Wish I Were Here

Catherine Lipton has achieved her goal - she's about to begin a tenure-track position as a mathematics professor with a world-recognized authority as her mentor.  Plus, for the very first time she has an apartment all to herself in a cozy older building.  If only the elevator wasn't always on the fritz, and the klutzy (although attractive) doorman wasn't so busy doing everything but tending the door!  The day of a super important interview for instance, he manages to make her spill her latte all over herself while he's dancing the Carolina Shag with an older resident in the lobby.

Catherine's real problems don't start until the day she reports to the university for staff orientation.  None of the paperwork she so meticulously provided appears in any system - not the university's, not the DVM's, not Social Secuity's.  She has become effectively a non-person.  She stands to lose everything she has worked so hard for if she can't come up with an original copy of her birth certificate.

How she achieves that goal, and what she discovers about herself and her community as she goes about solving her problem comprise the plot of Melissa Wiesner's delightful Wish I Were Here (#1,333).  Life is more than the sum of all Catherine's equations!  Recommended.  And did I mention there are clowns?

The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne

I was hooked by Hester Prynne's name in the subtitle: The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne (#1,332).  Kate Winkler Dawson promised in her Prologue that she would reveal previously unknown facts about a true crime case involving the death of a mill girl in 1840s Tiverton, Rhode Island (today Fall River, Massachusetts) and that she would be working in tandem with another author, Catharine Read Arnold Williams.  She coyly draws the reader in by setting the scene, although she neglects to tell the reader at first that Catharine Williams was reporting on the supposed murder in her own best-selling book from 1844.  I tried to read this several times, but I just couldn't get over the creepiness factor of Dawson's approach.  Reader, I did not finish this.

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau

Kristin Harmel is back in rare form after overcoming a personal crisis of her own in The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau (#1,331).  This one has a dual timeline: Paris during the Nazi occupation, and a jewelry exhibit in Boston in 2018.  Colette Marceau is the link.

Colette sees an article on an upcoming exhibit featuring twentieth century jewels at a local museum. It contains a photo of an intricately designed bracelet which she has not laid eyes on since it disappeared with her four-year-old sister Liliane during a Nazi raid in Paris in 1942.  Her sister's body turned up in the river, but the bracelet sewn into the hem of her nightgown was gone.  Until now.  Colette is determined to find out where the bracelet has been and who might have been responsible for her sister's death.

It won't be easy, since Colette has spent the intervening years as an accomplished jewel thief herself, carrying on the family tradition as descendants of the legendary Robin Hood.  During the Nazi occupation of Paris this meant relieving the Nazis and their collaborators of their ill-gotten gains and funding the Resistance movement to provide papers and safe passage for Jews out of Paris.  It got her mother killed by the Nazis during World War II, but it was key to Colette's survival.

It's a gripping read as the links are gradually connected.  My only complaint about The Stolen Life is that maybe a few too many links were tied up with neat little bows at the end.  It was kind of a "happily ever after" overload.  I'm sure that's just me...  I'm glad Ms. Harmel is back!

Insignificant Others

Lena's life is proceeding along the trajectory she has envisioned: high powered career, supportive best friend and handsome, successful boyfriend.  Tonight he is going to propose, right on schedule.  Except he doesn't.  Lena flees home to her aunt on Bainbridge Island.  The problem is when she awakes the next morning, she's in a Paris bedroom with a sexy man.  But wait!  Lena knows him...  That's the premise of Sarah Joi's entertaining novel Insignificant Others (#1,330).  

Every morning Lena wakes in a different setting with a different man from her past.  She has a chance to learn what might have been had she married this one or that one.  Seattle, Ireland, Pennsylvania, New York.  Different places, different careers, varying outcomes in terms of happiness.  When Lena is able to put together the lessons she's learned from these fleeting glimpses of what could have been, she's finally ready to confront her actual life choices and decide where her future lies.

This was a fun read, but with one exception, all of Lena's alternate lives seemed to have involved handsome, well-to-do men.  That was a bit unrealistic, but of course, this is fiction!  Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The Pretender

I do love historical fiction done well, and Jo Harkin's novel The Pretender (#1,329) falls into that category.  She's taken a little-known historical footnote - Lambert Simnel - and turned him into a living, breathing person.  Not that this novel is a re-creation of his life, but rather of what his life might have been like in the turbulent transition period between the Plantagenet and the Tudor dynasties.

John Collan grows up believing he is the son of a well-off farmer buried deep in the English countryside.  The day a stranger appears at the farm on an expensive horse his life changes.  He is told that he is the son of the Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward the IV and Richard III.  In fear of his life, his father had him hidden away.  He is, in fact, Edward, Earl of Warwick, and the rightful heir to the throne of England.  He is only ten years old, and must be educated to step into his anointed role when the time is judged right by his supporters.  John assumes many names as he is moved around on a chessboard not of his own devising. The uprising backing him ultimately fails and John finds himself in Henry Tudor's household working as his servant. 

This bawdy and thoroughly entertaining story puts the reader into John's mind as he grapples with the constant changes and danger lurking around every corner.  What does John believe about himself and his circumstances? Can he trust any of the friendships offered him?  And what does happen to him in the end?  You will have to read The Pretender to find out!

And just a note: I loved the cover art used for this novel!  It's just how I pictured the boy John (or Lambert, or Edward!) in my mind's eye as I was reading.

The Days I Loved You Most

Nice imagery, but a story is based on its characters, and I found Joseph and Evelyn so selfishly provoking I had to stop reading The Days I Loved You Most (#1,328) before I threw the book across the room.  It's Amy Neff's debut novel, and there is a big name on her cover blurb.  I wish her well, but I couldn't finish it.

Basically Evelyn has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.  Rather than slide into the devastating end phases she decides to kill herself before she gets to that point in exactly one year.  Joseph, being over-the-top devoted, will also kill himself then, rather than live without her.  The novel opens with the couple breaking the news of their plans to their three adult children.  Angst ensues.

Touching?  Not to me.  Feel free to try it for yourself.

When The Moon Hits Your Eye

Okay, what if the moon really is made out of green cheese?  That's the premise of John Scalzi's latest novel When The Moon Hits Your Eye (#1,327).  One day NASA is preparing for the imminent launch of its first moon-landing missions in decades, with help from the private tech factor.  Next thing you know the moon is suddenly much, much bigger.  It no longer appears to be rock.  And how do you explain the fact that the moon rock samples here on earth have undergone a similar change?  They appear to now be cheese!

The different chapters in the book cover various aspects of the event.  Some think it's a hoax.  Some think it's a religious experience.  Others are disappointed that their personal ambitions have been thwarted.  And it the moon really is cheese, what are the implications for life on earth?  Is it the end?!

John Scalzi certainly has an inventive mind.  Some of the chapters I found quite amusing, others not so much, but overall, I have to say I enjoyed it.

The Amalfi Curse

Okay, I'll admit I picked up The Amalfi Curse (#1,326) because of the novel's setting.  Positano on the Amalfi Coast is a beautiful place, but as Haven Ambrose laments in the modern sections of the book, "Oh, those stairs!"  (Maybe that's why I prefer Amalfi itself.)  

I was surprised when I started reading it that it is actually a dual-time line story.  Mari DeLuca lives in Positano in 1821, where she and a group of similarly gifted women clandestinely practice the arts of stregheria.  They are sea witches, keeping their town safe and the fishing plentiful.  But powerful merchant brothers have their eyes on the town with the aim of harnessing those powers for their own benefit.  

Haven Ambrose is in modern-day Positano to lead a maritime archaeological expedition to map the many wrecks just off the coast using improved technology.  The very first day in Positano, she and her dive safety master witness the inexplicable sinking of an enormous luxury yacht just off shore.  Shortly afterwards, Haven receives a phone call dismissing her and her crew from the project.  They have been replaced by a rival team whom Haven is convinced is after sunken treasure instead.  Mari and Haven's paths are destined to cross in time and space...

Two love stories, two tales of perils, piracy and plunder, with a touch of magical whirlpools and control of the sea currents, all in a gorgeous setting.  What's not to like, especially if you're reading it on the beach with a frosty drink close at hand?