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Josie Silver's lovely book is heartwarming and doesn't feel overly sentimental. Josie Silver's lovely book is heartwarming and doesn't feel overly sentimental or emotionally manipulative #alternatereality, #heartwarming, #threestarbookreview

blow of the main protagonist's early-onset Alzheimer's with a zany romp, lots of love for books, and heartwarming

sweet, funny dialogue; a complicated reunion between old flames; and a hometown return that's both heartwarming

jaunt--and along the way allow long-held vulnerabilities to fall away in this beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming

Keegan offers a gorgeously wrought Irish story of childhood, hope, love, and loss that is spare, lovely, heartbreaking, and that brought me to tears. “You don’t ever have to say anything," he says. "Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many’s the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.” In Claire Keegan's slim novel Foster, a young girl in Ireland is taken by her unreliable, frequently drunk gambler of a father to spend the hot summer with previously unknown-to-her relatives, a couple living on a rural farm. Her bitter mother has just had another baby, and her various other siblings are fighting for resources. Her home life is hectic, hardscrabble, and emotionally cold, but she has never known life to be any other way. It’s a hard feeling but as we walk along I begin to settle and let the difference between my life at home and the one I have here be. The loving, affectionate household in the country allows her to feel more open and secure than she has before. She has plenty to eat, useful work to do, she learns to love books, she finds laughter. She can't help wondering if she might possibly be here to stay of if she'll be thrust back into her rough home, and which she'd prefer. Summer is ending, and there's a mysterious, unspoken, dark undercurrent at the Kinsellas'. I absolutely adored this book. It's beautiful, spare, and powerful. I was brought to tears at the end. I'm in for all Claire Keegan books forever now and just ordered her story collection Antarctica through my local bookstore. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I loved Claire Keegan's novel Small Things Like These, about Irish-small-town coal salesman Bill Furlong. Each of his small choices build to a crescendo of spilled secrets and an upended decades-old system of cruelties and greed. You can check out my Bossy review of Small Things Like These here. Keegan is also the author of the story collections Antarctica and Walk the Blue Fields as well as the novella The Forester's Daughter, all of which I plan to read.

A Quiet Life was lovely and heartwarming but didn't feel too easy and was never cloying.

a death and allows for a fresh start--which might push the bounds of realism but offers a hopeful, heartwarming

In The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream, Jeannie Zusy offers a messy, heartwarming family story

Christina Lauren The True Love Experiment is a wonderful, romantic read about forbidden attraction and heartwarming lovely and sweet, I adored the whole story, the characters, the growth, the banter, the heartbreaking, heartwarming

Katherine Center offers a writing-focused story in which forced proximity, past secrets, complicated life circumstances, and a fear of vulnerability complicate the professional and personal lives of an unlikely writing duo. Emma Wheeler writes romantic comedies, and she longs to be a screenwriter. But her life in Texas is complicated: her father requires a full-time caregiver, and Emma is it. When, due to her promising talent and her best friend from high school (who's now a high-powered agent), Emma gets the chance to rework a script by the famous screenwriter Charlie Yates (whose works and quotes are posted all over her room), she bends over backward to make it happen. Her sister steps in to help with their dad at home, and Emma moves to Los Angeles for six weeks of inspiring, career-building, lucrative, and life-changing work. Only, the last thing Charlie Yates wants is someone changing his (terrible) script. He doesn't even believe in love, and he's quite certain that Emma is not a solution to any of his problems. In fact, he seems determined to undermine any potential progress on the script, which puts Emma in a terrible position. Oh, and because of several (ahem, rom-com-type) issues, Emma is living in Charles's house for the duration of the project. And Charles's documentary-filmmaker ex-wife is showing up unannounced, seemingly protective of Charles. Can Emma make Charles believe in true love long enough for them to create something wonderful? Or will the growing obstacles in their path keep them not only from building a great script, but from each other? As in all good rom-coms, there's a conflict keeping the potential couple apart, and I appreciated the nuances of this one. Center doesn't rely on a miscommunication trope (my very least favorite), and I could see where both sides were coming from emotionally within their prolonged heartbreak of having to be apart. There's a romantic gesture centering around a script, and it didn't quite sit right with me (regarding who wrote it, who is credited, etc.). But I loved the book's focus on writing, the peek at L.A. life and the movie industry, and that Emma and Charles are both fish out of water who only find peace and success both professionally and personally when they are true to themselves. I listened to The Rom-Commers as an audiobook courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Katherine Center is also the author of Hello Stranger, What You Wish For, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, How to Walk Away, Happiness for Beginners, and other books.

Heartwarming books and quirky fiction were two types of stories that suited me then and still hit the please see Darling Rose Gold. 03 When We Were Vikings by Andrew David Macdonald I loved this offbeat, heartwarming

​Frankel's story of a nontraditional, loving, zany family flips traditional views of unplanned, young pregnancy through the view of a main protagonist who refuses to fear, feel shame, or to regret the sometimes complicated occurrences in her life. “Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?” India Allwood always knew she wanted to act. Each decision she made as a young person was done toward trying to shape her future as an actor. Now a grown-up, successful actor, she's supposed to be doing the publicity for her new movie, which exploits the heartbreak of giving a baby up for adoption. India generally keeps her strong opinions about the world to herself (or shares them with her two kids or trusted agent), but she honestly thinks the movie is no good--and that adoption is often not a tragic story. She is, herself, an adoptive mother who believes in the process--and she has a complicated past that adds layers to her feelings about the matter. When she shares her frank thoughts about the complex issues surrounding unplanned pregnancy, a storm of publicity explodes around her. Her precocious ten-year-old kids secretly reach out to family for help--but even India doesn't realize the ripple effect of the contact her beloved children are making. This is your wide, strange, remarkable family in the world, she said. These are your ancestors, progenitors, and forebears. This is your story. I was frequently distracted, as I didn't feel like Jack and Fig's age of ten really fit. Kids are more sage in some ways and more youthful in others. But the twins generally felt older, wiser, and more capable of complex thought and carrying out elaborate plans (and holding secrets) than most ten-year-olds I know. They were able to infer a great deal about the world and how it works--far more than I would have anticipated, even considering their difficult beginnings and the emotional maturity demanded of them as a result. Yet the story includes what felt like too-frequent "cute" misnomers (for example, when Jack is told about forebears, he exclaims nonsensically, "I want four bears!"; when Fig is told they must travel incognito, she conveniently doesn't use context clues, instead replying, "But we don't have a cognito.") Kids say the darnedest and adorable things, but these instances pulled me out of the story each time they occurred. The character of India turns rigid, conservative views on unplanned pregnancy, young pregnancy, and adoption on their heads. While I did find myself cringing and wishing she followed through on the birth control that would ensure her freedom from difficult choices resulting from a surprise pregnancy, India refuses to feel regret, shame, or fear. I had to check my assumptions repeatedly as I entered into her mindset around her version of personal choice and freedom. Family Family offers so much varied love and acceptance, discovery, and renewed connection. I also loved the peek at a celebrity's home life. You can see the rough sketches of where the novel is going, but the extended, loving, odd, sometimes zany family was unexpected in its makeup and irresistible in its existence within this charming story from Frankel. When are They going to make this into a television series, hmmm? Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Laurie Frankel is also the author of This Is How It Always Is, One Two Three, The Atlas of Love, and Goodbye for Now.

is playful, brusque, bossy, and connects an unlikely cast of characters, all murder suspects, into a heartwarming I listened to the playful, heartwarming Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers as an audiobook,

All of this makes for a heartwarming read in which everyone is trying to love and live and be happy.

#heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

The author’s note about her inspiration for the book’s initial setup is heartwarming. #heartwarming, #lightfiction

aspect of this mystery reminds me a little bit of Finley Donovan Is Killing It, but The Maid offers more heartwarming

bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange, heartwarming

In Unlikely Animals, Hartnett's irresistible, oddball tragicomedy with heart, characters explore the limits and solidity of friendship and family loyalty, show mistakes and imperfections, and cling to hope. Emma Starling is a former natural healer whose abilities have disappeared, and she's also a recent med-school dropout. It's not that she couldn't hack medical school--she just didn't go the first day, or the second, or any day after that. Now she's scrabbling to make ends meet in California and drifting a little bit--oh, and she's been telling her parents about fictitious classes she's been attending at the medical school she isn't going to. Emma returns to small-town New Hampshire to care for her father Clive, who is dying. He's also vividly hallucinating small animals and the speaking specter of a long-dead local naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes, who is advising Clive about how to spend his final days, sometimes through making daring and eccentric decisions. When she arrives home, somewhat shamed by her lies; concerned about her parents' marriage, her brother's recent bout with addiction, and her father's health; and without a direction for her future, Emma discovers that her beloved but estranged best friend from high school is missing. The local authorities aren't particularly inclined to search for opioid drug addicts like Crystal--in fact, no one besides Emma and her dad seems to believe that Crystal is still alive. The many ghosts’ chatter and commentary (always with their born and died dates following their names in parentheses, which I loved) felt like echoes of Lincoln in the Bardo, but the tone of Unlikely Animals is quite different; warm-hearted (yet never cloyingly sweet). A minor nitpick: the fifth graders in the book seemed far younger to me—their matching outfits, reverting to sucking thumbs after a crisis, free use of each other's last initials, innocence about aspects of the world, and so on—but I adored them. I was hooked, witnessing Hartnett's delightfully faulted, oddball characters making their way in a messy world. Father and daughter, brother and sister, and mother and father find their way back together after hurting each other, making mistakes, misunderstanding intentions, and losing their individual paths. The characters insist on hope, allow for reinvention, and leave room for the inexplicable and the wondrous. Hartnett evokes a sense of place so strong, the town felt like a character itself. Unlikely Animals is sweet and wonderfully strange, and Hartnett employs a light touch and thoughtful approach to addressing potentially heavy, dark issues. This book made me smile over and over. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Annie Hartnett is also the author of Rabbit Cake. I received a prepublication digital copy of this book (published April 12) courtesy of Random House Publishing Group: Ballantine Books and NetGalley.

Straub offers a wonderful story that plays with time, explores sentimental moments, offers do-overs, and sweeps the reader into a love-filled, hopeful heartbreaker of a tale. "...no one ever talked to me about it, that's for sure--what it feels like to love someone so much, and then have them change into someone else. You love that new person, but it's different, and it all happens so fast, even the parts that feel like they just last for fucking ever while they're happening." On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s job, apartment, and love life are solidly okay. The only dark spot in her life is her father’s grave illness. When she wakes up the next morning...it’s her 16th birthday again. And it isn't just that being in her teen body again shocks her, or that seeing her high school crush is jarring. It's incredible to see her healthy, vital, young dad. Knowing what she does about the future, would Alice change the past? I am a huuuuuuge fan of books that play with time, and Straub offers up all the best parts of a time-travel book in This Time Tomorrow. Alice gets to live as her young self again, with the benefit of adult wisdom but temporarily carefree. She gets do-over chances and plays with how various decisions shift her potential future. She treasures and basks in the glorious, beautiful, temporary moments that shaped her. She soaks in time with her healthy, vital father. This Time Tomorrow indulged my own personal desire for sentimentality, while also emphasizing the value of cutting to the heart of a situation without wasting time. The story offers up lots of loving moments as well as perfectly imperfect decisions and mistakes. The story is heartbreaking and lovely in its ultimate insistence that one must let go of the past. Do you have any Bossy thoughts abotu this book? Emma Straub is also the author of The Vacationers, All Adults Here, Modern Lovers, and other books. If you like books that play with time, you might also enjoy the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Second-Chance, Do-Over, Reliving-Life Stories.

Thorpe's irresistible character of 19-year-old Margo discovers her strength, drive, creativity, and vulnerability after becoming pregnant. She defies societal expectations to provide for her baby and to find fulfillment in her personal and professional life. Margo is a 19-year-old community college student having an affair with her married professor. When she finds that she's pregnant, she begins a winding path to figuring out her life that mainly entails defying most of the stereotypes of a young single mother. She is told she will receive zero support from the baby's father; she loses two roommates due to the baby's crying; she receives little practical help from her mother; and she loses her job. Yet she finds a true friend in her last remaining roommate, who until then seemed primarily a source of rent; she finds a strange and fulfilling new relationship with her estranged father, a former professional wrestler; and she dives into an unorthodox new profession in order to secure a financial future for her family. Thorpe offers lots of joy and offbeat fun, yet doesn't shy away from weighty conflicts between classes, genders, ages, education levels, and levels of wealth or poverty. Margo butts up against--and at times, dismantles--frustrating societal expectations and double standards related to sex, desire, body autonomy, and freedom. Young Margo finds herself in the midst of the significant complications of single motherhood, an insecure financial situation, the weight of responsibility for a tiny, helpless human, the shocking power of others' judgments (a custody battle; ominous Child Protective Services visits), all while navigating complex family dynamics--and maybe even a hint at a future romance. The story and its characters feel unexpected and fascinating; Margo's Got Money Troubles  is an edgy contemporary novel with a wonderfully oddball premise and a captivating amount of depth. I received a prepublication edition of this novel (which was published in June, oops!) courtesy of NetGalley and William Morrow. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rufi Thorpe is also the author of The Knockout Queen . A book that takes a very different look at unexpected single motherhood--its tone is much lighter, and many of the logistical complications are glossed over--is Ready or Not .

Addison Allen's magical realism story is set on an island off the coast of South Carolina and offers lots of heart, interactive ghosts, and friends like family. "There are birds, and then there are other birds. Maybe they don't sing. Maybe they don't fly. Maybe they don't fit in. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be an other bird than just the same old thing." Addison Allen's Other Birds is set on an island off the coast of South Carolina as main protagonist Zoey comes to take ownership of her deceased mother's apartment. After Zoey's beloved mother died, Zoey's father and stepmother prioritized her stepsiblings emotionally and in every other way. Yet Zoey is without bitterness, and she is eager to experience the world and become independent. (An inherited apartment and money she has gained access to at age 18 help.) Zoey shows her kind and delightfully unguarded nature as she befriends her mother's neighbors and begins working for the charming complex's owner, all the while cultivating her obsession with a reclusive, mysterious local author whose magical story or personal generosity seems to have affected every person on Mallow Island. When one neighbor in the condo complex dies suddenly, Zoey embarks on a search for answers that leads her to the heart of the island. Other Birds is big-hearted story with magical realism, ghosts that haunt or help, earnest sweetness, a little wholesome romance, and a cute small-town setting. The friendships that are forged into a sort of family were lovely. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Sarah Addison Allen is a North Carolina author. Other Bossy reads with magical realism (you can find reviews for each of these on this site) include Thistlefoot, What You Can See From Here, The Harpy, The Impossible Destiny of Cutie Grackle, The Light Pirate, and The Water Dancer.

This is a heartwarming, funny, poignant, sassy tribute to a life fully lived and to a determination love

avoidance of punishment for our heroes' missteps when they tell the truth about others' wrongdoings, and a heartwarming

Italy plays with time to allow a grieving young woman to know her mother at her same age, inspiring heartwarming

This light fiction young adult novel offers (reluctant) romance, best friendships, dance lessons, glimpses into the future, a reimagined family structure, and lots of heart. In the newest young adult book by Nicola Yoon, Evie Thomas is reeling from her parents' divorce--and from her haunting secret knowledge that her father was seeing his girlfriend before he split with Evie's mom. So she doesn't believe in love or happy endings anymore. Her sister dates boy after boy, two of her best friends are making eyes at each other, and she's sick of all of it. She's written off love. Then something really strange happens. As Evie's putting her former favorite romance books into a Little Free Library, a wizened old woman approaches her with some advice, and soon afterward, unexpected visions start overwhelming her. She's able to see the past and futures of the couples around her. But that's not all: Evie gets roped into taking dance lessons and inconveniently meets an incredible guy. Meanwhile, her best friend is the only one who knows about her ability to peek into the past and future, and he isn't any clearer than she is about what's going on. Her mother starts dating again. And to top things off, her father announces his engagement. It's all too much. I was proud of Evie's forgiveness, yet felt a little bit dissatisfied about her eventual willingness to overlook her father's cheating. It's a complicated situation, but that didn't sit right to me without more of a reckoning. I was also a little bit thrown by the final non-resolution regarding her peek into the future and a tragedy she glimpses. But Instructions for Dancing was romantic, sweet, fun to read (well, to listen to as an audiobook, which I did), and it focused on quirky friends, family loyalty, and looooove, all in a light fiction wrapping. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Nicola Yoon is also the author of the wonderful young adult books Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star. If you're in the mood for more light fiction, you might try the titles on the Greedy Reading List Six Lighter Fiction Stories for Great Escapism.

Jansson offers a vivid Finland isle setting, a wonderfully grumpy grandmother-granddaughter relationship, and the complexities of carving out a life in an unforgiving place. This week my book club is doing something new for our holiday gathering: we'll each wrap a book we read and loved and write a brief, not completely illuminating description on it, then exchange, swap, and come away with a promising new read. Shhh, this is the book I'm taking! The vivid setting of The Summer Book is a mostly wild island off the coast of Finland where a small family is living, and the grandmother and young granddaughter characters share a beautifully grumpy and wonderfully close relationship. I was hooked by their dialogue and discussions that were about nothing at all and everything all at once. Tove Jansson captures the wonderful tension--of the alternating wonder and crushing boredom of many consecutive days spent wandering and observing the weather and the wild; the work necessary to carve out a space for themselves on a rugged island while desperately wanting things to remain undisturbed; the intensity of love and annoyance of either being with the same two other people or alone for months on end. I delighted in every bit of Jansson's book and loved it so, so much. I could easily have read it in one night. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Jansson is also the author of the fanciful children's books in the Moomin series as well as the short stories and novels Sculptor's Daughter, Sun City, The Winter Book, and Fair Play. You might also be interested in the books on one of my earliest Greedy Reading Lists on the site, Six Captivating Nordic Stories.

Hoffman's novel is about facing dark realities, entering uncharted territory, leaning on music as a solace, and welcoming new beginnings. The Second Ending was fun and full of heart. Prudence Childs was a prodigy. She taught herself to play the piano as a toddler, became famous, played at the White House, and appeared on television. She inspired a generation to take up the piano. Then she realized her grandmother was exploiting her and she broke from both her family and her fame. She fell into a career writing jingles--creatively unsatisfying but it paid the bills. Decades later, Prudence's dark past threatens to upend her peaceful, if uneventful, adult life. One thing leads to another and she agrees to participate in a popular televised dueling piano competition--against Alexei Petrov, a young Russian pianist who has flawless technique. But Alexei's parents have always pushed him so ruthlessly, he never made friends or developed a life outside of music. When the two face off, they each have something to prove--to their families, their exes, those who have doubted them--and to themselves. There are a number of appealingly zany hijinks here as well as a surprising amount of heart. The Second Ending is about self-discovery, facing dark truths, taking a terrifying leap out of the safety of what is known, and opening the door to a boundless, uncharted future. I really enjoyed this. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Ballantine Books. You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Rockin' Stories about Bands and Music.

Klune's newest novel is heartwarming, earnest, light, and sweet, with a vision of an in-between afterlife Klune's newest book, Under the Whispering Door, the author offers a heartwarming story that does just The inclusion, loyalty, and friendships here were heartwarming.

This summer read makes you feel like you’re in safe hands, and you can be confident that nothing here will go seriously awry. The vivid midcentury memories are a highlight. In Elyssa Friedland's Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, two families meet for the summer at their formerly sought-after resort in the Catskills, but the Weingold and Goldman families aren't as close as they used to be--and the resort itself is falling apart. When an offer comes through to buy the Golden Hotel, the families reach a tipping point. Can they come together to save their beloved sanctuary, or will the uncovering of secrets and lies, family drama, and powerful generational conflicts thwart any possible resolutions for the two clans? I had hoped this book would be Dirty Dancing meets "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and the extensive reminiscing about the hotel's heyday years is really fun. The vivid setting is as essential to the book as a main character, and references to real-life celebrities and details of midcentury life are a highlight. But the book's present pales in comparison to the golden years of the past, and current events begin to feel dreary—hotel conditions are dusty, broken, dated, and dirty; and various disappointing behaviors are brought to light and shake the foundations of the families and of their treasured collective memories. I wanted to feel entrenched in the glory days of that era, but the high points of the hotel are over long before the reader enters the story. Positive, exciting, ambitious ideas are floated for revamping the hotel, but they seem financially impossible. In good news, the hotel crisis seems poised to bring together the families and the younger generations despite the ways in which the family's various hopes are dashed. There felt like significant summary toward the end of the book, with abrupt point of view changes and brief scenes with multiple shifts that kept me from feeling as invested as I might have. This is a summer read that makes you feel like you’re in safe hands, and you can be confident that nothing here will go seriously awry. Last Summer at the Golden Hotel offers conveniently neat wrap-ups to most of its complications. There's interesting, creative reimagining at the end that I enjoyed. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Friedland is also the author of The Floating Feldmans and other titles. The author started with the Catskills as her setting and said that the characters and story came to her naturally from there. The setting does feel as essential as a character within the story.

Dear Emmie Blue is satisfying, heartwarming escapism without inspiring any irritation at too-convenient #heartwarming, #lightfiction, #fourstarbookreview

#lightfiction, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

Chambers's science fiction is full of heart, heartbreak, and hope--with a fascinating backdrop of space travel and interspecies relations. "But brothers. Brothers never go away. That’s for life. And I know married folks are supposed to be for life, too, but they’re not always. Brothers you can’t get rid of. They get who you are, and what you like, and they don’t care who you sleep with or what mistakes you make, because brothers aren’t mixed up in that part of your life. They see you at your worst, and they don’t care." In The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first science fiction title in Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series, young Rosemary feels lucky to have landed the job of clerk for the quirky, ragtag, but welcoming crew of the Wayfarer ship. The group is made up of various creatures from around the galaxy, and they've already built bonds through working together for ages. Yet they make room in the mix for Rosemary, who's grateful--and who's frankly glad to leave her significant personal troubles behind. Just as she's adjusting to life on board, the crew gets a lucrative opportunity: to tunnel wormholes through space to a distant planet. But things quickly take a turn as pirates and other dangers threaten the makeshift family on the Wayfarer. They each have reasons to mistrust other creatures, but they have to trust and rely on each other more than ever before in order to survive. Chambers's story is science fiction that's full of heart, heartbreak, and hope. The book feels much more focused on the characters--with a backdrop of space travel and otherworldly creatures--than on exploration or adventure. Much of the story is about acceptance and openness and finding ways to get along. Interspecies relations are prickly, comfortable, romantic, puzzling, or all of the above. I love that the crew of the Wayfarer feels like a close-knit group of summer camp counselors somehow, palling around, sometimes irritating each other, each with special gifts and the ability and desire to help crewmates reach their full potentials, emotionally or otherwise. I just adored this. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series includes The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; A Closed and Common Orbit; Record of a Spaceborn Few; The Galaxy, and the Ground Within; and a series prequel, A Good Heretic. She's also the author of a A Psalm for the Wild-Built (the first in the Monk & Robot series) and its upcoming sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. She also wrote To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a standalone novella.

aliens, and shape shifters, but at its heart it's about a hurting family and an unimaginable, shocking, heartwarming

ICYMI: Evvie Drake Starts Over, by the author of Flying Solo, is sweet, with funny dialogue, surprises, best-friendship, and a Maine setting I loved. I recently read and loved Linda Holmes's Flying Solo, and I was reminded of how much I adored Holmes's novel Evvie Drake Starts Over. Evvie Drake has become something of a recluse in her quiet seaside Maine town ever since her husband's death in a car crash a year earlier. Her best friend Andy is doing his best to support her. while it seems Evvie is doing her best to bury her grief. Andy's childhood best friend Dean is a former Major League pitcher--but he has the "yips" and can't throw straight anymore. Dean's escape from media scrutiny leads him to rent Evvie's apartment for a time. And as the two become friends, they make a rule: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about baseball. But having a listening ear in Dean, who is completely separate from Evvie's "before" life, means she might finally be ready to open up about what her relationship was like before she became a widow. And Evvie's ignorance about baseball means Dean can safely vent and maybe even figure out what's holding him back. They may be able to help the other find some version of peace, just by being there. Oh, this book! Linda Holmes's Evvie Drake Starts Over is sweet and funny and lovely. I listened to it as an audiobook while I gardened, and it was a perfect summer story. I loved Holmes’s writing and Evvie’s voice. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Obviously Evvie Drake Starts Over should be made into a movie. Click here for my review of Flying Solo, another book I loved. I'm in for whatever Linda Holmes writes next!

Kline's poignant, lovely book explores a family's emotional missteps and enduring love after a painful loss, and their hard-fought resolutions and tentative steps forward. Young Ollie finds people confusing. They don't always say what they mean, and lately they're often crying. Harriet Kline's This Shining Life tracks Ollie's attempts to make sense of things after his father Rich's death from cancer; it follows his mother Ruth's adjustment to life without her free-spirited, joy-filled partner; and it tracks the grief and the resulting shifts within their close-knit extended family. Rich left small gifts to his loved ones, and Ollie becomes convinced that if he searches hard enough for meaning in these items, he'll uncover essential clues about the meaning of life and be able to understand what happened to his father. It's heartbreaking to witness various family members' attempts to do what they think is best for themselves and for others, often misreading what's needed or wanted. The examinations of mortality and of love and of living life fully are poignant and lovely, and the last ten percent of this book is so beautiful, it brought me to tears. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I received a prepublication digital copy of this book courtesy of Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley. This is Harriet Kline's first book.

The story is heartwarming, funny, with strong friendships, plus it's steamy and romantic at times without The heartwarming familial support isn't stereotypical in its structure, and imperfect, broken family

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading what may be a perfect summer read with plenty of nostalgia; a dark, mythology-filled mystery; and an intriguingly odd collection of short stories. Which books are you reading and enjoying these days, bookworms? 01 Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland Two families meet for the summer at their formerly sought-after resort in the Catskills, but the Weingold and Goldman families aren't as close as they used to be--and the resort itself is falling apart. Can the families come together to save their beloved sanctuary, or will the uncovering of secrets and lies, family drama, and powerful generational conflicts thwart any possible resolutions for the two clans? Is this book going to be Dirty Dancing meets The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel like I hope it will? It feels like a perfect book for summer reading. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group. Friedland is also the author of The Floating Feldmans and other titles. 02 The Maidens by Alex Michaelides In The Maidens, the newest book by the author of The Silent Patient, to be published next week, Mariana, a group therapist coping with her own personal tragedies, becomes embroiled in trying to identify and catch a killer at her alma mater, Cambridge University. Mariana lost her husband a year ago in a holiday accident in her coastal Greek hometown, and she's still reeling. When her beloved niece Zoe calls from her Cambridge dormitory, frantic that her friend is missing, Mariana leaves her most problematic client and hops on a train to try to help. So far the male characters in this story are obnoxious, condescending, creepy, and generally problematic. Michaelides has woven Greek mythology, references to ancient ceremony, and superstition into this dark tale. I received a prepublication digital edition of this book, to published May 11, 2021, courtesy of Celadon Books and NetGalley. 03 Sarahland: Stories by Sam Cohen Cohen's debut, Sarahland: Stories, centers around characters who are mainly named Sarah. In the first story of the collection the Sarahs are college women, and Cohen takes tongue-in-cheek potshots at their various shallow, superficial behaviors and priorities--and presents disturbingly normalized patterns of sexual assault and exertions of male sexual power. In other stories, Cohen recasts Sarahs and explores various roles for women, different searches for self, and provocative circumstances and reactions. A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and a Bible-era trans woman are two of So far this is a weird and edgy and wonderful set of short stories.

No Cure for Being Human is beautiful, funny, heartwarming, practical, and Kate Bowler is so wise and

In The Love of My Life, Rosie Walsh offers a twisty contemporary fiction novel and psychological thriller centered around a fascinating cast of characters, heartbreak, and hope. In Rosie Walsh's The Love of My Life, Emma is a marine biologist who's devoted to her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby. Emma finds herself fighting aggressive lymphoma, and Leo, an obituary writer, privately copes with his pain by writing about Emma. Emma is recovering. But as Leo continues to dig into his wife's past to confirm details, he finds that the facts his beloved wife has told him don't add up. He doesn't want to upset Emma, so he does something he's never done: he goes behind her back, speaking to people from her past who can fill in the gaps. And he finds that almost everything Emma has ever told him about herself has been a lie. Walsh tells the story in two parts, alternating between chapters exploring Emma's young life (the true story) and chapters from the present (the unraveling of falsehoods). Through both timelines, Walsh slowly builds the true narrative while uncovering Emma's motivations, traumas, emotional state, and the outside forces at work, while also exploring weighty topics including mental illness and loss. The tone of this is more toward contemporary fiction, and the book offers satisfying character development, but The Love of My Life is also a psychological thriller with twists and turns. Without melodrama or a manipulative-feeling big reveal, Walsh surprised me with the real story and the reasons Emma kept her secrets. This wonderfully wrought page-turner is heartbreaking, hopeful, and masterfully crafted. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Rosie Walsh is also the author of Ghosted. For more mysteries and thrillers I've reviewed that you might like, click here.

#lightfiction, #heartwarming, #booksaboutbooks, #fourstarbookreview

Adunni is a tough young woman determined to have a voice and emerge from her oppressive situation, and she's wonderfully dogged, creative, and spirited. “My mama say education will give me a voice. I want more than just a voice, Ms. Tia. I want a louding voice,” I say. “I want to enter a room and people will hear me even before I open my mouth to be speaking. I want to live in this life and help many people so that when I grow old and die, I will still be living through the people I am helping.” Adunni is a young teen growing up in a rural Nigerian village where girls are often married off by age fourteen and are frequently made to stop attending school even earlier in life. She's curious, talkative, joyful, and full of song. Being thrust into a polygamous marriage with a husband twice her age--and the sense that she has been sold off by her widowed father for her dowry--isn't enough to break her. The deaths of the few people who show her love and affection slow her down but don't stop her. Being tricked into working as an unpaid, abused slave without freedoms or even time to sleep doesn't make her give up. Adunni just needs that one glimmer; a spark; a single kindness; one person who really sees her to inspire her to keep going, and against all odds she continues to find enough strength to get her through. Adunni experiences tremendous emotional, physical, familial, and societal hardships, yet she keeps her sights set on getting back into school and escaping the grim, constricting situations she's been forced into. She's a tough young woman determined to have a voice and emerge from her oppressive situation, and she's wonderfully dogged, creative, and spirited. My friend Kirstan recommended this book, and I listened to it as an audiobook, which I adored. “Who knows what else tomorrow will bring? So, I nod my head yes, because it is true, the future is always working, always busy unfolding better things, and even if it doesn’t seem so sometimes, we have hope of it.” Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Abi Daré grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and has lived in the United Kingdom for eighteen years. This is her first book, but hopefully not her last. I'd love to hear what you think about this book!

This short book packs delightfully odd, satisfying, and sometimes laugh-out-loud-funny moments. When I heard its premise, I feared that this book might possibly be offbeat for the sake of being offbeat, or possibly lacking substance or characters' self-reflection, or that it might be interesting but otherwise potentially shallow. Which was rude of me, but I did wonder if the striking setup itself might be the most powerful element, with the writing potentially paling in comparison. But it was none of those things, and I just loved this. Nothing to See Here is a short book but it packs delightfully odd, satisfying, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny punches. Kevin Wilson provides some heartbreaking disappointment about family members' emotional limitations and conditional loyalty, and I rejoiced when his characters crafted their chosen relationships into a satisfying pod that functioned like family. The story stars combustible children and the low-key, unambitious misfit who sticks with them, making them feel unequivocally safe and understood for the first time. Any Bossy thoughts about this book? Before I read this, I went with some members of my book club and other friends to hear Kevin Wilson speak at our local library foundation event. He was unassuming, charming, and quirky, so I knew I had to give this book a go. I haven't read any of his others yet, have you? This book was listed in the Greedy Reading List Six More Great Fiction Titles I Loved This Year.

ICYMI: This funny, wry, silly, sweet, heartbreaking story feels light on the surface but has deep meaning churning underneath. “I look at you, and you’re young. You’ll always be that way for me. But not for anyone else. Arthur, people who meet you now will never be able to imagine you young.” Arthur Less is about to turn fifty and is a novelist of limited acclaim. When his ex sends him a wedding invitation, Arthur panics. He can't attend, but he can't stay home. He decides to accept all of the random literary event invitations he's received and to put together a makeshift tour of the world, putting thousands of miles between him and his problems. Less is a surprisingly sympathetic character, and as he's using an unusual method to escape attending an ex's wedding he fumbles into figuring out his past and some of his future. Andrew Sean Greer offers a story of enduring love, loss, chance encounters, friendship, adventure, and wonderful realizations large and small. Greer describes small moments so fully, they feel like everything. I thought this was just great. Less is absurd, very funny, and a little heartbreaking--light on the surface but with plenty of meaning churning underneath. It was definitely the right book at the right time for me when I read it. I loved it. Oh, this wonderful book! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Andrew Sean Greer's sequel, Less Is Lost, is scheduled for publication this fall.

sweet, funny dialogue; a complicated reunion between old flames; and a hometown return that's both heartwarming

The True Love Experiment is a wonderful, romantic read about forbidden attraction and heartwarming vulnerability

There's an unusual mix of adventure and heartwarming self-examination in this debut. #nordic, #heartwarming, #series, #fourstarbookreview

#timetravel, #alternatereality, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview

I did wonder at the omission of what felt like a key character who might have been an integral and heartwarming

#memoir, #nonfiction, #heartwarming, #fourstarbookreview