The Body

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates is a murder mystery. The victim is a serial pedophile named Mr. Fox. He was a middle school teacher at a prep school. His real name was legally changed after allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor at the previous prep school employer.

The book gets into his backstory including his psyche and manipulative methods for hooking young females and for gaining trust from important adults around him.

The story also follows others from town who have some connection to the murder investigation, including the brothers who discovered the body, a couple students and their dads, the chief investigator and a few others.

The scenes with Mr. Fox are deeply disturbing and continuously repeated through the book. I found myself skimming through by the end to be able to finish.

I would not recommend this book. It was dragged out, often repetitive and full of unlikable characters in addition to the detestable Mr Fox.

Up in the Air

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty is a story of unexpected connections.

Cherry is on a flight when she suddenly gets up and begins telling each passenger his or her expected age and cause of death.

Needless to say that this creates a sense of chaos, worry and denial amongst passengers. After the experience, readers follow a selection of passengers: Ethan is expected to die in a brawl, Leo is expected to die from a work-related incident, Paula’s baby son is expected to die in a drowning incident when he turns seven, Eve is a newlywed expected to die from domestic murder, Allegra is one of the flight attendants expected to die from self harm.

When a couple of the predicted deaths occur, people begin trying to find Cherry, dubbed the Death Lady.

Meanwhile, Cherry shares her story. She grew up with a fortune telling mother, Madame Mae. She experienced different loves in her life, all important in shaping her into the person she becomes.

Cherry’s narration is quirky and fun (despite the topic). As any book centered around death, it certainly makes one think about how precious life can be and about how little changes can potentially alter one’s fate.

Praying for Survival

Isola by Allegra Goodman is historical fiction set in France during the 1500s.

Marguerite lost both parents at a young age, and was left with a chateau and land. She stays there long enough to build a friendship with her teacher and her daughter. However, when her guardian/uncle Roberval sells her property, she is forced to live at his residence. The only familiar she has is her nursemaid/caregiver who vows to stay with her no matter what.

Roberval is a cruel guardian. He gives lessons as a way to seem caring, but is also prone to violence as a means of control. His desire for money and favor with the king prompts him to voyage to new land in Canada. Marguerite is forced to go with him.

During the journey, Marguerite falls in love with Roberval’s secretary. Their punishment is to be banished to a remote island. The three of them must learn to survive the harsh elements, lack of food and wild animals. Not all will survive. During this time, Marguerite must get through her darkest days to figure out her place in the world.

Spoiler – After two years, Marguerite is able to return home to share her story. She is forever changed and hopes to use her experience as a means of educating females of all classes.

While this story started a bit slowly for me, I became intensely interested in the fate of Marguerite and her companions. I didn’t realize the story was based on an actual person until reading the author’s note at the end. This really made it so much more impactful. It’s a story of survival, grit, love/loss, nature’s power, religion and learning about oneself.

Skating for Gold

The Favorites by Layne Fargo is about the competitive world of ice dance.

Katarina has longed to win Olympic gold for ice dance ever since seeing her idol, the fierce Sheila Lin, win two gold medals. Kat’s focus on winning becomes all consuming.

Kat and her true love Heath have bonded through many setbacks growing up which also gives their skating a unique chemistry. While competing, none other than Sheila Lin takes notice of them. She offers to train them at her academy in California alongside her twins- budding stars Bella and Garrett Lin.

The story follows Kat and Heath through the years- competitions, wins, losses, jealousy, partner changes and tumultuous relationships. Katarina shares her side of each event alongside snippets of the documentary about Kat and Heath’s quest for Olympic gold.

All told, this was a slow burning and entertaining read. I wanted them to win that gold!! While I read it on my kindle, I heard that the audiobook was really good. This makes sense for the documentary script format throughout.

Breaking Bonds

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White is not for the faint of heart (hence the author’s note which provides a disclaimer including the following statement: “You can get off the operating table and walk away at any time”). This is a 2026 high school Nutmeg nominee.

The book is set during the late 1800s in London and is considered a Gothic horror story.

Gloria is a beautiful young lady who identifies as a male named Silas with a passion for all things surgical. She learned as much as possible from her older medical brother. Her violet eyes mark her as special with an ability to split the veil between reality and the spirit world. Silas is also autistic.

With so many differences stacked against her, she has spent her life being forced to control herself and to be ladylike. Through her adolescence she tried to avoid the attention of the Speaker society (creepy men who wish to procreate with violet-eyed girls).

Silas is caught impersonating a male at a public event, and is sent to a boarding school to fix problematic girls just like her. It is while in this school that she meets the twisted Headmaster whose sole purpose is to torture the inmates.

Silas is able to connect to ghosts of his previous victims and to forge connections with some of the other girls in the home. He finds a kindred spirit in Edward, a suitor who identifies as Daphne.

They work together to expose the horrors in the home. But lives will be lost and unspeakable events will occur throughout.

As mentioned, there is graphic medical gore (which was definitely unsettling at certain points). There is also the creepy feeling from ghosts trying to share their experiences. I definitely enjoyed the book despite some moments of discomfort.

Too Happy

All Better Now by Neal Shusterman tracks the consequences of a new pandemic (post COVID). This one is called Crown Royale and its effects are either death or intense well being and care for humanity.

The book follows multiple characters. One group is completely against the virus and will do anything to eradicate it. They feel that those who recover are mindlessly happy.

One of these characters is Morgan. She is a savvy girl who is given an entire estate in order to accomplish this mission. People are expendable in her drive to avoid exposure and to accomplish notoriety. Glynis Havilland is the formerly wealthy tyrant who left her entire fortune to Morgan. Now as a recoveree, she is trying to figure out how to stop her.

Meanwhile, the wealthy son of another one of Morgan’s donators recovers from the virus as a super spreader. He teams up with Mariel. It turns out that she has natural immunity. They are on the run together to avoid Tiburon’s dad and the authorities. As they travel, Ron feels pulled to spread Crown Royale to as many people as possible while Mariel attempts to control how it’s spread.

All the events and characters cross paths once Mariel is taken to create a cure. However the cure may be worse than the virus itself.

Overall this book kept my interest. Shusterman pulls many characters and subplots together with great writing. It raises the question of whether a virus akin to a happy pill could make the world a better place or not.

True Loves

Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall kept popping up in recommendation lists, and I can see why. It’s an engaging story of romance and tragedy.

Beth’s story is told through past and present events. In the past, we learn of her first true love with the wealthy, aspiring writer Gabriel. When this relationship falls apart, Beth ends up with kind, reliable Frank.

Frank and Beth live and work on his family farm and have built a good life together. But they have also experienced extreme tragedy with the loss of their nine-year-old son, Bobby (three years prior). His loss has profoundly affected their lives, including the life of Frank’s brother Jimmy. He had already gone through rough patches with drinking and fighting during his youth.

Beth’s feelings for Gabriel are renewed when he moves back to his childhood home along with his son Leo after a recent divorce. And she can’t help but feel affection for his son, who is the same age as Bobby when he passed.

In the present scenes, there is a trial for the murder of a farmer.

This is a true love triangle as Beth has built meaningful relationships with both men in her life. Past, present and future all paint an intense picture of grief, guilt, longing, secrets and forgiveness. This is a well-written and emotional read.

A Long Fall

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee combines romance, plenty of drama, and social status commentary in a futuristic NYC setting.

The main characters all live in the thousand floor tower which runs itself much like a city. There are schools, restaurants and apartment blocks with the wealthier families living on the highest floors. Up there, everything is high tech and fast paced.

The book’s opening scene shows a girl falling to her death before flashing back to the events three months earlier leading to that moment. There is a love triangle between best friends Leda and Avery and a boy named Atlas that they both like, but one can’t have (he’s Avery’s stepbrother). Leda is unaware of Avery’s feelings, and only knows that their friendship has become extremely strained. Leda is also a recovering addict.

Watt is an extremely tech savvy teen with a computer named Nadia installed in his brain. He can hack just about anything and is hired by Leda to find out more about Atlas. This is how he meets and becomes infatuated with Avery.

Eris is another of Avery’s friends. She recently found out that her dad is not her biological father. He steps away from her and her mom, which forces them to change their wealthy lifestyle and move to the 130th floor. Eris realizes that it may be possible to find love and happiness without wealth.

Finally, there’s Rylin. She is a not a top floor resident, but her path crosses with the wealthy Cord Anderton (a regular hookup of Eris). They are both orphaned and start to fall for each other. But Rylin has already stolen drugs from him in order to save her imprisoned boyfriend.

The book alternates among each character’s perspective with plenty of overlap among them. The tension and stress builds until the eventual deadly ending.

This book kept my interest once I had the characters straight, although I was a bit unsatisfied by the loose ending which foreshadows a second book.

Diving In

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood gives Fifty Shades vibes, but in my opinion is much better, due to good editing and an overall more engaging story line.

Scarlett is a D1 diving and premed student at Stanford. Her intense drive for perfection has served her well, until an injury her sophomore year. She is cleared to dive again her junior year, but is facing major mental blocks both with diving and school.

Things begin to change when her co-diver, Pen, breaks up with swimming god and Olympian, Lukas. It turns out that Scarlett and Lukas share a desire to engage in BDSM. With Pen’s encouragement, they begin exploring a sexual relationship together.

But right from the start there seems to be more between them than good sex.

The story navigates Scarlett’s personal development as she overcomes her fear of another injury and failure. Of course it also follows Scarlett and Lukas’s complicated relationship.

Back in Time

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is a slow and satisfying historical fiction read taking place in Maine during 1789.

It is based on the life of Martha Ballard, an accomplished midwife in her community. Martha wrote daily diary entries and snippets of these are shared throughout the book.

One night following a delivery, Martha is called to inspect a dead man who was pulled from the frozen river. She determines that he was beaten and hung.

The dead man is one of two accused of raping the pastor’s wife. Martha testifies on her behalf, but it will be a long and trying journey in their hope for justice.

The second accused happens to be the town judge. He is determined to push Martha and her family out of their residence. He also is responsible for bringing a new doctor into town who attempts to derail Martha’s reputation.

More is revealed about Martha’s family and the townspeople through the long winter. Martha has a great impact on so many due to her role.

The author does an excellent job of marking the passage of time with story events, flashbacks and journal entries. Eventually, Justice comes about in an unexpected way, and Martha is able to solve the murder.