All articles filed in Fiction

On the small island of Alice, off the coast of Massachusetts, everyone sees bookshop owner A.J. Fikry as a loner and a bit rude.  He doesn’t engage with the townspeople and is very much set in his ways.  As a widow who lives off frozen meals and wine, Fikry knows he lives an unhappy life…

I came of age in France so I am drawn to a coming of age novel set in the country.  Isabel is an American from California that I would categorize as flighty.  She has dropped out of film school and has moved to France to help her pregnant sister, Roxy, prepare for the arrival of her…

Like pretty much everyone else, I was obsessed with “Gone Girl” so I made sure to read Gillian Flynn’s next novel, “Dark Places” and it did not disappoint.  Libby Day is the victim of a gruesome crime.  When she was just seven, her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered – we’re talking strangled, chopped with an…

The “marriage plot” is a common literary [and now film] device wherein the storyline is developed around courtship rituals.  Two people are perfect for each other only they can’t see it because a) there’s a love triangle (“27 Dresses”), b) religious/political differences (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) or c) other “insurmountable” obstacle (“Monster-in-Law”).  In the end,…

Since these novels are true YA (that’s the Young Adult genre), I read all three in 3.5 days.  I mean, I’m an almost-30-year-old reading stories meant for teens.  Whatever, it’s still juicy fun.  This is yet another series in the growing dystopian romance/female empowerment sub-category.  It was described to me as Hunger Games meets The…

The Sinclairs are a perfectly WASPy family, which of course is never perfect behind closed doors.  All of the blonde haired, blue eyed clan spends the summer on their private island, Beechwood, where each of the patriarch’s three daughters have their own home with their families.  The eldest children from each of these families have…

Hattie loves her children but rather than show that love with affection and sensitivity, she focuses on being a solid provider.  She does what she has to do to make sure her 11 children (and one grandchild) are fed, healthy, and out of harm’s way.  But whether it is her rough demeanor or the circumstance of…

Someone is dead.  We know the death occurred at a school trivia night (of all places) and that the names of three women – Madeline, Celeste, and Jane – are on everyone’s lips.  We immediately rewind to Kindergarten orientation day when the three women form a bond over champagne that is quickly tested when Jane’s…

Who here knew orphan trains were a thing?  I, for one, had no idea that through the 1920s, the Children’s Aid Society transported hundreds of thousands of orphaned children from busy Northeastern cities to the rural Midwest in the hopes of giving them new lives.  The idea was that children would have a better chance…

To say Celeste has a fetish would be a gross understatement.  She is beyond just “turned on” by 14-year old boys.  She likes them exclusively, to the point that she must drug herself to have sex with her [age-appropriate] husband.  She is incredibly specific in her tastes – not too muscular so they still seem boyish,…