I wanted a cute, candy read. A Hallmark movie in book form. Set in the remote wilderness of Alaska with a romance author from California and the hunky lumberjack son of the proprietor of the resort she’s staying at? That sounds like a delicious candy book. And Victoria Lavine’s Any Trope But You (Atria 2025)Continue reading “ANY TROPE BUT YOU – Victoria Lavine”
Tag Archives: Atria Books
MY FRIENDS – FREDRIK BACKMAN
“Twenty-five years later he still wishes for the same thing, that he was fourteen years old and that the world was full of broken clocks. “As seventeen-year-olds they would sleep next to each other almost every night in the foster home, with ice cream stains on their clothes and each other’s laughter in their lungs,Continue reading “MY FRIENDS – FREDRIK BACKMAN”
THE LONG GAME – Elena Armas
Small North Carolina town. Girls little league soccer team. Goats. Cute cover. Slow burn of an “enemies to lovers” between two out of towners tasked with saving the soccer team. I thought The Long Game by Elena Armas (Atria 2023) would be the perfect candy book. If you’ve been here any amount of time, youContinue reading “THE LONG GAME – Elena Armas”
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER – William Kent Krueger
“Charlie Bauer doesn’t intend to leave this life filled with rancor or regret or plagued by the demons of if only. She intends to lie down in peace. And so, she sips her whiskey and reads her books and every once in a great while allows herself the pleasure of a cigar, and she awaitsContinue reading “THE RIVER WE REMEMBER – William Kent Krueger”
THE INVISIBLE HOUR – Alice Hoffman
“Trick your enemy, do what you must, believe in enchantments, save yourself.” Alice Hoffman’s The Invisible Hour (Atria Books 2023) is a slim, magical novel that smells like apples and fall. It’s also my first Hoffman work. (I know – that’s surprising considering my love of magical realism and of the movie Practical Magic.) TheContinue reading “THE INVISIBLE HOUR – Alice Hoffman”
THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY – Jamie Ford
“A woman carries her fear inside of her.” Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (Atria Books 2022) is an intriguing approach to inherited trauma. Epigenetic inheritance is at the core of Ford’s novel, and the science as well as case studies are absolutely fascinating. Set primarily in 2045, but timeline hopping from 1836Continue reading “THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY – Jamie Ford”
BOMB SHELTER – Mary Laura Philpott
I purchased this for the cover. I know it. I could say otherwise, but the cover of Mary Laura Philpott’s Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives (Atria 2022) had me hit “select” without further consideration. I knew it was a collection of nonfiction, slice of life essays and that Philpott was known for herContinue reading “BOMB SHELTER – Mary Laura Philpott”
THE INHERTIANCE OF ORQUIDEA DIVINA – Zoraida Córdova
“She was the mouth of an ancient god who would swallow the world. She was an ocean of stories, memories, thousands of little moments that made up her whole being.” Zoraida Córdova’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina (Atria Books 2021) is an absolute delight of a novel. It’s House of Spirits meets Practical Magic meetsContinue reading “THE INHERTIANCE OF ORQUIDEA DIVINA – Zoraida Córdova”
THE WINNERS – Fredrik Backman
“You run on ahead.” I fully expected Fredrik Backman to shatter my heart with The Winners (Atria 2022), and the third and final installment of the Beartown trilogy did just that. But also as expected, it picked the pieces up, held them tenderly, and whispered hope, love, resilience, and strength. The following is a quoteContinue reading “THE WINNERS – Fredrik Backman”
THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN – Carolyn Huynh
“Because there was nothing wrong with having Vietnamese daughters. It was how the world treated them that turned it into a curse.” Carolyn Huynh’s The Fortunes of Jaded Women (Atria Books 2022) was a highly anticipated release for me. Magical realism, historical fiction, Asian diaspora, a matrilineal family saga… I was sold. Now that I’veContinue reading “THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN – Carolyn Huynh”
A Girl Named Tommi 