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.

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.

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.

Cradle Mates

Kin by Tayari Jones is about the lifelong friendship of two girls from Louisiana. Both are motherless, which forged a special bond that lasted despite vast lifestyle differences as they grew up.

Vernice’s mom was killed by her father in a murder-suicide. She was raised by her Aunt Irene. Annie’s mother abandoned her shortly after birth. She was raised by her grandmother.

Annie’s determination to locate her mother, Hattie Lee, sets her on a very different path than Vernice. She sneaks out before graduation with Bobo, Clyde and Babydoll. They spend several months living at a brothel, working (not as prostitutes) to pay for car repairs on their way to Memphis.

Meanwhile, Vernice moves to Atlanta to attend Spelman College. She has a sexual relationship with her wealthy roommate before being matched with the youngest son of a prominent family. Once they marry, Vernice’s mother in law teaches her how to be a society wife.

Despite this change in circumstance, she maintains her friendship with Annie through letters.

Annie comes to visit when she becomes pregnant by her married boss. She does not want to become like her own mother, and needs help. The events that follow bring the story to its heartbreaking conclusion.

This story takes place during the Civil Rights movement which is an important backdrop to many of the events. It is an extremely well written story about the power of love, family and friends who are family.

A Classic

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – My grandmother loved this book and recommended it to me ages ago. I finally read it.

Jane is a great character. She’s strong, intelligent, caring and thoughtful. Orphaned at a young age, she is taken in by her uncle and aunt. When he passes away, her aunt begrudgingly keeps her according to his wishes. However, Jane’s cousins and her aunt all treat her worse than an outsider.

She ends up being sent to a school, Lowood, meant to improve one’s disposition. It is strict and sparse in its offerings. Jane excels and eventually becomes a teacher here before deciding that she would like to do more with her life.

She gains a position as a governess. Over time, she develops feelings for the master of the home, Mr. Rochester. Their relationship slowly builds to a climactic secret which causes Jane to run away.

On the verge of death, Jane happens upon a family who are willing to help her: St John and his two kind sisters. Jane becomes very close with them and faces a life changing decision. However, her deep feelings and worry for Mr Rochester’s well being drive her back to check on him.

Jane learns important information about her lineage which changes her life. Again, the old-fashioned writing can take a little getting used to, but it’s well worth it. I really enjoyed this story (more than Wuthering Heights). Thank you Grandma ❤️

Road Trip

The Road to Tender Hearts by Anne Hartnett is about a broken family years following the oldest daughter’s death on her prom night.

PJ’s ex-wife Ivy and her fiancé Fred live a few houses down the street from him. He visits them every morning and Ivy still looks out for him. Their remaining daughter, Sophie, still lives in the area too. Ivy and Fred are about to go to Alaska for a couple months, leaving PJ on his own which can be problematic as PJ is an alcoholic.

A terrible tragedy in town leaves him as the only surviving relative of his grandniece Luna and nephew Ollie; they’ve never met. He decides to take them on a road trip to find out if Luna’s real dad is a famous soap actor. The plan also includes a visit to PJ’s high school love interest who was recently widowed.

Sophie and a stray cat named Pancakes (a “killer” cat with quite a personality) join them for the journey. Their trip includes quirky stops (wax museum, purse museum and alpaca ranch), along with plenty of family drama and self discovery.

I loved this book. One line to remember- “a person needs three things to be happy: something to do; someone to love; and something to look forward to” (177). The story and characters were unique, funny, at times maddening, and overall, engaging from start to finish.