My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region by. Alina Adams | Book Excerpt

Title: My Mother’s Smile: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region

Author: Alina Adams

Pages: 353

Publication Date: 11/21/22

Categories: Historical Fiction

With his dying breath, Lena’s father asks his family a cryptic question: “You couldn’t tell, could you?” After his passing, Lena stumbles upon the answer that changes her life forever.

As her revolutionary neighbor mysteriously disappears during Josef Stalin’s Great Terror purges, 18-year-old Regina suspects that she’s the Kremlin’s next target. Under cover of the night, she flees from her parents’ communal apartment in 1930s Moscow to the 20th century’s first Jewish state, Birobidzhan, on the border between Russia and China. Once there, Regina has to grapple with her preconceived notions of socialism and Judaism while asking herself the eternal question: What do we owe each other? How can we best help one another? While she contends with these queries and struggles to help Birobidzhan establish itself, love and war are on the horizon.

New York Times Bestselling author Alina Adams draws on her own experiences as a Jewish refugee from Odessa, USSR as she provides readers a rare glimpse into the world’s first Jewish Autonomous Region. My Mother’s Secret is rooted in detailed research about a little known chapter of Soviet and Jewish history while exploring universal themes of identity, love, loss, war, and parenthood. Readers can expect a whirlwind journey as Regina finds herself and her courage within one of the century’s most tumultuous eras.

Part One: 1935 – 1940

Chapter One

Moscow, USSR

She had her ticket. All that was necessary now was to get on the train.

Regina glanced furtively over her shoulder. Yaroslavsky Railway Station was as bustling as ever. Men in grey suits and ties, patched jackets, and caps with brims that flopped into their eyes jostled women wearing wool coats trimmed with rabbit fur, some with kerchiefs over their heads, others sporting more fashionable berets. All rushed to board trains for Vladivostok, Kirov, Tomsk, and a host of other Eastern destinations. No one had any reason to pay attention to an eighteen year old girl struggling to drag a scuffed leather bag she’d thrown together a few hours earlier, blindly tossing in random items in Regina’s haste to be gone before the black-booted militsioners returned for her. They might only want to ask her questions about people she knew, people who’d already been arrested. They might arrest and then release her… if she provided them with the answers they were seeking. Or they might put her on trial. The kind of trial where an innocent verdict wasn’t an option. If Regina were braver, she might have stuck around to find out. If Regina were braver, she might have stuck around to defend her friends, who she knew had done nothing wrong, same as her. If Regina were braver, she wouldn’t currently be at the train station, glancing furtively over her shoulder.

She had her ticket. What she didn’t have was permission to leave. Or settle elsewhere. Soviet citizens were the freest in the world. Maintaining this freedom necessitated their leaders knowing where each was at all times. This led to stability, the seedbed of liberty. There were over two dozen scheduled stops between Moscow and Regina’s destination in the Far East. At any of them, the conductor could demand to review her propiska. If she failed to provide one, he had every right to yank her off his train and deposit Regina in the care of local authorities. Who would promptly, likely under armed guard, return her to Moscow. Where Regina’s attempt to run would bury her into deeper trouble. The proper course of action for those who wished to relocate to Birobiddzhan, the newly formed Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) between the Bira and Bidzhan rivers of the Russian-Chinese border, was to register a request with KOMZET, the Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Toilers on the Land. KOMZET would authorize the appropriate travel documents. They might also bring her name to the attention of the authorities. She couldn’t risk that. Not until everything blew over. Which it would have to, sooner or later. Regina hadn’t done anything wrong. It wasn’t her fault she’d failed to realize until it was too late that those around her might have.

If only she could make it to Birobidzhan. Comrade Kaminsky, head of the village Soviet, would surely vouch for her loyalty to the state. They’d always had a good rapport whenever he’d visited Moscow. Regina had listened, enthralled, to his tales of Birobidzhan, its rich farmland, its plump livestock, the trees full of fruit and the rivers of fish. As Comrade Stalin had pronounced one month earlier, “For the first time in the history of the Jewish people, its burning desire for a homeland, for the achievement of its own national statehood, has been fulfilled.” It was one of the many reasons why all Soviet children, dressed in school uniforms of brown dresses with black pinafores for every day, white ones for special occasions for girls, or brown pants with white shirts for boys and crimson scarves for all began their day by reciting, “Thank you, Great Comrade Stalin, for my joyous childhood.”

KOMZET flourished under the oversight of Lazar Kaganovitch, Secretary of the Central Committee, Commissar of Communications, the most powerful Jew in the Soviet Union. “The nationality of the Jew is the nationality of the merchant,” he quoted Karl Marx when establishing the JAR. “Emancipation from huckstering and money will be the self- emancipation of our time.”

Regina had always intended to make her way there. She’d always intended to be part of the pioneer movement to build an independent, thriving, Jewish, socialist state, where Yiddish literature was taught in schools, Yiddish plays were performed in theaters, Yiddish newspapers educated the public, and Yiddish speakers could walk streets marked with Yiddish signs, safe from violent attacks. At the close of the Great October Revolution, Jews, like all worthy Soviet citizens, had been accorded their own plots of land to work. Unfortunately, the previous owners – kulaks Comrade Stalin needed to show the error of their ways a decade earlier – weren’t happy with the redistribution. Thus it was determined that, in the interest of keeping antisemitic violence to acceptable levels, the optimal course of action was to convince Jews living in the USSR and its surrounding territories to relocate to the furthest eastern point on the Trans-Siberian railroad, where they would be safe, out of the way, and no longer annoying their neighbors.

Regina had always intended to go. She didn’t need the posters paid for by ICOR, the American Association for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union; black and white lithographs promoting spending 50 kopeks on a lottery ticket to help “build a socialist Jewish Autonomous Region,” or garishly colored illustrations of workers with bulging muscles carrying sacks urging, “Let us give millions to settle poor Jews on the land and to attract them to industry.”

Regina had always intended to go. She simply hadn’t intended to go this soon. Or this hurriedly. She’d intended to finish University first. Regina was specifically studying agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, and medicine, human and veterinary, so that she could be of the most use once she arrived in her new home.

She never intended to be sneaking out of town, feeling, though it was the middle of the day, like a thief in the night, a scarf tossed over her head, chin pressed nearly into her chest, not making eye contact with anyone. Regina attempted to take as little space as possible, to shuffle her feet along the concrete station floor lest the clack of her high-heels attract attention.

She only looked up when it came time to hand her ticket to the conductor. She peered into his face, eyes open wide, lashes quivering, and offered her most dazzling smile – as well as a peek down her blouse. It was a maneuver she’d evolved during her early teens. It worked on male teachers wavering between a higher and lower grade on an exam. It worked on butchers to double-check if there was truly not a scrap of meat left for sale. It worked on boys who felt inspired to buy you a slice of Napolean cake. Regina could hope it worked on train conductors.

It did. He barely glanced at Regina’s ticket. He was too busy leering at her. And he never got around to asking for her travel documents.

The trip from Moscow to Birobidzhan took eight days. Regina passed every one sitting upright atop her barely cushioned seat, staring out the window, gritting her teeth to keep from clicking her fingernails, tapping her feet, or performing any other nervous tick which might betray her anxiety. Except whenever the conductor came by. Then, Regina lay on her side, face turned towards the seatback, knees tucked under, pretending to be asleep. It was the most stomach- churning portion of the journey. She could hear the conductor’s footsteps growing closer. Would this be the day he decided the hell with good manners and shook Regina awake to demand her travel documents? There was the moment he would pause above her, his breathing as audible as if he were puffing into her ear. Her impulse was to squinch her eyes tighter. She worried that wouldn’t look natural. Truly sleeping people weren’t tensed up. Truly sleeping people were blissfully relaxed. Regina attempted to imitate that state while her throat cramped, her lungs shriveled, and her intestines pinched each other mercilessly. For eight days, the conductor paused right above her. Then he moved on.

That wasn’t the worst part of pretending to be asleep, though. The worst part was how, the second Regina closed her eyes, her eyelids turned into a blank screen for the projection of her otherwise repressed panic. There were flickering images of her future, where she arrived in Birobidzhan to be judged wanting and unwanted. And there were images of her past. The nights of arguments and outbursts. The joking, the singing, the drinking, the planning. Comrade Berger. Comrade Kaminsky. Cecilia. They’d seemed so heroic, so united. So unaware of what was lurking on the outskirts of their grand dreams. Or maybe she’d been the one unaware. She’d been the fool. Mama and Papa had implied as much from the moment Regina first got herself entangled. They stopped implying, moving on to flat out saying it when Regina stood before them, begging for help. She’d trusted the wrong people. She’d listened to the wrong voices. She’d heeded the wrong advice. Regina vowed to never make such a mistake again.

If she ever got the chance.

Regina’s train pulled into Birobidzhan’s solitary station, Tikhonkaya, after one in the morning, the darkest possible hour. Regina suspected it would have appeared so even without the rain whipping her window. She was the only passenger disembarking. She felt like tiptoeing, as you would into a library. Or a funeral home.

One more sweep past the conductor, one more smile, one more loosened button, and she would be home free. None of her efforts proved necessary. At one in the morning, the conductor wasn’t faking sleep like Regina had for over a week. He was deeply in it.

While in Moscow Regina had curled into herself, trying to appear insignificant, here, she strove to make a robust first impression. To appear confident, strong, the sort of woman who’d be welcomed to join in building a socialist Jewish state, not deported home in disgrace, trailed by disparaging laughter like a foul stench.

So Regina forced herself to stride down the train steps and onto the platform. A woman who had nothing to fear. A woman who had nothing to hide.

Her attempt to appear confident – and guileless – proved superfluous. There was no one there to see it. Rain poured down in torrents, soaking Regina the instant she left the cover of her train. She couldn’t make out an awning or a station door to duck through. No attendant manned the ticket office. She’d disembarked on the left side of a wooden platform between two tracks. There was a second train across from her. Not a passenger one, but freight. A flash of lightning corrected Regina’s perception. Each car was filled to burst with people. Men? Women? Regina couldn’t tell. They were pressed against the walls, faces peering out the few barred windows. They reminded Regina of Uzbekh, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz people who’d been coming to Moscow to work and study ever since their republics became members of the USSR.

The idling train’s engine sputtered in preparation for pulling out. Which was when Regina caught sight of a second figure on the platform. A man was running alongside the departing train, holding a sack, reaching into it, pulling out a handful of something Regina couldn’t identify, and shoving it into the outstretched hands of those who’d managed to squeeze their arms through the window’s slats. As the train sped up, so did he, running so quickly he tripped at Regina’s feet, dropping his sack. She bent to help him retrieve the loaves of bread he’d fumbled. Not the kind she knew from Moscow, machine baked, uniform and soft, but misshapen lumps, coarse, heavy, soaked. He scrambled up, frantically continuing distribution as waiting hands whipped by at swifter and swifter speeds. Regina imitated his actions, lifting a grimy trio of loaves, standing on tip-toe to reach. The bread was ripped from her grip with such force that it knocked Regina down, back, and over her bag.

She thrust out her hands behind her, hoping to break her fall, feeling the splinters of the wooden railway floor dig into her palms as her teeth painfully smacked against each other. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up, first to her knees, then to her feet. Regina futilely dabbed at the front of her dress, as if a few swipes with dirty, bloodied hands would do any good against the streaks of mud, wondering why she was bothering, no one would see her.

By the time she looked up again, the man with the sack was gone.

Regina stood, soaked, on an abandoned railway platform. She’d expected the town of Amurzet to be there, the way all of Moscow’s nine stations were within city limits. You stepped off the platform, and there you were. Regina stopped off the platform in Birobidzhan, and she was ankle deep in a swampy, unplowed field, surrounded by mountains in the distance, and the outline of a dirt road that led into more darkness. Tree branches whipped in the wind. Waist-high grasses bent and curled. The road, Regina reasoned, had to lead… somewhere. If she followed it, she would eventually emerge… somewhere. If it wasn’t the settlement she was looking for, it would likely be some other, where she could solicit directions to her desired destination. Regina started walking. No, Regina started dragging; her feet through the mud, her face through the sheets of rain, her bag behind her, bumping into every rock, slipping into every cavity.

Her clothes clung to her skin, her feet slid in her shoes. Regina’s hair fell into her eyes and, after a half-dozen futile attempts, she quit trying to prevent it. She peered out into the world through a slit in her dripping bangs, which scratched her eyes like bugs crawling on her pupils. Regina stared ahead, willing herself to think only of her destination, ordering herself to ignore the voice in her head, the one reminding Regina she could turn around, retrace her sloshing steps, and catch the next train back to Moscow. What was waiting for her there might be worse, but at least it wasn’t the unknown. She was concentrating so hard on ignoring that voice, telling herself the danger in Moscow couldn’t possibly be less than the danger of a stroll in a light mist, it took several moments for her to comprehend the voice she was hearing – a male one – was coming not from inside her head, but from the side of the road.

Regina craned her neck, raising an arm to rub the back of her wrist across her face to clarify her vision. Through the torrent, she caught sight of a horse, its hooves digging a parallel gulley of mud Regina’s way. Presuming it wasn’t the animal she’d heard addressing her, Regina squinted, following the horse’s reins to the accompanying wagon, where legs, wrists, and a head peeked out from beneath a loose muslin covering to beckon Regina.

The man from the station had come back for her.

About the Author:

Alina Adams is the NYT best-selling author of soap-opera tie-ins, figure skating mysteries, and romance novels. She was born in Odessa, USSR and immigrated with her family to the United States in 1977. She combined research with family stories to write her first historical fiction, “The Nesting Dolls,” and for her November 15, 2022 release, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region.” Read more at: www.AlinaAdams.com

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Author Website

The Dead Romantics by. Ashley Poston | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: The Dead Romantics

Author: Ashley Poston

Format: ebook (borrowed)

Pages: 368

Publication Date: 6/28/22

Categories: Romance, Paranormal, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Women’s Fiction

Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead… but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

Content Warning: death, grief

I went into this one without expectations! I saw the book cover on my Overdrive online library selections and thought the synopsis was intriguing so I borrowed it without reading any reviews on in. I was so pleasantly surprised and touched. Here is what did and didn’t work for me:

+ A ghostwriter who can see ghost and falls for someone who is a ghost?! I love the idea and the story. Florence is a young woman, nursing a broken heart. It’s made it impossible for her to continue writing the romance novel she is working on and on top of that her beloved father dies. So it’s not only a romance, it’s a story about Florence trying to figure out heartbreak, grief and what love really is. It’s a beautiful story.

+ Her family is one of my newest favorite fictional families. They own a funeral home and even though Florence doesn’t totally get along with her younger sister, you can tell the bonds between this loving family is tight even when their father dies. I also love the people from her home town and her best friend in New York. We get both the small town romance and big city one too in this one book.

+ The romance between Florence and Ben is so cute and honestly I did figure out how things were going to end up but I was going to be so upset if it wasn’t that way. I love how they get to know one another – realistic? No, but that’s why I love how this is a paranormal romance. The two of them melted my heart.

+ Florence and her family are grieving but I so love how they celebrate her father’s life. Did I cry in a few spots? Definitely did.

~ My only issue with the story was the beginning where I thought I was getting a straight romance and then the story took a left turn with the death of Florence’s father and the whole situation with Ben which I won’t spoil. But the story smoothed out right after that.

Tropes: seeing ghosts, small town and big city romance, editor/writer romance

Spice Level: 🌶

Why you should read it:

heartwarming story about family, grief, heartbreak and love
a ghostwriter falling in love with a ghost
the Day family is my new favorite fictional family

Why you might not want to read it:

beginning of the story was just a little bit jarring with the romance and sudden death but it worked out after that

My Thoughts:

I loved this one. I was all for the ghostwriting and ghost-seeing! It was unexpected and I went in with no expectations and maybe because my trauma with grief, I resonated with stories about grief. But even though there is death and loss in this book, I love that it still was a story about celebrating life, love, and those who have gone but linger. A wonderful story that melted my heart and made me shed a few tears as well.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Love was putting up with someone for fifty years so you’d have someone to bury you when you died. I would know; my family was in the business of death.”
~ Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

He was a bullet journal guy, and I was a sticky note kind of girl.”
~ Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Love was a high for a moment that left you hollow when it left, and you spent the rest of your life chasing that feeling.”
~ Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Grief was the exact opposite. It was full and heavy and drowning because it wasn’t the absence of everything you lost—it was the culmination of it all, your love, your happiness, your bittersweets, wound tight like a knotted ball of yarn.”
~ Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

It’s never easy. It’s also never really goodbye—and trust me, we’re in the business of goodbyes. The people who pass through here live on in you and me and everyone they touched. There is no happy ending, there’s just . . . happily living. As best you can.
~ Ashley Poston, The Dead Romantics

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe by. Jenny Bayliss | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Title: Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

Author: Jenny Bayliss

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 448

Publication Date: 10/17/22

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Categories: Women’s Fiction, Holiday Romance, Contemporary, Christmas

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Penguin Publishing Group for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Elinor Noel – Nory for short – is quite content running her second-hand bookshop in London. Forever torn between her working-class upbringing and her classmates’ extravagant lifestyles at the posh private school she attended on scholarship, Nory has finally figured out how to keep both at equal distance. So, when her oldest friends invite their school gang to spend the days leading up to their wedding together at the school castle, Nory must prepare herself for an emotionally complicated few days.

The reunion brings back fond memories, but also requires Nory to dodge an ill-advised former fling. When she falls quite literally into the arms of Isaac, the head gardener with nothing but contempt for the ‘snobby prep school kids’, the attraction between them is undeniable. And as Nory spends more time with Isaac over the wedding festivities, she finds herself falling hard for the boy who used to throw mud at her and her posh friends.

As Nory and Isaac explore their common ground, pressures mount on all sides and Nory must decide what kind of life she wants to live and what sort of love is worth the risk…

Content Warning: mention of suicide, cheating

I was expecting a light-hearted Christmas romance but I got something a little bit more than that. Here’s what I think about this book:

+ It starts off in a cozy bookstore, I got the holiday feels right away just from that alone but then it moves on to a castle in the English countryside where Nory’s friend is going to get married at. It’s a reunion of Nory and her boarding school friends and the castle is in her hometown. This is where she runs into Isaac and an attraction between them sparks.

+ There is a big cast of characters because we get to meet Nory’s friends from school. I thought they were a fun group and I loved how they interacted with one another. Everyone had such different personalities, they each stood out.

+ I thought the love story was very sweet. Isaac is someone from Nory’s hometown and past and it was pretty funny how they reunite again.

~ I was expecting light hearted but got a book with some heavy topics like a friend who committed suicide and even Nory’s past scandal of sleeping with one of her friends while drunk (and he’s married). There is also the subject of classism throughout the story. Nory went to a boarding school and all her friends are rich, compared to Isaac and everyone at home who isn’t rich. So there was a lot of judging going around. There was a lot of friend drama, maybe too much drama, but I was hoping for a simple, sweet Christmas love story.

~ The story starts off in a cozy bookstore that Nory owns and then moves to the castle but where is the Christmassy vibes? I felt like it had Christmas stuff near the end of the book but I was expecting it from beginning to end.

Tropes: childhood acquaintances to lovers

Spice Level: 🌶

Why you should read it:

fun interactions between a big group of friends, humor and drama
a cozy bookstore and a beautiful castle in the English countryside, some Christmas vibes
sweet love story between Nory and Isaac

Why you might not want to read it:

needs more Christmas
too much drama between the friends and some heavy topics – reads more like women’s fiction than romance

My Thoughts:

I struggled to get through this one even though the beginning was fine. I loved the beginning because it starts off in a cozy bookstore and then at a castle and we get to meet Nory’s friends. Someway in the middle of the story, I started to lose interest. I wanted more of Isaac and Nory but I felt like a lot of the friend drama got in the way of that love story. I wish it was more Christmassy also. So it didn’t work for me because I was expecting a light-hearted story but if you like romance with a little something more, then you will enjoy this one.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: One Italian Summer

Author: Rebecca Serle

Format: ebook (borrowed)

Pages: 272

Publication Date: 2/28/22

Publisher: Atria Books

Categories: Women’s Fiction, Marriage, Grief, Family, Magical Realism, Contemporary Fiction

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

Content Warning: grief, death of a parent

You definitely have to suspend your belief for this one, but it’s a story about a woman who is going through a rough patch in her marriage and losing the love of her life, her mother. When she takes a trip to Positano, her eyes are opened to so many things. Here’s what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy about this book:

+ How can you not fall in love with Positano after reading this book? I felt like I was there, feeling the heat and humidity, jumping into the cool ocean and eating all the amazing food and drinking all the wine (that I probably would never be able to handle) and meeting wonderful people.

+ Speaking of love…the love story in this book is not between Katy and her husband, it’s between Katy and her mother. Katy loved her mother more than anyone on Earth and losing her has shattered her.

+ There is magical realism in this story because when Katy goes to Positano she runs into her young mother. But her mom is dead right? So what is happening? This is how Katy deals with her grief of losing her mom who she loves even more than she loves her husband and I actually can understand that. My mother is my rock, she’s done everything for my family and I cannot imagine my life without her. So I can understand Katy’s grief and how she doesn’t know how to proceed in her life. This moment in the book gives us a picture of Katy’s mom in her youth and its very eye opening for both Katy and me as a reader.

+ Marriage can get hard – don’t I know it! So Katy not being sure about her husband, not sure about life with him forever is totally normal and she asks the questions maybe many people wouldn’t want to ask themselves. She also asks many questions about her life up until her mom has passed – her old normal vs a life without her, her new normal. Katy is trying to find out who she is because she relied and admired her mom so hard that she felt defined by her. Without her, who is Katy and is she ready to find out?

~ Now because Katy is going through a rocky marriage she does meet someone in Italy. So anyone who doesn’t vibe with cheating in a story – well – you may not like this about the book. It is what it is but her ending with Eric did feel a little bit too convenient. She has a lot of work to be done emotionally and I felt like Eric was getting blamed for a lot of the problems going on in their marriage.

~ Katy isn’t the most relatable or likable character. Katy’s an adult but her mom has pretty much defined her life since she was a child. Katy says her mom even picked her furniture – so Katy really needed to figure who she was without her mom. But you would think in her adulthood that Katy would have been a little independent of her mom and at least her mom would let her make her own choices. Katy does learn some things about her mom that opens her eyes though.

Tropes: slow burn, enemies to lovers, love triangle, peasant becomes a ruler, morally gray characters

Spice Level: 🌶

Why you should read it:

everything about Positano, Italy ~ the food, the people, the sights…the food!
this is a story about relationships, Katy and her mom, Katy and her husband – and how it’s not so black and white
there are a lot of questions Katy has to answer for herself, there is growth

Why you might not want to read it:

there is cheating – Katy and her husband are having marital problems though (which shouldn’t be an excuse, but things always happen in life that isn’t according to plan) – so if you don’t like cheating in a book, you may want to skip this one
Katy isn’t the most likable character because her mother did everything for her – so she may come off whiny, but I did feel like the relationship with her mother, unhealthy in some instances, is explored.

My Thoughts:

This is a quick and entertaining story. I was very fascinated with the magical realism aspect and immersed by the descriptions of Positano scenery and Italian food. Katy is an imperfect character, trying to process her grief about her perfect mother and her broken marriage. She questions soul mates, she questions and measure her love for her mom versus her love for her husband, she questions who she is without her mother – basically she has a lot to work through and seems like Positano was the perfect place to do it. By the end of the book she does makes some choices and there is a happy ending but to me it’s bittersweet.

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

If your mother is the love of your life, what does that make your husband?”
Rebecca Serle, One Italian Summer

We made promises in a world lit with light. We do not know how to keep them in the darkness.”
Rebecca Serle, One Italian Summer

There is more to life than just continuing to do what we know. What got you here won’t get you there.”
Rebecca Serle, One Italian Summer

The Suite Spot by. Trish Doller | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Suite Spot (Beck Sisters, #2)

Author: Trish Doller

Format: ebook (borrowed)

Pages: 288

Publication Date: 3/8/22

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin

Categories: Romance, Women’s Fiction

Trish Doller’s The Suite Spot is a charming romance novel about taking a chance on a new life and a new love.

Rachel Beck has hit a brick wall. She’s a single mom, still living at home and trying to keep a dying relationship alive. Aside from her daughter, the one bright light in Rachel’s life is her job as the night reservations manager at a luxury hotel in Miami Beach—until the night she is fired for something she didn’t do.

On impulse, Rachel inquires about a management position at a brewery hotel on an island in Lake Erie called Kelleys Island. When she’s offered the job, Rachel packs up her daughter and makes the cross country move.

What she finds on Kelleys Island is Mason, a handsome, moody man who knows everything about brewing beer and nothing about running a hotel. Especially one that’s barely more than foundation and studs. It’s not the job Rachel was looking for, but Mason offers her a chance to help build a hotel—and rebuild her own life—from the ground up.

Content Warning: grief, sexual harassment, sexual assault

I didn’t realize when I was borrowing this that this was the same author that wrote Float Plan. I enjoyed that book and was curious to see that The Suite Spot was about Anna’s sister, Rachel.

+ I love how we get to know Rachel and Mason because they both come with baggage but they give one another the space needed before trying to get together. It was refreshing to see two adults trying something scary like making their dreams come true: owning a hotel/inn, and meeting someone they could fall in love with. And there wasn’t a lot of drama involved.

+ I think it’s wonderful how Rachel moved to a new place and found it welcoming, I was really invested in her life. She makes new friends, while in her own family – there are lots of changes: her mom moving and her sister living on a boat with her new love. So I like that she found stability even with so many changes going on in her life. It’s a very heart warming story, especially in the end where everyone comes together!

+ This is such a slow burn. Mason is Rachel’s boss but really at this point it’s just 2 of them in the “company”. We see how they work as a team to get Mason’s vision for the brewery/inn off the ground and they really do work well together. From there the attraction grows but their sexy times are fade to black and mild at best. As I mentioned they both have baggage – Mason dealing with a divorce and grieving a child. Rachel dealing with being a single mom and Maisie’s dad who is in and out of their lives.

~ The slow burn showed how sweet they were with one another which I did love but I also wish there were more hot scenes between them. I felt like it would have made the story even more amazing.

~ There is a conflict that comes at the end but it is easily resolved. I felt like it was a little bit rushed?

Tropes: single mom, one house, small town/island, slow burn, workplace romance

Spice Level: 🌶

Why you should read it:

If you liked Float Plan, then this is your chance to hear Rachel’s story (Anna’s sister)
it’s a nice slow burn, with 2 adults that didn’t have a lot of drama, gave each other time, space and patience
I loved the small town environment and Mason’s history there – it was sweet to know new memories were being made in an old place.

Why you might not want to read it:

ending a bit rushed and everything seemed perfectly tied up in a neat bow
wanted more heat between Rachel and Mason

My Thoughts:

Despite the little issues I mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed this because it left me happy at the end of the story. I look forward to reading more from this author!

📚 ~ Yolanda

Other Books I Read by This Author:

Float Plan by. Trish Doller

Things We Never Got Over by. Lucy Score | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Things We Never Got Over (Knockemout, #1)

Author: Lucy Score

Format: ebooks (KU)

Pages: 570

Publication Date: 1/13/22

Categories: Romance, Adult Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Contemporary

Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: Alone. Unless you count his basset hound, Waylon. Knox doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride.

Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Usually in that order.

Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. The niece Naomi didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of.

There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.

At least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger.

Content Warning: abuse, single parent, parental abandonment

I decided to read my first Lucy Score book because I kept seeing it on Kindle Unlimited and I can see why it’s very popular. Here’s what I like and didn’t like:

+ So many tropes are in this story – grumpy guy/sunshine girl, small town romance, fake dating and then some. I thought Naomi and Knox had good chemistry, and they had lots of hot times in and out of bed 🔥

+ I did like Naomi’s story about coming to help her twin and ended up taking care of her 11 year old niece, Waylay. Naomi makes the best of things and tries her best to be the best guardian to her niece.

+ I love all the characters from Naomi’s best friend, the new people she meets, and her parents. And on the other end, Knox’s family and friends were fun to get to know also! I’m looking forward to reading Lucian and Sloane’s story.

+ I like the messages about messy relationships and how to let go of fears. Knox fears relationships and Naomi can’t survive without her lists. Naomi was used to taking care of everyone and never putting herself first.

~ My biggest issue about this story is the length of it. It’s way too long! And I was enjoying it so much and thought okay it’s ending soon and we get the happy ending and yet it kept going on. I almost didn’t want to pick it up the next day because I pretty much knew what would happen. I did read it to find out what happens to Tina though. But this would have been perfect if it ended before 400 pages.

~ Did the fake dating have to happen in the middle of the story? I thought it was funny when Naomi’s parents found them but that was halfway into the story – I don’t think it was needed at all. It’s like Knox and Naomi didn’t have enough challenges to deal with in their relationship already. And Knox breaking up with her like that? Like no dude. Get outta here.

Why you should read it:

if you love romance tropes you will love this one – it’s filled with it
Love the characters
A fun, sexy and sweet at times love story between Naomi and Knox
Some emotional moments

Why you might not want to read it:

This was way too long and that was my biggest issue. I almost didn’t finish the book even though I was enjoying it.

My Thoughts:

This seems like a light read at first between a very grumpy dude and miss sunshine but it gets more complicated because of Tina. But the situation teaches Naomi how take care for her 11 year old niece and herself. She has to basically start from scratch in a new town. I love that she has a wonderful support group in her parents and her bestie Stef. I loved all the characters I met in the book. The romance is cute – even though Knox is a bit of an alpha male, it’s hot at times between them and a bit bumpy in the end but things work out as they should. My biggest issue and it was a big issue – was the length of this book. I almost didn’t finish it even though I considered it a funny, cute, romance story and it was emotional too…but there was a point I was like, do I have to keep reading? I am eager to read Lucian and Sloane’s story – I just hope it’s shorter.

📚 ~ Yolanda

Quotes From the Book

You get to decide how you show up in this world. No one else gets to dictate to you who you are…”
Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

Because sometimes people don’t know how to ask for what they really need. You needed a hug.”
Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

You know what they say about fine. Fucked up. Insecure. Neurotic. And emotional…”
Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

So is setting an example for your niece about how she doesn’t need to turn herself inside out to be loved. How she doesn’t need to set herself on fire to keep someone else warm. Demanding to have your own needs met isn’t problematic—it’s heroic, and kids are watching. They’re always watching. If you set an example that tells her the only way she’s worthy of love is by giving everyone everything, she’ll internalize that message.”
Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

There’s a difference between taking care of someone because you love them and taking care of someone because you want them to love you…”
Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

One Night on the Island by. Josie Silver | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫

Title: One Night on the Island

Author: Josie Silver

Format: ebooks (borrowed)

Pages: 368

Publication Date: 2/15/22

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Categories: Contemporary, Romance, Adult Fiction, Women’s Fiction

Spending her thirtieth birthday alone is the last thing that dating columnist Cleo wanted, but she is going on a self-coupling quasi-sabbatical–at the insistence of her boss–in the name of re-energizing herself and adding a new perspective to her column. The remote Irish island she’s booked is a far cry from London, but at least it’s a chance to hunker down in a luxury cabin and indulge in some quiet, solitary self-care while she figures out her next steps in her love life and her career.

Mack is also looking forward to some time to himself. With his life in Boston deteriorating in ways he can’t bring himself to acknowledge, his soul searching has brought him to the same Irish island in search of his roots and some clarity. Unfortunately, a mix-up with the bookings means both solitude seekers have reserved the same one-bedroom hideaway on exactly the same dates.

Instantly at odds with each other, Cleo and Mack don’t know how they’re going to manage until the next weekly ferry arrives. But as the days go by, they no longer seem to mind each other’s company quite as much as they thought they would…

Written with Josie Silver’s signature warmth, charm and insights into the human heart, One Night on the Island explores the meaning of home, the joys of escape and how the things we think we want are never the things we really need.

Content Warning: broken marriage

I thought this was going to be a good one but unfortunately this turned out not for me. But let’s see what I liked and didn’t like:

+ Cleo was an interesting character from the beginning and I wanted to see how her vacation to Salvation Island would help her grow. She’s dreading turning 30, she has a successful career but she’s single and she still dreams about being a published author. I thought she was a nice young woman and seeing her get to know the other women on the island gave this story some fun moments.

+ Mack and Cleo meeting and getting to know each other went at a slow pace but maybe that was okay because he was still married when he met Cleo.

+ The setting of Salvation Island was wonderfully written. You get a real sense of life there, it’s the perfect small town feel.

~ Mack is married – yes he has trouble in his marriage but he still wants to be with his wife so that turned me off a bit, especially when Cleo admits she wants him.

~ The story started off good but it’s slow and I was getting bored. In my head, Mack was off-limits so what was happening between these two? It was going to be messy.

~ I felt the chemistry between Mack and Cleo was lacking. Yes they don’t like one another at first, but they eventually get friendly and talk a lot about their lives. There is a lot of talking.

Why you should read it:

you like women’s fiction where the characters are going through some emotional things
slow burn romance
beautiful setting

Why you might not want to read it:

more women’s fiction than romance
Mack is a married man and that may not appeal to some readers – his marriage is rocky but he is not divorced yet

My Thoughts:

I did love the setting of Salvation Island in Ireland, that was probably my favorite part of the book.. It’s a slow burn romance, with lots of emotional turmoil on Mack’s part and Cleo is trying to figure out her life as she hits 30 years old. The story was a little too slow for me. I think if you love women’s fiction, you might enjoy this story but I was thinking it was going to be some rom-com and it wasn’t.

📚 ~ Yolanda

BLOG TOUR} Here for the Drama by. Kate Bromley | ARC Review

Welcome to the blog tour for Here for the Drama by. Kate Bromley!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Here for the Drama

Author: Kate Bromley

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 352

Publication Date: 6/21/22

Publisher: Graydon House Books

Categories: Contemporary, Romance, Playwright, Theater, Rom-Com, Women’s Fiction

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Graydon House Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This summer, it’s much ado about everything.

Becoming a famous playwright is all Winnie ever dreamed about. For now, though, she’ll have to settle for assisting the celebrated, sharp-witted feminist playwright Juliette Brassard. When an experimental theater company in London, England decides to stage Juliette’s most renowned play, The Lights of Trafalgar, Winnie and Juliette pack their bags and hop across the pond.

But the trip goes sideways faster than you can say “tea and crumpets”. Juliette stubbornly vetoes the director’s every choice, and Winnie’s left stage-managing their relationship. Winnie’s own work seems to have stalled, and though Juliette keeps promising to read it, she always has some vague reason why she can’t. Then, Juliette’s nephew Liam enters stage left. He’s handsome, he’s smart, he is devastatingly British, and he and Winnie have sizzling chemistry. But as her boss’s nephew, Liam is definitely off-limits, so Winnie has to keep their burgeoning relationship on the down-low from Juliette. What could go wrong?

Balancing a production seemingly headed for disaster, a secret romance, and the sweetest, most rambunctious rescue dog, will Winnie save the play, make her own dreams come true, and find true love along the way–or will the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune get the best of her?

Content Warning: death of parent, divorce

I found this to be a sweet romance with a likable main character who is clearly in love with theater and working on the play that hopefully will make her a famous playwright. For now she is an assistant to Juliette Bassard who is what Winnie aspires to be. They have a best friend type of relationship, which I found endearing. Juliette, Winnie and Roshni the second assistant all take a trip to London for a staging of Juliette’s most famous play and a lot of things happen while they are there.

I’m more of a musical than play kind of person, but I found the playwriting and staging process in this book quite fascinating. You can feel the passion in Winnie and Juliette as one is beginning her career as a playwright and then other is coming into a time of transition. Of course there is a dog is in this story, just makes the story even sweeter, because Ollie is a sweet prince! The romance is sweet as well, there is some heat between Winnie and Liam but for the most part, it’s a relationship between two mature people who may have met each other at the wrong time – at least the wrong time to start a relationship and for them…it works out because they are mature to let one another go.

Of course this can’t be a story about drama and theater without drama. Juliette has a whole past in London and it comes back to haunt her. Winnie has her own things to deal with like finishing her play, figuring out her life after London and what to do about Liam. Juliette and Winnie also confront things about their relationship but in the end it all works out beautifully. I thought the epilogue did a great job to give us a very happy ending.

There were some parts that I found slow and I felt like Juliette and Winnie’s relationship was the main focus of this story as opposed to the romance growing between Winnie and Liam. It is very much a story about Winnie’s life journey.

Why you should read it:

you love drama, theater, plays – I found Winnie’s passion for playwriting really come through in her character
it’s a story about friendship, romance and life’s journey
it has a cute dog named Ollie

Why you might not want to read it:

this is more women’s fiction than romance, so if you expect full on romance, this is not it

My Thoughts:

I was pleasantly surprised with this story but I did wish there was more romance between Winnie and Liam. Winnie is a woman in her late 20’s trying to figure out her career, trying to not give up on her passion and having some romance in the process – I found her sweet and relatable. I would categorize this as more women’s fiction than romance though, but regardless I thought it was an enjoyable read and it has a great happy ending.

📚 ~ Yolanda

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

KATE BROMLEY lives in New York City with her husband, son, and her somewhat excessive collection of romance novels (It’s not hoarding if it’s books, right?). She was a preschool teacher for seven years and is now focusing full-time on combining her two great passions – writing swoon-worthy love stories and making people laugh. She is also the author of Talk Bookish to Me.

Author Website

Twitter: @kbromleywrites | Instagram: @katebromleywrites | Facebook: @katebromleywrites | Goodreads

BLOG TOUR} Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by. Cheryl Diamond | ARC Review

Welcome to the blog tour for Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by. Cheryl Diamond!

“A riveting tale of trauma and resilience.”

—People Magazine

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood

Author: Kate Bromley

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 6/14/22

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Categories: Memoir

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Algonquin Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cheryl Diamond had an outlaw childhood beyond the imaginings of most. By age nine, she had lived in more than a dozen countries on five continents and had assumed six identities as her parents evaded Interpol and other law enforcement agencies. While her family lived on the run, she would learn math on an abacus, train as an Olympic hopeful, practice Sikhism and then celebrate her bat mitzvah, come to terms with the disappearance of her brother, become a successful fashion model, and ultimately watch her unconventional yet close-knit family implode. Diamond’s unforgettable memoir, NOWHERE GIRL: A MEMOIR OF A FUGITIVE CHILDHOOD (Available in Paperback: June 14, 2022; $16.95), is a harrowing, clear-sighted, and surprisingly humor-filled testament to a childhood lost and an adulthood found. With its page-turning candor about forged passports and midnights escapes, this is, in the end, the searing story of how lies can destroy a family and how truth can set us free.

Diamond, whose acclaimed first book, Model: A Memoir, earned her accolades as “America’s next top author” in The New York Times Style Magazine, begins her story with her earliest memories as a four-year-old in India. Even at that tender age she had been schooled by her complicated and controlling father to never make a mistake, never betray the family, and never become attached to a place or other people. As the family continent-hopped, switched religions, paid for everything in cash, assumed new names time and again—always one step ahead of the law—young Cheryl (then called Bhajan) developed the burning need to achieve and win approval. By twenty-three she had seen so much of the world, but only through a peculiar lens that had somehow become normal. And she was plagued by fundamental questions: Who am I? And how can I find the courage to break away from the people I love most – because escaping is the only way to survive.

Content Warning: all kinds of abuse, illness, sexual harassment, incest

I haven’t read a memoir in awhile but I found the premise of this story very intriguing. When I was reading Cheryl/Bhajan’s story I for one was amazed that she could remember so far back into her childhood and with so much detail. I don’t remember anything at age 4! But her childhood is unique, scary, and quite traumatic.

I found it to be a very quick read, especially in her early years because she and her family were on the run and traveled so much, barely setting roots anywhere – their whole life was one of multiple identities, loads of lies and I can’t imagine how they even kept it up. Of course eventually things fell apart.

A lot of the chapters end abruptly but I think that works for the most part because their life was always changing but by the end I felt like the story like chapters of her life, were fleeting. Like as a reader, I never got to put down roots into the story also, with her life in her 20’s really felt like it sped by quickly. There was modeling, then Cheryl seeing her dad for what he truly was and suffering from Crohn’s disease but it all seemed so rushed.

I can’t imagine the abuse all of them went through trying to please their father. And what kind of upbringing is that for children? I felt horrible for Cheryl and her siblings. Their whole family was so toxic. All her life it seems she was trapped – it was nice to see there was a happy ending and healing.

Why you should read it:

a family on the run – pretty wild story
to see how it ends and if they get caught
Cheryl’s determination to heal from her traumatic childhood

Why you might not want to read it:

it’s a quick read but a lot of the chapters also feel rushed and abrupt – there were times I wondered how true these details were, especially when she was young
her father is a horrible man

My Thoughts:

Overall, I found this memoir pretty entertaining but also scary and sad. I don’t wish that kind of lifestyle on any child and it was just sad to read about what she went through – even if she had happy memories, there were so many scary ones that she had to internalize all her childhood. I’m glad she came out of the experience alive and learning how to heal with therapy, and knowing who to cut from her life.

📚 ~ Yolanda

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cheryl Diamond is now a citizen of Luxembourg and lives between there and Rome. Her behind-the-scenes account of life as a teenage model, Model: A Memoir, was published in 2008. Diamond´s second book, Naked Rome, reveals the Eternal City through the eyes of its most fascinating people.

“A shocking rollercoaster ride of a story that shares secrets of life on the run but also asks big questions about what family means and who we truly are, no matter what the name on a passport might say.”

—Town & Country

“Within the autobiographical subset of children-overcoming-adversity that was defined by Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle (2005) and Tara Westover’s Educated (2018), Diamond’s tale might just be the most mind-blowing of them all.”

—Booklist, Starred Review

“Like Tara Westover’s Educated, Cheryl Diamond’s memoir tells the harrowing story of how crippling a childhood can be under the despotic narcissistic rule of a controlling father….”

—New York Journal of Books