Two Wrongs Make a Right

Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese (2022) 320 pages

Bea's twin sister Julia and her fiancé, Jean-Claude, decide to fix Bea up with Jean-Claude's roommate, Jamie. The last thing Bea wants is a boyfriend, having come off a bad relationship that she's still feeling 18 months later. Jamie seems stiff and serious, so unlike Bea, who is artistic, neurodivergent and rather tattooed. Their interactions are positive in the physical sense, but "ick" in the social sense. When Julia and Jean-Claude persist in trying to get them together, Bea and Jamie decide to pretend to fall for each other, with the thought that they will have a big break-up in a few months in order to forever discourage the would-be matchmakers from trying again.

It's a stretch to believe that this strategy will work, but it puts into play a storyline into the inner workings of the couple, individually and together, and we see how their previous relationships affected them. The novel also shows lots of family relationships, some good, some not-so-good. Neurodivergence seems to be cropping up in novels more often lately, and I thought it was handled well in this story. Even though I thought the plot was contrived, I still wanted to see how everything worked out.

Goblin Mode

 Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McKayla Coyle, 208 pages.

This is a pretty cute lifestyle/self-care type book that has the addition of many crafts and projects. It's light and fun, and some of the projects in here seem pretty fun. I think I'll probably try my hand at taking a mushroom spore print at sometime. I will warn that the chapter on foraging is not very good for multiple reasons, and I would recommend taking it with a heavy grain of salt. There isn't a whole lot of substance in this book, but it is very fun to flip through.

All Good People Here

 All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers, 336 pages.

Margot Davies has been haunted her whole life by the murder of January Jacobs, her childhood neighbor and friend who was murdered when they were six. When she returns to her uncle's house in Wakarusa, Indiana, she finds that very little has changed. Soon after she arrives another little girl in the next town over is murdered, and the cases look similar to her reporter's eye. As she begins to investigate she finds plenty of secrets in the quiet town, and she'll need to find even more to solve a murder that's twenty years cold.

I quite liked this twisty mystery. It did a really good job having a mystery that was easy enough to follow (and to often get exactly one or two steps ahead of), but was not so obvious that it offered no surprises. It's the kind of book that makes me feel a little clever reading it. Although I will admit that by the end there are so many twists that the series of events twenty years ago begins to feel extremely improbable (I won't elaborate for spoilers reasons). I found the ending frustrating, and overall found Flowers' second book a more compelling portrayal of small town life, but I still thought this was a really interesting book, and an engaging mystery.

I Didn't Do It

I Didn't Do It: Thriller Writer Conventions Can Be Murder by Jaime Lynn Hendricks  325 pp.

The title pretty much says it all. Murder mystery and thriller writers are gathered in New York City for Murderpalooza, a convention of the industry's best and brightest and those who aspire to be them. The high point of the convention is the awarding of a prize for the best thriller author of the year. But the front runner is found murdered in her hotel room. Four other authors are receiving Twitter (before it was X) messages saying they may be killed next. Whoever is sending the tweets seems to know the dirty secrets of all four. They band together to find the murderer while still suspecting one of their group may be the killer. The twist at the end is somewhat of a surprise. It's a fun ride.

The Fixer Upper

The Fixer Upper by Lauren Forsythe (2022) 286 pages

Aly runs into a former boyfriend and was startled to learn that he was married and doing well and that he credited his success to her, for pushing him to make some life changes. Aly's work friends, Tola and Eric, note that she's really good at this kind of thing, and as a lark, they start helping women they know by injecting themselves into situations where they play-act near the woman's partner, which helps move that partner to make some changes in how they behave, improving the relationships.

Their Fixer Upper group becomes so successful that they are approached by Nicki, a well-known social media influencer, who would like for them to get her boyfriend to propose marriage to her. When the boyfriend turns out to be Aly's old best friend from high school, whom she has now avoided for fifteen years, she finds herself feeling conflicted. Added to that, she has been dealing with her divorced parents' issues and her quest for a promotion at work. 

This is a fast read with many memorable and/or likeable characters.

The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise

The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley 341 pp.

Tanner Quimby is a 21 year old former college student whose dreams were shattered when an injury put an end to her soccer career and her scholarship. Louise Wilts is an elderly woman recovering from a broken hip whose children decide she needs a live-in caretaker even though she is able to care for herself. Tanner takes the job which allows her to play video games most of the day and drive Louise to her various appointments. Then things get weird. Tanner becomes the driver on a sudden cross country trip with Louise to save an old friend of hers. Meanwhile the FBI are on their tail believing Mrs. Wilts to be a dangerous criminal mastermind and jewel thief who has kidnapped Tanner. The story is funny, heartwarming, and strange and I enjoyed it immensely. The audio narration is well done by Hillary Huber.   

How to Land a Plane

 

The Little Book of How to Land a Plane by Mark Vanhoenacker  64 pp.

At only 64 pages this is indeed a little book. And it is exactly what the title says, a book on how to land a plane, specifically a Boeing 747. Written by an experienced pilot of 747s who now pilots Boeing 787 Dreamliners for British Airways, the author gives a detailed explanation of the flying and landing process in mostly layman's terms with illustrations. Why would I choose to read this? Because when I was a young teen I wanted to be an airline pilot (later changed to surgeon and we know how that turned out).  

The Priory of the Orange Tree

 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, 830 pages. 

Tis' the season for all of us to be finishing the big book challenge for the summer! If you want to see a synopsis of this book, I would recommend scrolling down one post to see what Kara had to say.

As far as my own thoughts, I really enjoyed this book! The writing was engaging enough to make it seem shorter than it is (although it is already shorter than it looks). I really appreciate a fantasy novel with enough points of view to give you a good idea about what most of the world looks like, and it is definitely the case for this book that countries where people are from and spend time feel more real than ones we only talk about. A neat book overall, although I'm not sure I'm invested enough to read the other book in the setting. Although I am excited to talk about this one on Monday!

The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, 830 pages

In this hefty fantasy novel, Queen Sabran of Inys is the latest Berethnet woman in a 1,000-year line. She must give birth to a daughter to continue not only her matriarchal line, but also to keep the the fire-breathing wyrms at bay...or so say the religious prophecies of the land. Ead Duryan is one of Sabran's ladies in waiting, but she's also a powerful sorceress who was sent from the titular priory to protect Sabran and must hide that or risk persecution and death. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ocean, Tane has been training her whole life to become a dragonrider, the most esteemed warriors of her insular homeland. But when she breaks the land's largest taboo by letting in an outsider, her life's goals are suddenly imperiled — and her fate is unfortunately entwined with that of alchemist/con Niclays Roos, who was exiled from Inys years earlier for offending Sabran.

Phew! That's a lot to sum up in one paragraph, and it doesn't even scratch the surface of the intricacies of the plot and backstories. We've been discussing it for two months already, and I'm anxious to hear what the adult summer readers think of the ending when we discuss it on Monday.

China Rich Girlfriend & Rich People Problems

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan, 479 pages

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan, 397 pages

In these sequels to Crazy Rich Asians, we find Rachel and Nick finally ready to settle down, despite all of the Nick's family's worst intentions. While Nick's controlling mother and grandmother are persona non grata with the happy couple, that doesn't stop Eleanor Young from trying to weasel her way back into her son's life. And this time she has the trump card — she found Rachel's biological father, a man that Rachel's been searching the globe for since she learned about him in the first book. And in the final book of the trilogy, Nick's faced with a dilemma, as his estranged grandmother is dying. While their recent relationship has been rough, they were quite close when Nick was younger, to the point that EVERYONE knew that Nick was Ah Ma's favorite. Should he try to mend fences before it's too late? And if he tries, will his materialistic cousin Eddie even let him into the house?

While the first book was centered on the Youngs of Singapore, in these books, we also mingle with the uber-rich of Shanghai and Hong Kong, including Rachel's biological father and half-brother, social-climbing former porn actress Kitty Pong, and Nick's lovely and stylish cousin, Astrid. As always, the books are full of Kwan's trademark footnotes full of frothy gossip, slang translations, and jaw-dropping pricetags, all of which make this series fun and, to me at least, infinitely rereadable.