 2017
Short synopsis: When Adam Dunne’s girlfriend, Sarah, vanishes after a trip to Barcelona, he discovers her link to a cruise ship where another woman disappeared under similar circumstances. Determined to uncover the truth, Adam delves into their relationship’s secrets and faces a cunning predator on a deadly hunting ground.
This is Catherine Ryan Howard’s debut and it’s quite apparent that her writing and plotting got a lot better as she gained more experience as a writer (as one would expect!). This book was very uneven for me. I loved the first half of the book and it was hard for me to stop listening because I wanted to know what happened! But then the book took a turn that I didn’t love and I found it kind of a slog to get to the end. What’s more, there was a secondary plot to the novel involving an entirely different character and I could not figure out the connection to the main plot. Typically in these thrillers, these plots come together in a fascinating way, but that was not the case here. (I found a Goodreads Q&A with the author that explained the connection, which made sense but damn. It’s probably not a good sign to finish a book and then have to go down a rabbit hole, trying to figure out how all of the different threads were connected.) I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this novel, but it does have a 3.8 rating on Goodreads so YMMV. (For me, it was 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.)
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (★★★☆☆)
Print • Owned (Barnes & Noble) • Literary Fiction • 1987
Short synopsis: Penelope Keeling reflects on her rich, complex life while navigating the challenges of aging, family dynamics, and the newfound value of her father’s painting, The Shell Seekers.
My first 500+ page book of the year! As a reminder, I have a goal to read four books that are longer than 500 pages this year. Ideally, I’d like them to be in the 700-900 range (this one was slightly under that at 630-ish pages). For me, this book was just okay. It was well-written and I loved being taken through all the different eras of Penelope’s life, but it was intensely sad at times. I can’t tell you how many times I just knew bad things were right around the corner for Penelope, and it got hard to go through that grief again and again. I also really hated two of Penelope’s children, but they were written to be unlikable so… good job, Rosamunde Pilcher! I wanted to wring their necks, they were so selfish and horrible. This was the kind of long book where I definitely felt the length of it and I was just ready to be done with it by the time I got to page 500 or so. Near the end, I started skimming so I could finish it faster, which is never a good thing. So, while I can understand why this is a modern classic, it wasn’t really for me.
What are you reading?
Hmmm…I know I talked a good game that I’ve been seeing The Shell Seekers lying around for most of my life so maybe I should just read it already. But after reading your review, I think my gut instinct might be right. Let’s just say I’ve moved it to the back of my list for right now!
Well, I’m not putting The Shell Seekers on my Big Books list, although I am finding it somewhat challenging to find Big Books written by women that I haven’t already read. I need Big Book ideas, Stephany!
I’ve heard good things about The Shell Seekers, but yet haven’t read it yet!
I am doing a wild reread of something I read as a young tween, and I will talk about it soon! I’m dropping curiosity seeds all over the place, Stephany!
Have you read winter solstice by Pilcher? That’s the only book I’ve read by her and I absolutely adored it! But it’s best to read around the winter holidays. I do want to read shell seekers at some point, though! I just finished reading Long Island, which is a sequel to the book Brooklyn. I was liking it, even though there’s some characters that make some truly horrible decisions, but then the book ended completely abruptly to the extent that I wondered if I was missing a chapter or something? But then I saw other comments about the ending in the Goodreads reviews so I guess that’s just how we decided to end the book my guess is that he’s going to come out with a third book in the series so that’s why he ended it like he did but it kind of ruined the book for me. Now I’m reading a very out of character book Called The Other Valley. I heard about it on Sarah’s bookshelves live. I think Susie read it? It’s about this town in a valley – on one side is 20 years in the past, and on the other side is 20 years in the future, you can’t traverse back-and-forth though. I’m very early in the book but it’s well written and engaging so far but it’s kind of technically probably science fiction, which is so not my wheelhouse typically! I also started a nonfiction book called all the living in the dead, which is my February book club book all about, well, death! I did not think about that when I selected the order of books. It’s not a very Valentine’s Day type of read. Lol. Each essay and the book is about a different aspect of death in our culture. The first one is about a funeral home director should be an interesting read, and hopefully a good discussion!