Images from Goodreads
[4] Cobble Hill by Cecily von Ziegesar
Fiction / Contemporary Women, read about in this article
Synopsis: Four families in a Brooklyn neighborhood with a small town feel become even more connected over the course of a few months. (<— can you tell I totally gave up with this synopsis? Ha ha.)
Review: I love character driven novels, and this book was a mix of that with plot driven but wow, these characters were hard to keep straight (for me), and just not interesting enough. They all have their flaws and unique characteristics, but nothing scandalous or exciting happened. And the constant reminder that one character was overweight was unnecessary. And that character’s storyline wasn’t even resolved at the end. So, meh.
Recommend? No
[5] In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, kept seeing advertised around Christmas (and was “available now” on Libby)
Synopsis: Maelyn (Mae) Jones has been spending Christmas at the same cabin with three other families since she was a kid, and has had a secret crush on one of the brothers from another family for years. But she ends up making out with the other brother from that family, then is stuck reliving the Christmas holiday over and over, Groundhog Day style.
Review: What a fun read! Mae is so likable and I love the idea of this “chosen family” that you spend the holidays with each year. It didn’t feel weird to read this in February – they do some holiday-focused activities but the story was more about the romance – it just happened to be set at that time of year. The romance was fun, and there were a lot of likeable characters (that I kept straight) that made this a joy to read. I will have to check out more by this writing duo.
Recommend? Yes
[6] This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Fiction / Family Life, Saw in “What’s Available” section in Libby
Synopsis: Rosie and Penn have five sons, and the youngest, Claude, loves to wear dresses and wants to be a girl when he grows up. He begins to go as Poppy, use she/her pronouns, and wear dresses to school, but an incident in Madison makes the family no longer feel safe there. They relocate to Seattle so Poppy can just be Poppy, but they keep Poppy’s sex a secret, which not only affects her, but the entire family.
Review: This story is important and I love that it’s being told, but I have mixed feelings about this book. The writing is beautiful but way too wordy – I ended up skimming toward the end. The parents are open-minded and loving, but made decisions that frustrated me. The dad is a writer and dreamer, and small parts of the book are him telling his kids a made-up fairytale to teach them life lessons and I did NOT care for his boring fairytale. All that being said, the book was very interesting, I loved Claude/Poppy and wanted them to be able to express who they were externally and be happy, and I wanted to know more about their story…but I did not 100% love how it was told?
Recommend? Sure?
Thank you- this saved me! Our library is closed for browsing again, and I’m like number 200 on the list for my all requests and I need a new book now! They had 2 of these available! Yay!
Awesome, you’re welcome! (Although not awesome it’s closed again) Which two?
The first two. I read This is How It Always is awhile ago. I really liked it- as a parent it was so interesting to have much of it from the parents point of view- what happens when the child you get isn’t what you expect.
I liked that part of it too. Especially as a non-parent it was good to see that perspective. I felt like they could have told so much more though!
I hope you like the first book! It was kind of flat for me.
My library featured In a Holidaze over, well, the holidays but I wondered if it was too cheesy (LOL what was I thinking?). I’ll add it in when I need a fun read 🙂 Thanks for the review!
I was wondering if it would be too! Def add when you need a fun, easy read 🙂
This is How It Always Is, yassss. I know we had somewhat differing opinions about this book but it’s one of my most favorites. I just thought the author dealt with the complexities of having a transgender child so well. I remember skimming over the fairytale sections, though!
I’m glad you enjoyed In a Holidaze! That’s one of theirs that I haven’t read yet, but I want to get to it.
She did! And it’s good to have a book that talks about it, and normalizes it, imo.
Now I am reading the Honey-Don’t list one!
I need to put In a Holidaze on my list… I have never read any of their books but they always get good reviews!
Yes! I really liked this one! I am reading another now and it’s so so, but that seems to be the general consensus about that one on Goodreads.