The Hotel Nantucket

Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2022
Pages: 416
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Fresh of a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she's named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xaviar Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map. And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-fun restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there's a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can't seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic file killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet's own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom?

Review: The Hotel Nantucket is classic Elin. It's over-the-top in her signature way, and I loved every second. I tried to read slowly to savor and make it last longer with minimal success. The perfect summer beach read (even though there's no beach in sight from my patio which is where I read most of this).

This is exactly what I expect from Elin Hilderbrand, an entertaining escape.

Other Elin Hilderbrand Novels:
The Five-Star Weekend
Summer of '69
The Blue Bistro
Golden Girl
The Island
The Castaways

The Winter Street Series
Winter Street
Winter Stroll
Winter Storms
Winter Solstice

The Winter in Paradise Trilogy
Winter in Paradise
What Happens in Paradise
Troubles in Paradise

The Summer of Lost and Found

Author: Mary Alice Monroe
Genre: Southern Fiction 
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2022
Pages: 368
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The coming of spring usually means renewal, but for Linnea Rutledge, this spring is only bringing challenges. Linnea faces a layoff from the aquarium she adores, and her family's finances, emotions, and health teeter on the brink. To complicate matters, her new love interest, Gordon, struggles to return to the Isle of Palms from England. Meanwhile, her old flame, John, turns up from California and is quarantining next door. She tries to ignore him, but when he sends her plaintive notes in the form of paper airplanes, old sparks ignite. When Gordon at last reaches the island, Linnea wonders - is it possible to love two men at the same time.

Love in the time of COVID-19 proves difficult, at times humorous, and ever changing. Relationships are redefined, friendships made and broke, and marriages tested. As the weeks turn to months, and another sea turtle season comes to a close, Linnea learns there are more meaningful lessons during this summer than opportunities lost: that summer is a time of wonder, and that the exotic lives in our own backyards.

Review: I wasn't sure I was ready to read a book set during the COVID-19 pandemic. Having just lived through it, and now living through the repercussions of decisions made by the government during that time, it is still really raw.

I enjoyed this novel. It is worth noting that this is the 7th book in the The Beach House series, a fact that isn't noted anywhere on the book itself. That was frustrating, but it makes sense. I found the introduction of characters in the first chapter to be rushed and confusing.

If I have one criticism it's that the departure of one beau was just too simple and convenient. It suits this subgenre though so it's not reason enough to not read the book.

I requested Book 1, The Beach House, from the library.

Such a Fun Age

Author: Kiley Reid
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2019
Pages: 336
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves and each other.

Review: I've seen this book mentioned a lot in my online reading clubs/pages, and surprised to see it was published in 2019. How did I not hear of this sooner. I loved this book because the characters felt real to me, and people I felt like could know in my own life. The ending was especially satisfying.

Fly Girl

Author: Ann Hood
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company Inc., 2022
Pages: 288
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In 1978, in the tailwind of the golden age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of a college and hungry to experience the world - and maybe, one day, write about it - Ann Hood joined their ranks. After a grueling job search, Hood survived TWA's rigorous Breech Training Academy and learned to evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, administer oxygen, and stay calm no matter what the situation.

In the air, Hood found both the adventure she'd dreamt of and the unexpected realities of life on the job. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin and dined in front of the pyramids in Cairo, fended off passengers' advances and found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels. She flew through the start of deregulation, an oil crisis, massive furloughs, and a labor strike.

As the airline industry changed around her, Hood began to write - even drafting snatches of her first novel from the jump-seat. She reveals how the job empowered her, despite its roots in sexist standards.

Review: Fly Girl is a contender for my favorite book of the year. Written by a former flight attendant, I related so well to this book.

When I was little, and sometimes even now, I look up a plane and wonder where it came from and where it's going (although the Flight Radar app answers those burning questions). Even before I took my very first flight as a senior in high school I thought that being a flight attendant would be glamorous and exciting. I would still love to travel the world, and I still like to fly.

Well-written, entertaining, informative, and fun. In a way I feel like this book was written just for me. Loved it.

The Lady and the Mountain Man

Author: Misty Beller
Genre: Christian / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Misty M. Beller Books, Inc., 2014
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Leah Townsend, a recently orphaned heiress, flees Richmond after discovering her fiance's plot to kill her after their wedding. She needs a safe place to hide, and finds herself accepting a newspaper marriage proposal from a God-fearing young rancher in the Montana Territory. But when Leah arrives at the mountain ranch, she learns her intended husband was killed by a grizzly, leaving behind a bitter older brother and a spunky younger sister.

When Gideon Bryant finds a city girl standing in his log cabin, his first thought is to send her back where she came from. He's lost too many people to the wild elements of these mountains - his parents, his wife, and how his brother. his love for this untamed land lives on, but he's determined not to open his heart to another person.

When when an accident forces Leah to stay at the ranch for seven more months, can Gideon protect his heart from a love he doesn't want? Has Leah really escaped the men who seek her life?

Review: Really fun read for this genre. Lots of adventure and romance. Thoroughly enjoyed.

The Palace Papers

Author: Tina Brown
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 2022
Pages: 592
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: "Never again" became Queen Elizabeth II's mantra shortly after Princess Diana's tragic death. More specifically, there could never be "another Diana" - a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy.

Picking up where Tina Brown's masterful The Diana Chronicles left off, The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana's blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.

Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey through the scandals, love affairs, power plays, and betrayals that have buffeted the monarchy over the last twenty-five years. We see the Queen's stoic resolve after the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, her partner for seven decades, and how she triumphs in her Jubilee years even as family troubles rage around her. Brown explores Prince Charles' determination to make Camilla Parker Bowles his wife, the tension between William and Harry on "different paths," the ascendance of Kate Middleton, the downfall of Prince Andrew, and Harry and Meghan's stunning decision to step back as senior royals. Despite the fragile monarchy's best efforts, "never again" seems fast approaching.

Review: I had eye surgery last week so I have to listen to audio books right now. I took full advantage and chose a long book that would likely take me weeks to read in hard copy. 

This book was so good on audio, although I imagine some parts would drag in print. 

Brown is a royal family expert and I thoroughly enjoyed this comprehensive look at Queen Elizabeth, nearly her jubilee, Camilla, Kate,  Meghan, and other royals.

The Turn of the Key

Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press, 2020
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When she stumbles across the ad, she's looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss - a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she's smitten - by the luxurious "smart" home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn't know is that she's stepping into a nightmare - one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the events that led to her incarceration. It wasn't just the constant surveillance from the home's cameras, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turn the light off at the worst possible time. It wasn't just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn't even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman.

It was everything.

She knows she's made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn't always ideal. She's not innocent by any means. But, she maintains, she's not guilty - at least not of murder - but somebody is.

Review: I struggle getting into the print versions of Ruth Ware novels, but Imogen Church brings Ware's stories to life with her reading/narration of the audio versions. I found this book to be so entertaining and sometimes creepy. The end was strange with unanswered questions, but still a satisfying novel.

Ruth Ware Novels
In a Dark, Dark Wood
One by One
One Perfect Couple
The Death of Mrs. Westaway
The It Girl
The Lying Game
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Woman in Suite 11
Zero Days