Colony

The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang is a magical mystery.

Jo Ness has been grieving the loss of Aldo; he was her best friend and coauthor of their book about jellyfish. His death occurred during a dive together, and Jo has been haunted by his loss since.

Her college friend and love interest, Nadia, reaches out to her after eleven years without communication. There is a giant jellyfish in the water off the tiny Maine island where Nadia lives. She hopes Jo can bring her jellyfish expertise to help the island residents.

The jellyfish, called Clementine, has an invisible hold over everyone who has seen it. This hold prevents them from leaving the island or destroying her, and its boundary appears to be narrowing.

Jo faces visions of Aldo’s ghost and the interesting collection of island residents (including a potential love interest) to figure out how to release Clementine’s hold.

There are interesting snippets from Jo and Aldo’s book throughout the story which enhance the tale.

Real Love

Fever Dream by Elsie Silver is a spicy, slow burn romance taking place during filming a reality show called “Romance Ranch” in Canada.

Emmett is the star bachelor on the show. He’s a famous bull rider known for his womanizing ways. Julia is the set designer. She also happens to be the younger sister of Emmett’s bull riding rival.

Their relationship with each other starts off on the wrong foot due to some uncomfortable history between them (which is shared early on in the book).

The author does a good job building a fun flirtation between them which eventually leads to much more. As they get to know each other, Julia understands why Emmett hasn’t let anyone get too close to him.

On top of their budding relationship is the drama of creating a reality show. The show producer makes everyone miserable with threats and pushing his seedy agenda that Emmett wants no part of. Emmett and Julia are forbidden from seeing each other as it would be a contract breach.

The book includes some cute touches such as a few pictures, text exchanges and memos to the producer. I’m not typically a romance fan, but this book was a fun summer read.

Bad Neighbors

Coyoteland by Vanessa Hua is a random pickup from the public Library’s new releases shelf.

It tells the story of multiple families living in a wealthy California suburb named El Nido.

Jin’s family includes his wife and two daughters, Jane and Lily. They’re new to the area. Jin is hoping to flip the house with borrowed money from his childhood friend. There are multiple issues: the house has structural flaws, he’s jobless and a nearby housing development may drive down the cost of the home. He decides to start a petition against the development using fake names.

This creates a problem for his neighbors, Blair and Sam. Sam is in charge of the development and they have a lot of their own money riding on its success. Blair works for a startup company called Orb, which creates security cameras. Their children are Quinn, Jordan and Liam. Their nanny is an immigrant named Ana and her daughter Sofia. Ana ran from her abusive boyfriend and is fearful that he’ll find her new residence.

The Washington family includes mother Minerva, a single mother and doctor, and her children Tasha and Marcus.

The book takes place just following the initial Covid shutdown. People are still masking, but trying to get back to normal.

The book exposes lies between family, friends and neighbors along with systemic racism in a predominantly white, affluent neighborhood. Jane and Tasha team up to try to expose it, and things go crazy.

Another major conflict is over competitive swim teams in town. A neighborhood mom, Nic, tried to stop Jordan from competing due to her age. This brings more drama into the story. AND, there’s a rogue coyote running rampant in the neighborhood.

This story has a lot of storyline and characters to follow which made it a little confusing at first. But overall, it kept my attention with its series of crazy events.

Be Well

Heal Faster Unlock Your Body’s Rapid Recovery Reflex by Victoria Maizes, MD includes a thorough overview of many common ailments along with ways to treat them. Treatments include everything from prescription medications including their effects to supplements, diet/nutrition and alternate forms of healing (acupuncture, meditation, spirituality).

I really enjoyed the thoughtful and informative writing in this book and took lots of notes!

Hive Life

The Bees by Laline Paull may be one of the most unusual books I’ve ever read.

It’s told completely from the perspective of a sanitation bee, Flora 717. She narrates her life from her emergence to her death. During this time she experiences multiple levels: working in the nursery, meeting their Queen, being a forager and an egg layer.

Her story explains how their community works- bee dance, different stations/kin, enemies, hive mind, drones, allegiance to their queen and more.

Flora is unlike other bees of her kin because she speaks and is thoughtful and brave. She stands up against enemies such as wasps and spiders and also survives a night outside the hive and a winter flight.

It was an odd story but it kept my attention throughout for its uniqueness and my interest in bees.

Twin Tales

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is a beautiful story of fate, family, relationships and overcoming loss.

It’s told from twin brother Noah and twin sister Jude’s points of view during different ages. Noah’s story is from their past between the ages of thirteen and fourteen outlining events leading up to their mother’s fatal car accident. His chapters refer to how he sees various scenes in his life as a painting. Jude’s chapters are present time three years later and depict the aftermath of their mother’s death including the destruction of their relationship with one another. Her chapters reference her grandmother’s “bible” of superstitions.

Both characters experience relationship turmoil during both time periods. Noah is in love with Brian, the athletic and intelligent neighbor living nearby while on a break from his prep school. At the younger age, Jude is wrapped up in the older, bully (of her brother) and fellow surfer, Zephyr. Once older, she is captivated by Oscar. He is the ward of the sculptor artist she is training under. Oscar has unknown ties to her brother as well. In fact, the sculptor does too. These connections become clear through Noah’s chapters along with the explanation of their mother’s destination on the day of her accident.

I found myself both loving and hating many of the characters for their horrible behavior to each other. But in a sense, it’s also a realistic depiction of how sometimes we struggle with those closest to us. This is a well-written and thoughtful book.

Overcoming

Ariel Crashes a Train by Olivia Cole is a 2027 Nutmeg nominee, and is my first read from the list.

This book is a novel in verse telling Ariel’s turmoil with violent thoughts and her obsessive coping mechanisms.

The book takes place during summer break. Ariel works at Wildwood, and it’s the first summer her best friend Leah won’t be with her. Her sister moved away for college the year before. Without these pivotal people nearby, Ariel is forced to navigate through her spiraling psyche.

New friends, Ruth and Rex, help Ariel face her illness along with faraway support from her sister. She realizes that she is experiencing OCD and that it can be controlled.

This book may resonate with anyone experiencing OCD symptoms and feelings of not belonging. Ariel struggled with this (on top of her OCD) as a large-sized gay female.

For me, this book rates a 1.

Deadly Affair

The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews is a murder mystery.

Clare has been in a rut. She loves being a mom to three-year-old Sadie, but she doesn’t have much else going on. Then she meets the handsome museum owner Gabriel. They begin an affair. She is at his home during a break in in which a valuable piece of art he was holding for a secret buyer is stolen and he is murdered.

Now Clare and her husband are suspects, but nobody knows she was there the night of the murder. She works behind the scenes to figure out who Gabriel’s buyer was in order to catch the murderer.

Shady dealings in business and the art world come to the surface as Clare works to exonerate herself and her husband. This was an entertaining read.

Not So Charming

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser is a unique twist on the classic tale of Cinderella.

In this perspective, Lady Ethel Tremaine is a strong, resourceful woman trying to keep her family in good standing despite dwindling resources after the death of her second husband.

Her daughters, Rosie and Mathilde, are also hard working. Her stepdaughter Elin is not. She is the only daughter with a dowry and chooses to spend her time relaxing and spouting virtues from a book left to her by her mother.

At first it’s only Elin who receives an invite to the prince’s ball. It turns out there is some bad blood between Ethel and the current queen around her first husband. Their history is rehashed.

Eventually she secures an invite for her daughters as well. It takes everything they have to scrape together the ability to make suitable dresses to attend. Elin’s laziness prevents her from making her dress in time. However, she ends up getting help from a traveling musician – wearing Ethel’s first wedding dress.

The story progresses with a hidden agenda for the sudden ball and hurried marriage proposal to Elin. The handsome prince is actually a monster in disguise. Ethel needs to decide whether to risk their standing forever by blocking the marriage, or overlooking Elin’s safety for her family’s advancement.

While the story got a little draggy at times for me, it was an interesting perspective.

Misunderstood Mabel

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth is an engaging read.

Elsie (aka Mad Mabel) is an elderly woman living a quiet life in her small neighborhood. This is until she discovers her neighbor dead. This pulls up her sordid past in which she was convicted of murder at the age of fifteen. She was blamed for other deaths or injuries before this event as well, including her younger sister, one of her teachers and a couple boys from her class.

She becomes the target of people who blame her for these deaths now that her location and new name is known. Luckily, a pair of YouTubers hope to share her side of the story.

The book is her retelling of her childhood and all the events that led to her reputation as “Mad Mabel.” Meanwhile, current events include her relationships with her neighbors, specifically the young nuisance Persephone, Peter and others. Her best friend Daphne is along for the ride too.

Through her retelling of the past and current events, readers discover that Elsie was extremely misunderstood and lonely. She is actually a caring, funny person who was unable to form true loving relationships with those around her (for various reasons).

This story hooked me from its first lines and kept my interest throughout.