Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight
This one is Janet Evanovich’s latest novel in her Stephanie Plum series, a series she’s been publishing since 1994 about a down on her luck twenty-something in need of a job who managed to get hired on by family as a bounty hunter thanks to some black mail efforts. The series is full of all kinds of shenanigans to put it best, both on the job with quirky co-workers and family members as well as situations she finds herself in while trying to chase down criminals who didn’t show up to their court date. Her love life is a source of entertainment too, with her complicated back and forth relationships with local cop Joe Morelli and mysterious co-worker Ranger.
I’ve liked this series enough over the years that last winter I decided to start at the beginning of the series and read the books all the way through. I stalled out at book 16 and it was fun to skip ahead and read the latest before I’m sure I’ll be back to reading in sequence. I got exactly what I wanted out of this book – a quick, entertaining read with an element of mystery to it even though it lacks any aspect of thrill. Just a nice mental distraction for a couple of days. I count on these books like an old friend, one I know well enough to know exactly what to expect and on that front this book didn’t disappoint!
3.5 out of 5 stars
The Paper Palace
Elle is a married mother of three who sleeps with her childhood best friend one night while spending the summer with her family’s at their camp in the back woods country of the Cape Cod area and then needs to make a choice: move forward with her current life or dare to leave her husband for the man her heart has loved since they were young. The book follows Elle’s life from childhood until present time, skipping back and forth as it tells the story of drama and trauma that shaped her life. (Trigger warning: sexual assault)
When I finished this book, I wasn’t entirely certain how I felt about it. There were so many failed relationships throughout her family’s history that it sometimes felt hard to keep track of who was who as she alternated back and forth in the timeline. Also, some really horrendous stuff happened in this book. The story felt anti-climatic to me, but there was something to appreciate in a story that was so incredibly nuanced in choice and in morality and I always enjoy stories that capture the messiness that is being human.
3 out of 5 stars
Then in a rare event, I had a book I chose not to finish in February too (usually I get too many books, don’t get around to starting them all, then have to return them and take note of the ones I want to grab again later). But Well, This is Exhausting by Sophia Benoit was one I just couldn’t get into. I typically really enjoy memoir style but this one just didn’t grab my attention and hold it and the heavy usage of footnotes, while usually pretty entertaining references, just got to be a bit of a distraction for me. I had lots of others in my stack of library books that I was more excited to dig into so I just let this one go.
Life in the Ordinary 