Category Archives: beach reads

One Perfect Couple, by Ruth Ware***

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One Perfect Couple is Ruth Ware’s tale of reality television gone horribly wrong. Our protagonist, Lyla, agrees to appear on the show because Nico, her boyfriend, is trying to boost his acting career, and the show won’t accept single applicants; if he’s not there as half of a couple, he can’t even apply, let alone be chosen. So, fine fine fine. Lyla will go, and since she’s not a glamour girl, she figures she’ll get eliminated within the two weeks’ vacation time her job permits, and then Nico will get his show and she’ll get to go home.

It doesn’t work that way.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

First, a word: because I was running late with this one, I borrowed the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons. This proved to be disastrous! The actor voices Nico in such an exaggerated manner that nobody, myself least of all, could imagine someone as smart and savvy as Lyla pairing up with such an egotistical, whiny brat. I drop the audio before the twenty percent mark and from there forward, read it digitally. This is an improvement.

Lyla and Nico are directed to board a ship with the other contestants, and it takes them to a tropical island. Once there, however, they are besieged by a terrible storm. The crew members and producer are asleep on board the ship at the time because the show is a new one, and the crew’s cabins and other facilities are still being constructed. The contestants have been forced to turn in all of their digital devices so that none of the show’s progress will be leaked online before air time, and so when the storm smashes into the island, their communication devices are on the boat; they have become castaways. Worst of all, there is a serious shortage of fresh, potable water. Elements of well loved classics are borrowed; we have tidbits reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, smidgens of—I was going to say Robinson Crusoe, but that’s overstating it, so let’s say Gilligan’s Island instead. One by one, people start dying, and there is no way for the survivors to call for help.

I have read and reviewed almost everything Ware has written. She’s been a reliable source of enjoyable whodunits, usually four stars, sometimes even five. But here I feel as if she has missed the mark. There’s a fair amount of repetition, and whereas the first half is reasonably suspenseful, I found that the longer I read, the less I cared what became of the contestants. One thing I did like, however, was seeing these lovely women that, given the show’s parameters, should have been enemies, supporting, relying upon, and helping each other. That is the one sparkle I found here, and nobody can take it away from me.

The book itself, you can have. Or not. My advice is that if you are going to read it, get it free or cheap; don’t spend your precious dollars buying this one at full cover price, and avoid the audio. As for me, I will hope that Ware is back on track next time around.

Murder in an English Garden, by Carlene O’Connor***-****

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Murder in an Irish Garden is the eleventh in the Irish Village mystery series by Carlene O’Connor, but I haven’t read any of the earlier books. My thanks go to Kensington Books, RB Media, and NetGalley for the review copies; this book is for sale now.

I was drawn to this book because it features three of my interests: mysteries, Ireland, and gardening. On the downside, it’s definitely a cozy mystery, and I am generally not a fan of cozies, except for the ones that have a bit of an edge, the sort that make true cozy readers complain. I mention the latter because for me, this felt too sedate; on the other hand, true cozy fans may find it is just about right for them.

The premise is that the annual gardening contest, which features a significant cash prize and a great deal of prestige, is about to take place. The village’s most serious gardeners have spent considerable time, effort, and money preparing their gardens for the event, but then one of the displays turns out to have a corpse inside it; the body is that of an entrant who isn’t from the village, an outsider who’s using the competition as a stepping stone to get her admitted to another contest that has a massive cash prize. Cassidy Ryan, the outsider, has been murdered. Village cops Siobhan and Macdara, who are a married couple, are tasked with solving the crime.

As the story opens, we find the two cops—called garda—in a marital dispute, and our protagonist, Siobhan, has an internal monologue that switches back and forth between murder and her pique at Macdara. I felt the latter was overdone, but I also wonder if I had read some of the earlier books, whether I would be more invested in their romance. Of course, they eventually resolve their dispute, and they crack the case.

I was lucky enough to have access to both the digital and audio versions. This proved to be even more helpful than usual, as I was able to hear the story through the delightful Irish brogue of reader Caroline Lennon, and at the same time, I learned the pronunciation of a few common Irish names that I’d only seen in print until now. Between these things and the fact that the narrative is linear and lends itself to the audio format so beautifully, I recommend that interested readers select either the audio alone, or a combination of both. I read multiple books at a time, and because it is easily followed, it’s the story I have chosen to hear while driving.

The characters felt poorly developed to me, with external qualities—this gardener loves goats, that gardener is formal and rather picky—serving as the only development that I found. I would have liked to see some dynamics, and some agreeable qualities for the deceased included. There was almost nothing about gardening, which would have been fine, had there been character development, but alas.  For this reason, I rate the digital version 3 stars, but for the reasons mentioned earlier, the audio version is elevated to 4 stars.

Book Review Hot Air, by Marcy Dermansky*****

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4.5 stars. An impulsive choice made at the last minute, and how often do those pan out? Literary fiction, 4 stars. 

Joannie is an author trying to live off the increasingly scant checks garnered by her first–and last–novel. She’s a single parent, and as she and the rest of the world come out of hiding following the pandemic, blinking like naked mole rats, she accepts a date, her first in seven years, from a man that lives around the corner. He has a child too! So it all starts out so innocently, so normally, and might have remained so, had the billionaires not crash landed their hot air balloon in Johnny’s pool that evening.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Knopf for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

I generally avoid novels that feature major characters that are wealthy, but this one had its platinum tongue in its diamond-encrusted cheek so plainly that I decided to take a chance. Here’s what I love the best about it: instead of opening with a humorous passage or two that turn out to be about the only funny material the book has to offer—the sort that makes me suspicious that the author only brought out their A game for the first three chapters, the part that the publisher would see—Hot Air begins with a clever moment or two, and then it ramps up until the climax, at which point I am helpless with laughter. The pair in the balloon—Jonathan and Julia—are the most solipsistic individuals I’ve seen in print in some time, but they want to believe in their own goodness, and the inner conflict, what there is of it, between trying to be at least sort of decent, yet being determined, in the end, to put their own wishes first, is deftly handled. Joannie, on the other hand, is from the real world, and she’s trying to find just a scintilla of personal happiness without screwing things up and making her little girl pay the price. We bounce between their points of view, including the home owner’s, of course, with occasional references made to Jonathan’s personal assistant, Vivian, a young Vietnamese woman tasked with cleaning up all of his messes. Here’s a sample from the very beginning, so I’m not spoiling anything:

“He took a photo of the hot air balloon at the bottom of the pool and sent it to Vivian in a text message. ‘Here’s a challenge for you,’ he wrote. She could take care of it. She was the one who had actually rented the balloon, after all, set up the lessons. It occurred to him that this was her fault. She should have told him it was a bad idea.”

We’re well into the second half of this novel when we hear Vivian’s point of view, and it is a miracle that I am able to avoid spraying my sandwich across the table, it’s so surprising and so funny!

At 208 pages, this little novel flies by, aided by the abundant, punchy dialogue. I haven’t had such a happy surprise in ages; now you can, too! Anyone might enjoy this story, but I especially recommend it to women. If you need some comic relief, get this book! You won’t be sorry.  

The Maid’s Secret, by Nita Prose****-******

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Molly the Maid is back for the third installment of Nita Prose’s excellent and wildly successful series. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the review copy. This book will be available to the public April 8, 2025.

As in the first two books, we find Molly employed at The Regency Grand Hotel; she’s been promoted to Head Maid as well as Special Events Manager. She is engaged to chef Juan Manuel, a lovely fellow that helped fill the void in her life when her beloved Gran died. But everything changes when Brown and Beagle, art appraisers famed for their reality television program, come to do a show at The Regency Grand. Along with all of the “polishing to perfection” that is necessary for such a massive event, Molly decides to bring a few of her late grandmother’s trinkets along; you never know, maybe one of them will be worth something.

Oh, it most certainly is!

Once her rare and valuable object becomes public knowledge, Molly’s life changes completely. She no longer has privacy, which she holds dear; strangers are constantly in her face seeking autographs, and the press won’t leave her alone. Meanwhile, we are apprised of the circumstances leading up to this startling discovery. Gran comes to us from beyond the grave—so to speak—in the form of a diary that Molly didn’t know she kept. Chapters in this book alternate between the present day in Molly’s life, and the past, as told in epistolary fashion by Gran.

I wasn’t a big fan of this method, and I’m still a bit ambivalent, which is where the half star off the rating went. It seems like a lazy way to go about telling a story. However, if an author must use this method, it’s hard to imagine it being done better.

Of course things don’t go smoothly following the discovery of the heirloom; if they did, then there would be no novel. But I will leave the conflicts and resolution to the reader to discover.  As for me, I found the series of events, and the ending, believable enough for our purposes, and I enjoyed the story greatly, despite my misgivings about Gran’s storytelling method.

Recommended to those that enjoy the series; this book may be read as a stand-alone, but will be better enjoyed if you can read the first, second, or both earlier books first.

Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow, by Damilare Kuku

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When a novel written and set in Nigeria is so successful that it’s translated into English and sold in the U.S., you know it’s probably one hell of a good book, and Only Big Bumbum Matters Tomorrow is clear evidence that this is true. My thanks go to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Our protagonist is Teme (TEE-mee), a young woman fresh out of college who is sure of her next course of action: she must develop a perfect body, starting with her backside. She works and saves her money so that she can have her buttocks enhanced surgically. Everybody loves a woman with a big butt, and once hers is augmented, she can marry anybody she wants. It will be a great investment!

This choice, not surprisingly, blows the roof off her family home. All of the women, her mother, auntie, sister, and others are adamant, and they scheme together, and bicker together, about how to prevent her from carrying out what they perceive to be a dangerous and foolish task. In the process, they reveal their own long held secrets, and also? They are hysterically funny!

The reader should know that the best material isn’t dropped in at the beginning, as is the unfortunate trend. Instead, it starts out fairly serious, and then I find myself snickering a little, and then a little more, and by the end, I am howling! There are quite a number of characters, and not recalling all of them won’t interfere with your enjoyment; however, it’s easier to catch up and also identify certain Nigerian terms that are peppered in, most of which are self-explanatory anyway, if you read digitally. However, because I had fallen behind, I checked out the audio version from the library and followed along as I did my morning exercises, and the audio version is brilliant as well. The lilting Nigerian dialect is mesmerizing!

Although it doesn’t seem like it at first, this novel packs a satisfying feminist punch. I highly recommend it to any reader that has eyes, ears, or both. Don’t miss it!

Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave*****

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Finlay Donovan is a full time mom who finds herself short on resources after her attorney husband leaves her for someone else. In the first episode, she finds herself with a corpse that she may or may not have killed; fearing the worst, she disposes of it, and the next thing she knows, her name is on some sort of dark web list of killers for hire. By the time she realizes she’s innocent, it’s too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Other things have happened since then, of course, as we find ourselves now on the fifth installment. Present and accounted for is her nanny and close friend, Vero Ruiz, a woman with the kind of street smarts that can come in handy when the chips are down. In this episode there are several recurring characters, and the reader is strongly advised to go back and read the first Finlay before diving in. It’s not as if you can’t just start with this one, but you’ll be missing half of the jokes and jibes if you do.

My great thanks go to St. Martin’s Press Early Readers program and NetGalley for the review copy. This book will be available March 4, 2025.

Finlay’s nosy neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, assumes a central role this time around when a body is exhumed from her backyard. Her home is declared a crime scene, and before Finlay even has time to react, the woman has installed herself in Finn’s guest room. A beat or two later, Stephen, Finlay’s ex, husband of her two children, is arrested for murdering the corpse that’s been found!

One of my favorite parts of this series is watching the dynamics between Finlay and her ex. On the one hand, the guy is philanderer, and he’s kind of a weasel. Yet, though Vero urges Fin to let justice take its course and stay out of it, Finlay has to defend him. Stephen is the father of her children, and they don’t need to grow up being told their daddy is a murderer. Also? The child support will dry up quick as a whistle if Stephen no longer makes money. And part of what I love about this, is that, in broad strokes, it outlines a dilemma that any number of women with children face. Life is full of nuance, and although this is not literary fiction, not intended to be known for its depth, it does honor the shades of gray faced by so many women. It makes the whole story more relatable.

Mrs. Haggerty also proves to be far more interesting than we previously believed, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. However, I do admire Cosimano’s capacity to juggle a million tiny, moving parts without creating inconsistencies. Once or twice I have seen what looks like an inconsistency, but then it turns out to have been written that way for a reason, usually to expose someone or something.

As the series progresses, I see more critics howling that the series isn’t what it was. Of course they’re right, in a way; when the series grows, the author has to make changes to prevent becoming a one trick pony. But I admire the way Cosimano handles the growth.

One small moan: yes, yes, yes. We can see that Finlay is hot for Nick, her cop boyfriend (the only trite element so far.) And yes, yes, yes, we can see that Vero is madly in love with her sweetheart, a fellow who she’s adored since her teens. We get it. Finlay and Vero are not a couple. We don’t need it hammered in any further, or at least, I don’t. For that matter, I wouldn’t be all that disturbed if they were. But the increased emphasis on their two romances bears just the tiniest whiff if hysteria. It’s not necessary. Finn’s love for Vero and vice versa, is not a lesbian love, but about the family we choose. So, let it rest already. Relax! The lesbian role is fulfilled by Finlay’s cop sister, Georgia, who stays firmly in the background where, apparently, some in the industry believe lesbian characters belong.

Sheesh!

That wee rant aside, I enjoyed this book very much. I heartily recommend it to you, and I cannot wait to read the next in the series.

The Answer is No, by Fredrik Backman****

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Who can resist a story by Fredrik Backman? His soothing tone and positive message about the nature of humanity is balm for the soul. So although I seldom read stand alone short stories, I leapt on this one right away. My thanks go to NetGalley and Amazon for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

This is one of those stories where you can see what’s about to happen, in broad strokes, right out of the gate. The blurb gives us the contours, telling us that our protagonist, Lucas, is about to have his life ruined by a frying pan; his life is perfect, single with no entanglements. He has no friends that he owes favors; no girlfriend; his life is simple and uncomplicated. He has a nice little apartment that’s his alone; after work, he can eat his Thai food and play his videogames without harassment. He doesn’t bother anybody, and nobody bothers him.

Then there’s a knock at the door, an insistent one; it’s a small klatch of people that introduce themselves as “the board.” Someone has disposed of a frying pan in an unauthorized spot, and they are determined to root out the culprit and penalize them. Everyone is considered guilty until proven innocent! Lucas protests his innocence and makes a few hapless suggestions in hopes of mollifying them, but instead, they draft him to head a committee, and they won’t let him out of it.

This is a pleasant enough story, consistent with Backman’s usual style, but at the same time, because it is a short story, it lacks some of the most agreeable aspects of a Backman novel. In his full length books, Backman creates and develops a massive collection of characters, and he always juggles them brilliantly, developing several and keeping each of them so distinct that the reader can’t forget who is who. Here he is forced, due to the limited length of the thing, to keep it down to a small handful of characters, and while some will likely appreciate this, I miss the complex stories with infinite character back stories and interrelationships. So, as short stories go, this perfectly fine, but for those of us that are fond of Backman’s epic tales, it feels just a trifle anticlimactic.

Recommended to those that read everything Backman writes, and to those that prefer a more streamlined story.

Open Season, by Jonathan Kellerman***

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3.5 stars, rounded downward.

Open Season is the fortieth (!) in the Alex Delaware series, one that I have read since the very first book. Newbies can read it as a stand alone novel, however. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for the review copy. It will be available to the public February 4, 2025.

One of the joys of reading a long running series is its familiarity. If the writer is good—and nobody will say Kellerman isn’t—the characters begin to feel like old friends. In addition to our protagonist, kiddy shrink and cop consultant Alex Delaware, we have his wife, Robin, who is mostly a background character; Alex’s best friend, Detective Milo Sturgis; and some lesser recurring characters such as cops Sean and Petra. I could include Milo’s husband Rick, but Rick almost never puts in a personal appearance. In fact, we see a good deal more of Blanche, Alex and Robin’s French bulldog, who, like the other characters, never grows old. When Milo lumbers into the Delaware kitchen and raids practically everything in the fridge, I smile. Ah, there he is, the big guy.

When the series began, Alex, a child psychologist (like Kellerman himself,) worked with seriously troubled children and teens, but when the LAPD had a case involving a child, he would consult on it also. Now he works on the private cases of his choosing, primarily custody cases and the like, and is a de facto cop. This has developed in the context of Milo, a gay cop, being ostracized by the rest of the department, and so once a friendship and working relationship develops between Milo and Alex, Alex rides along and they say he’s a consultant, even when there are no funds in the budget and he is merely a volunteer.

All this may seem improbable today, but please remember that the series began in 1985, when gay men were treated brutally by most of American society, and that is exponential when it’s a cop being hazed by his own department. And even today, gay cops don’t always have an easy road.

Is this realistic, then? Let’s look at it this way. To be completely realistic, Alex would never get into that cop car, and he would work only from his office. To consult with the department, he would be sent information to analyze, and if appropriate, the child or children in question would meet with him in an office to be interviewed. Milo would either be on his own, or with whatever newbie was stuck being his partner for now.

And it would be dull as hell.

So, for me to enjoy this series, I just need the most improbable aspects to be scaled back, and I’m happy. Several books ago, Alex was donning a Kevlar vest and rocketing into action with Milo, and that was straight-up ridiculous. But Alex doesn’t do that anymore. The story is just believable enough for me to buy into it, and so I’m happy.

This particular episode involves a sniper, and although I enjoyed it and found little to object to, it didn’t have quite as much sparkle as most of his other books. On the other hand, it also didn’t have a theme involving kinky sex—ew!—as in multiple past novels, and it didn’t have any of my pet peeves that I dislike wherever they turn up. No kidnapping Alex or his loved ones; no struggle with alcohol. So I was happy for the most part and would have rounded the rating up to four stars, which is what I usually rate Delaware novels, but the multiple snarky remarks about abortion rocked me back. Not all women’s health facilities that feature abortion as an option are “abortion mills.” If a grandmother suggests that a pregnant granddaughter consider abortion, it doesn’t make her a bad grandmother. Am I rounding the score on a novel downward because I don’t like the author’s politics? Yes. Yes I am. But, can I do that? Sure I can. I just did.

I’ve loved this series for a long time, and I look forward to reading the forty-first. I do recommend this book to the series faithful, but if possible, get it at a discount or free, rather than paying full price, unless your pockets are deep ones. If you are new to the series, if possible, read either the most recent one before this—number thirty-nine was excellent—or read the very first, When the Bough Breaks, which ties the subject much more closely to Alex’s original profession.

Veronica Ruiz Breaks the Bank, by Elle Cosimano****

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Fans of Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan series will recognize her trusty sidekick and BFF, Vero. Over the course of the series, we’ve had many hints about Vero’s past, and Finlay sometimes wonders why Vero is so tightlipped about her personal history. This short story provides curious readers with some background, as well as some of the entertainment for which Cosimano is fast becoming legendary.

My thanks go to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

I generally avoid this sort of book, because often as not, the author returns to flesh it out into a full length novel, and as much as I enjoy reading it once, I don’t want to read it twice. But this was low hanging fruit, a shorty by an author I greatly enjoy, at a time when I couldn’t get up and move around much, and so I dove into it.

Vero is an honors student from a struggling family, and her academic career is short circuited when an envelope of money goes missing, and Vero is blamed by her sorority sisters. Vero makes a run for it; desperate for work, she takes a custodial job in a bank, and that’s where the fun begins.

This is an entertaining read, but it’s not up to the level of Cosimano’s novels. For a short story to work, a lot must be packed into it, with every single word pulling its own weight, and possibly that of its friends and family. Here, it feels like a chapter out of a book, one in which the author doesn’t want to give up any truly juicy information about the protagonist because she’s saving it for—you got it—a novel.

Of course, I cannot pretend to know what the author is thinking here; this is just an educated guess. But the product is the product, and whereas it was a fun read as a free galley, I might have felt a bit annoyed if I’d paid money for it.

Those looking for a quick, light read to take to the beach could do worse. Some people don’t have the time or stamina for a full length novel of any type; if that’s you, maybe this is your book. But as for me, I’ll hold out for the real deal in the future.

How to Summon a Fairy Godmother, by Laura J. Mayo*****

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“She was Theodosia Balfour. Good things did not happen to her.”

Theo is engaged to be married, despite her wishes; her mother has bartered her to an ancient, badly behaved duke for the prestige of his title and the money she must have to keep the family manse. Beggers can’t be choosers, amirite? Her stepsister and the prince have barred her from their castle due to her own unseemly behaviors, and her sister is about to be wedded to a more desirable man. There’s only one way out of it: Theo needs to find her stepsister’s notes on summoning a fairy godmother. Only magic can possibly get her out of this mess.

My thanks go to Orbit Books, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

Because I am lucky enough to have both the print and audio galleys, I pair this book with my morning regimen on my exercise bike. While my feet are doing the work, my eyes and ears are on a pleasure cruise, listening to the story as read by the talented Josie Charles. At the outset, I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy it. After a handful of quick laughs, the story and voice actor seem to be a little over the top, perhaps trying too hard. However, a number of other reviewers that I respect have really enjoyed this thing, so I keep an open mind, and sure enough—about a third of the way in, I realize that I’m bonded to the protagonist. As I follow the narrative and become accustomed to the writing and narrative styles of the author and performer, the whole thing grows on me, and before long I find myself looking forward to my wretched exercise bike, because Theodosia needs me.

Once the fairy has been summoned, Theo is magicked away to fairy land, and she is provided with a set of tasks she must accomplish in order to be freed from the loathsome old toad to whom she’s betrothed. She is provided with some assistants and supervisors, and it’s a good thing because she needs rescuing now and then. The hardest part, perhaps, is the caveat that as she completes the steps required, she must behave respectfully—at all times!

The chapters are brief and have hilarious titles. A couple of examples: “Chapter 5 Where Theo Should Probably Think of Something Before She Ends Up Married,” “Chapter 11 Where It Becomes Quite Clear Theo Was Never Trained as a Lawyer.”  There’s lots of snarky dialogue, with a tender moment or two tucked in here and there.  There’s a twist at the end that I absolutely did not see coming.

Should you listen to the audio, or read the printed version? There are some American readers that don’t like a British accent, and Ms. Charles’s is a heavy one. Once I’m used to it, I rather like it, but you know what type of reader you are. Follow your usual go-to. If you enjoy an audiobook, this one could make your commute much pleasanter.

Highly recommended to those that enjoy fantasy and/or humor.