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Think of England Review
England, 1904. Two years ago, Captain Archie Curtis lost his friends, fingers, and future to a terrible military accident. Alone, purposeless and angry, Curtis is determined to discover if he and his comrades were the victims of fate, or of sabotage.
Curtis’s search takes him to an isolated, ultra-modern country house, where he meets and instantly clashes with fellow guest Daniel da Silva. Effete, decadent, foreign, and all too obviously queer, the sophisticated poet is everything the straightforward British officer fears and distrusts.
As events unfold, Curtis realizes that Daniel has his own secret intentions. And there’s something else they share—a mounting sexual tension that leaves Curtis reeling.
And when the house party’s elegant facade cracks to reveal treachery, blackmail and murder, Curtis finds himself needing clever, dark-eyed Daniel as he has never needed a man before…
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Author Highlight: Dahlia Adler
I read Adler’s Going Bicoastal a few years ago (go look into the tags for my thoughts on it) and since it was fine, and since she pops up on so many of my bookstagram stories, I decided to give the rest of her YA catalogue a try. Perfect since she’s just released another one in May.
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Girls Survive
I found this at my summer, and if you’re into historical fiction or action-packed disaster, then this is the series for you.
Initially I thought this was a rip-off of the ultra-popular I Survived series by Lauren Tarish. They have a lot of the same premise of a kid surviving a famous or underrated event like Pearl Harbor, Pompeii, the Black Death, Mt. Helens eruption, and others, but as a friend pointed out that there are only so many historical disasters to focus on, there’s bound to be overlap. And yes, they have primarily girls as the main characters rather than guys like in I Survived. What else would you expect from a series titled Girls Survive?
But that’s where the differences end. The series started in 2019, and have over 30 books already because there are multiple authors working on them. It’s very #OwnVoices as the authors are able to impart some individuality and depth into the girls’ experiences like the Cherokee Andrea L. Rogers writing about Mary and the Trail of Tears or Mayumi Shimose Poe writing about Pearl Harbor and the subsequent impact it had on the Japanese population of Hawai’i just as it was experienced by her grandparents.
It adds a lot more diversity featuring more queer voices like Flor’s story in Flor Fights Back, a young trans girl getting to meet such icons as Marsha Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Or the fact that Molly has two dads in Molly and the Twin Towers, which is treated as a normal occurrence rather than the focus of the book. The girls range from Chinese to Indian to Black and more. They’re not always American. Although there are some events already covered in I Survived, there are twenty more that haven’t been covered like the sinking of Lusitania, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Chernobyl fallout, March on Selma and others.
I’ve only been able to read five of the series, but while some of them lacked in action, they made up for in exploring the emotional impact and aftermath of these events even months later. It emphasizes how once a bombing or displacement is over, it doesn’t mean it’s over. It brings a shift in perspective, maturity and heartache, yet there is a thread of resilience in there too.
It seems to be published by a minor publisher-Capstone Publishing, but I hope it reaches mainstream success.
Oh, and I wanted to note-Daisy and the Deadly Flu was published in 2020 (and probably written in 2019), you can tell it was probably before COVID hit because the author’s note talks about the last big pandemic-2001 with SARS. All I could think about was “Oh, honey. Oh honey, you have no idea.” It’s was just funny to me.
And if anyone wants to gift me some since I can’t buy 26 books at once, here are the ones I’m most interested in because I haven’t heard these events and would like to learn more.
Fumiko and a Tokyo Tragedy: A Great Kanto Earthquake Survival Story by Susan Griner
Nina Under Arrest: A Birmingham Children’s Crusade Survival Story by Anitra Butler-Ngugi
Min and the Protests: A Tiananmen Square Survival Story by Ailynn Collins
Anya Flees the Fallout: A Chernobyl Survival Story by Erin FalligantFaye and the Dangerous Journey: An Ojibwe Removal Survival Story by Sigafus, Kim (It’s always Cherokee because of the Trail of Tears so this was news)
Tara and the Towering Wave: An Indian Ocean Tsunami Survival Story by Oxtra, Cristina
Audrey Under the Big Top: A Hartford Circus Fire Survival Story by Jessica Gunderson
Here’s a list of all the others: https://shop.capstonepub.com/Shop/s/product/girls-survive/01tVW000006KyYKYA0
#aiylnncollins, #aliceontheisland, #andrealrogers, #anitrabutlerngugi, #audreyunderthebigtop, #capstonepublishing, #daisyandthedeadlyflu, #erinfalligant, #fayeandthedangerousjourney, #florfightsback, #fumikoandatokyotragedy, #girlssurvive, #historicalfiction, #Isurvived, #jessicagunderson, #jessikafleck, #joymichaelellison, #juliegilbert, #lowergrade, #maryandthetrailoftears, #mayumishimosepoe, #minandtheprotests, #mollyandthetwintowers, #ninaunderarrest, #oxtrachristina, #rachelreads&reviews, #sigafuskim, #susangriner, #taraandthetoweringwave -
Catherine Hapka Interview
Catherine Hapka is one of the most prolific authors you may not know you know. Writing over 100 books as herself, and as a ghostwriter from the S.A.S.S. series to Nancy Drew, Star Power, HTTYD and more, she graciously took the time to answer my questions about her start, what makes a ghostwriter, and what’s coming next.
1. When did you begin writing, and what drew you to children’s books in particular?
I can’t remember ever NOT writing; I wrote little stories and plays as a child, and started several epic novels as a teenager. I also read everything I could get my hands on.
After studying English lit in college, I landed my first adult job as an editorial assistant in the children’s department of Bantam Books in New York. At that time we published lots of monthly mass market series, including Sweet Valley, Choose Your Own Adventure, The Saddle Club, and others.
A few years later after I’d left that job, the creator of The Saddle Club, the wonderful and generous Bonnie Bryant (who had been writing all the books herself to that point — on a monthly publishing schedule!), decided to bring in some ghostwriters to help out. She knew I knew the series, that I was interested in horses, and that I aspired to be a writer, so she gave me a shot at writing one of the first ghostwritten titles, which soon turned into many more. The rest was history!
As a teenager and in college I was convinced I’d end up writing literary novels and short stories. So while I always loved kids’ books, I guess you could say I ended up writing them somewhat by chance. However, kids’ books are so varied and fun that now I can’t imagine doing anything else!
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Instructions for Dancing Review
Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.
As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything–including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he’s only just met.
Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it’s that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?
Yoon does it again with a swoon-worthy contemporary romance. I found Evie to be very relatable during this period of transition in her life. She’s cynical about love due to her father cheating and divorcing her mother. But it’s less anger and cynicism as feelings of loss, and nostalgia. She misses the person she used to be, the one who believed in love, and who thought her father was infallible. Also due to graduation coming, she doesn’t want her friendships or other relationships to change.
Evie also fears the pain as is common after these types of events. Heartache can be worse than a broken bone because with a broken bone there is a set time for when it will heal. Heartbreak can be forever.
The newfound curse she has to see the fate of other peoples’ love lives always end in heartbreak, fueling her desire to stay alone until X comes, and omg X is such a great romantic interest. I wanted him to be real. He’s funny and sweet and charismatic, and Evie with all her romance novel knowledge knows she’s falling for him after the patent one eyebrow smirk. Plus all the dance lessons together bring on the heat. Tango is the dance of lovers after all, and the cover illustrates that so well.
They were sweet together, but readers may be disappointed that their romance is more of a side story to Evie’s internal journey of seeing loving in the moment is worth it by itself.
My nitpick is more than her friends, while entertaining, felt a bit one-dimensional, but again, everyone was shut aside because this was Evie’s story. Not theirs. Even son, Evie’s Dad and Mom did have some great chapters that added insight to how they’re dealing with the divorce and add to Evie’s revelation about the importance of love even if love ends in heartbreak.
Another thing I enjoyed out of the book is that Yoon sidesteps the chapters focusing on minor characters or events that were present in The Sun is Also a Star, and Everything, Everything. This was purely focused on Evie and I think helped keep the narrative centered on her, her thoughts and reactions and how they shape her perspective.
It’s a light, thoughtful read that has nice moments of humor with lots of character development for Evie. Perfect for any romantic readers who want to remember why love is so important, and how scary, crazy, beautiful, uncertain, worth it, it is.
4 stars.
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Ranking The Wedgeford Trials
Courtney Milan does it again! I wrote in my ranking for Milan’s Turner trilogy that Milan is a rare romance author who nixes the miscommunication trope that plague so many couples. Rather she subverts the status quo and has the couple communicate like mature adults while maintaining the suspense of internal/external forces threatening their coupledom. It can be done without making them idiots! And she does it again here in her Wedgeford Trials trilogy. Wedgeford is a small, forgettable village where England’s oriental community gravitate to be able to forget their pasts, and a safe haven from a prejudicial society.
But for such a small village, there are quite a few secrets and nobles abounding.
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Speak Review
The first ten lies they tell you in high school.
“Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say.”
From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether.
Ah yes, the award-winning and multi-banned book (those two often go hand in hand), since it’s so famous, I had to read, and see if it’s as impactful as everyone says. Although I think it’s famous enough that people have a general idea of what it’s about, I’m still keeping this spoiler-free for those who haven’t and will not spill what the secret trauma is.
It’s a short book, being only 200 pages, but I’d say the second half was more impactful than the second half. The first 100 pages go through Melinda’s first two academic quarters where she maintains a cynical, deflated tone that is reminiscent of the early 2000s teen ennui. Everyone is a poser, parents don’t get it, reality tv bites, etc. Of course, one is more sympathetic to Melinda’s POV after they find out her secret, and her depressive personality is a result of trauma rather than edgy teen angst. But it does make the story drag much like how life seems to drag for Melinda.
When Melinda finally comes to terms herself with what happened to her, the language and imagery becomes more raw, and speak to the scars Melinda is dealing with. It didn’t only change her physically, but emotionally, mentally, and it just seems no one will care if she does tell.
Nonetheless, I wish we got more insight to how Melinda was before IT happened so readers might have a comparison to how much it impacted her life into a line of BEFORE and AFTER. Perhaps this is because I already knew the secret thus it was not a shock like it must have been back in 1999 to discuss such topics, and left me wanting more from the narrative when it came to her healing arc.
Nonetheless, it’s thoughtful and poignant in detailing what depression and trauma is like, so others may feel like they’re not alone in reacting this way after an event like this happens.
4 stars.
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Three Girls in the City
Horse girls may be more familiar with Jeanne Betancourt for her popular Pony Pals series, here she takes a different slice of life approach with, as the title says, Three Girls in the City.
The premise is as follows: NYC, 2002. Three 13 year-old girls meet at a summer photo Carolyn, fresh from Wyoming, motherless and scared; Joy, who has everything plus a bad attitude, and Maya from Harlem, strong, proud and surprised to find herself liking these 2 mismatched girls. Just as these 3 discover they’re friends despite their differences, Carolyn’s father decides to send her back ‘home’ to Wyoming. Then, in her first flush of street-smart confidence, Carolyn gets scarily lost on the subway – and it’s Joy and Maya who find her – and show her dad that New York City is the home they’ve been looking for.
There’s still horses, but there’s more than that. Taking place after 9/11, it casts a shadow on the cast and setting with numerous references to it, and other recent events. Joy, in particular, seems to have PTSD from seeing the towers fall from her bedroom windows. Carolyn’s father is said to be always overprotective, but I sense his concerns over how dangerous NY is may also stem from that event.
It’s a slice of life that is thoughtful, can get heavy sometimes. It touches on topics like child abuse, AIDs, eating disorders and creepy men, not in depth but enough to show that this is in the periphery of their lives. Yet there’s lightness that balances it too. Much like life. It commits to the realism in depicting the confusing mix of adolescent feelings in trying to figure out a sense of style, where you fit in with your friends, happy one moment, sad the next, moody etc.
There also doesn’t feel like there is a set plot despite each book summary. The events in each chapter don’t build to a climax or a traditional three-act structure because life is not as simple as that. It goes day by day so sometimes plot threads feel left unresolved or overlooked, I see it as demonstrating that life doesn’t have clear conclusions to problems. A conversation with parents can resolve everything because the girls are realizing at the juncture of their lives, they can’t trust their parents to have all the answers, sometimes they’re the problems. They’re taking steps to figure things out on their own.
Additionally, it stopped after four books which seems to have been the plan, but a lot of things were left open-ended or to be picked up later, and as someone who likes conclusions in her stories, it made me want to know more.
I enjoy how each girl and her family life feels distinct and you can see subtly maturity in each. Carolyn becomes less fearful of meeting strangers and the cosmopolitan city of New York. She advocates for herself with her father and becomes more independent.
Joy is the most moody with her turbulent divorced parents, but she even sees the benefits of letting friends see her vulnerabilities even though she worries Maya and Carolyn are closer to each other than her.
Maya is the most adjusted of the three, I think, but even she learns about how to navigate a changing friendship with her bestie, Shana, who seems to dislike that she’s friends with white girls now.
My nitpicks are tiny: The POVs is third person omniscient between the three girls, not chapter by chapter, but by sentence to sentence sometimes which was confusing when I first began reading. The font doesn’t allow for italics nor does the author put quotation marks to distinguish internal thoughts which makes it hard to distinguish between internal thoughts and stuff said out loud.
Also since it’s focused on the photography class, most of the story takes place in their free time afterschool, but I am a little curious to what they’re school life is like. Especially as Joy repeatedly mentions the snobbish mean girls in her private school that have obviously given her an inferiority complex, and the fact that Maya and Carolyn go to school together. I expected more drama could be wrung from that.
Otherwise, this is a great time capsule to 2002, and a grittier NY with such cool “new” technology like digital cameras and photoshop. Yet the struggles of growing up remain unchanged.
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Ranking Lively St. Lemons
Lively St. Lemons is a small village with intense political rivalries between the Whigs and Tories. But that’s a side note to the intricacies of the population therein.
1. Sweet Disorder: Phoebe Sparks is such a unique heroine in the historical romance genre. She’s plus-sized, hot-tempered, has intense maternal desire, and a dirty mind. She has layers is what I mean and doesn’t fit neatly into tropes. Same with the MC, Nicholas Drymond who is the black sheep in the political heavyweight Whig family. He has a limp from the war as well as intense insecurities in trying to please his family, his acquaintances, everyone he meets that he’s unsure of what he really wants. I really enjoy how Lerner explores the nuances of toxic family members, and the caregiving role Phoebe hoists on herself. Same with the new take on a complicated former marriage that has left Phoebe uncertain she wants to marry again. Plus it has political intrigue, and steamy scenes (he’s a sub! I know, another rare thing in historical romance but fits perfectly with his fears of not disappointing anyone and wanting someone to give him direct orders). It’s just a unique gem in the genre with great characterization.
2. A Taste of Honey: For only a novella, Lerner packs a lot of feels and spice in a pastry shop. Robert Moon is the adorkable owner of the local confectionary who’s in danger of becoming bankrupt. Betsy is his loyal right-hand who wants him to realize she can shoulder the struggles of the pastry shop as a helpmeet, not a burden of a wife. Set over the course of a week, things move fast, but Lerner creates an easy intimacy, different sort of sex scenes that take advantage of the setting, and make one root for this genial couple to make it work.
3. False Pretenses: Most of these stories deal with the members of the Whig party, but the second book follows Lydia Reeves, hostess and patroness of the Tory party as she falls for a Jewish swindler, Asher Cohen. The scandal, but as Ash is trying to go straight, you can believe their connection is real while keeping on the edge of their seat as Lydia that maybe it’s not as real as it could be. The reason it comes third is because Ash may be Jewish, he is very divorced from it, so it didn’t feel as much of a deal as it could be. Which is the point as he often points out he passes as a gentile as long as he has a gentile name and doesn’t pull off his pants. There are mentions tat Lydia is suddenly interested in helping Jewish charities but it’s also off-page, and just feels like if Lerner’s going to add that to a MC’s identity, they could go further with it.
4. Listen to the Moon: The saucy maid, Sukey, and stuffy valet, John Toogood were interesting supporting characters in Sweet Disorder, and their opposites attract vibe in a marriage of convenience makes a good spark, but it could fan the flames of a 300 page book. They were interesting by themselves, but the novel didn’t interest me. It felt like a drag, and could have ended 100 pages earlier.
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Rachel Reads & Reviews 