A Well-Read Tart

A Food and Book Lover’s Blog

MUSICAL CHAIRS Book Review

Looking for a beach read that goes a little deeper than your typical rom-com?  Enter Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel.   What's Musical Chairs about? This wonderful novel is about friends and family whose lives intertwine when they’re all brought together under (or very near to) one roof over a Connecticut summer when nothing goes as planned—in both good and bad ways. The majority of Musical Chairs follows Bridget and Will, who...

BUNNY Book Review

I uttered "What the fuck?" an unprecedented number of times while reading Bunny. That’s pretty much the only reaction you can have to this novel by Mona Awad. It's a complete What the actual eff??? ride from beginning to end.   What's Bunny  about? Bunny takes place at a prestigious art school. There’s a pack of hoity-toity, grad school women there who behave like middle schoolers; they roam around in a pack, affectionately...

THE SUPREME MACARONI COMPANY Book Review

I spent the last 50 pages of The Supreme Macaroni Company bawling my eyes out. We're talking up at 6:30 in the morning, lying in bed, and flanked by a box of tissues and a wastebasket. I was crying so damn hard that my cat charged down the hall to see what the hell was wrong. (My husband, meanwhile, slept through the whole thing. Bless.) Before those last pages, though? The Supreme Macaroni Company was really, really good.  ...

THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES Book Review

A blogger friend recommended The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires to me during one of my reading slumps. I jumped on it since I’m a big fan of author Grady Hendrix’s previous novel, Horrorstor. Also, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight enthusiast (don’t judge), I have a thing for vampires. So, I figured this Hendrix story was worth a shot.     What is The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires about? This...

THE MAIDENS Book Review

Heads up, Tartlets: I tore through the The Maidens in about three days. I haven't read author Alex Michaelides' previous novel, the mega-bestseller The Silent Patient. But when an unrequested ARC of The Maidens showed up in my mailbox, I was like, Hey, a free book. Let’s try it.   What's The Maidens about? The Maidens is a twisty, edgy psychological thriller bound together with threads of Greek mythology and tragedy, deception...

IN FIVE YEARS Book Review

In Five Years isn't the book I thought it'd be. In a good way. Everyone seemed to be reading this Rebecca Serle novel last year during quarantine, so I was excited to score a copy from my library as quickly as I did. I'd just read two heavy books back-to-back, and I wanted -- nay, needed -- a fun, breezy women's fiction/romance to lighten up my mood. Well. In Five Years was NOT the book to pick up for that. But, I'm glad I read it anyway....

THE DEAD GIRLS CLUB Book Review

The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters is a pretty morbid book title. Naturally, I was immediately drawn to it. The synopsis promised a mix of psychological thriller and supernatural suspense, so I was all "Yup, yup, that's my kind of book!"   What's The Dead Girls Club about? The Dead Girls Club is told across two timelines: "Now" and "Then." The "Now" follows adult Heather, who's an anxious, nervous, borderline personality...

MEG and JO Book Review

OMGILOVEDTHISBOOK. *deep breath* Ahem. Sorry. But, seriously, guys. I absolutely adored Meg and Jo. I’m a huge fan of retellings, particularly ones that modernize classic stories (see Eligible), but this is the first retelling of Little Women that I’ve read. That being said, expectations were high when I started reading – and I’m so happy to report that Virginia Kantra's reimagining completely surpassed everything I could have hoped...

RED, WHITE, AND ROYAL BLUE (DNF Book Review)

Unpopular opinion alert: I did not finish (DNF) Red, White, and Royal Blue. SO many people have raved about this book by Casey McQuiston, readers and bloggers alike. It was all over bookstagram when it published in 2019, and I'm still seeing it appear in bookstack photos of beloved books.   What's Red, White, and Royal Blue about? As a lover of rom-coms, I was eager to read this relatively new member to the genre: a queer...

A SINGLE THREAD Book Review

Tracy Chevalier’s novels are absolutely beautiful, and her latest book, A Single Thread, is no exception. This might be my new favorite title by this author.   What's A Single Thread about? The shadow of WWI looms over everything in A Single Thread -- every person, every conversation, every interaction. Main character Violet's life is forever changed when both her fiancé and her brother are killed in WWI. At 38 years old and...