Reviewed by Addison Ciuchta

A fun and hopeful read about friendship, loyalty, and love

Turn Around is set in Stadium, Texas, a small football-centric town. Heather Ramsay is up for a promotion to principal of Stadium High, her marriage is strained, and her daughter keeps changing her college major, causing the family financial hardship to cover her tuition.

Luckily, she has a tight-knit group of friends who are part of a running club who lend her clothes to wear for her confirmation as new principal and offer emotional support when, out of nowhere, the school board gives the principal job to a newcomer instead. Now she’s not only faced with being passed over by the board, but also Heather’s financial situation is floundering without the promotion, and she must deal with the demands of the new principal who doesn’t seem to understand Stadium’s culture. Will Heather, her marriage, and her friendships make it in the face of rising tensions as the principal makes decisions that send shockwaves throughout their small community?

Turn Around is great at tugging on emotional heartstrings for Heather as the downfalls she face just keep piling up on her. Each time she seems to find some stable ground, yet another thing happens to set her back in a new way. Not only is she passed up for the principal job, but she’s also dealing with her marriage problems, tuition money, a critical mother, a difficult new boss, and an outraged community as she carries out the new principal’s rules despite how wrong they seem for her school. Rules like a strict attendance policy which, in their small town where many of the students work on their parents’ farms or miss class for football, is a difficult standard for many to meet causing some players to be unable to play, resulting in backlash from the community.

In the face of it all, though, she’s determined to find a solution, sacrificing even her most favorite things to make ends meet. She does it for her daughter. She reaches out to her husband even when it often ends in arguments. She shows up for work every day and does more than she’s asked for the students she loves. Her passion is what makes her a character who is easy to connect to and root for, putting all her efforts into a job that often has little to no acknowledgement but finding purpose in the job anyway. I also adored her love for raising chickens, her fancy chicken coop and all. The chickens really showcase her personality and even in her friends’ personalities.

The pacing does seem slightly off. The vast majority of this relatively short book is rising tension with new and added stakes stacking on top of each other from maybe too many directions. Then the resolution feels a little short and storylines wrap up too abruptly, like those involving her mother and the football coach.

While there might be slightly too many of them, the sources of tension in the book all touch on the troubles of everyday life. They make perfect sense for Heather and the parameters of her life. These aren’t the grandiose tensions of an action-packed thriller, but the tensions of daily life in the form of financial stress, relationship problems, workplace disappointment, and sacrificing what she loves for the sake of her family. These are things almost everyone has experienced, and the author does a great job of scaling the story to the characters and the setting.

The friend group is where the heart of this book truly lives, as Heather and her friends support, push, and take care of each other in their times of need. Based on the epilogue, the next book in the series will focus on one of Heather’s friends, with hopefully more to follow. I look forward to reading more about their dynamics, history, and their quirky small town from the others’ points of view in the future.

Turn Around is a sweet, heartwarming story of friendship, strength, and perseverance in the face of daily struggles. It’s not a grand adventure of a novel but a quiet peek into the lives of Heather and the residents of Stadium, Texas. I’d recommend Turn Around as a book club pick or for those looking for something hopeful and realistic.

Thank you for reading Addison Ciuchta’s book review of Turn Around by Carole Wolfe! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Victoria Lilly

a poignant drama of self-denial and loss, of false starts and dashed hopes, and coming into one’s own in spite of it all

Lacie Johnson seems like she has the perfect life: a huge house in San Diego, a rich husband, and—now that her daughters have grown up—all the time in the world. The perfection is, however, paper-thin.

Lacie’s husband Derek is unfaithful and makes her miserable, she has struggled with mental health and substance abuse, her daughters have drifted away, and no amount of luxury can substitute a lack of purpose. Lacie’s ideas about divorce and a master’s degree in architecture as solutions to these issues are violently interrupted when Derek suffers a stroke and lapsing into a coma. 

In the hospital where Derek is undergoing treatment, Lacie accidentally runs into the former riot grrrl rockstar Quinn Greaves, who is visiting a terminally ill friend. Except, of course, the meeting was no accident at all, for Quinn has come to San Diego from the East Coast seeking out Derek—the father of her recently deceased daughter Liv.

The two take to each other from the start, bonding through shared experiences of loss and motherhood. Quinn’s charm and Lacie’s generosity endear them to one another, igniting in Lacie a desire which she has denied herself all her life.

Meanwhile, Quinn finds a balm for the grief of losing Liv in Lacie’s kindness and the prospect of a relationship. As repeated encounters intertwine their lives and families, the attraction between them is fanned into flames. For both women, the other is a chance at a new life. The problem is, Quinn never seems to find the right time to confess her past affair with Derek.  

Despite the central romantic entanglement, All This Can Be True is not a genre romance. Familial relations, friendships, challenges of overcoming grief, and complexities of one’s sexuality make the novel a sweeping drama.

Indeed, the book is at its strongest when it embraces its literary elements. This is, at its heart, a middle-aged woman’s coming-of-age story with all the baggage and the mess that entails. Even in the progressive parts of the world, there are plenty of reasons why a young woman might not embrace her queer sexuality that might have nothing to do with internalized homophobia. Lacie has never truly explored her desires or ambitions because she came from poverty and misery and saw in Derek her one chance to escape her life.

The most powerful parts of the novel are those which fully delve into Lacie’s interiority and explore the dynamics of her relationships with her unfaithful husband, standoffish daughter Rachel, best friend Marcie from Narcotics Anonymous, and almost-lover Helen. Michalski leaps back and forth between the novel’s present and Lacie’s and Quinn’s memories with a deft hand, seamlessly interweaving past mistakes and present challenges.

The story is alternately told through Lacie’s and Quinn’s points of view; however, the latter’s chapters are much shorter, resulting in an asymmetry between the two’s development. Quinn is compelling in her contradictions of charisma and cowardice, kindness and flighty carelessness, but I longed for more from her, like her relationship with her dying best friend or her former bandmates.

There is a lot packed into this relatively short book, but thanks to strong writing and the engaging principal characters, the narrative never loses focus or waters down its themes. A story of this sort, a coming-of-age for (very) late bloomers, is rare and sorely needed. All This Can Be True is realist literary fiction that packs a strong emotional punch.

Thank you for reading Victoria Lilly’s book review of All This Can Be True by Jen Michalski! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Samantha Hui

A raw and compelling look at the cost of self-sacrifice and personal growth

Jealousy and resentment can never be a substitute for passion. Through the lens of a young man caught between his fading dreams of stardom, the weight of family obligations, and his own fractured identity, Kat Caldwell’s Bended Loyalty delves deep into the complex emotions that come with trying to escape the shadows of those we love. 

“He had been dreaming about watching Meegan singing on stage. At one point in the dream, he was hooting and clapping for Meegan, and in the next, he was shrinking in size with every note that she sang. And no one noticed.”

Tristen Levisay is on the verge of stardom. His rock band, The Seethers, which he co-leads with his twin brother Talon, is opening for the popular rock band The Art of Rendering. Together, Tristen and his beautiful and talented girlfriend Meegan are destined to be famous musicians—at least, that’s what Tristen believes. Everything changes when The Art of Rendering makes a surprise announcement: Talon will be replacing their lead singer. 

“He preferred a girlfriend with high expectations over one who wouldn’t fit where he was eventually going. Because at some point, he would be on top, far from where he was now.”

As The Seethers fall apart, so do Tristen’s dreams of becoming a famous musician. Things take a turn for the worse when Meegan’s wealthy and powerful father forces her to kick Tristen out of her house unless he can prove he can support himself. With no other choice, Tristen moves back in with his erratic mother, Ivy.

Discovering that Ivy is deep in debt due to poor investments, Tristen returns to his childhood gig—fighting in illegal underground boxing matches as one half of the Pelton Vikings—to pay off her debts. Meanwhile, he takes on a day job as a freelance music producer to appease Meegan and her controlling father. 

As Tristen’s commitments pile up, he finds himself trapped in a cycle of resentment toward his brother, his mother, and his painful childhood. He must confront whether his struggles are the result of external forces or his own choices.

“Tristen hated being told stuff like that. Forgiveness is better and all that. Walking away from people who are incapable of treating you like a person is better.”

Bended Loyalty is a gripping exploration of addiction, poverty, and personal growth. Tristen makes for a sympathetic protagonist, one whose frustrations with unwanted responsibility and emotional restraint will resonate with many readers. 

Throughout the novel, he’s often seen as the “loser twin,” overshadowed by his self-absorbed brother. Tristen is left to pick up the pieces and solve everyone else’s problems, yet as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this mentality, though rooted in good intentions, acts as a crutch that prevents him from moving forward.

“How many times had a teacher or neighbor or someone in town told him in not so many words that he was a loser. Just because of who his mom was, how poor they were, or any other number of things.”

Caldwell’s writing is ambitious, creating complex, multi-dimensional characters within rich, intricate storylines. Told entirely from Tristen’s perspective, the novel offers glimpses into the insecurities of the other characters at the same time as Tristen uncovers them. 

Tristen is an unreliable narrator to not only the audience but also to himself. As an unreliable narrator, Tristen’s obsession with proving himself distorts his perception of his career, his relationships, and his own identity. He longs for things not because they are what he truly wants, but because he believes they are what the person he thinks he should be would desire. 

“Tristen shook the memories away, but they stubbornly clung to him.”

Bended Loyalty is dramatic, entertaining, and thoughtful. Caldwell’s skillful writing builds tension, leaving readers turning the pages with gritted teeth, hoping for Tristen to finally find the redemption he so desperately seeks. This book is a must read for those who feel trapped in the self-destructive cycle of obligation and people-pleasing. 

Thank you for reading Samantha Hui’s book review of Bended Loyalty by Kat Caldwell! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Samantha Hui | Content warnings: child abuse, suicide, addiction, depression

A caring story about how we must not mistake re-creating the past for creating a present 

“It’s easy for some people to look at a situation from the outside and call it by a certain name, even if that name is wrong. It makes them feel safe. In control.”

Sometimes, though we find ourselves in stories that weren’t written for us, we must suffer the consequences and climb our way out. Susan Quilty’s To the Left of Death explores how our search for answers to “Why?” and “How come?” can be not only futile but detrimental. The novel offers an empathic yet candid perspective on how PTSD can lead victims to make unfavorable choices and lose themselves to the trauma.

“I think some events go beyond giving you a wiser point of view. Some memories–some thoughts–seep in, even after the scarring of the tragedy itself, and they continue to eat away at the person you once were.”

She is a former artist. She is a former teacher. She is George’s wife and Jessica’s sister. She is the witness and possible accessory to a murder. The third grade teacher thought she and her coworker, Liz, were performing a well-intentioned wellness check on her struggling student and the student’s father, Ed. 

Three years later, she still suffers from the trauma of cradling Ed’s bloody and lifeless body after he is shot by Liz. She now lives in guilt and unresolved, unaddressed trauma; she is withdrawn from her relationships and career, she has gaps in her memory, and she has taken to drinking to dull the roar of her conscience. When she is compelled to take up art for the first time since college, old wounds—and investigations—are re-opened.

“My brain doesn’t work that way. When I step back and try to observe my own life, it looks more like a yard sale jigsaw: jumbled pieces from a mix of puzzles but not enough–or too many–to fit into a solid picture.”

To the Left of Death is structured in the style of journal entries written over the span of twenty-five days. The central character recounts the experiences of watching her older sister slowly lose her battle with cancer, witnessing the murder of Ed, and her subsequent spiral into her obsessive search for truth and answers. 

The epistolary style of the novel allow for a more compassionate and creative way of telling a story about the effects of trauma from the victim’s perspective: there are forgotten or falsified memories, irrational and impulsive behaviors and reactions, and readers get to experience the central character’s inner turmoil and attempts to reconcile current values with past events. 

“People lose themselves and find themselves over and over. It’s never easy.”

Early on in the story, the question of whether or not someone who cheats on their partner actually loves their partner is brought up. The book as a whole suggests that humans are too messy and complex for infidelity to be a simple yes or no question. Quilty’s writing demonstrates a commitment to telling a story with truth, accuracy, and most importantly compassion. In writing about not only the ugly side of mental illness but of the human experience as a whole, To the Left of Death prompts readers to consider their own preconceptions. 

“I do know that there’s more to life than the big moments. The traumas. The heartaches. The death. There are all these other complicated things. The social. The awkward. The figuring out where you belong and what you can, and should, and might be doing with this life that you never asked for but are now responsible to live. And those things are important to me.”

To the Left of Death is an expertly paced and beautifully written novel about the responsibility of living. The book tackles extremely heavy and uncomfortable stories and experiences such as child sexual assault, suicide, addiction, depression, and death. Readers should tread lightly. However, for those who are looking for unique, thoughtful storytelling about being more compassionate and empathetic, this book is a must read. Though the darkest moments in this book are devastating, the tender moments are sweet and well-deserved without feeling overly sentimental.

Thank you for reading Samantha Hui’s book review of To the Left of Death by Susan Quilty! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Frankie Martinez

An evocative summertime read about the unbreakable bond between sisters

Emma never wanted a sister: “I won’t lend her my toys. But I do like her teddy.” After Agathe is born, trouble follows close behind, leading with their parents’ sudden divorce and their father’s unexpected death.

Agathe crawls into Emma’s bed for comfort every night as children, and Emma feels the burden of being her caretaker hang heavy on her shoulders. Her only respite? The idyllic summers that she and Agathe spent with their grandmother in the Basque Country, away from the abuse at the hands of their mother. 

Years later, Emma and Agathe reunite for one more summer at their Mima’s house in Anglet shortly after she passes. Well into adulthood with their own separate lives—Emma with a family of her own and Agathe with a career she loves—the sisters do their best to keep things light. However, the resale of their beloved grandmother’s home and the finality of what feels like their last summer together looms over them, along with the ghosts of the very recent past, including Emma’s refusal to speak to their mother and Agathe’s tremendous struggles with mental health. 

Bittersweet and nostalgic, A Good Life is the story of two siblings struggling desperately to make peace with each other after living through harsh circumstances together. Told in first-person and switching between Agathe and Emma’s perspectives in both the past and the present, Grimaldie renders a portrait of a troubled family both tender and heart-wrenching. 

At the center of this family are Emma and Agathe, who are both beautifully portrayed. With both of their perspectives on full display throughout the novel, Emma’s begrudging, Type-A older sister acts as a foil to Agathe’s free-spirited, playful younger sister. Grimaldie captures the core of a sibling relationship where there is unfailing love despite the past, little hurts—Emma spoiling the ending of Titanic for Agathe, Agathe abandoning Emma on the night of a bad breakup. These interactions are fraught in past and present, but Grimaldie makes sure to highlight the good times as well, especially in their present timeline; exploring their Mima’s attic for hidden treasures, grocery shopping for new things to try, and inside jokes about their penny-pinching Uncle Jean-Yves. 

With its highly introspective points of view, there are times when the narrative hints at future conflict a little too heavily, but Grimaldie balances it with satisfying, atmospheric scene-setting. Flashbacks to Emma and Agathe’s childhood are very set in a specific time, referencing a world of Casios and Kurt Cobain, and the present day is filled with picaresque nature in the Basque Country, where Emma and Agathe hike up the Rhune mountain and see the Pottok ponies, stargaze in the hills of Itxassou, and days spent next to the ocean: “I don’t know how I ended up here. I drove aimlessly, carried along by memories of bygone summers. The ocean is at my feet, the water lapping at my toes. It’s calm today. The sun warms my back, I lift my dress and walk a few steps.”  

With its nuanced portrayal of sisterhood, nostalgic flashbacks, and revitalizing moments in nature, A Good Life is the perfect book for a lazy, quiet summer day.

Thank you for reading Frankie Martinez’s book review of A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

An empowering hero’s journey that weaves a workplace drama, abuse investigation, and brazen motherhood confessional into a high-stakes, heartwarming tale of retribution

“Carlton’s going to pay. I’m going to get his job. I’m going to save the world. Or at least the call center. And maybe the paper? And Carmen. I’m going to save Carmen.” 

Not That Kind of Call Girl follows Julia Navarro, a brilliant, admirable call-center manager on her journey to save the newspaper she works at from closing down and to rescue her employee from an abusive home—while struggling with the unexpected devastation she feels at being new to motherhood. Julia should be enjoying a relaxing few months acclimating to being a mom; instead, she finds herself leading a high-stakes investigation and rescue operation. Author Nova García writes Julia’s experience as a woman of color in the workplace with refreshing clarity, convincingly incorporating the nuances that come with balancing our humanity and survival instincts.

We first meet Julia Navarro while she’s preparing for her maternity leave. Julia, who supervises a team of call-center workers at the customer care line for a local newspaper (the story is set in 2016-2017), is interviewing a new employee and relying on her list-making skills to accomplish all the necessary tasks on time. But these lists are quickly deemed irrelevant when her water breaks right in the office, weeks earlier than she’s planned for. And that’s just the beginning of the way motherhood shakes up her life. 

“Baby Love Magazine said Trey was too young for a bottle as it might disrupt the mother-child bond. Screw Baby Love Magazine, she told herself. A bond? What bond?”   

Nova García writes with piercing authenticity the experience of being a new mom and not feeling like you’re cut out for the job. Julia doesn’t feel connected to the baby, or her body, frequently mentioning that she’d like to give the baby back. She’s relieved when her annoying and unprofessional boss, Carlton, asks her to cut her maternity leave short, not least because she could use the distraction (“Home, a former place of refuge and rejuvenation, had become a house of sadness and setbacks”).

Julia’s return to work means that she can resume her reinvestigation to Carmen, the intriguing young woman who she interviewed for a position on Julia’s team at The Cascade City Chronicle the day her water broke. In following up on Carmen’s application, Julia realizes that Carmen’s job reference is a paranoid, grumpy Old Hollywood actor who is prone to theft and gun violence, and lives at the same address as her new employee. 

When Carmen doesn’t show up to work on her first day, despite begging for the job, Julia and her team investigate further. Learning that Carmen’s abusive home life is much more complex, dramatic, and intimidating than anyone at the Chronicle could imagine heightens Julia and her team’s commitment to rescuing Carmen.

Julia is a hero in so many ways: She teams up with her work bestie to break a news story about very powerful men who have been trafficking women from Mexico and keeping them locked in their homes, forcing them to work for no pay under abusive situations. She’s also a hero in the small moments when she chooses to offer human kindness to her employees and friends without a second thought. She’s passionate about protecting and caring for her staff in practical ways that support them as best as she can. 

In the hands of another author, Julia may be seen as incompetent or indecisive, but written by García, Julia is as those of us who have lived variations of her everyday life know her to be: Brave, organized, determined, and innovative. She’s a problem solver operating at levels that far exceed the tools she’s been given. 

Reading Not That Kind of Call Girl is spending quality time with Julia—who is struggling profoundly but still managing to find humor and community in her everyday life. García incorporates a sense of playfulness by introducing each new chapter with amusing newspaper headlines like, “Otter Devastation, Harmful Chemicals Discovered 10 in Pacific Northwest Otter Population”, “Café Owners Martin and Bridget Beach Welcome Twins Rocky and Sandy”, and “Lost Boa Constrictor May Be Linked to Poodle Disappearance.”

The book’s title is a play on Julia’s words in a pivotal scene where she is sexually harassed at a supposed work event, throwing the term “call girl” back at the man.   She’s a call center supervisor, not a sex worker, but she’s leered at in the same way; her boss, Carlton, regularly commenting on the desirability of her body and sexualizing her ethnicity. For much of the story, Julia defends herself in the moment but does not formalize her complaints, for reasons many readers will know firsthand: She must maintain social stability so she can keep her job and keep her place in the running for a promotion. I don’t know any women or people of color who wouldn’t find Julia’s experience extremely relatable: “She’d thought about turning him in—many times— but wanted his job, and filing a complaint might backfire on her. Plus, the whole thing embarrassed her. Did she want to repeat lines like, “Do you have a sunburn, or are you always this hot?” to someone in a position of authority?”

I deeply appreciated the varied explorations of motherhood throughout this book: Julia is a new mom who feels no connection to her first child: “Turns out, motherhood’s not exactly my thing. I’m always irritated and want nothing more than to get sucked into a black hole and disappear like—Amelia Earhart—or—or—obliterated by an asteroid like the dinosaurs. Am I allowed to say that? I’d rather disappear like Amelia Earhart than be a mother.” We also experience Julia’s relationship with her mother, who calls Julia to describe her strange dreams in detail, and shows up unannounced to meet her grandchild and then never leaves. Carmen, the new employee who shows signs of domestic abuse, is living under those desperate and terrifying conditions with her mother, who refuses to leave the man who tricked and trafficked them, no matter how cruel and threatening he is. Kelvin, one of the employees who helps Carmen and Julia, is surprised by a visit from his mom, too, and she makes herself known immediately. 

Readers should be awarethat there are discussions and descriptions of involuntary domestic servitude (discussed on page as “domestic slavery”), domestic abuse, and mentions of rape throughout this book. Carmen and her mother experience physical, verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of the man who trafficked them from Mexico. He keeps them captive in his house, manipulating and blackmailing them, using starvation as a tool of control. There’s xenophobia and racism directed at these women and Julia for their shared Mexican heritage. Julia is also haunted by decades of her mother’s fatphobic comments about her appearance. Rather than weighing down the tone of the book, these heartaches and horrors add a level of authenticity that motivates Julia to complete her mission to both save Carmen and defeat her toxic boss. I also appreciated how supportive and generously kind Julia’s doctor is, providing Julia with support and encouragement in addition to postpartum antidepressants and medical advice.

I found it strange that, even when news articles quoted experts in the field, this book does not address the well-known fact that victims of abuse (however the situation began) struggle to leave for various valid reasons. Instead, the novel attributes this reluctance to Stockholm Syndrome. It felt like a common and obvious response left unaddressed or misattributed. The other resolution I found uncomfortable is that Carmen falls quickly into a relationship with Julia’s colleague, Kelvin, after he invites Carmen to live with him when she ran away from the abusive man. It’s written cautiously at first, but ultimately forms part of Carmen’s “happy ending,” which feels off considering so much of the story shows the mental and emotional damage that being saved from danger in Mexico. That said, most moments throughout the story, and particularly in the newspaper report at the end, Not That Kind of Call Girl is compassionate toward its victims of abuse, honoring them for the strength it takes to endure, escape, and seek help: “They deserve our support for their bravery and quiet perseverance in harrowing, brutal circumstances. They survived. By God, they survived.”

This novel will feel relatable to anyone who has worked in a call center and knows the sense of family you build with the most random collection of people simply by working strange hours and handling outlandish customer complaints. Not That Kind of Call Girl would be a fantastic, healing read for moms who felt shame and guilt for not feeling an immediate connection with their child. If and when the reader is ready for a storyline that represents these difficult topics, I believe this book could be a great source of comfort and support, simply in knowing they’re not alone. There’s a sadness to witnessing Julia grit her teeth to distract and please her husband, keeping it to herself that “her desire for sex equaled her desire for gangrene.” At the same time, there’s tremendous hope in seeing everything that Julia accomplishes in her personal and professional life, despite having to navigate through the haze of heartache, nipple duct infections, and a husband who wishes out loud for the return of the fiery version of herself that wanted to have sex with him anywhere and everywhere.

I’d highly recommend Not That Kind of Call Girl to readers who enjoy a cozy mystery (Julia’s colleagues and social circle working together to help Carmen has the same energy as a small town solving a murder in their midst), and to new moms who want to see the difficult, not-at-all-picturesque side of their lifestyle without any judgment. I’m so interested in reading whatever the author writes next. 

Thank you for reading Andrea Marks-Joseph’s book review of Not That Kind of Call Girl by Nova García! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Elizabeth Zender | Content Warnings: Sexual assault

Experience falling in love slowly, completely, and sweetly.

Kennedy’s past is full of hurt. It’s hard for her to heal from what happened to her. Her friends provide a great support system and her therapist gave her great techniques, but it doesn’t seem to move her forward at the pace she’d like. 

Then, in comes Rhys, a friend of a friend whose own past propels him forward at the speed of light toward recovery. He meets Kennedy and his whole world is set back in motion. Kennedy has made rejecting men an artform as well as a protective measure, and that wall she’s built begins to crack when Rhys is around. Maybe it is possible for her to feel safe after all.

Cortney Raymond crafts a compelling story about the journey of recovery and, as the title aptly puts it, finding what it means to be okay. For sexual assault victims like Kennedy, defining what “okay” even means can be difficult. Her parents don’t understand and cannot help her. Her friends, Dillion and Erin, hope to help her move forward. But it is ultimately never going to be an easy road. Being “okay” will no longer look like what it meant before her trauma. Kennedy was set on her “okay” looking like a future of being alone. When she meets Rhys, she sees the possibility of something different, and that terrifies her.

Rhys is forever the gentleman in Kennedy’s life, a man who we can all wish would leap off the pages and into our lives. Raymond deserves a round of applause for creating such a man, one who is always on the lookout for ways to keep Kennedy safe, even at the expense of his own desire to date her. He is the promise of help in a world that is increasingly difficult to navigate. He may turn out to be just what Kennedy needs in order to find her footing.

Raymond’s love story is about trust when trusting someone feels like a luxury. Falling in love feels dangerous enough at times, and falling in love when you have such deep seeded trauma in your life can feel impossible. Rhys and Kennedy’s stories show readers the process of learning how to feel safe again. It isn’t a straight line; sometimes, it’s one step forward, four steps back. It may feel scary, dangerous even, just like falling in love. Read The Meaning of Okay to find out if Rhys and Kennedy find trust, healing, and each other to be worth the risk.

Thank you for reading Elizabeth Zender’s book review of The Meaning of Okay by Cortney Raymond! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Samantha Hui

 A cozy novel with the charm of small-town life and the reassurance that we are resilient and capable of love

Grief can alter us to the same capacity that love can. Where love can fill us up and make us feel whole, grief has the tendency to break us down, to make us feel a loneliness never experienced before. 

Anne Marie Bennett’s Sea Glass Memories explores the strength it takes to move beyond grief. Readers will follow the emotional growth of the main character and become encouraged to take their lives back into their own hands. This novel reminds us that to grieve is to love and to love is to carry on.

“I’ve come to believe that we go on… not just because we should, but because there is something larger, something greater than we are, that invites us to continue, in spite of the pain, in spite of the heartache.”

Elena Jefferies is new to Seahaven. Encouraged to move to a new town by her caring brother Carlos and wise therapist Camille, Elena begins her journey of reclaiming her life after the death of her husband Marc. In this new town, Elena faces her grief head on by joining a support group, building friendships with the local townspeople, and taking another chance at love with a couple romantic prospects. 

“’Grief is not a contest,’ I reply softly. ‘Sad stories are sad stories.’”

While Elena is the main character of the novel, there are a few chapters dedicated to telling the story of Elena’s kind landlady Kit Gilmore. We learn that Kit mourned the death of her fiancé Ollie when they were both only twenty years old. In spite of over forty years passing, Kit still feels the pain of losing a soulmate. 

As the story closely follows both Elena and Kit navigating life after losing their partners, we see how long grief can still have its effect on someone. But the stories for Elena and Kit are ultimately joyful and full of love.

“Yes, we have to be careful with pieces of broken glass, just like we have to be careful with our grief. But with time and the roughness of the ocean, the sharp edges of fragmented glass become smoother.”

I love how cozy this book feels—one that could be read on the beach or while tucked in, warm under the covers. The comfort of this book can be attributed to the kind nature of all the characters in it. There are no villains in Elena’s story; there is only the obstacle of grief. The people Elena meets and builds relationships with are kind and are in her life for as long as they need to be. 

For example, Elena grows a romantic attraction with the traveling stage actor Ryan who is set to leave Seahaven once he lands a role on Broadway. There is no “will they, won’t they” subplot; Elena and Ryan are in each other’s lives for the time that they have together because it was meant to be that way.

“We choose what we think is best for us in the moment and live with the outcomes.”

I recommend this book to those who are still grieving loved ones or those who feel a bit lost in life. Elena is such a relatable and likable character, and audiences are bound to learn from her strength, loyalty, and capacity to love. Sea Glass Memories is a heartwarming novel that shows us that living is not merely a passive verb, but an action we must take into our own hands.

Thank you for reading Samantha Hui’s book review of Sea Glass Memories by Anne Marie Bennett! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Tucker Lieberman

Religious differences collide in this warm-hearted family drama.

Bruce J. Berger’s To See God is a tale of family members trying to do right by each other but testing each other’s patience in the process. At the center is a child whose single mother is in a vulnerable situation. 

This is a gentle narrative of people talking through their differences, a story punctuated by sudden realizations that spur them to take brave actions. 

Sister Theodora’s old name was Kal. She was a Greek Jewish girl who survived the Holocaust. After she prayed to the Virgin (the Theotokos) and survived, she converted to Orthodox Christianity and became a nun. This is where she abandoned her old name.

Her brother, Nicky, believing she was dead, emigrated to the United States, where he practiced psychiatry and raised a family. His daughter Kayla became a teenage mother. 

To See God opens in 1990, a year when the gaps in this family narrative ache for resolution. Nicky, having recently discovered his sister is still alive, visited her in Greece and sent her followup letters she didn’t answer. 

Theodora is in her own world. At her monastery, the Abbess, Mother Fevronia, had once believed without evidence that the vineyard grapes were tart because they grew on a mass grave, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that Fevronia entertains Theodora’s claims of seeing visions of Jesus. She’s more surprised by the way Theodora springs   the topic: “Did you know Jesus is black?”

One might be skeptical of Theodora’s vision for a number of reasons. She survived traumatic violence in the Holocaust, and her niece has schizophrenia (which runs in families). She says Jesus is speaking to her even though she wasn’t raised Christian, and she believes he’s coming back to Earth to usher in a new age. Jesus’s skin color isn’t the real eyebrow-raiser here; it’s that he’s seven years old and related to her. Sister Theodora’s Jesus is Jackie, her brother’s grandson.

Jackie’s biological father is a violinist of Caribbean descent. He hasn’t been involved in parenting the boy, so Jackie has grown up with his mother’s family, raised as an observant Jew. The father has recently reappeared and is seeking custody in court, on the grounds that Kayla, with her mental illness, might be a danger to the boy.

The nuns process their concerns about Jackie in theological terms: “If you’ve concluded that Jesus is black, if you want to call Him so, our tradition allows that view,” Fevronia counsels Theodora. But the boy’s family, dealing with a custody battle, is concerned with other matters.

Theodora—who speaks Greek, not English—wants to go to the United States to meet the boy. What follows in To See God is not an End Times drama but a story of family reunification. Nicky is motivated to resurrect what remains of his family connections. By contrast, Theodora is a true believer who experiences life solely in religious terms, and she is uninterested in hugging her brother at the airport, “looking not at him but at the floor, crossing herself.” Kayla, barely an adult, wants to be a good mother and is ready to accept help. Jackie wants to know why his great-aunt “dresses like that, in this black robe, and why she stopped being Jewish.” 

Nicky’s family observes the Sabbath strictly, and they enjoy traditional Jewish food like rugelach (filled pastries) while conversing in bits of Greek. Their discussions are caring but also careful. They tread lightly, aware of each other’s emotional vulnerabilities and the fragility of their bonds.

The author is a seasoned trial lawyer, and this comes through in the courtroom drama. Jackie is assigned a guardian ad litem to defend his interests in court. His mother is questioned about why she never applied for child support. 

Against this legal backdrop, the tension builds, leading us to ask: How can this family hold itself together? How can they preserve who they are? The crisis is believable, and Berger clearly shows us the risks and stresses involved when courts decide child custody.

From this novel, readers might take away the message that each of us has a mission. We can’t always avoid interpersonal conflict, and at these times, we move into the fray and navigate it. 

Life is messy, and our vision isn’t clear. Sometimes we try to save others, and sometimes we have to save ourselves. To See God walks us through the narrative of what we think we know, how we can accept each other’s differences, and how we can show up for each other.

Thank you for reading Tucker Lieberman’s book review of To See God by Bruce J. Berger! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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Reviewed by Jaylynn Korrell

How far must you go to escape your past?

After witnessing the death of her mother as a small child, Elise can’t ever seem to get it out of her mind. In an effort to restart her life after a mental hospital stay, she sets her sights on a future much brighter than her past. 

Darcy Lane does an excellent job of capturing the willpower necessary to continue on, the aching need to find purpose in life, and the risks that some people take to achieve it.

After returning home from a 2-year stay at a local mental hospital, Elise is more than ready to restart. She moves back in with her grandfather, but it doesn’t go as smoothly as she hoped. Just when the memories of her deceased mother begin to bog her down, she takes a chance on the local bus, and that one long ride gives Elise something to live for. 

A house on Darcy Lane becomes her new obsession, and the possibility of one day calling it home drives her to do things she never thought she was capable of. 

At just under 130 pages, this is a quick and satisfying story to read. Graham grips you with his introduction of Elise. With no context of what sent her to the mental hospital, readers quickly feel a sense of hopefulness in her situation and somehow confidence in her ability to succeed. I loved the mystery behind her past experience, as well as the lead-up into her future. 

Generational trauma pulses through the veins of this book. Much like Elise herself, her mother also lost her mother early in life. The pain of that experience for her, as well as the repercussions that came with it, are the backdrop for Elise’s childhood. 

Now it seems that she’s always outrunning the ghost of her mother in both her body and her mind. Upon her return, she’s put into contact with a couple of her mother’s childhood friends. With every piece of new information she learns about her mother, she unlocks a more similar version of herself. Our main character seems to unravel herself as she’s put into situations similar to ones her mom was put in at her age, and the path she chooses is one that turns her around.

What is ultimately a story of grief becomes entangled with the possibility of overcoming it, a wild pipe-dream that comes in the form of a quaint country home. With the house on Darcy Lane always in the background, I couldn’t help but imagine her life there—a life without the grief she’s forced to drag around. I am constantly hopeful that she’ll reach this goal too—a testament to Graham’s ability in character creation.

Thank you for reading Jaylynn Korrell’s book review of Darcy Lane by James T. Graham! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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