Tag: Book Club

November 2023 Bookclub: Hooked

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I knew Hooked was going to be a steamy read, in fact after reading The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (which I forced my way through because a friend recommended it) I was really banking on this retelling (reimagining?) actually having a plot — and I was not disappointed. It was fun (but dark) and actually liked that there wasn’t really any fantasy to this story, and yet everything was recognizable. Pan was a nickname for a former kid on the streets. Hook received his nickname for his weapon of choice, not because of one of his, er, hands. Pixie dust was a drug. etc etc etc

There is an element of “we love who we love” to this story, where we see good girl Wendy falling fast and hard for Hook. I appreciate that he was a gentleman when getting to know her and that she could lean on this while things took a turn for the worse, but I can’t help but think about how I would react if I was kidnapped and hung out to dry for a bit. Definitely not as forgiving as Wendy was, which makes you wonder how much of her behavior can be thrown into the daddy issues bucket.

Family is a major component of this novel, how far are you willing to go to protect your family? How far are you willing to go to avenge your family? In Wendy’s case, it shattered her expectations and revealed that her father didn’t love her the way that she expected and strengthened her love for Hook because he was willing to protect her (after betraying her a little of course). In Hook’s case, he found he was unwilling to avenge his family in the end because he realized that it didn’t really mean anything or solve any problems. It still shocked me that Wendy was able to murder her father so easily.

In keeping with the “faith trust and pixie dust” theme of Peter Pan, it’s interesting to watch faith and trust play out throughout the story. Trust leads to betrayal in many plot points and yet faith in love brings everything back together.

Though I wouldn’t reread this one, I did enjoy it enough to recommend it to a friend and to pick up the next one in the series (each book is standalone).

For December, let’s close out the year with Remarkably Bright Creatures because I can’t resist an Octopus story.

Cover art for Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

October 2023 Book Club: Anatomy a Love Story

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This book is titled correctly, it is first and foremost a love story. True, there is a literal love story occurring within these pages, however, that felt like more of a subplot with Hazel’s love for anatomy taking the role of the true love interest. How interesting to consider what it would have been like to sneak into an all-men’s course and try not to get caught, especially when you consider that Hazel didn’t make an effort to remain a wallflower throughout her studies.

It was predictable that Hazel would be thrown out of the lecture, even though the hope that it wouldn’t happen remained consistent throughout the story. What wasn’t predictable was the sudden drop of immortality into the mix. I didn’t need this as a plot point, but it did make for an interesting think exercise when Jack had to decide between taking the potion or being hung for murder.

I enjoyed this book enough to read the second, although if I’m being honest this is a great example of a time where I wish the book wasn’t YA and was longer. The pacing felt as though it would have benefited from additional pages, however, I think the true limiting factor was that I wanted more from themes that a YA audience may not be interested in more.

With this in mind, I grabbed the second book in hopes that I would have some questions answered only to find that I’m actually a little upset about the ending. Hazel’s love for Jack seemed to feel forced, it seemed she spent more time pining for him than actually getting to know and falling in love with him. So when he suddenly appears in uniform while in London, I was really hoping that she’d let him go in favor of being the wife of a doctor. Hazel actually got to know Simon, who respected her opinions and sought her aid as a physician in treating the king. Hazel could actually see a life with Simon, whereas it was unclear where her life with Jack would go – which perhaps is what was so appealing about it.

November’s book club will be Hooked by Emily McIntire because a dark fairy tale is almost always fun – although I think this is technically not a fantasy story. Full disclosure, this book seems very opposite of a YA novel that doesn’t want to dive deep into adult themes.

Cover art for Hooked by Emily McIntire

He wants revenge, but he wants her more…

James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter’s twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James’s bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge. It’s the perfect plan, until things in James’s organization begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.

Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy can’t seem to shake her desire for him. But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she’s falling for the man known as James or the monster known as Hook.

Hooked is a dark contemporary romance and the first complete standalone in the Never After Series: A collection of fractured fairy tales where the villains get the happy ever after. It is not a literal retelling and not fantasy. Hooked features mature themes and content that may not be suitable for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised. For all content warnings, check the author’s website.

September 2023 Book Club: Her Royal Spyness

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Her Royal Spyness is the first novel in a seventeen-book series set in Britain during the 1930s. featuring Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie (Georgie). Georgie is thirty-fourth in line for the British throne, the daughter of a Scottish Duke and an English actress, and navigating being a single woman during a period of time when money is tight and women don’t have a lot of opportunities outside of marriage. Tired of lingering like an unwanted guest in the cold and draughty Castle Rannoch, Georgie resolves to escape to the vibrant city of London, where she takes refuge in the family townhouse.

After leaving Scotland and arriving at the family townhouse in London, Georgie navigates life without help from cooks (she eats a lot of canned beans) and her lady’s maid (she avoids the iron). You can’t help but root for her, even though her method of dealing with these issues reminds me of a college or graduate student. A lot of time spent just barely getting by and not a lot of time spent learning what she doesn’t know. I also feel like she doesn’t really appreciate having the townhouse to escape to, but suppose that’s not really part of the story.

Even knowing that there was going to be a death (this was after all marketed as a cozy mystery), the death felt a little random. I’m still not really sure how the convenience of it all was pulled off.

Ultimately, this novel serves as a delightful introduction to the world of Georgie and her escapades. I couldn’t help but be captivated by Georgie’s world and found myself reaching for the second book (which was better than the first).

September is shaping up to be a busy month, so let’s read Anatomy: A Love Story for October.

Cover art for Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.

But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.

July 2023 Book Club: Z A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

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Cover art for Z A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler.

I feel the need to start this month’s book club with the acknowledgment that this novel was a light fictional version of Zelda’s story. It left out the parts of the story that were very real struggles for both Zelda and Scott, the parts that feel very sad and lonely. For example, Zelda refused to marry Scott until he published his book and could provide her with the life she was accustomed to. She also couldn’t cook or clean because she had never been taught to as a child. I’m not saying either was perfect, I just think that this story felt like the rose-tinted glasses version of it all.

I also took the time to watch Z: The Beginning of Everything while reading (something I almost never do, I’m usually more for one and then the other rather than at the same time) and feel short-changed that the promise of a second season was not kept.

It was hard not to fall too far down the rabbit hole on this one as it felt like a look at how what you think will make you happy doesn’t always. It’s also a story of excess, bandaids to fix problems, and the power of perspective. I found myself grinding my teeth whenever someone blamed one of Zelda’s problems on not being a proper homemaker or hysteria.

So many problems seemed to go hand in hand with the medical knowledge of the female body and mind of the times, I couldn’t help but wonder what Zelda’s life would have been like if she were alive now. For example, would she be given a prescription and go to weekly therapy? Would modern medicine have given her the power to find mental peace?

I also wonder how much Scott’s behavior was a sign of the times as he flip-flopped between what he thought should be updated as proper for a woman vs what a women’s role in the home should be. Was this because of the societal pressures that were being placed upon him? If they were alive today, would he feel less pressure to provide? I don’t think his need to be remembered would fade with an updating of the times.

All in all, I’m glad I read this one. It’s probably not a novel I would recommend to someone unless they were specifically interested in Zelda’s story and a caveat would need to be given about how the story is a lighter version of the truth (which was the author’s right as it’s a fictional novel).

A lot of my friends on good reads have been reading The Maid by Nita Prose. Since it looks like an interesting beach read (that doesn’t actually take place at the beach), let’s read that for our August book club as it promises to be “a Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit”.

Cover art for The Maid by Nita Prose.

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

June 2023 Bookclub: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting

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Cover art for a lady's guide to fortune hunting by Sophie Irwin

I didn’t dislike this one, but I didn’t like it either. While it’s true there’s a comfort in predictability (for example I read all 8 Bridgerton books and loved every second of the formula), I found in this case it took too long to get to the point. Probably not a book I’m going to recommend anyone read in the future, however, it was good enough to finish.

Kitty is, if nothing else, incredibly practical. She isn’t chasing a fortune to change her lifestyle, she’s chasing a fortune to pay off debts and secure her sister’s future after the death of her father. Though an admiral goal, I found it made her approach to everything a little sterile, even though it went hand in hand with the goal of blending in. It also causes her to be blind to the desires of her sisters and those around her.

That being said, when considering the options of a woman during the time period this story makes sense. It makes sense that Kitty’s only option is to attempt to marry rich in order to quickly pay off her family’s debt. It also makes sense that she needs to be single-minded in the goal and crafty at putting herself out there.

One moment in the book I find particularly human is when Kitty takes a second to really think about her actions in comparison to those around her. Is she being kind? Can she achieve her goal while being kind? Does she need to be kind if she’s trying to put the needs of her sisters above all others?

Kitty and Radcliffe protecting each other’s siblings reminded me of Mr. Darcy protecting Elizabeth. I enjoyed that both parties put themselves out there and that both situations could have been avoided if they had been paying closer attention.

It’s hard to believe that I finally finished the Wheel of Time series and have the freedom of not knowing what book to read next. Let’s spend June reading Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler while I think about whether or not I’m going to start a new fantasy series or reread an old favorite before book 5 comes out.

Cover art for Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

A dazzling novel that captures all of the romance, glamour, and tragedy of the first flapper, Zelda Fitzgerald.

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame.

Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.