thoughts on books

Author: Angie Miale

  • all the perfect days by michael thompson

    Voracious and casual readers alike read the on-trend “The Measure” a few years ago and it was quite thought provoking, keeping lively conversations about how we shouldn’t know how long we have left. I can’t even imagine writing a review of “All the Perfect Days” without referring “The Measure,” and while this does have the same theme, it approaches the question in a much smaller way, more magical realism and less sci fi/ speculative fiction.

    Charlie is a family doctor that has an episode in the first scene. Everything in his office and with his patient turn into grayscale, as if the world went into Black and White. When after a few minutes the world returns to normal, he sees the number 4. He doesn’t yet put two and two together when that same patient dies 4 days later. Eventually he realizes that when he sees someone’s number, that is how many days they have left to be alive. All the plot elements you would expect; someone with a larger number than you’d expect, someone with a much smaller number than you’d expect, and most of them being appropriate for the person’s age.

    There is a side love story about Charlie connecting with Gen- who quits her job to sell essential oils- and who Charlie is hesitant to get close to as he is expecting to move into Emergency Medicine far away. I wish we got to know Genny a little more, the narrative didn’t tell us a lot about her and I would have liked that.

    A few twists and changes to the story as Charlie tries to figure out how this works – how it happened- and should he or should he not- interfere with someone based on their number.

    It is thought provoking for certain, and a classic twist on an old episode of The Twilight Zone- would you want to know how long you have left, and what would you do any differently? I think this book gives you all the alternatives, and enough space to decide for yourself what your answers are.

    Thanks to @netgalley and @sourcebooks landmark for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book to be published May 21, 2025.

  • see how they fall by rachel paris

    An Australian who-dunit locked room mystery. A billionaire empire family meets for a vacation. Nina dies of arsenic poisoning and Skye’s daughter, Tilly, fights for her life being poisoned as well. Nina’s husband Jamie runs the company, his brothers Hugo and Skye’s husband Duncan have leadership positions as well. Skye has become a partner husband’s blue blood wealthy elite although she comes from humble beginnings.

    This is multi POV and happens over just a week or so. The chapters are between Skye- mother of the poisoned victim and detective Mei. Mei knows that there is more to this case than meets the eye. Skye is trying to determine the cause, pray for her daughter’s recovery, and not become a suspect. Everyone- including Skye- has secrets that will be uncovered over the course of the narrative.

    This thriller is fast moving; many reveals and red herrings- this is a new to me publisher and debut author. Mei was a flat character without a lot of background; Skye had a history. It was easy to keep the characters apart despite a large family, many suspects and different directions. Great for fans of Jason Rekulak, Jeneva Rose, and Riley Sager.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Scarlet publishing for the ARC. Book to be published March 26, 2025.

  • the rival by emma lord

    Great audiobook from YA romance author Emma Lord. Another in the genre about a first year female student- Sadie- at a prestigious and academically challenging fictional college. This time she is a member of the journalism major and a part of the online news outlet. Her family friend- Sebastian- is competing with her on the journalism award which is semester long and has several rounds. There is also an overarching side story about the university and how they fund extracurriculars.

    Sadie and Sebastian are likable characters, great build up and banter between rivals. The inner dialogue of an Emma Lord female main character is always adorable and sweet. If you enjoy a sweet YA story this is a good one. Narrator is engaging and all parts are well acted.

    🗞️enemies to lovers
    🗞️he falls first
    🗞️dads are lifelong best friends
    🗞️miscommunication
    🗞️third act fight
    🗞️LGBTQ representation (he is bisexual, also there are non-binary and queer friend characters)

    Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an audiobook ARC. Book to be published 1/28/25

  • worth fighting for by jesse q sutanto

    I love the Meant to Be series, and I love Jesse Q. Sutanto so naturally I jumped on the chance to read the advanced readers copy of Worth Fighting For, a modern retelling of Mulan. It was everything I hoped for and more. This may be my very favorite of the series so far.

    Mulan is a finance bro- no really- with everything that working in Private Equity implies. She graduated from Princeton with a 3.9, and works a tremendous amount of overtime at her father’s finance firm. She is always thinking that people are judging her for nepotism, so she makes up for this by working harder and longer than anyone else. No war in this retelling, and it does take place in America, San Francisco to be specific. 

    When her father has a massive heart attack, she keeps the deal with a fancy whiskey company alive by stepping into his role. There she meets Shang, who is not so much her commanding officer but a part of the deal. Mushu is Mulan’s assistant- not a dragon but a cousin who went to Rutgers while Mulan was at Princeton. Mushu and Mulan have the strong relationship you would expect of a character in the sidekick role. I loved the ending and how much of Chinese-American immigrant culture the author incorporated as a part of the story. It made me think of my own ancestors and how many of them chose to leave their homeland and start a new life in America. Different generations are a part of the conversations here and while they don’t save China so much as a whiskey brand, if you had never seen, or really heard of Mulan – this story is great stand alone without some of the hokey throwbacks you sometimes see in other “modern retellings.”

    One last thing- I loved the acknowledgements at the end. Half a banana!

    Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion for the ARC. Book to be published June 3, 2025.

  • julie chan is dead by liann Zhang

    Well this one was coo-coo-ka-kooky- choo!
    First half book: 5 stars
    Second half book: 3 stars

    I don’t want to say a lot about the 2nd half because I love to keep my reviews spoiler free.

    Julie Chan is a supermarket employee who is living paycheck to paycheck and not much going on in her life. Typically, her workplace puts her in a position to have no choice but to steal from them and then threaten to fire her. She is a pitiable individual. Julie is an identical twin, she and Chloe were separated at the age of 4. After a car accident killed their parents, Julie is taken in by their greedy, rude aunt. Chloe is adopted by racist white people who are rich and will use her as an exploitation device.

    Still, Julie has it worse. Due to Chloe’s privilege- and also likely her extroversion- she is a successful and rich influencer. When she is found dead, Julie takes her phone (Face ID works!) and completely takes over her identity. Will she be found out? Can she infiltrate into the influencer world by studying the people Chloe is following and her DMs? Some of this is easy, and others, not so much.

    This book is making a point to compare social media and influencing to being in a cult like mentality. That the collective internet thinks they know you and they don’t. That all of us, to some extent, curate our identities into an online brand. In a way, I am doing it right now, by writing this review. It gives you a lot to think about. The second half will tell you how Chloe died and will unite the social media Chloe with the real world Julie. The reader will find themselves rooting for her.

    Again, the second half takes a turn. It is much darker and more disturbing. If you like the themes and exploring how celebrity and wealth change people, and you like a roller coaster dark thriller, you will probably love this book.

    Thanks to Netgalley and Atria books for recommending this ARC to me. I am grateful that I got to be one of the first people to read this talented new debut author. Book to be published April 29, 2025

  • anywhere with you by ellie palmer

    really enjoyed Ellie Palmer’s first book, Four Weekends and a Funeral, and I thought it made a nice love story of a difficult situation. In her sophomore novel, Charley finds herself divorced after only 13 months. It just wasn’t a great match, Rich is a boring guy who seems….fine. Charley is more embarrassed to be a divorcee at 29 than she is in grieving the loss of Rich. Truth is, they shouldn’t have gotten married to begin with but it seems like they did so because it was time and that is who they were with at the tine. A talented lawyer, Charley is whip smart although insecure and easily manipulated into overworking.

    Charley is close to her sister Laurel, two years older and in love with Petey. Laurel and Petey are going to get married, Petey’s brother Ethan is Charley’s age and was once her best friend. They drifted apart after Charley’s ill begotten marriage, but he is a van influencer and has a very different wardrobe and entire life. With Laurel and Petey having a quick engagement, Ethan and Charley are thrown together again and find their easy banter picking up right where they left off.

    With many chapters jumping back to high school and various points throughout their lives, the reader understands the spark that Ethan and Charley have and how they really bring out the best in each other. It is a little of opposites attract, mainly a forced proximity, friends-to-lovers type romance. No super smutty parts.

    The dialogue between Ethan and Charley is really well done, I think we all would love to have someone that knows us and all of our faults and loves who we are. This isn’t sparring type competitive banter, it is a true friendship, “we know each other like no one else does” type of dialogue. You know they love each other many pages before they figure it out. Ellie Palmer writes dialogue so well it is a wonder why she hasn’t written several episodes of Gilmore Girls or the like.

    I also really appreciated and got into the relationship between Charley and her sister Laurel. We didn’t get to know Petey as well, but he loves his brother, respects him and is good in a crisis of wildlife proportions. Romcom fans will love this lighthearted journey of Ethan and Charley.

    Thanks to Netgalley and Putnam Books for the ARC. Book to be published August 5, 2025

  • the spirit of love by lauren kate

    A very romantic, descriptive romance for fans of Nicholas Sparks. Fenny is a screenwriter on a fun CWesque show, she has been a screenwriter for 10 years and well respected at work. The book starts out when she meets a new director named Jude, who looks exactly like Sam, a guy she slept with as a vacation fling last weekend- but he seems to be 10 years older.

    The narrative then skips to the previous weekend when Fenny met Sam. It has a coworkers enemies to lovers vibe, love triangle, although she is trying to determine who Sam is and how he is connected to Jude. I like Lauren Kate’s writing style better here as a time slip romance rather than her previous work in the romantasy realm. We don’t realize the answers here until the last few pages. It takes awhile to get there, but I enjoyed the characters and their motivations. I also liked the backdrop of this being in the entertainment industry.

    Thanks to @netgalley and Penguin Putnam for the ARC. Book to be published July 1, 2025.

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  • I might be in trouble by daniel aleman

    Why should gay men be kept out of the mystery/thriller genre? Why shouldn’t we have a good chat and mouse mystery in which the main character is in the LGBTQ community, who has a great community and comedy of errors? Daniel Aleman’s book is a fun, normal-person-finds-themselves-in-a-crazy-situation dark comedy. David Alvarez is knd of desperate, he misses “the one that got away,” he can’t get an idea to write about that will be as good as his previous work, and the world is closing in on him. He only finds solace from his loneliness in matching with other gay men in NYC on Grindr, with mixed results. And then things get a lot worse. He meets a seemingly great silver fox and has an amazing night, only to wake up and find him dead next to him in bed.

    But does he alert the authorities? No, he tells his agent Stacey, and they decide to haul the corpse all around Manhattan in a “Weekend at Bernie’s” type fantasy that has twists and turns and they figure out who this body used to be.

    It is a crazy premise and this is kind of the definition of “dark comedy.” The dead body is just unlikable enough for us to not care that much that he is dead. We are more worried about David and Stacey and will they be able to get out of this unscathed. We shake our heads at them but we want them to solve the mystery (is it a mystery, really? or more of an identity crisis?)

    This is probably unlike anything else you have read this year. Kooky and fun. Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book is available now where books are sold.

  • it’s a love story by annabel monaghan

    Did you ever keep thinking “I can’t wait to re-read this book” multiple times while reading a book? I can’t wait until It’s a Love Story is published and I get a hard copy that I get to underline and write in the margins. I think we are in a “golden age” of romcoms where the best writers are writing this genre. Don’t be a genre snob. Romance books are by far the highest selling books in the US today. Why wouldn’t the best writers write them? Remember in the 1990’s when the NYT bemoaned that Broadway wasn’t doing anything creative and then pointed out that the best songwriters and show runners were working for Disney instead? I have read 75 books so far that will be released in 2025 and 3 of them are romance books that are some of the most well written books ever, and this is one of them. 

    Jane was a child actor, think iCarly or Suite Life with Zach and Cody. She was a class clown, made funny faces, the comic relief. She was a better singer than the lead, who was prettier. Jane knows that men aren’t attracted to funny women, and goes on a lot of dates up until date 4, when everything falls apart. Jane is now working for a studio and is trying to get a script made that she loves, the studio doesn’t think it is commercial enough. In a misguided impulsive move she promises her childhood co-worker Jack (who is now a big star) will write and perform a song. She hasn’t spoken to him since she was 14.

    Enter Dan. Swoon. He is her coworker and would be the cinematographer. Jane and Dan go to the east coast to find Jack and talk him into the song. He will be there for a music festival and they will stay with Dan’s parents and extended family. And the family is AMAZING. As an only child of a single mom, Jane makes these observations about Dan’s family that are heartwarming, emotional, and raw. 

    At its heart, It’s a Love story speaks to many of the deep fears we all have. That was aren’t lovable. That the best parts about us are something to be ashamed of. That we are destined to be in the background. Jane isn’t just likable, she is one of the most relatable female main characters I have read this year. She recognizes the privilege that her childhood gave her, and the opportunity to buy a house in LA, but it also gave her a slew of insecurities that led her to not celebrating her own gifts. The way she infiltrates into Dan’s family and starts to understand and yearn for their family dynamic. 

    I love this book. One of my top ten books of 2025, and it is purely because of how perfectly these characters are written. Flawed, funny, relatable. It’s the way we know Jane is falling for Dan ***just*** a minute before she realizes it herself.

    Thanks to @netgalley and @putnambooks for the ARC. Thank you to @annabelmonaghan for writing fade-to-black romance that doesn’t have cringy spice scenes and also isn’t full of purity culture harmful crap. It’s literally perfect.

  • entitlement by rumaan alam

    A haunting story of wealth, youth, and the legacy we leave behind. Brooke is not living up to her potential, a black woman raised by a single white mother who adopted her. She is a graduate of Vassar and left her job teaching at a charter school after being disillusioned that the school cared only about STEM, her literature studies went unappreciated. Brooke is now “program manager” for Asher Jaffe, an 80-something divorced billionaire who lost his only daughter, born the day Kennedy was assassinated, on September 11th in the twin towers attacks.

    Asher and Brooke have a friendship that evolves over the course of the book, Brooke’s proximity to Asher makes her more and more numb to seeing wealth. Asher has $4 billion and the goal of the foundation is to give away a lot of the money before his death. At some point, he realizes that being that wealthy looks impolite. Jaffe made his money selling erasers, very symbolic.

    Alam’s writing is tantalizing, the use of growing more descriptive declarative sentences is very readable, and this is a good foray into lit-fic. I was less impressed with the dialogue and characterization but very intrigued by the symbolism and elements of surprise. Over the course of the book, the reader goes from identifying with Brooke to- in the last few pages- wanting to turn away and hide from her sense of entitlement.