Just finished reading...

The Lost Love Song by Minnie Darke (Ballantine trade paperback, 13 October 2020).

This book is a delight.  It's a story about humans, poetry, families, love, and death, but the main character is music. It's so well-written that I couldn't decide whether I wanted to read it quickly (because the story was so engaging), or slowly (in order to savor the exquisite prose).

We don't meet the song until after we've met the person who initiates it: Australian concert pianist, Diana Clare. Diana composes most of a song after an argument with her fiancé the night before she leaves on a month-long tour.  She inscribes it in a leather bound music manuscript book, intending to work on it while she's away.

Tragically, Diana's life ends before she can return home.  But she leaves the notebook beside a piano in a hotel in Singapore.  The notebook is discovered by a Canadian businessman who decides that rather than leave it up to the hotel to return it to its owner, he'll do it himself once he gets home.

But he forgets, and it languishes on a bookshelf until his daughter picks it up, needing some manuscript paper.

And so, the journey of the song begins, passing from musician to musician, making its way around the world, connecting people as it travels.  

Rather than make a trite comment here about the power of music (oops!), I'm just going to firmly recommend that you read it. 

Oh, one last thought:  it will be perfect for book clubs!

Teen Tuesday

The Girl I Used to Be by April Henry (Henry Holt & Co. hardcover, 3 May 2016).

When Olivia Reinhart was three years old, her mother was murdered.  The primary suspect was her father, but he disappeared.

Flash-forward fourteen years:  Olivia is an emancipated minor working in the deli department at a grocery store.  She is visited at home by two police detectives who call her by her birth name, Ariel Benson.   They inform her that her father's body has been found, in the woods not far from where her mother had been.  

In the Medford newspaper, where her family had lived then, she sees a notice for a memorial service, and decides to go, even though she can barely afford the gas to get there from Portland.  

Olivia swings by the house where she and her grandmother lived until she died, when OIivia was seven.  Seeing that it vacant (and technically, Olivia owns it), she decides to stay for a while to see if she can find out anything about what happened to her parents by getting to know their relatives and friends who are still around.

Although she tries to remain incognito, she's recognized by the elderly neighbor, as well as by her childhood best friend, who agree to assist with her investigation.  

What none of them realize is that they are all putting themselves in danger from someone who managed to keep his/her crime a secret for fourteen years, and will do anything to keep it that way.

This is a riveting, fast-paced story that I read in an afternoon.  

Ms. Henry is a worthy successor to classic young adult mystery writers such as Joan Lowery Nixon and Caroline B. Cooney.  

Teen Tuesday

Half Lost (Half Bad Trilogy #3) by Sally Green (Viking hardcover, 29 March 2016).

In Half Wild, the previous volume of this trilogy, Annalise, the former romantic partner of protagonist Nathan, kills his father, Marcus. 

In this book, Nathan is obsessed with tracking down Annalise, though he’s not exactly sure what he’ll do when he finds her.  Nathan and his new lover, Gabriel, are part of the Alliance, whose purpose is to eliminate the evil Council of White Witches.

As always, Nathan is moody and reticent, even more so since the death of his father. While he’s been developing the magical powers he inherited from Marcus, he has also been killing groups of the Council’s Hunters as he comes across them. 

His killing spree worries Gabriel and Alliance leaders, and he has to work hard to repress the evil part of him. 

The climax of the story, where Nathan leads Alliance fighters as they invade the Council’s headquarters is violent and bloody, but not unexpectedly so.

The result of the battle, and the story’s denouement are unexpected, and the conclusion of the tale is emotionally wrenching, but fitting for this tale. 

Those who have read the first two volumes of the trilogy will read the enthralling finale eagerly, and should, ultimately, be satisfied.

VERDICT Essential for libraries that own the first two books in the trilogy. Purchase multiple copies if possible.



This review was originally published in School Library Journal Mar. 2016: 153.

YA Thursday: Last-minute gifts

It may be too late to order in time for Christmas without paying huge express-shipping fees, but here are some books you should be able to find at your local bookstore.  And they're published recently enough that your giftee may not already have them (but include a gift receipt just in case).




The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen by Katherine Howe (G.P. Putnam Books for Young Readers hardcover, 15 September 2015).

The cover makes the book seem scarier than it is.  Iin fact, it's not frightening at all.
This is the story of 19-year-old Wes Auckerman, in New York City to take a summer filmmaking class.  While helping a classmate shoot a séance in the East Village, he meets two young women, Annie and Maddie.  
He's attracted to both of them, but is more intrigued by the mysterious Annie, who seems to hear and see things he can't. 
She asks to help her find a ring she's lost, which leads him to learn more than he thought possible about the history and geography of New York.




Ana of California by Andi Teran (Penguin paperback, 30 June 2015).

I loved this modern adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, about a Mexican-American teen from East L.A.  Ana has been thrown out of yet another foster home.  She has one chance left before she ends
up in a group home.  A brother and sister who run a farm in Central California need help for the summer; if things work out, they might let her stay on for the school year and eventually apply for emancipation.
Like Anne, Ana is imaginative, if somewhat accident-prone, but eminently likeable.





Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly (Kathy Dawson Books hardcover, 4 August 2015).

After Zoe's parents divorce, she and her mother move to a small town.  They've been there only a few months, and Zoe hasn't made any friends at school, but she doesn't care because she plans to study hard so she can get into Princeton.
When Philip Digby shows up on her doorstep, Zoe's intent is to stay as far away from him as possible.  But she can't help be be interested in his crazy schemes aimed at finding a local girl who has been kidnapped.  It takes her a while to figure out why he's so interested, but when she does, she wants to help him, even though he's rude and takes her for granted.
This has been described as Sherlock Holmes meets Veronica Mars meets Ferris Bueller, and is, indeed, a humorous caper-style mystery.

Cozy Monday

The Cozy Cookbook: more than 100 recipes from today's bestselling mystery authors (Berkley Prime Crime trade paperback, 7 April 2015).

You know all those cozy mysteries you read where the protagonists make delicious food and want to make it but you can't right now, even though the recipe is at the back of the book, because you need to finish reading first, and by the time you finish the book the urge to cook has passed?

Sometime later, the urge to cook reappears, but you can't remember where that fantastic-sounding recipe for soup/cake/potato salad/lasagna was?  And then by the time you've searched through all your paperback cozy mysteries and still haven't found the recipe, it doesn't matter anyway because you don't feel like cooking anymore?

Well, your worries are over.  Many of those fantastic recipes have been gathered in this cookbook.  There are eight chapters, from Breakfast to Dessert (and yes, I do believe there are more dessert recipes than any other category), and range from super-easy to slightly complicated, from single serving to potluck-sized.  

Recipes are interspersed with excerpts from books by Avery Aames (a.k.a Daryl Wood Gerber), Ellery Adams, Connie Archer, Leslie Budewitz, Laura Childs, Cleo Coyle, Victoria Hamilton, B. B. Haywood, Julie Hyzy, Jenn McKinlay, and Paige Shelton.  

There's also a comprehensive index searchable by author, title, category and recipe name. 

And, if you comment below, you'll have a chance to win your very own copy, courtesy of the publisher!

FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy of the book.

Cozy Monday

Snow Way Out (Snow Globe Shop Mystery #1) by Christine Husom (Berkley Prime Crime mass market paperback, 6 January 2015).

Cami ("call me Camryn") Brooks has returned to her hometown after being the (innocent) victim of a sex scandal in Washington, D.C.  She's taken over running her parents' shop Curio Finds.  Despite the unhappy circumstances, Cami's return home is well-timed, since her mother is undergoing chemotherapy and her father is chief caregiver.

Cami's best friend Pinky runs the coffee shop connected to Curio Finds, and in an effort to expand their business, the two women have organized an evening workshop on making snow globes.

When Cami walks home through the park late that evening after cleaning up her shop, she comes upon a man sleeping on a bench in a scene eerily similar to a snow globe she'd seen on a shelf in Curio Finds.  But he's not asleep, he's dead, with a knife in his back.

Cami is again viewed with suspicion, but this time she determines to prove her innocence.

Cami is a personable protagonist, and her refusal to be a continual victim of circumstance is easy to identify with.  Learning more about her and her friends as the series continues is an appealing thought.

The book also includes instructions on how to make a snow globe.



The publisher has generously offered a copy of Snow Way Out to one of my readers. Please comment below, WITH A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS, before midnight on January 12, 2015.  Entries from the US only, please.


FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a
review copy of the book.

Cozy Monday

October cozy events on Stuff and Nonsense:

Monday 6th            Cozy Monday book review:  One Potion in the Grave by Heather Blake.
Wednesday 8th      Guest blogger Heather Blake + giveaway!
Monday 13th          Cozy Monday book review:  Bless Her Dead Little Heart by Miranda James
Wednesday 15th    Guest blogger Miranda James + giveaway!
Monday 20th          Cozy Monday book review:  Off Kilter by Hannah Reed
Wednesday 22nd   Guest blogger Hannah Reed + giveaway!
Monday 27th          Cozy Monday book review: A Midwinter's Tail by Sofie Kelly
Wednesday 29th    Guest blogger Sofie Kelly + giveaway!

Visit me at CFC!!

I'm over at Crime Fiction Collective today, reviewing Hilary Davidson's latest book, BLOOD ALWAYS TELLS.

Please drop by!

Visit me at CFC!!

I'm over at Crime Fiction Collective today, reviewing Brad Parks' latest Carter Ross novel, THE PLAYER.

Please, drop by!

Teen Tuesday

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski (Delacorte Press hardcover, 11 March 2014).

In this quirky story, most of the members of Bloomberg High School homeroom 10B go to the school nurse for 'flu shots at lunchtime.

Of the 23 students in the class, only one refused to get the shot for reasons of disbelief.

The next day shy Olivia Byrne is due to give a speech in her public speaking class, and she's terrified. Standing in the front of the room, she feels dizzy and ill.  Suddenly she hears her friends saying things like "Is she going to pass out?" and "What's wrong with her?"  That's when she realizes that they are not actually speaking.   She can hear what they are thinking.  She faints.

Slowly, the remaining students in 10B come to the same realization:  they can hear other people's thoughts.  Pi Iamaura, so dubbed because she could quote the first thirty-nine digits of π, realizes it first while doing her morning swim at the community pool.  She thinks that the person in the lane next to her is talking to her, but when she responds, he just looks at her strangely.  When she realizes that his lips weren't moving, it dawns on her that she actually heard his thoughts.

Arriving at school, she discovers that other kids in the class are experiencing the same phenomenon.  They get together after school and decide not to tell anyone about it for the time being.  Over the next few days and weeks, all the students from 10B (except for doubting Renée) are telepathic.

Afraid of what might happen if the news goes public, they decide to keep it to themselves, and discover that knowing what other people -- even strangers -- are thinking is not necessarily a good thing.

The story does not resolve as expected.  At least, not as this reviewer expected.  And although there  are so many characters, a cast list would be helpful, it's a quick, enjoyable story that keeps the reader guessing until the very end.



FTC Full Disclosure:  Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-galley.

Visit me at CFC!

I'm over at Crime Fiction Collective today with a review of Laura Lippman's latest book, AFTER I'M GONE.

Come on over!

Visit me at CFC!

 

Please drop by Crime Fiction Collective, 

where today I review 

Rebecca Cantrell's THE WORLD BENEATH.