Review: Full Disclosure

Full Disclosure
Camryn Garrett
288 pages
Releases October 29, 2019 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
⭐⭐⭐

Look at that beautiful cover! The colors and font attracted me immediately, and the novel's description drew me in even more as the book covers a sensitive topic that I've never seen before in a YA novel... HIV. Simone was born with the virus, which she contracted through her birth mother, and is being raised by her two dads.

Simone is a character unlike any other that I've seen in a young adult novel and not just because she is HIV positive... although, imagine all the kids with HIV who are going to pick up this book and finally see themselves represented; what a happy thought. Simone is real. She thinks like a teen, acts and speaks like a teen, has insecurities and ambitions like a teen. She is probably one of the most realistic characters I've read thus far in YA.

The book does lose a couple point from me for the first half.  The first half of the book focused nearly 100% on sex. Simone and her friends talk about it, they have it with their significant others, the shop for sex accouterments... I'm not saying real teenagers don't do these things, but they do do other things! Luckily, the second half of the book focuses more on Simone's work as director of her school musical, her support group, and of course, her adorable romance with Miles, who is probably one of the top ten book boyfriends ever. Ever! If you find yourself rolling your eyes in the first half, please keep reading. The end of the book makes up for it, I promise.

Let's talk about the treatment of HIV in the book. I read a review that implied it came off flippant and this could not be farther from the truth! From the first chapter, when Simone visits the doctor for one of her regular checkups, the virus is treated seriously. It is made excruciatingly clear throughout the book by Simone's doctors and her parents what to do when it comes to sex, and that you must disclose to your partner that you are HIV positive. In addition, Simone and her support group discuss several aspects of having the virus. The book is lighthearted despite the topic and has several moments of levity and laughs, but HIV and HIV patients are always treated with the respect they deserve.

Finally, I want to add a note here about the author, Camryn Garrett. She has quite an impressive bio which is even more impressive when you take into account she sold this book to the publisher when she was only seventeen years old! This must be why her characters came across as such realistic teenagers - she still is one! I will be keeping my eyes peeled for more books by Garrett.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me the review copy of Full Disclosure. You can preorder the book now through the publisher, Amazon, or your favorite bookstore. Full Disclosure will release on October 29, 2019 and will be the perfect way to pass a sunny (or cloudy) fall day.

Review: A Wedding in December

A Wedding in December
Sarah Morgan
368 pages
Releases September 24, 2019 by Harlequin
⭐⭐⭐⭐

I discovered Sarah Morgan's books last year and fell in love with her quirky characters and genuine love stories, so when I was A Wedding in December pop up in my NetGalley, I knew I needed it my life ASAP.  This is such a cute and lovely read for winter, so you're definitely going to want to pick this up for some cozy Christmas reading this year. The book releases on September 24, 2019.

The White family is getting ready for a wedding. Rosie, the younger sister, is getting married in Aspen after a whirlwind romance and has just called her family across the pond to invite them to the wedding in a mere three weeks. A flurry of activity follows as her family gets ready to make the trek to Colorado. Rosie's parents have been going through a rough time in their marriage and in fact, now that their girls are both grown and moved out, they have decided to divorce. But how awful would it be to tell your daughter you're getting a divorce on the eve of her marriage, particularly when she uses you as an example of how to keep a marriage alive? No, they must fake it for a bit, instead.

Rosie's parents was one of the absolute highlights of this book. Her mother's frantic antics to keep up appearances were over the top and laugh-inducing. I could picture this perfectly like a movie in my head. In addition to that, the setting of Aspen in the early winter was romantic, with the treetop hotel rooms and snow, the beautiful lodge and cute town to shop in. Anyway, I loved watching her parents grow throughout the book and come to terms with their new status of married (soon to be divorced?) empty-nesters.

Speaking of growth, Rosie's older sister Katie is an emergency room physician and she is the definition of stress and burned out. She works, eats, and sleeps and is very suspicious of love. How could they even know each other well enough to decide on marriage? When Katie's therapist demands she take sabbatical, she has no excuse to miss the wedding and goes to Colorado with the intention of interrogating her sister's fiance.

I really felt for Katie. Her short career has not been easy and she doesn't deal with stress well. In addition to that, she is keeping a secret from her family that keeps her on edge. Watching her leave work and let loose (well, as loose as she can muster) in Aspen was a relief. Two weeks in the mountains was great for Katie's personal growth and helped her make some big realizations of her life... and maybe fall a little in love? It IS a romance novel, after all.

And an epic romance at that, as it encompasses three love stories over multiple generations. Each story was unique and the wove together spectacularly. If you love winter and Christmas romances, this is the book for you this year. You can pre-order a copy on Harlequin's website, Amazon, or your favorite bookstore. Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for allowing me the chance to review this book. The free e-copy did not affect my review and these opinions are all mine.

Review: Call Your Daughter Home

Call Your Daughter Home
Deb Shera
Released: June 11, 2019 by Park Row
352 pages
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There is something absolutely irresistible about historical books that span generations. Typically I find them as novels that follow a woman, her daughter, then her daughter... but what was even more interesting is that, Call Your Daughter Home is a novel that follows three generations of woman all at the same time... Great Depression, South Carolina. Their lives intersect as they fight their own personal injustices in a small town setting.

The three women are about as different as different can be. There’s Annie, the matriarch of the Cole family who owns her own sewing business with employees sewing grain sack dresses and later, fancy men’s shirts. Annie struggles with empty nest syndrome, her children all grown, and her estrangement from her daughters. Can she find the strength to connect with them and heal? Or is she destined to end her days on her once-plantation, never understanding the real (and awful) reason her beloved family splintered.

Then there’s Retta, a first generation freed slave who still works for the Coles on the kitchen. With the heartache that comes with never completing her family, Retta has a kind, maternal heart and takes several under her wing throughout the book. Retta knows the awful truth about the Coles and uses her maternal instinct to shelter others, both figuratively and literally. I think Retta was the most admirable character in the whole book.

Finally, we meet Gertrude, a poor white mother of four children living in the swamp, whose maternal instinct is also strong. She knows she must fight for her family and she goes about it with the strength of ten women. She’s admirable in her own right. I found the swampy setting of her story to be a mucky representation of her struggles.

Call Your Daughter Home is relatively short novel at 352 pages, but one could almost write a whole dissertation analyzing the title and comparing the lives of the three main characters. What could these women of different ages, backgrounds, and color have in common? As turns out, surprisingly a lot... I recommend this book highly for readers who love historical fiction and rich family narratives. I also want to mention how gorgeous the cover is... is simply screams epic southern story, and I love it.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a review copy via NetGalley.

Review: The Plot is Murder

The Plot is Murder

V.M. Burns
Kensington

From Goodreads:

Samantha Washington has dreamed of owning her own mystery bookstore for as long as she can remember. And as she prepares for the store's grand opening, she's also realizing another dream--penning a cozy mystery set in England between the wars. While Samantha hires employees and fills the shelves with the latest mysteries, quick-witted Lady Penelope Marsh, long-overshadowed by her beautiful sister Daphne, refuses to lose the besotted Victor Carlston to her sibling's charms. When one of Daphne's suitors is murdered in a maze, Penelope steps in to solve the labyrinthine puzzle and win Victor.

But as Samantha indulges her imagination, the unimaginable happens in real life. A shady realtor turns up dead in her backyard, and the police suspect her--after all, the owner of a mystery bookstore might know a thing or two about murder. Aided by her feisty grandmother and an enthusiastic ensemble of colorful retirees, Samantha is determined to close the case before she opens her store. But will she live to conclude her own story when the killer has a revised ending in mind for her?

I really enjoyed reading the first book in this new cozy series! Samantha does two things I've always wanted to do... open a bookstore and write a novel. Of course, things don't quite go according to plan when a dead body shows up in the backyard. Whoops. Suddenly Samantha is on the case with a cast of loveable characters.

There are two sets of characters in this book because Samantha's novel is actually an active part of the plot line. So really, The Plot is Murder is two books in one as you get to read Samantha's work alongside the mystery she is trying to solve. Writing for her is a way to wind down and often after a hard day of sleuthing - along with her grandmother and her grandmother's hilarious friends, she relaxes by writing a few more scenes in her victorian mystery novel. I have never seen this in a book before and I loved it! I hope this format continues as the series continues. 

If you're a fan of cozy mysteries, I hope you'll give this one a read. The characters are rich and the plot - both the plots! - are intriguing.

Review: That Inevitable Victorian Thing

That Inevitable Victorian Thing

E.K. Johnston
Dutton Books

From Goodreads:

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved, not by the cost of blood and theft but by effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a novel of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world. 

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendant of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history two centuries earlier. The imperial practice of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage like her mother before her, but before she does her duty, she'll have one summer incognito in a far corner of empire. In Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire's greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir apparent to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an unusual bond and maybe a one in a million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process —just like the first Queen Victoria.

 This one was one of those books where I was solely attracted to the cover and felt kind of "meh," about the synopsis. But it was also one of those times when my expectations where hugely exceeded! I absolutely adored this novel. The imagined world in which the Queen's empire is still in tact in the future, though at times complicated, was intriguing. The novel combined those deliciously romantic, Victorian things such as balls and corsets, with modern values and even appliances. Helena dancing around the sweeper bots in the kitchen? Sounds like me and my Roomba!

Of course there is much more to this novel than Victorian frivolity, namely the characters and their relationships with each other. Long held beliefs are challenged. Lifetime friendships are made seemingly out of thin air. While at times solutions became a little too convenient given the scope of the problem (the main example I'm thinking of is a spoiler) that didn't detract from my rooting for happily ever after.

You'll definitely want to pick up a copy of this book and be sure to read the author's note at the end, it really ties everything together.

Review: Body on Baker Street

Body on Baker Street
Vicki Delaney
Crooked Lane Books

From Goodreads...

Gemma Doyle and Jayne Wilson are busy managing the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium on Baker Street and adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room in anticipation of the store's upcoming book signing with the illustrious Renalta Van Markoff, author of the controversial Hudson and Holmes mystery series. But during the author Q&A session, dedicated Sherlockian Donald Morris verbally attacks Renalta and her series for disgracing Sherlock's legacy, only to be publicly humiliated when the author triumphantly lashes back and gains the upper hand. That is until Renalta collapses on the table--dead. Donald insists he didn't do it and pleads to his friends to clear his name. Fortunately, Gemma and Jayne have no shortage of suspects between author's bullied personal assistant, her frustrated publicist, the hapless publisher, a handsome rare book dealer, an obsessively rabid fan, and a world of other Sherlock enthusiasts with strong objections to Renalta's depiction of the Great Detective. It's up to the shrewd sleuthing duo to eliminate the impossible and deduce the truth before the West London police arrest an innocent man in Body on Baker Street...

Everyone has a pop culture vice, whether it be Dr. Who, The Real Housewives, or in my case, Sherlock Holmes. I'm not sure how it started, but I can tell you it was Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock that did me in. I haven't finished reading all the original Sherlock Holmes stories yet, but I have been loving them, as well as devouring the Sherlock TV series many times over. So naturally, the next logical step for me was a cozy mystery series that was Sherlock related. This series by Vicki Delaney is the jackpot for any Sherlock Holmes fan because not only is Gemma Doyle obviously Sherlock in this imagination of the famous detective, but there are references to all different kinds of Sherlock. I mean, she has a life size cutout of Benedict Cumberbatch in her store! Her shop sounds like a dream come true and I would love to eat at the bakery next door.

This is the second book in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery series, and I enjoyed it even more than the first. Gemma's skills as an amateur detective are enviable, as is her goodwill. She loves her friends fiercely and will do anything for them. Although Donald isn't exactly her bosom buddy, Gemma knows he must be innocent and sets out to prove it by finding the real killer. It's the mark of a good mystery to me when I think I know who the murderer is half a dozen times before the end and I've been wrong every time. When the whole story came together in the end though, it made perfect sense and once again I find myself jealous of the writer's skills to craft such a mystery!

Fall is the perfect time to cozy up to a new cozy mystery series, and if you're any kind of Sherlock Holmes fan, this is definitely the series for you! I know I have loved every second of the first two books and I'm looking forward to the next, due out in February.

Review: Hanna Who Fell from the Sky

Hanna Who Fell from the Sky
Christopher Meades
Park Row Books

From the publisher:

From highly acclaimed, award-winning author Christopher Meades comes a magical, provocative tale of forbidden love and one girl's struggle for liberation  

Hanna has never been outside her secluded community of Clearhaven. She has never questioned why her father has four wives or why she has fourteen brothers and sisters. And in only one week, on her eighteenth birthday, Hanna will follow tradition and become the fifth wife of a man more than twice her age.  

But just days before the wedding, Hanna meets Daniel, an enigmatic stranger who challenges her to question her fate and to follow her own will. Then her mother tells her a secret—one that could grant Hanna the freedom she's known only in her dreams. As her world unravels around her, Hanna must decide whether she was really meant for something greater than the claustrophobic world of Clearhaven. But can she abandon her beloved younger sister and the only home she's ever known? Or is there another option—one too fantastical to believe?  

With lush, evocative prose, Christopher Meades takes readers on an emotional journey into a fascinating, unknown world—and, along the way, brilliantly illuminates complexities of faith, identity and how our origins shape who we are.

It was definitely the description of this book that caught my attention originally and I was happy to discover the wait list at the library was relatively short. I mean, when was the last time you read a book about a polygamist community? I can't even remember! I was immediately drawn into Hanna's world, desperately wishing for her to find a way to lead the life she deserved. I am curious to know how much research the author did on polygamist communities. This community seemed fairly stereotypical and simplistic in its beliefs. Something seemed a little off to me, though not enough to detract from the plot itself.

The best part of the book were characters, who were well thought out and unique. Hanna was a fantastic character, well-developed with quite a personality, so she was easy to root for. Hanna has compassion for others, especially for the little ones in her family and for her disabled sister whom she cares for like a mother. Her strength is mirrored in her ability to question that which she was taught to never question. I so wanted her to be happy! 

If Hanna was easy to love, then her father was easy to hate. His drinking problem made him belligerent and violent. I kept waiting for some sort of redeeming quality to emerge, or perhaps for him to show some compassion to Hanna. Most of Hanna's sister-mothers were placid in their relationships with him, which was unfortunate but we have to remember that is how they were raised and we cannot fault them for that.

The plot, while a little basic, was filled with conflict on several different levels. Everything in the book takes place over the span of two weeks or so, yet the plot moves quickly. Hanna surely crammed a lot into her last two weeks before her wedding! If the plot moved fast, her relationship with Daniel moved even faster. I can't help wonder if she fell in love with him simply because he was a convenient alternative.

So overall, Hanna Who Fell from the Sky is an excellent book. I give it four out of five stars. It looses a star from me for being a little basic, but I definitely think there is something to be gained from reading this book! 

Have you read this book or other books that take place in polygamist communities? Let me know in the comments!