I tried, Tartlets. I really, really tried to get into Real Life and Other Fictions.
This women's fiction book by Susan Coll totally seemed like one I would enjoy. I mean, The Mothman’s in it! We all know supernatural stuff is right up my alley. And, there’s a dog in the book. Animals are the best. The main character's a struggling writer and novelist, and I can completely relate to that.
Despite all this and so much else recommending this...
I love me some good women’s fiction, and Dear Eliza by Andrea J. Stein hits all the right notes.
What’s Dear Eliza about?
Dear Eliza follows Eliza Levinger, who, on the day of her father’s funeral, is given a letter that was written by her late mother. Inside the letter is the bombshell news that Eliza’s biological father isn’t the dad she just laid to rest.
Still unhealed from her mother’s passing ten years before, Eliza finds...
Meredith, Alone is one of those stories that gives you hope. It’s a book that makes you want to hug the main character when you reach the end.
There's not a very original premise – traumatized woman with a big heart learns to take steps outside of her comfort zones, both literally and figuratively – but author Claire Alexander creates a main character that you’re cheering for the entire time you’re reading.
What’s Meredith, Alone...
Grab a glass of lemonade, settle into your beach chair, and get ready for the lovely summer read that is The Summer Club.
What’s The Summer Club about? The Summer Club by Hannah McKinnon takes place at a generations-old beach club in Massachusetts named Mayhaven. Everything at Mayhaven – along with its members and staff – is going through a summer of change, whether it's ready for it or not.
This contemporary novel has an ensemble...
I wasn’t going to read Horse by Geraldine Brooks. I usually avoid books about animals because I’m terrified of getting attached to said animal, and then of the animal dying at the end.
(Marley and Me, Where the Red Fern Grows – I’m looking at you.)
But something made me pick up Horse. I have absolutely zero regrets.
What’s Horse about?
Horse is about, well, a horse. As you may have guessed. It’s also about so much more than...
I seem to be on a Jane Austen retelling kick lately: first Once Persuaded, Twice Shy, and now Relative Strangers, which is a modern reimagining of Sense and Sensibility.
What’s Relative Strangers about?
Amelia Bae-Wood ((ahem, Marianne Dashwood) goes to live with her widowed sister Eleanor, her widowed mother, and her niece Margaret after her glamorous foodie-preneur lifestyle falls apart. Her family has been rendered near penniless...
I cried from the very first page of Morning in this Broken World.
The more I read, the more I cried. In good and bad ways.
But, the important thing is that I kept reading. Because Morning in this Broken World is one of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time.
What’s Morning in this Broken World about? Morning in this Broken World is about love. The power of love, and how it can be both healing and destructive all at once. It's...
I really wanted to love Sex Romp Gone Wrong. However, this collection of short stories by Julia Ridley Smith wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
What’s Sex Romp Gone Wrong about? Sex Romp Gone Wrong covers relationships and friendships, love and romance, marriage and kids, and all the blurred lines in between. Based on the wonderfully intriguing title -- the sole reason I requested an ARC of this book -- I expected the stories to be a...
I waited a long time -- too long! -- to read The Truth Project.
Author Dante Medema (whether she knows this or not) was one of the very first people to start following the Tart’s Instagram account. Of course, I followed her right back, and not long after that, she announced her upcoming debut publication. I've been waiting to read The Truth Project since the day it was published back in 2020.
Correction: I've been waiting to read it since...
I bet Naomi, the main character in A Novel Obsession, has "crazy eyes."
She has to have crazy eyes. Because, it sure doesn't take long for her crazy to start coming out.
What's A Novel Obsession about?
I stumbled across A Novel Obsession when I decided to take a writing workshop taught by author Caitlin Barasch. The story’s premise intrigued me right away: twenty-something Naomi stalks her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend under the guise of...
