Book Review: Summers at the Saint

• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
• Publication Date: May 7, 2024
• Author: Mary Kay Andrews
• Genre: Romance | Women’s Fiction
• Page Count: 448

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Blurb

Welcome to the St. Cecelia, a landmark hotel on the coast of Georgia, where traditions run deep and scandals run even deeper. . . .

Everyone refers to the St. Cecelia as “the Saint.” If you grew up coming here, you were “a Saint.” If you came from the wrong side of the river, you were “an Ain’t.” Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation here. But she could work here. One fateful summer she did, and married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help—including the daughter of her estranged best friend—Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.

Traci Eddings has her back against the pink-painted wall of this beloved institution. And it will take all the wits and guts she has to see wrongs put to right, to see guilty parties put in their place, and maybe even to find a new romance along the way. Told with Mary Kay Andrew’s warmth, humor, knack for twists, and eye for delicious detail about human nature, Summers at the Saint is a beach read with depth and heart.

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My Thoughts & Opinions

One of my favorite authors has done it again! Summers at the Saint is Mary Kay Andrews’ latest novel and in true MKA style, it is as good or better than her prior novels. They just keep getting better.

The story unfolds through multiple points of view while the characters are being introduced to the reader. The story then evolves through the lens of a third party. A little different approach from the author’s usual style, but it works very well and kept the narrative tight.

The characters are interesting and varied. I love how MKA is able to imbue fresh and diverse personalities into her characters and Summers contains an abundance of fully developed characters to both love and despise.

There are multiple storylines involving murder, embezzlement, romance, bribery and extortion. They are all neatly wrapped up in a cohesive package filled with surprising plot twists and more. Fans of MKA will not be disappointed. Five stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

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Book Review: Four-Alarm Homicide

• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
• Publication Date: April 23, 2024
• Author: Diane Kelly
• Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
• Page Count: 304

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Blurb

Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are hot for a historical property that has just come on the market—a fire station in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood that was built nearly a century ago.

The cousins have just begun the interior demolition work at the fire station when Joanna Hartzell, who lives in a townhouse around the corner, comes by with a plea for help. Joanna owns the right half of her building, which she proudly maintains in perfect condition, while the left side falls into disrepair: the seven adult children who inherited it years ago refuse to lift a finger on repairs. Never one to turn down a challenge, Whitney and Buck manage to acquire the rundown townhouse—though it turns out Joanna is only one of the many neighbors interested in buying the property once they’ve worked their magic.

Then Joanna shows up at the fire station confused and rambling, then collapses, never to recover. Alarm bells go off for Whitney: she suspects something—and someone—evil could be the real cause. Can she and Collin put the clues together and smoke out a killer?

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My Thoughts & Opinions

Four-Alarm Homicide is the sixth novel in the House-Flipper Mystery series, but it is the first novel that I’ve read from this author. That being said, I had no problem reading Four-Alarm as a standalone.

The story unfolds through the lens of the main character, Whitney Whitaker, a carpenter by trade and house-flipper with her cousin, Buck. There’s a few cameo appearances from Whitney’s cat, Sawdust. But I didn’t see the point of including a cat’s point of view as it didn’t add anything to the narrative.

The pacing of the novel was significantly slower than what I’m accustomed to as the murder doesn’t occur until I was at least 40% vested into the novel. I would normally give up at a little past 33%, but what kept me going were the science-based theories, and the house-flipping operations. Patience paid off in the end as the finale was unexpected and a surprise.

Being that the novel is the sixth in the series, I was pleasantly surprised that all of the characters were well developed and didn’t lose any of their attributes through the prior novels. I loved all of the characters. But dear to my heart was the crotchety old neighbor, Gideon. And then, of course, there was Whitney’s cousin, Buck.

Like most cozy mystery novels, there are a few recipes at the end which was a bonus in my book. Four stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

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Book Review: Picture Day at Dino Play

• Publisher: NorthSouth Books
• Publication Date: September 10, 2024
• Author: Sean Julian
• Genre: Children’s Fiction
• Page Count: 32

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Blurb

Today is picture day at the dino daycare. Freda is excited to wear her favorite hat for the photo. After playing outside with her Cretaceous friends, Freda’s hat is missing! Her teacher Miss Beak and the other students help her search until they discover the hat in the most unlikely of places: a bird has used the hat to make a nest! At first Freda wants the hat back, but then she feels that the bird needs her favorite hat more than she does. Miss Beak has a clever solution that makes the class photo picture perfect: arts-and-crafts hats for all the dinosaurs!

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My Thoughts & Opinions

Picture Day at Dino Play is such a cute story. It’s the perfect book to teach the young ones that sharing is caring. It’s the second book in the dino adventure series and it’s just as good as the first.

The illustrations continue to be colorful and adorable. And all of the characters just come alive on each page. I had fun reading it and it will be a great book for preschoolers and toddlers anytime — bedtime or story time. Five stars

I was invited to read a DRC from NorthSouth Books through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

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Book Review: The Manicurist’s Daughter

• Publisher: Celadon Books
• Publication Date: March 12, 2024
• Author: Susan Lieu
• Genre: Biographies & Memoirs | Parenting & Families
• Page Count: 320

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Blurb:

Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers about her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success―until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.

For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone―why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.

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My Thoughts & Opinions:

I typically enjoy biographies and memoirs. And while I did enjoy the beginnings of The Manicurist’s Daughter, my interest waned after 54% I still managed to skim the remainder of the memoir and I don’t think I missed anything noteworthy.

As a reader that has a tendency to “mouth” foreign words and phrases, the constant barrage of Vietnamese names and phrases became a detriment to my ready enjoyment. I lost track of people and/or relatives, especially when there were only Vietnamese names involved. As such I probably would have enjoyed listening to an audiobook version so I wouldn’t have to fumble over pronunciations.

The memoir wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought the book would delve more into the body image/malpractice angle of her mother as well as the effects of the interratial marriage between her and her Korean husband. But, I just got smatterings of them.

The Manicurist’s Daughter wasn’t the best memoir that I’ve read. But it wasn’t the worst, either. Two okay stars.

I won an ARC from Celadon Books through the Bookish First raffle. I was also invited to read the DRC from Celadon Books through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

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Book Review: The Other Lola

• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
• Publication Date: March 12, 2024
• Author: Ripley Jones
• Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
• Page Count: 336

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Blurb

In the months after Cam and Blair broke their small hometown’s legendary missing-girl story and catapulted to accidental fame, they vowed never to do it again. No more mysteries, no more podcasts, and no more sticking their heads where they don’t belong.

Until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, shows up on their doorstep, begging Cam and Blair for help. Mattie’s sister Lola disappeared mysteriously five years ago. No trace of her was ever found. Now, she’s back–but Mattie is convinced the girl who returned is an impostor. Nobody believes Mattie’s wild story–not Mattie’s brother, not Mattie’s mother, and not even Cam and Blair. But something is definitely wrong in the Brosillard family. And Blair has her own reasons for wanting to know what really happened to Lola while she was gone.

With Cam and Blair still struggling with the aftermath of their first mystery―and with new secrets swirling between them―the stakes are higher than ever in this can’t-miss sequel to Missing Clarissa.

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My Thoughts & Opinions

Because I really enjoyed Jones’ previous novel, Missing Clarissa, I was more than excited for the opportunity to read The Other Lola. With so many references to the mystery in Missing Clarissa, I don’t think that The Other Lola can be read as a standalone.

Unlike Missing Clarissa, The Other Lola is a slow read. Lacking plot twists and cliffhangers for a majority of the novel, it took a lot of patiences to get past the 51% point. But by then I figured out the finale. Skimming the rest of the novel till 86%, my suspicions on the perpetrator(s) were validated. It’s only because the novel closely mimics an episode of Law and Order SVU that I watched fairly recently. If it weren’t for the similarity to the TV episode, I probably would have enjoyed the novel a lot more.

The main characters are a carryover from the previous novel and because of that, they weren’t as fully fleshed out. Too bad since new readers will probably find the characters uninteresting and pretty vanilla. Some of the newer characters included a non-binary person and a few lesbians. I just don’t get why just about all authors seem to jump on the LGBTQ+ bandwagon and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that just about every book I’ve read recently either has a non-binary characters, or a lesbian/gay characters built into the narrative. And it can get a little confusing with the “they/them” pronouns.

In any event, The Other Lola turned out to be a decent read. Not the best, and not the worst. Three stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

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