A new year means a new reading challenge over on Goodreads! I wanted to read 50 books last year and came in a few short. I don’t want to overcommit again, so I set the bar slightly lower for 2023 with 40. I think that’s absolutely manageable.
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun • ★★★★☆
I snagged The Charm Offensive from the library not even realizing it was another book by Alison Cochrun. I read Kiss Her Once for Me in December and really loved it.
The Charm Offensive was similarly charming with really wonderful and likable characters. Is the whole plot unlikely? Of course! But reading about how Dev, a producer of a reality dating series a la The Bachelor and Charlie, the Bachelor, come to be friends was really heartwarming. And this is a romance, so of course that easy friendship grows into something more. Who doesn’t love a story like that?
The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb • ★★☆☆☆
I’ve read every Wendy Webb book out there and I feel the same way every single time: The ideas and settings are so good. The writing and even the characters are not.
So what is good about The Stroke of Winter? It’s set in a fictionalized version of Bayfield, Wisconsin (one of my favorite places in the world). It’s about ghosts. It’s about a woman trying to open her own inn. Like this has me written all over it.
But the storytelling is so much lame dialogue and so many useless details. Where I really had an OMG JUST STOP moment was when she went on for a whole page about how there was a cupboard with a broom and cleaning supplies on the second floor in addition to the first floor so the family didn’t have to walk up and down stairs to get a bottle of Lysol. It’s OK to just say “she grabbed the broom” without giving me a backstory on it. I’ll assume it came from a closet somewhere.
So does this two-star review mean I’ll skip Webb’s next book? Nope! I’ll have a similar review next time.
The Rib King by Ladee Hubbard • ★★★★☆
Part historical fiction, part revenge story? Sign me up! The Rib King was a really unexpected read for me. It delivered so much more than I anticipated.
The Rib King follows the lives of several men and women, all of whom started out as servants in the home of a once-wealthy family. After that family falls to ruin, these men and women start their next chapter. The next steps for these characters, though, aren’t necessarily what you’d expect.
This book is darker than I anticipated in some really phenomenal ways. It unfolds beautifully. I don’t want to spoil it because there were some reveals that surprised me!
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna • ★★★☆☆
I pick up a lot of witchy fiction in the fall, but sometimes those library holds just don’t come through in time. That was the case with The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. And I’m glad I listened to this one—even if it’s not high spooky season.
In this book, Mika Moon is recruited to be a witchy governess to three young witches. Despite everything Mika was taught about being a witch, she agrees to the job.
Because this is a lighthearted romp, there is a romantic storyline, but I really loved how the author focused primarily on Mika’s relationship with her students and the other teachers. It set this book apart from others in this same vein like The Kiss Curse or Payback’s a Witch.
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling• ★☆☆☆☆
This book was absolutely batshit and not in the good Bunny sort of way. Just batshit in an I can’t believe that this was published and that I read it all the way through way.
So what attracted me to this book to even pick it up? The comparison to Crimson Peak, of course!
Now, what made it so bad? As my mom would say, it was shoving ten pounds of shit into a five-pound sack. It was trying to be gothic, paranormal, magical, cultish, metaphysical, fantastical, psychedelic and even more.
Also, I absolutely loathed the choice to set this book in a fictional world when all settings and plot devices were extremely thinly veiled references to real places and events. Great Breltain? That’s Great Britain. Rukza? Russia, obvi. Why bother? Also, in this universe, people were living very much an 1880s life with carriages and horses (no telegrams or phones) but somehow the war that just happened involved shelling and gassing like a WWII-era UK.
And that’s just the start! I can’t go on. I’ll lose my mind.
A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan • ★★☆☆☆
I love Door County. It’s one of my favorite vacation spots, so of course I had to pick up this one about a bookseller who moonlights as a cryptozoologist.
Morgan gets roped into an investigation when a detective suspects that a lake monster may be behind the death of a few kayakers.
As the story unfolds, though, Morgan became a less and less likable character. She runs an unusual and rare books store (thanks to a very large inheritance from her parents) and talks about embellishing stories about the wares she sells to up the price. Lady, you are a millionaire. Do not lie about the provenance of an antique to make a buck. She also is pretty blasé about death and others’ feelings. Specifics like these can kind of ruin a book for me.
But if you like detective-style mysteries and Wisconsin or cryptids, this may be worth picking up.
One Night on the Island by Josie Silver • ★★★★☆
I wasn’t expecting to like One Night on the Island as much as I did, but it really won me over. Cleo, the MC, won me over.
See, Cleo is a relationship columnist for a website. She’s great at the job but has become sort of burnt out with on the business and relationships. She heads off to a cabin on Salvation Island for a story on self-coupling. Of course, while she’s there, she meets Mack, a photographer who is booked in the same cabin by mistake. Mack is also a good character, but I’m all about Cleo.
During her time on the island, she’s able to do some work on herself. She decides what she wants next for relationships, for work, for family. Honestly, I’m feeling like I’m in a similar place. It was nice to see a positive depiction of this in-between state. It’s OK to be in the in-between and it’s OK to take time to sort it out—even if it takes longer than you think.
I will say that I wish the end was different. I wanted a different path for Cleo after her really wonderful transformation, but it was fine. I’ll live.
As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.
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