Fact and Fiction

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins collides past and present in a drama/murder mystery taking place at the same Italian villa.

Past- Mari, her husband and half sister join a famous musician and his friend at the villa for rest and creative inspiration. The two women are the only ones of the group to produce anything noteworthy. Mari writes a famous horror story, and her sister Lara writes a best-selling album. Their creations are even more notable due to the scandalous murder taking place during their time at the villa.

Fast forward to Emily and childhood friend Chess vacationing to the same villa. Emily is hoping for writing inspiration for her mystery series, but she ends up switching to a whole new topic. She begins writing about the murder that occurred. She finds interesting parallels between Mari’s famous book and elements around the villa. She wonders if Mari’s fiction was based on reality.

Entwined is Emily’s own personal drama between her soon to be ex-husband and her competitive relationship with Chess. This is a fast-paced, easy beach read.

Puzzling Events

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is a fantastic book!! I really enjoyed this one!

Multiple characters tell the story, including my favorite: Marcellus the octopus. Marcellus is an incredibly smart octopus that forms a bond with the nightshift cleaning woman at his aquarium. Tova is an older woman who has lost her his husband to cancer and her teenage son to drowning years earlier. She never learned what caused the incident.

Meanwhile, Cameron is a thirty-ish-year-old man who is down on his luck. He lost yet another job, his girlfriend broke up with him and his band is losing their lead singer. He decides to investigate his unknown father, which leads him to working at the same aquarium as Tova and Marcellus.

While there is some predictability within the plot, I just loved the story. There are great characters and satisfying plot events.

Family Evolution

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is a story about families. The plot is conveyed through different characters’ viewpoints over a lifetime. Each chapter progresses the timeframe.

William is an outsider. He’s a tall, quiet man who has been disconnected from his own parents his whole life. This is due to his older sister’s death when he was first born. Basketball has been his therapy. While in college, he meets Julia. She is one of four Padavano sisters, and they are extremely close.

William marries Julia and becomes part of the family. They have a daughter quickly and this is when William begins to unravel. His depression changes everything. He gives up rights to his daughter Alice. Julia moves to NYC with her. She breaks off all contact with her family after discovering that one of her sisters is in a relationship with William.

Years progress and we witness each character’s ups and downs until one sister’s brain tumor reunites everyone.

This book is beautifully written and captivating in its exploration of family dynamics over time. There is love, loss, change and acceptance. A top read!

Struggles at Sea

The Blue by Lucy Clarke gradually unrolls events surrounding a crew mate’s disappearance from a sailing yacht.

The book switches between Then and Now to tell the story. In the now, Lana is living on her own in New Zealand when she hears of a recovery attempt of a capsized yacht named The Blue. This sets her to remembering her time on the yacht about eight months earlier.

Lana and her lifelong friend Kitty we’re traveling to escape their family issues when they crossed paths with Blue crew members. Everyone seemed to be using the yacht as an escape. They were excited to join for as long as they could. At first their experiences were idyllic, but once a crew member disappeared it all changed.

Lana felt that there was foul play behind the crew mate’s disappearance. She begins to be more isolated from the rest of the crew, until events reach a breaking point. Lana turns her back on Kitty and the other relationships she made once the yacht docks.

Now she must face the survivors and finally figure out the truth.

Marriage Therapy

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is my first summer read!

Marissa and Matthew Bishop begin seeing Avery for marriage counseling. Avery is no longer a licensed therapist, but she is known for her effective approach. During their first session, Marissa admits to cheating on Matthew.

They begin working through Avery’s ten step process in order to save their marriage. Along the way we discover more about how Avery lost her license. Avery’s methods involve investigating anyone within the Bishop’s circle.

Everyone seems to have secrets and/or shady behavior. Eventually events unfold to reveal the odd connections among them all, and to determine whether their marriage is salvageable.

Having Faith

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni explores Sam Hill’s life from his childhood through adulthood.

Sam was born with a rare form of albinism presenting him with red eyes. This led to his nickname Sam Hell or hell boy. Sam’s mother is an extremely devout Catholic who refused to see this abnormality as anything other than extraordinary. Her faith and strong will pushed Sam to attend Catholic school. This is where he endures bullying from students and adults, but also meets his lifelong friends Ernie and Mickie.

Sam’s childhood bully is reintroduced to Sam as an adult, and he hasn’t changed his abusive ways. The story explores Sam’s involvement in trying to stop him and the aftermath.

Sam’s relationships with his parents and friends are important. Through these relationships, Sam learns to forgive himself and to find true love.

Embracing Nature

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is an account of Christopher McCandless’s untimely death. Shortly after graduating college, he decided to go off the grid. He cut contact with his family and belongings to travel around much of the western half of the U.S. before reaching his final destination in a remote section of Alaska.

The author shares various perspectives surrounding Chris’s death. He includes some of the people he befriended, his life and travels leading up to the trip, and other accounts of young men who died due to an encounter with nature. There are also snippets and quotes from Chris’s journal along with the author’s musings.

These various pieces all create a thought provoking and emotional look at a person whose deep love of freedom and nature cost him his life.

Hungry House

The Spite House by Johnny Compton is a haunted house story. Eric and his two daughters, Dess and Stacy, are on the run. It’s slowly revealed that something otherworldly happened, which made it necessary to run rather than risk losing his daughter Stacy again.

A job to document the strange happenings in the home of a cursed family seems like the perfect way to hide while earning a lot of money. The very first night has such profound disturbances that Eric is forced to send his daughters to stay with the woman who hired him. It quickly becomes clear that their safety may still be at stake.

There is a fine line between reality and the spirit world in the house, and it is hungry for souls. Eric must figure out a way to save his family and to outsmart the curse that heavily permeates this creepy house.

Hotel Murder

The Maid by Nita Prose is a quirky, twisty murder mystery.

I finished this one a while ago so will need to keep my review short! Molly is a quirky character who has difficulty in social situations and an obsession with perfectly completing her job as a hotel maid.

Her world is turned upside down when she finds a VIP guest dead in his hotel room. Somehow, Molly becomes the prime suspect.

The story progresses with plenty of twists and surprises shared by Molly’s straightforward, enjoyable narration.

One Season

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan is one of my recent favorites. It is told from alternating points of view between Olivia and Lily.

Olivia’s teenaged son Asher is being tried for the first degree murder of his girlfriend Lily. Lily’s point of view flashes back to the months before her death. Her memories show a loving relationship with a few cracks. Are these disagreements enough to result in murder? The prosecutor happens upon a possible motive once the medical professional shares his autopsy findings.

Both characters have secrets and abusive trauma in their pasts. There is incredible depth along with many twists in the story. Olivia’s work as a beekeeper adds to the story’s complexity. I really appreciated this symbolism (maybe because bee imagery was a main focus of my Master’s thesis on Sylvia Plath). Somehow, it all comes together with a nice touch of Olivia’s honey recipes at the end of the story. I’m happy that I bought this book so I can try out a few of them.

Readers will constantly question whether Asher is manifesting his father’s violence or if there is another suspect. For me, this book was both entertaining and enlightening.