April’s Reads…

It’s been rainy, blustery, sunny, warm, chilly (and often on the same day, har!) here in the Midwest, but the one constant in my life is a teetering TBR pile and an overflowing Kindle filled with advanced reader copies! Here’s what I’ve torn through lately…

–Marissa

A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner was a recommendation from our book club, and I was in when I heard it was 1980s + NYC + a fictionalized version of the “Preppy Murder” case from that time. I wanted to like this book more than I ended up liking it… all the characters are *hard* to love or even root for, lotsa cocaine and bitchin’, and the murder bit came too far along in the plot for me. It ended up a meh from me.

I Love Disney’s Magic Kingdom by Danielle Kelly was going to be an automatic read… nothing groundbreaking or that I didn’t know, but it was fun to visually walk around the park again. It’s my happy place.🙂

The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner was an automatic read, since we stan Weiner in this house.🙂 This time, though, it wasn’t my favorite, though it should be – early 2000s music scene, sisterly bonds, romance, rags to riches, adversity – but somehow it didn’t *quite* land like her others, though I still tore through it. Sisters Zoe and Cassie become an overnight sensation in the music world – Zoe is the pretty one, Cassie the preternaturally talented one, but she’s, you know, fat – and then *something* happens to tear them apart for 20 years. I loved the parts of being on the road, the romance twists, but I was less invested in the “today” plot of Zoe’s daughter going on a version of The Voice and reconnecting with Cassie. Still, I’ll never not read anything Weiner writes, but this didn’t have the same zing as her others.

A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall was an audiobook listen, and I have mixed feelings about it. We have a fiancée being introduced to her beau’s *very* wealthy and insular clan, a wintery atmosphere, secrets, lies, toxic family which is all good… but I found the pacing for the second half and the “c’mon, REALLY?!”-ness of it all a bit meh. It’s only been days, but the plot of this one is already fading from memory… but it was a nice diversion while it lasted!

Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine got lots of prepub buzz, and I’m happy to say – all of it deserved! I was worried that this novel would pack in every rom-com trope and fail, but it worked, it totally worked! We have Alaska, we have enemies-to-lovers, we have emotional family stuff, we have forced proximity, we have sexy times, we have grumpy and sunshine, we have IT ALL. My only quibble is the ending felt rushed, but otherwise, this romance novel was chef’s kiss.🙂

Heartwood by Amity Gage is a Read with Jenna pick, so it was all over the place at publication. I loved the setting – the Appalachian Trail – and the premise, that a female hiker goes missing, and we have various POVs from Valerie, our missing hiker, the main Game Warden, and a 76-year old in a nursing home all taking part in the story. This is definitely a slow-burn story with lots of character development that kept me wondering what the finale would be, and I loved Valerie’s voice throughout, though the ending left me pretty meh.

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang had a catnip premise for me – a down on her luck Julie steps into her (dead) twin’s opulent influencer life, with all the bumps and fake outs that would require. The novel goes off the rails, though, when Julie attends a weeklong retreat with fellow influencers on a deserted island, and shit goes seriously sideways. I felt like the first half of the novel and the second half were not connected, since the second half gets seriously far-fetched and a little horror-y for me. For me, the influencer aspect was the highlight.

The Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler was a sweet novel akin to Our Souls at Night or Bridges of Madison County. We have two 60 somethings – Vivian and Charlie – who divorced 40 years ago but recently reconnect, despite long-ago regrets, secrets and divergent paths. I loved their love story, the small town setting, the struggles they both had individually, and the ultimately happy ending. This was just a warm hug of a book.

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld is actually a collection of short stories (her second collection) definitely targeting those of us that are female and middle-aged. If you like Sittenfeld and short story collections, you’ll like this.

What Happened to the McCrays by Tracey Lange was an audiobook listen, and I was pulled in and engaged immediately. Two and a half years after divorcing Casey and leaving town, Kyle McCray returns home to care for his ailing father. The longer he stays in their town, though, the more Kyle sees what is departure did to those around him, and makes him wonder if he and Casey are truly done forever. I loved the now-and-then dual timelines, the characters of Kyle and Casey and all their complexity, the small town setting, even the middle school hockey team. I was rooting for Kyle and Casey throughout – and this delivered.