REVIEW: ExtraCurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon

 

OUR REVIEW:

I read Extracurricular in between some heavier, denser novels and it was a great reprieve from all the seriousness I was reading. I remember feeling instantly curious about Ramona and Nick from the first chapters and that engagement level remained throughout. I was using this novel as a palette cleanser from the other things but it ended up being the novel that I couldn't. My only quibble is the fact that he's her professor and they got involved while he was her professor. I'd like to believe in real life that that doesn't happen but I know that's a naive wish. Other than that, this novel was an easy read that offered a satisfying ending. 4 stars. 

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SYNOPSIS:

When a former pop star enrolls in college, the last thing she expects is A-plus chemistry with her psychology professor in this sexy and tender romance from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Lynn Solomon.

Ramona Wilder has spent her whole life in the spotlight. After a hit kids’ TV show, she transitioned into music, singing in arenas around the world and becoming an icon for millions of teenage girls. Now at age twenty-six, exhausted by the inhumane lack of privacy, she’s done—with all of it. She wants a chance at normal, whatever that might mean for her. And she’s starting with college.

Professor Nick Navarro is recently divorced but determinedly optimistic, allowing himself a very reasonable ten minutes per day to wallow. When his department calls a meeting about a celebrity enrollment, he plans to treat whoever it is like any other student. Except when Ramona blazes into class and causes an uproar, the typically easygoing professor is rattled, maybe for the first time in his career.

Ramona loves the way she flusters him, taking every opportunity to push Nick’s buttons, though what she really wants is to unbutton them completely. When a crisis brings them closer outside of class, they begin a tentative friendship amid an undeniable attraction. But Ramona can’t be so easily finished with her old life, and they’ll both have to confront their pasts if they want a chance at something real.

REVIEW: The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff

 

OUR REVIEW:

Upon reflection, I really cannot tell you why I'd rank this novel anything lower than a perfect score. It's still lingering with me weeks after I've read it, just like her first novel did. The Burning Side plunges you into a tumultuous time in April and Leo's lives and the lives of her family. It explores the utter grief of a failed marriage, the grief of the long, slow goodbye of someone living with Alzheimer's, and the small joys that are peppered in between. The stories of Leo and April and Deb are told in present day and flashback and all three of them have a voice in the telling of their stories, which I greatly appreciate. There are a ton of lines that just complete resonated with me (see my goodreads account) and rang so true that I actually wrote them down in my journal. I'm so glad I read this and am eagerly awaiting whatever she writes next. 

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SYNOPSIS:

From the author of The Bright Years, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging.

When April and Leo’s house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April’s childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication.

As the family reckons with the aftermath—grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact—the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo’s marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage, and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April’s generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo’s relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here.

A family saga suffused with humor, longing, and heartbreak, The Burning Side is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.

REVIEW: Land by Maggie O'Farrell

 

OUR REVIEW:

Of the two other works I've read by Maggie O'Farrell, I'd say Land has a similar emotional landscape as well as a depth of research that many have come to appreciate about her works. I think, for me, I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. This novel felt like a novel for her- a way for her to delve into a place she clearly loves and explore it in all of its richness and sadness. That being said, I was thoroughly engaged and was curious about how she'd tie the land + the characters together, which she did again and again and again, all the way to the end. And to be honest, the ending was something I'd expect from her, so in that respect it was very satisfying. I think I wanted a little relief from the relentlessness of it all, but to be fair, the land and the people she wrote about didn't really get that, so why would we? Despite my longing for a more happy ending, I did enjoy it-a solid 4 star read for me.

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SYNOPSIS:

A spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery and survival as a family makes a new home in the aftermath of tragedy.

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.

The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping, and get them both home?

Land is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away.

REVIEW: Whistler by Ann Patchett

 

OUR REVIEW:

Whistler is such a good read and yet when you try to describe it, it sounds like a book about nothing, really. And maybe that's why it's so good--because it is a book that seemingly not much happens, and yet you walk away with thoughts and feelings and emotions. I think it's Eddie. He's magic. He's such an interesting character-the way he loves Daphne and her sister and their mother...it's so personal and profound...and exactly what you'd want in a father. And Daphne's mother? She's also an interesting concoction of self-determination and selfishness and love. And the sisters-I love their bond. Even Daphne's dad, I come to understand. Despite some really crazy things that happen, and some really normal things that happen, I found there interactions and aplomb so very satisfying and admirable. 

I really enjoyed this novel and all of its sentiments on love and family, so much so that I now want to read more of her backlist. 

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SYNOPSIS:

The acclaimed, prize-winning #1 New York Times bestselling writer returns with a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time.

When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn’t seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.

Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It’s a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.

REVIEW: P.S. I Hate You by Lauren Connelly

 

OUR REVIEW:

PS I Hate You was one of those lucky NetGalley finds. I saw it many months ago and it sounded interesting and so once school ended, I started it and found that I absolutely could not put it down. It was suprisingly sweet and sad and funny. I thought Connelly did a great job of creating a Maddie who was furious in her grief and creating a target: Dom. Dom, the guy Maddie had been convincing herself for too long that she hated, after one wonderful night a decade ago. Now these two are thrown together to complete her brother's dying wish and as they complete each task, we get to understand a little more about why she's so intent on holding on to her anger and sadness. 

I truly didn't anticipate the gut punch of emotion that was sprinkled throughout this novel, but I needed it. I needed a book to provoke me and it did. I hope there are more books like this in her backlist and I'm looking forward to exploring them. 

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SYNOPSIS: 

Maddie Sanderson would be proud to honor her older brother’s dying wish, that she scatters his ashes over eight destinations that the adventurous 29-year-old never got to visit before he died from cancer. But in his will, Josh assigned her an impossible partner to help complete the mission—Dominic Perry. Seriously, if Maddie weren’t already at his funeral, she would have killed him for this.

Sure, Dom was Josh’s life-long best friend. He’s also the infuriating man who broke Maddie’s heart back when she was naïve enough to give it to him. But since Dom insists on following the rules and Josh didn’t leave much room for Maddie to argue the matter, they embark together on a farewell trip that spans thousands of miles, exploring new places and revisiting their complicated history along the way.

After a snowstorm leads to a shared bed, Maddie starts to wonder if her brother might be matchmaking from the grave. But when grief also reopens old wounds between them, Maddie will need more than Josh’s ghostly guidance to trust Dom again.