A Well-Read Tart

A Food and Book Lover’s Blog

HELLO BEAUTIFUL Book Review

I’d seen Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano circling Bookstagram for almost a year before I read it. This family saga was receiving a lot of hype, and I’ve been disappointed by overhyped books before. What finally convinced me to read Hello Beautiful were two things: a book recommendation from Just Leave It to the Prose from my writing workshop group, and the fact that the story is loosely based around Little Women. As you may remember from...

THE CURIOUS SECRETS OF YESTERDAY (DNF Book Review)

I really wanted to love Namrata Patel’s newest novel, The Curious Secrets of Yesterday. I absolutely adored Patel’s debut, The Candid Life of Meena Dave. While I didn’t get a chance to read her sophomore book, Scent of a Garden, I was excited when Kaye Publicity approached me about an ARC for book #3. Unfortunately, The Curious Secrets of Yesterday is getting added to the DNF pile for me. Let’s talk about why.   What’s The Curious...

A BAKERY IN PARIS Book Review

Although I started off a little annoyed with A Bakery in Paris, this heartwarming story about two Parisian ladies -- and their delicious French recipes -- grew on me by the end of the book.   What’s A Bakery in Paris about? A Bakery in Paris follows two women in the same family. There's Lisette, who lives in 1870, and Micheline, who lives in 1946. Each woman finds comfort in friendship, baking, and freedoms she didn’t know she needed as...

GAD’S HALL and THE HAUNTING OF GAD’S HALL Book Reviews

How do I even begin to review the confounding and enchanting reading experience that is Gad’s Hall and The Haunting of Gad’s Hall? First, let me reassure you that despite the book cover promising “two novels of the supernatural,” Gad’s Hall/The Haunting of Gad's Hall is the most benign ghost story I’ve ever read. Like, if you blink, you miss the scary parts. Which aren’t even that scary to begin with. Shockingly, I was okay with...