thoughts on books

Category: contemporary fiction

  • sing you home by jodi picoult

    This was an amazing, engaging story. It was recommended to me by a friend on instagram when I asked for recommendations for gay centered stories for Pride month. I hadn’t heard of it, and Jodi Picoult has been a mixed bag for me. But this was a phenomenal story, with great characters, some twists and a satisfying conclusion.

    Zoe and Max lose a baby at 28 weeks, a tragic situation at the end of a 4 year infertility journey. Both of them are devastated and as they no longer connect, Max asks for a divorce and goes further into alcoholism.

    Both Zoe and Max fall unexpectedly in love with new people, causing a problematic situation that ends up in a courtroom.

    TW: infertility, still birth, alcoholism, suicidal thoughts, homophobia, spiritual trauma.

    I learned a lot about music therapy as this was Zoe’s career. The villain characters were pretty villainous. I was very enraptured in this complicated story. It’s interesting to read this story in 2025 as it was published and takes place in 2011; we have gone three steps forward and 10 steps back. In some ways their world is worse to the LGBTQ community and in others it is better.
    Still, stories like this give me hope.

    Happy pride month everyone!

  • the girl I was by jeneva rose

    What a lovely and heartwarming time travel novel! This is a departure from Jeneva Rose’s other books, not exactly a romance but reads a lot like a romance, this is a very well done time travel book. I was completely surprised and touched by this book. It’s less about finding love and more learning to love yourself.

    I never end up eating a book 5 full stars unless I get a little choked up at the end. If you eye roll at schmaltz, maybe skip this one. But I ate it up.

    Alexis is at a rock bottom in her life, it’s 2017, she hasn’t really accomplished anything, her boyfriend dumped her, and she has been let go from her job. That’s when she wakes up in 2002. Unlike other time travel stories, she interacts with her 2002 self and they work together to find out what it’s going to take to get her back to 2017.

    The ending is really satisfying. The characters are great! The pop culture references are outstanding. It also is amazing that the 2002 characters have never heard of things that feel like they have been around forever- like Taylor Swift, the kardashians, and iPhones. They’ve never heard of an iPhone! Wow! 2002 doesn’t seem like that long ago but it really was.

    If you are in the mood for something heartwarming and lighthearted, you should pick this one up.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Mira for the ARC. Book to be published July 15, 2025.

  • like family by erin o white

    Blue Sisters, but way more gay. This year’s “Sandwich.” A great debut family drama.

    This book follows 3 couples in upstate New York, with young kids. If you are confused reading the blurb, you aren’t alone. It is kind of difficult to keep the characters straight (lol) but in the ARC I have read there is a helpful chart in the beginning of the book to tell you who the couples and their children are.

    The characters are not perfect, but definitely not boring. This is slice of life, tackling themes such as; “what makes a family? What makes someone family? What do you do when you have everything you ever wanted?” The couples in this book are in their late 30s/early 40s, they are interconnected and have strong family vibes. Their inner dialogue is sometimes kind of self-indulgent. They are exhaustingly liberal, the kind of liberal where you feel like you have to care A LOT about everything all the time.

    Critics may say this book lacks plot, but it really focuses on character development, and there are so many characters that it becomes very well rounded. Everything kind of builds to the couples counselor’s advice in the final act. It’s only a couple of paragraphs but it ties it together nicely.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press for the ARC. Book to be published Nov 4th, 2025.

  • slow burn summer by josie silver

    A contemporary fiction story about a woman who re-discovers herself after a heartbreaking divorce and empty nest. The cover suggests a romance, this book is not that romantic. The plot is a bit all over the place, but it is well written and easy to understand.

    Kate was a soap actress in the UK who threw it all away to get married at 19, now her daughter is 19 and she is back to her old agent’s office. Her old agent has died and his son has taken over, although he doesn’t like being an agent and isn’t much of a character.

    They hire Kate to be a ghost author- to pretend to be the author of a romantic book that becomes a best seller. It is written by a famous author who doesn’t want to be associated with the book but we don’t know him.

    This book is really about Kate, coming to terms with her new life; deciding what to share with the public. There is a tiny bit of romance although I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between the two. She does have a great sister who is a god side character.

    I liked it but I didn’t love it. Weird plot elements kept being introduced at all points throughout the story and it felt a bit chaotic.

    The title is meaningless, it isn’t a slow burn, I am not sure that the book even takes place in the summer. Just a personal pet peeve that I feel like sometimes publishers take a book title out of a hat.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Dell for the ARC. Book to be published June 10, 2025.

  • what happens in amsterdam by rachel lynn solomon

    Pure romance about a girl having a quarter life crisis- when Dani’s boyfriend Jace was cheating on her, she forwarded raunchy emails to the whole company. Jace got a slap on the wrist but Dani was let go. So with no job and no boyfriend, she got a break-up haircut and decided to move to Amsterdam. She struggles a bit at first with a basement apartment and a suspicious company to work for. But then she runs into her first real boyfriend Wouter, who came to LA as a foreign exchange student in high school. Turns out sparks are still there!

    There is a lot to love about this novel, I really loved it. Dani was born a micro-preemie and has bad lung problems and also a port-wine birthmark all across her face. So life has not always been easy for her. And she has jumped around from job to job, fell bass ackwards into her major in college, then hence her field, and also picks up hobbies only to put them down when she isn’t a natural. Great chemistry and I will warn you, it will make you want to visit Amsterdam!

    Read if you like; (Tropes/minor spoilers below)
    Second Chance Romance
    One Bed
    Forced Proximity
    Fake Dating
    Chronic illness representation

    Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC. Book to be published May 6, 2025.

  • great big beautiful life by emily henry

    Part romance, part mystery, part family drama, this book will have you reading late into the night. Emily Henry has definitely branched out from her typical Beach read, this book is much more complex and the characters are so well drawn. Alice got a tip that Margaret Ives, who went into hiding decades ago, was making art under an assumed name on a Georgian Island. She uses her journalistic integrity and hunts her down, this is HUGE. The Ives family is incredibly wealthy, a publishing empire based on Margaret’s great grandfather during the gold rush. But Margaret is known for marrying an Elvis type rock and roll star, and after being married for 4 years, he tragically died. 

    Alice goes to visit with Margaret and ghost write her memoir, but then finds out this is a competition, Pulitzer Prize winning writer Hayden is also on the island for the exact same reason. Hayden and Alice, despite being rivals, get to know each other and split interview time with Margaret.

    This book jumps back and forth between the romance between the writers and in Margaret telling Alice the entire story of her life, starting with her great great grandfather Lawrence. I enjoyed BOTH storylines. There was some spice after a lot of chemistry and funny banter between Alice and Hayden. There were some surprises and reveals the whole way through.

    I was lucky enough to get this audio on Libby at the same time as I got my pre-ordered hardback copy. I really enjoy books that I get to listen along with as I read. Julia Whelan is back to narrate this one, no other narrators as the entire book is from Alice’s POV. I loved this story.

  • hero by katie buckley

    It is enraging to be told that you are heartbroken because you are 19, not because he was the love of your life, and then suddenly you are talking to your best friend’s sister, telling her that the reason she is heartbroken is because she is 19.

    What a surprise this short book was! This book is very artistic and high brow, without much punctuation and without naming the characters. It reads like a very very long poem instead of a short novel. The theme is about how women are treated as the side characters in their male partner’s lives. It gives example after example of how culture views the male point of view as the default- like “PacMan” and “Ms PacMan.” Imagine a world where the 80’s arcade games were “PacWoman” and “Mr PacWoman”

    The girl writes a lot in her diary. She writes things like, I will be better at asking for reassurance. I will try to be more trusting and I will try to make sure that I don’t make my emotions his problem.

    If I was trying to actually follow a plot I would be confused, instead I just read each beautifully constructed paragraph one at a time. The blurb talks about how this takes place over 7 days and is about a woman whose boyfriend has just proposed. This doesn’t have a defined beginning-middle-end but is a feminist manifesto and commentary on 21st century patriarchy.

    People who are doing well do not listen to Norah Jones.

    Also the cover is very shiny, so when I look at the book, I see a distorted reflect myself on the cover. Pretty brilliant.

    Catherine Howard is the one I think about the most. She was 16 years old when she married Henry VIII. She was 18 when he killed her. She was a handmaiden to Anne of Cleeves, and her family had placed her at court because an older man was preying on her in her own household. When the man, her music teacher, started pawing at her, she was 12. She was beheaded not for adultery, but for treason; the charge was rooted in the sexual affairs she had before her marriage, including, allegedly, the one with her music teacher.

    Thank you to Gallery marketing for gifting me this book. I loved it, 4.5 stars.

    Isn’t it funny how we go back to draw the lines. To make “you were made for me” feel more true. What is You were made for me But a mistranslation of I own you.

  • spectacular things by beck dorey stein

    Mia was her mom and dad’s gift to each other, and her little sister Cricket was their present to Mia. The story begins as Cricket is playing for the US Women’s soccer Olympic team. Older sister Mia is giving birth at the exact time and watching Cricket play from the hospital. A health emergency occurs. Then the narrative jumps back to their mother Liz Lowe as she is a high school senior who has signed and committed to play for UCLA. It becomes apparent that Liz is pregnant with Mia and her promising soccer career ends abruptly.

    What I absolutely loved about this story was the characterization, the relationship and dynamic between Mia and Cricket, the gradual way that the narrative unfolds as we find out more about Mia and Cricket’s absent father, their mother’s love of soccer, and how she passed along being a “team player” to her girls, both named for Women’s soccer legends. Something else I loved was the interlocution of the history of the game of soccer and how it grew in culture. As a fan of women’s soccer I loved this essential part of the story. Cricket, Mia and Liz were WONDERFUL characters, there are also very memorable side characters.

    What I didn’t like; in some ways I feel like this book glorifies codependency, but it does show the darker side. I had a professor in college that said “Gilmore Girls” was “anti-choice pro-life propaganda” and I spent hours trying to prove them wrong by highlighting some of Rory’s most pro-feminist and pro-choice identity scenes. But ever since then I have always read into stories about teenagers choosing birth instead of termination with a critical eye, especially in narratives where the child’s father was a predator of some sort. I don’t think this is the case at all, but it did give me a lot to think about. What was a larger theme in this book is the mother and the sister giving up big parts of themselves for the other; without the person asking- so in some ways what you are willing to give up in your life for your daughter or sister.

    While some of the setbacks that happen can seem like too much, there is enough drama in all of their years that you are like JEEZ WHAT ELSE CAN HAPPEN TO THESE WOMEN they deserve a break already. It can be bit much at times and you don’t always agree with the decisions of the characters but you still get the feeling that things will work out for them….. particularly because in the prologue about Mia having a baby, you get a lot of what can only be described as spoilers.

    This would be a great book for book clubs as it is thought provoking and allows readers to ask questions within a group. The characters are flawed yet likable. This is great for fans of sweeping family dramas like The Celebrants, Blue Sisters, Long Island Compromise and Like Mother Like Mother. Written by a former White House stenographer.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Dial Press for the ARC. Book to be published July 1, 2025.

  • passion project by london sperry

    A sparkling, sweet debut that has absolutely everything. I read in another review that this book is “Emily Henry for Gen Z” and I cannot agree more.

    Bennet is 25, barely getting by in New York City. Her late boyfriend, Sam, died in a car accident and always dreamed of living in Manhattan, she is now living there with her roommate Sophia in his honor. In grieving Sam’s death from 2 years ago, Bennet has lost contact with Sam’s family, and they were like a second family to her. But it hurt too much to maintain a relationship with those closest to him. Her friends decide she has to get out into the world and sign her up for a dating app, the first date is a disaster, she realizes she isn’t ready and ghosts the guy and ends up getting drunk and full of pasta at an Italian restaurant across the street.

    Turns out, the failed date, Henry Adams, happens to work at that restaurant, where she left her wallet in a sloppy mess. She admits she isn’t ready and they decide to be friends, and they decide to do adventurous things to discover her passion in life around the city.

    What follows is a friends-to-lovers, heavily New York centered, rom com with incredible characterization, the wittiest of witty banter and one of the best book boyfriends there is– Henry Adams. I can hardly believe this is a debut, I will read anything London Sperry writes. This book is excellent, it has been so long since I read a “five star” romance, and this reminds me of Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez, Sarah Adams and Jessica Joyce. Some spice, but mostly a perfectly paced plot that doesn’t rely on tropes and has quirky yet lovable side characters. This novel keys in on one of my favorite themes- that we all are at least a teensy bit afraid that we are unlovable. In Bennet’s case, because of the pain she feels at losing what may have been her great and only true love.

    ++ points for Mamma Mia and Pride and Prejudice references

    a best romance of 2025
    a best debut of 2025

    Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/ Viking for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Book to be published April 8, 2025.

  • hazel says no by jessica berger gross

    Deep exhale. What a wonderful book. A great book for book clubs that can discuss the characters motivations and are sure to have “what would you do in this situation” type discussions.

    Do you like books in the LitFic genre that have deep character analysis? Ones that are about difficult subject matter yet offer hope at the conclusion? fish-out-of-water families faced with impossible choices? Then this will be one of your favorite books of 2025.

    Hazel was propositioned by her principal the first day at her new school. They moved from New York City to rural Maine. This sets off a series of events that bring the family pain and yet notoriety. She is a precocious and bright teen, her 6th grade brother Wolf has struggles with ADHD and wants to fit in. Her father Gus is a professor at the local college and her mom Claire is an artist. The book alternates their perspectives. The kids are incredibly well developed.

    I can hardly believe this is a debut. A fresh new voice in feminist contemporary fiction. A post #MeToo novel that gives us great setting, plot, and characters.

    Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade publishing for the ARC. Book to be published June 17, 2025.

    a best book of 2025