Reading Retreat Reads

Every once in a while, Wes and I run away to a secluded AirBnB, dogs in tow, with a stack of books, ample snacks, and a plan to plough through the pages! We did this recently, and I was able to get some new books read – woot! What I’ve been reading lately…

–Marissa

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is a quiet mystery novel that takes place at a summer camp in 1975, and I was HERE FOR IT. Barbara, a camper, has disappeared from the summer camp founded by her family, kicking off an investigation that brings up the past whilst racing to find her whereabouts. This novel is full of fleshed out, flawed, compelling characters with their own stories, and Moore does a masterful job of weaving them all together despite the slower, measured pace of the plot. The timeline is nonlinear, but adds so much to the drama unfolding throughout. This has it all – a mystery, motherhood, gender roles, class, sexuality, detective work, inner turmoil, emotion, you name it. I found the setting so evocative, the writing so compelling, the finale everything. Highly recommended!

Ten Years by Pernille Hughes was an audiobook listen that was part enemies-to-lovers, part grief, part adventure, and takes place over the course of, yep, ten years. Ally was Charlie’s fiancée and Becca’s best friend, but when she dies young, she leaves instructions for Charlie and Becca to complete tasks to scatter her ashes (climb a mountain, a bus tour, etc.). I found this novel much heavier on the “enemies” part and found the “lovers” or romance part a bit thin and late, and the whole story felt… lengthier than it could have been? A slower burn for something billed as “romance” – a bit of a misnomer, methinks!

Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman was… weird. Told in alternating voices, Nina has surprisingly inherited a house from her father in the British Virgin Islands, and has *questions* about it. Maria has been contracted to work as a nanny in said house, but is waiting for the family to arrive. Then, frankly, shit goes sideways. We’ve got secrets, we’ve got hidden cameras, we’ve got bad guys, we’ve got locked rooms, we’ve got romance (question mark?), we’ve got torture, we’ve got, frankly, a lotta nonsense. It *was* a page-turner, but mostly in the WTF? vein, not the “wow, this is great!” vein. I much preferred Steadman’s other titles to this weird Sherlockian fever dream.

The Search Party by Hannah Richell was an audiobook listen, and was big on atmosphere and misdirects when a child goes missing during a glamping weekend in the British countryside gone very wrong. Old uni friends are reuniting for a weekend at a new glamping spot their friends have opened, but when the kids go off on their own… one doesn’t come back. Thus… the search party! I’m not sure I’ll remember the details of this novel in a few weeks, but found it a fun and diverting whodunit for the hours I listened to it!

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell is an adult fiction romance by young adult author Rowell that was overall a warm and satisfying read. Shiloh and Cary were besties in high school, but never got together as a couple. Now, 14 years later, they see each other at a wedding, and cautiously re-enter each other’s lives as more than friends, but Shiloh a single mother, Cary is the Navy, family stuff makes it complicated, and so on and so forth. This felt like a real, and realistic, depiction of love with real hurdles and questions that isn’t all roses-and-romance, though I did think the novel went on a wee bit too long in the middle. Still, a warm romance read!

Strange Folk by Alli Dyer kept me flying through the pages until I was done! Lee is returning with her two children to her estranged family in Appalachia, where the women practice folk magic and she hopes to regroup after she and her husband separate. When a man is found dead in the woods, she is quickly drawn into secrets, darkness, family ties, complex relationships, and a fierceness around her children. The characters in this novel are so richly drawn, the setting so lush and atmospheric, the magic just fascinating, the story propulsive… I absolutely loved this. If you love the magical realism and complex family dynamics of Alice Hoffman or Sarah Addison Allen, you will fly through this one. Highly recommended!