Here are the books I read so far in 2021, from February to June.
One my favorite books I read in the last two years was Jen DeLuca's first novel, Well Met, which followed town newcomer, Emily, volunteering to work as a tavern wench at the annual summer Willow Creek Renaissance Faire where she meets the incorrigible and attractive high school teacher and Renaissance Faire pirate, Simon. So, I was excited to learn that there was a sequel, entitled Well Played, following Emily's friend and fellow tavern wench, Stacey.
Stacey has been a longtime volunteer at Willow Creek's Renaissance Faire. So much so that after hearing about Emily and Simon's engagement, she feels that her life has stalled. She once had a chance to leave Willow Creek behind but chose to stay after her mother got sick. Since then, she has lived in her little apartment above the garage of her parents' house working at the local bookstore waiting for the next Faire season when she could pretend to be someone else even if only for a few weeks in the summer.
One of the most popular performers at the Faire are The Dueling Kilts with Dex MacLean being the most handsome of them all. Although Dex and Stacey have engaged in a fling a couple of times during the Faire season, nothing serious ever came from it. After Stacey sends him a message professing her feelings for him and how much she wants to get know him more beyond their fling, she is surprised when he responds. As they continue to communicate over emails and text messages before the next Faire season, Stacey soon learns that the man she has been pouring her heart out to turns out not be Dex, but someone she has always known and overlooked until now.
Well Played was a nice follow up to Well Met and I enjoyed returning to the Willow Creek Renaissance Faire. Speaking of which, I really liked how this book got to explore the behind the scenes work that goes into organizing and preparing a Renaissance Faire, including the life of performers who travel cross country making their living from this. I also liked how we finally got to visit the famous Maryland Renaissance Festival (an actual Faire in Crownsville, Maryland) that was mentioned in both books.
As much as I liked Well Played, I did not love it as much as I hoped I would in comparison to Well Met. I knew early on that the man Stacey was talking to was not Dex MacLean and it kind of bothered me how he was not being honest with her and reveal himself, However, once Stacey quickly realized who she was actually talking to and the two opened up to each other truthfully, then I got passed it and started to get invested in their developing relationship. I did like though how there was a role reversal in romantic tropes where here the girl is the one who gets to "woo" the guy she likes. This story was different from its predecessor, and I liked how Jen DeLuca took a chance in exploring a story outside the actual Renaissance Faire while still keeping it within the fun setting of a Renaissance Faire.
I am really looking forward to the third book in the series, Well Matched, coming out later this year in the Fall, which will follow Emily's sister, April, and their friend, Mitch. After that small teaser of their relationship at the end of Well Played, and how different these two characters are, then we are in for another great story.
The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
Being a fan of romance/rom-com books, I kept coming across Lyssa Kay Adams's The Bromance Book Club and the series itself. Even so now with the fourth book, Isn't It Bromantic, coming out later this month (July 20th, 2021). I finally got a chance to read The Bromance Book Club and found that apart from its hilarious premise, cast of characters and, of course, romantic elements, it explored a subject that not many rom-coms tend to tell - a marriage.
After baseball player Gavin Scott discovers that his wife, Thea, had been faking it in bed for the majority of their marriage, he leaves unable to process how she had been lying to him all this time. Although he immediately regrets walking out on her, Thea realizes that maybe it was best if they were not together as there were already problems in their marriage apart from what happens in the bedroom. Unsure of what to do, Gavin's friends, Braden Mack, Yan, Del, and a man known as "the Russian" invite him to join their book club.
Except this is no ordinary book club. All the men here each have had problems in their relationships and the best advice they got into fixing them are through romance novels. Yes - sexy, bodice ripper, half-naked man who looks like Fabio on the cover romance novels. Initially, Gavin finds the whole idea ridiculous, but as he reads one of these romance books and uses the advice inspired by the story and the characters as well as from the book club members, he begins to understand Thea better and how much he wants to save their marriage before it is too late.
The Bromance Book Club was honestly more than I expected. Do not be fooled by the plot alone. While the premise hints at some steamy scenes and a humorous concept about a group of alpha males in a secret book club to understand romance, at the heart of it all is a story about a marriage. Many rom-coms are usually about a man and woman trying to end up together and rarely about what happens after they do. I liked how all elements of the book club and the bedroom problem that caused Gavin and Thea to separate went on to explore the complexities of marriage and how communication and honesty was what was always important and what had been missing between them. It was a different and maybe even a bold and entertaining way of telling it, but I appreciate that Lyssa Kay Adams took the risk.
The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer
Historical fiction can be tricky depending on how much you know about the subject and how the author handles it. Before reading Whitney Scharer's The Age of Light, I did not know much about Man Ray and Lee Miller. In fact, I never even heard of them until this book (sorry if I have offended any art or photography enthusiasts). And yet, it was fascinating to read about two people and the power struggle between them, as lovers and artists, and how their relationship not only changed the photography world but who they became after it.
Told mainly between two time periods, we follow Lee Miller in Paris, 1929 as she becomes Man Ray's assistant and eventual lover, coincided with her time as a photojournalist during World War II. As she works closely and intimately with Man and together discover and use the photographic technique of solarisation in their work, Lee begins to find her own identity as a photographer going beyond the muse, assistant, and lover Man expected of her.
The story Whitney Scharer weaved was truthful to most of the facts, based on what I later Googled, while also imaginative and transformative that I could see myself there in Paris or in Europe during the War. Even though she took a lot of liberties in imagining what Lee Miller and Man Ray were like together in private, I thought that she handled them well in bringing them back to life, so to speak. There were also a lot of interesting themes I thought about. One of them was the whole idea of an artist and a muse that could almost be compared to the story of Pygmalion. Even though this book is about Man Ray and Lee Miller, it is mostly about Lee and how she essentially stepped away from being that idea of a muse to being the artist herself. She was not brought to life by a man. She brought herself to life on her own.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Throughout my entire educational career, not once did I ever get a chance to read Hamlet in class. I read Macbeth more times than it should be read from middle school to college, and A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet twice, and a few of the other plays such as Othello and Richard III at least once. However, out of all those times we never got to read Hamlet. This bothered me quite honestly because it is probably one of Shakespeare's most referenced plays ever ("To be or not to be") and the characters, themes, and story are so well-known that they are used repeatedly throughout the years and even centuries (The Lion King is one good example). So, I decided to take it upon myself to read Hamlet and finally see what all the fuss was about.
For those who do not know this William Shakespeare tragedy, Hamlet follows the title character, the Prince of Denmark, who plans to avenge his father's murder by his uncle after seeing his father's ghostly apparition. His need for revenge ends up taking a toll on his life, his family, his love, and ultimately his sanity.
The edition I read was by the popular Folger Shakespeare Library, which most schools make students use as it includes short summaries for each scene as well as definitions and translations for certain words or sentences. It was not too hard to follow the story on my own, but I would have preferred reading this in class among peers and with a teacher or professor. It was not easy sometimes trying to dissect and understand all the meanings and undertones that Shakespeare was trying to evoke in its exploration on revenge, death, and descent into madness and what it means to be mad. Sparknotes was a big help as it always has been, but nonetheless this play was intriguing. On a side note, it was interesting to discover that "To be or not be" was about suicide, which I did not realize until having read the play. I do have some thoughts on how Hamlet's lover, Ophelia, was treated - or should I say mistreated by someone who later admitted to loving her, but I understand that this was a different time and that the whole thing is complicated. (There is a movie entitled Ophelia starring Daisy Ridley that tells the story of Hamlet from her perspective, which I am curious to see now).
As all of Shakespeare's plays are meant to be performed and watched on the stage than read, I feel that after reading Hamlet I would enjoy it more watching it in the theatre. It is funny I say this because it is like choosing to read the book first before watching the film adaptation. In this case however, the stage version is often always faithful to the original, especially when it is Shakespeare.
Even though I generally liked the books I read so far, there had yet to be one that I really stood out that I loved a lot. I had heard of Sophie Kinsella before, especially for her series of novels, Confessions of a Shopaholic, but I had not read any of her books before. Interestingly, every time I went to the bookstore I kept coming across her latest novel, Love Your Life. Eventually, I gave in and bought it to read. By the time I reached the last page, I had finally found a book I really loved.
Ava is a romantic at heart, even after her most recent breakup and awkward experience in meeting someone through a dating app. When she travels to a writer's retreat in Italy, it is practically fate when she meets a man after his martial arts retreat nearby is canceled and his group is offered a chance to join her retreat. As they are not allowed to use their real names or have access to any forms of technology, Ava introduces herself as "Aria" while he decides to go by "Dutch." They are instantly attracted to one another and get to know each other without any interference from the outside world, inevitably falling in love.
By the time they return home to London however, the real world they left behind immediately begins to descend upon them and they soon realize that they are much different than they thought. Dutch, whose name is actually Matt, is neat and organized whereas Ava is all over the place. He prefers dark and gloomy sculptures whereas she finds joy in saving random books from abandonment. They both love dogs, but whereas she prefers her beloved dog Harold sleep on the bed, Matt prefers Harold be better trained and sleep on the floor. He eats meat, whereas she is a vegetarian. He is the heir to a popular dollhouse manufacturing company, and she is still figuring out what she wants to do. Despite how much they love each other, they cannot help but question if they are right for each other.
With this being my first Sophie Kinsella book, I really enjoyed it. It had been a while since a book made me laugh, and this one came equipped with hilarious moments worthy of its place as a romantic comedy (the writing exercises at the retreat had me in tears). Like what The Bromance Book Club did, this one also follows a couple after they end up together, and the messy truth that relationships still require work.
Ava and Matt are very different people but are also perfect for each other. What was essential in their relationship was their chemistry and what they had when they first met in Italy. And I liked how Kinsella spent time exploring them getting to know each other and their lives outside of their “meet-cute,” which felt realistic in a way. There were times that Ava annoyed me though because she sometimes came off presumptuous or naïve and a little pushy with her needs or solution to things that felt one-sided at times. However, when she and Matt do communicate honestly that was when I felt she was becoming more empathetic than how she initially tried to be. That was also another thing I liked, how the characters here actually communicated with each other. I always get a little irritated when the simple solution to any rom-com problem is communication. So, I was glad the two characters got to be honest with each other than let more mishaps or misunderstandings happen.
Apart from Ava and Matt, I loved the chemistry between their group of friends. They were just as important to the story as Ava and Matt's relationship. Then there was Ava’s dog Harold. She really loves her dog a lot, but okay I will admit that he seems adorable. After reading Love Your Life, I will most likely read more books by Sophie Kinsella.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Sometime earlier this year, I fell back into re-watching The Vampire Diaries on Netflix. At the same time, I had a copy of Grady Hendrix's The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires that I had been wanting to read for a while but was waiting for the right time to. Since I was already in this vampire headspace, I decided to finally read it, expecting it to be similar to The Vampire Diaries or maybe Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series that became HBO's True Blood. It turned out I was in for a surprise.
Patricia Campbell lives a quiet and unassuming life as a housewife and mother in a sweltering town in Charleston, South Carolina. It is 1988 and after initially joining a book club attended and hosted by the town's housewives, she and a few others decide to venture off and form their own book club where they can read gory true crime thrillers that they can read and talk about with enthusiasm.
As the years pass and the nineties come creeping in, so does a charismatic new stranger's arrival in town. James Harris is handsome and enigmatic, instantly charming Patricia, her family, her friends, and neighbors who invite him in with southern hospitality. At the same time, mysterious troubling events begin to occur including the disappearance of children in a nearby neighborhood. Not all is what it seems and Patricia and her book club of "lowly housewives" must fight an evil they have welcomed into their homes.
Maybe this may sound like an exaggeration, but there were several expletives I uttered while reading this book because it got horrifying each chapter I reached, which was more than I saw coming. Strangely that is also what made it such a good horror story. It had a kind of B-movie cult-following kind of feel to it, and was very well-written.
Everything you thought you knew about vampires is twisted and turned. I feel like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood and any other recent pop culture story about vampires have made us forget how frightening vampires actually are. They have been sanitized into romantic figures or turned into “sexy creatures of the night” that we fail to realize that they are really the most sinister manipulative supernatural predators no one sees coming. Grady Hendrix even mentions it in his Author’s Note that vampires are the original serial killer, and I have to agree. To partially quote the book’s synopsis: they are Ted Bundy disguised as Brad Pitt. Everything that unfolds was seriously scary as they were unexpected. The scary parts and even the terrifying events that happen to the characters deserve their own content warning to readers (*CW: rats, mutilation, tight spaces, corpses, blood, rape, abuse, suicide).
With all that said, I liked the heroine, Patricia Campbell. She starts off a little humdrum; a simple housewife worrying about her children and her home while trying to uphold southern values. That by the end when she and her not-quite-a-book-club go against James Harris, the Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing next door, you cannot help but root for her and them. Grady Hendrix also mentions how he wanted to pit Dracula against his mother, and that definitely came through. Patricia may seem plain, but she is a fighter and the kind of opponent the villain never saw coming.
I am pretty sure I am going to be thinking about this book for a while because it was genuinely disturbing, like I had just finished watching Rosemary’s Baby or The Exorcist. One thing I can say is that I do not think I will be reading this again because it was too much for me (and this is coming from someone who likes thrillers, but thrillers and horror can be two very different genres). However, I will commend that it was a very good book.
The Lido by Libby Page
After reading The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, I needed something lighter and uplifting. I also wanted to read something grounded and different than what I had been reading lately, which as you can see were mostly romances. So, I decided to read The Lido by Libby Page.
In Brixton, London there is a lido that is visited by residents during the summertime but holds special meaning for eighty-six-year-old, Rosemary Peterson. Throughout her life, she has watched the neighborhood grow and change, but the lido has always remained constant. It was there when she fell in love with her husband, George, and was still there when he passed away. Now, the lido is in danger of being demolished by a building developer in place of a gym for a new apartment complex. Kate Matthews of the Brixton Chronicle is assigned to write a piece about the lido and ends up meeting Rosemary. Since moving to Brixton, young Kate has often felt alone while struggling with anxiety. As the two women get to know each other spending their days swimming and interacting with frequent visitors at the lido, they both begin to find themselves again as well as a chance to save the lido.
I do not think I have ever been to a lido before, but I would like to visit one. This is not your typical summer book or beach read, but a poignant story about life, a community, and how certain places are more than just a place; they matter to the people who have a connection to it. Whether it be a café you frequently visit or a library you have always escaped to, or even a lido that you swim in every summer, they are special. They hold memories and bring together a community, and I felt Libby Page properly evoked that.
Rosemary and Kate's relationship was so sweet, and I liked how natural it felt. They open up gradually and it becomes clear how much they are changing each other's lives. I also liked how the author took the time to introduce a few other members of the community who sought solace in the lido too. It makes all their efforts in saving the lido crucial because it is no longer about saving it just for Rosemary, but for everyone else as well.
With everything happening in the world right now, it was nice to read something soothing and hopeful.
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