Julie Chan is Dead

Author: Liann Zhang
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books, 2026
Pages: 320
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything - except a pulse.

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier barely scraping by, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twin sisters were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin and Buying Her A House #Emotional).

When Julie discovers Chloe's body, she doesn't call the police. Instead, she slips into her dead sister's meticulously curated life; luxury fashion, high-end skincare, and a devoted online following who never noticed they weren't quite the same.

At first, the transformation is seamless. Julie relishes the perks of influencer fame, but quickly learns that behind Chloe's flawless feed lay secrets far darker than she imagined. Her sister's final days were shadowed by paranoia, manipulation, and something far more sinister.

Now trapped on a private island retreat with Chloe's inner circle - an elite clique of influencers obsessed with status and secrecy - Julie is forced to keep up the act while being haunted by her sister's untimely death. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister's demise and realizes she might be the next target.

Review: Let's start with what I liked about this novel - the commentary, actually satire, on social media and influencer culture, entertaining. The author's writing style - highly readable. I would give this author another chance if she were to writer a second book.

The story itself? I don't know what happened. It started out strong and then around the midway point, it fell apart. It's as if the author didn't know what to do with this story she was crafting so she took it off the deep end. It's two books in one, as though the author's twin took over her manuscript. It's not a bad book, just weird, disjointed, and leaves the readers with weak explanations and, as a result, loose ends. Read at your own risk 😝

Sinking the Sultana

Author: Sally M. Walker
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2017
Pages: 208
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln's assassination. Thousands of Union soldiers, released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, were to be transported home on the steamboat Sultana. With a profit to be made, the captain rushed repairs to the boat so the soldiers wouldn't find transportation elsewhere. More than 2000 passengers boarded in Vicksburg, Mississippi. . .on a boat with a capacity of 376. The journey was violently interrupted when the boat's boilers exploded, plunging the Sultana into mayhem; passengers were bombarded with red-hot iron fragments, burned by scalding steam, and flung overboard into the churning Mississippi. Although rescue efforts were launched, the survival rate was dismal - more than 1500 lives were lost.

Review: Something came across my Facebook newsfeed about the Sultana, and it conjured up a hazy memory about learning of this tragedy years ago. My interest was piqued so I searched my library's card  catalog and Sinking of the Sultana was the one result it returned.

The question of the Sultana is who is responsible for its sinking, and unfortunately, there's no definitive answer. In the end, the answer is probably many people. There were moments where multiple people at different points in the Sultana's story that a difference decision or choice could have been made and wasn't.

A Single Thread

Author: Tracey Chevalier
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 336
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: 1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled eggs and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's place and into the town of Winchester, home t one of England's grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers -- women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshipers.

Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow.

Review: I have more criticisms of this novel than I do praise, unfortunately.
Firstly, if I had to hear Tom call his sister "Old Girl" one more time, I might have screamed. It was awful and at 38 Violet was hardly old. If she had been, it would have been worse.

One criticism directed at the editors - one of the characters mentions something is as normal as routine as "brushing their teeth." While I understand the reference and ubiquitous nature of brushing teeth in the 21st century, I remember my grandmother saying that people really didn't when she was young. She was born in 1918 so this minor detail didn't ring true to me.

If I'm being honest, I don't know if I would have stuck with the print version of this book. I am far more tolerant of slow-plot novels when they're audiobooks. The metaphor of Violet stitching herself a new life while working on her embroidery for the Westminster Cathedral was not lost on me, but every character bears a certain sadness.

Violet is a surplus woman, thanks to the number of men killed and severely wounded during WWI. Her mother, a widow and grieving the loss of a son killed in the war. Even a newborn baby doesn't escape Chevalier's pen of pity when Violet mentions her new niece's unfortunate name - Gladys.

I'm torn on whether or not to recommend this novel. Violet is a strong character, belling ringing and embroidery are well-researched topics, and I imagine life in 1930s England for this class was described accurately. However, there are better post-World War I historical fiction novels available, for example check out author Jennifer Robson.

Also, because I was curious, I googled. The original embroidered kneelers and cushions from the 1930s at Winchester Cathedral are still in use. The cathedral still has an embroidery corps who clean, repair, and reupholster the pieces. This was perhaps the most interesting part of the novel. While the designers of the embroidered pieces drew on the history of the area for their designs, I would have preferred they chose religious themes.

Tracey Chevalier Novels
Girl with a Pearl Earring

Moonlight Over Paris

Author: Jennifer Robson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2016
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Spring 1924: Recovering from a broken wartime engagement and a serious illness that left her near death, Lady Helena Montague-Douglas-Parr vows that for once she will live life on her own terms. Breaking free from the stifling social constraints of the aristocratic society in which she was raised, she travels to France to stay with her free spirited aunt. For one year, she will simply be Miss Parr. She will explore the picturesque streets of Paris, meet people who know nothing of her past - and pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

A few years after the Great War's end, the City of Light is a bohemian paradise teeming with actors, painters, writers, and a lively coterie of American expatriates who welcome Helena into their romantic and exciting circle. Among them in Sam Howard, an irascible and infuriatingly honest correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Dangerously attractive and deeply scarred by the horror and carnage of the war, Sam is unlike any man she has ever encountered. He calls her Ellie, sees her as no one else has before, and offers her a glimpse of a future that is both irresistible and impossible.

As Paris rises phoenix-like from the ashes of the Great War, so too does Helena. Though she's shed her old self, she's still uncertain of what she will become and where she belongs. 

Review: Unbeknownst to me, this is actually the third novel in The Great War series. I read the first way back in 2014, Somewhere in France. I picked up the Moonlight Over Paris off a historical fiction shelf at my local library. I do plan to read the second novel, After the War is Over, but when I realized I was reading the series out of order, I was enjoying Moonlight Over Paris too much to quit (or postpone). These are standalone novels so it's not an issue.

Jennifer Robson Novels
Somewhere in France

Hazel Says No

Author: Jessica Berger Gross
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Hanover Square Press, 2025
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When Hazel Blum's father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocated from Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, slowly acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town's sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.

Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine.

Review: This took me a few chapters to get into the rhythm of the book, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. I think about the author's writing process when it comes to books that tell a story from different perspectives, and do it well. How does one know where to overlap details, how to pull out new information, and make it believable and cohesive.

I've seen criticism from other readers that after the one incident that happens early on in the story, nothing else happens. I disagree. This one incident sets of a series of behaviors, ramifications, and ultimately healing. The author does a great job of revealing the ripple affects from one decision. It's really well-done. This is not a high energy, on-the-edge of your seat novel - rather it's reflective and exploratory.

The Woman Who Smashed Codes

Author: Jason Fagone
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2018
Pages: 464
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 1916, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizabeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the US government, and he soon asked Elizabeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the "Adam and Eve" of the NSA, Elizabeth's story, a vital piece of women's history, incredibly has never been told.

In The Women Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone chronicles the life of this extraordinary woman, who played an integral role in our nation's espionage history for forty years. After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a convert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizabeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler's Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies. Meanwhile, inside an Army vault in Washington, William worked furiously to break Purple, the Japanese version of Enigma - and eventually succeeded, at a terrible cost to his personal life. 

Review: I learned a lot reading this novel - about espionage, counter intelligence, and about a couple integral to American History, but of whom I had never heard. The author did a great job explaining a technical topic in a way that was accessible to a novice, and he kept it interesting.

The Lumbar Baron's Wife

Author: Lynn Austin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, 2026
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: After a devastating loss, Hannah Wagner never imagined she'd leave her comfortable home for the harsh, unfamiliar wilderness near Lake Michigan. But when Henry Abernathy, a friend of her husband, John - offers them a fresh start in a booming lumbar town, where John's skills as a doctor are sorely needed, Hannah reluctantly agrees.

Review: This was such good historical fiction. Sometimes I struggle with dual-timeline novels, but some authors have a talent for weaving the past and present and various characters together. Kate, Hannah, and Ashley spoke to me. What a novel.