Category: Romance

‘Malibu Rising’ – Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Riva family are a force to be reckoned with, and Malibu Rising shows us this group at a key moment in their lives. The format is quite simple: 24hours focused on the time around Nina Riva’s infamous annual party.

Having loved the complexity of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I can’t help but feel this was a gentler read. Though we watch moments of intense drama, it felt rather detached – as if I were watching some kind of documentary of the lives of the rich and famous (which we had, in book form).

The dynamics of this family group are everything. Part one introduces us to the family and build up to the party. We see Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit and learn a little about each of them/what they’re doing. These four have – after the death of their mother, June, and the well-documented abandonment by their father, pop star Mick – come to rely on one another.

Interspersed with the details of the four children we get the back story to Mick and June, and some elements of that were genuinely heart-breaking. Then we move to part two focusing on the hours of the party and how some of the strands resolve themselves in dramatic fashion.

While I really liked parts of this, the party scene was drawn out and exaggerated to the point of incredulity. It served to illustrate some aspects of the relationships between the family but it seemed to be about setting up a way of instigating a new start for certain characters. There were also some areas that were underdeveloped which I would have liked to see more of.

Closing the book I was struck by the sense of hope and optimism that ran through what was, for the most part, a book about very selfish people hurting each other. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but I still enjoyed it.

 

‘Instructions for Dancing’ – Nicola Yoon

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun is Also a Star Nicola Yoon is back with her eagerly anticipated third novel. With all the heart and hope of her last two books, this is an utterly unique romance.When your family shatters around you it’s easy to see how you might feel somewhat disillusioned about love and relationships.


Evie Thomas has struggled to accept the breakdown of her parents’ relationship. She knows her father had an affair and she wonders if falling in love is worth it if it’s going to end badly. This book offers an alternative way of looking at things.

Evie finds herself picking up an unusual book, Instructions for Dancing, and it sets her on a path that is not expected but which offers her a more positive way of engaging with the world. She finds herself learning to dance and entered into a competition that involves her opening herself to new opportunities.

From the start, I loved this. There’s a genuine optimism to some potentially difficult subjects and I found myself desperate to see how things resolved.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this before publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

 

‘How to Save a Life’ – Eva Carter

No matter how well trained you are, knowing something in theory and being able to apply it practically are very different things. Nobody can know for sure how they’ll cope in a crisis…and having read this, I’d have to pray never to be put in that situation because it leads to a lot of pain and misery (or at least that’s how it felt).

Tim and Kerry have been best friends for years. They are celebrating New Year with friends as they reach the end of school. Kerry thinks Tim might be about to kiss her. But her eye is drawn to golden boy Joel, the town’s shining light/potential Premiership footballer. He has collapsed on the floor. With only her cadet training to rely on, Kerry attempts CPR. For eighteen minutes she works on Joel, determined to save the boy she’s always had a crush on. She expects Tim, who has also applied for medical school, to help. He doesn’t. He’s frozen, and doesn’t do what he needs to until the last minute…by which time everyone assumes he’s saved Joel. He doesn’t tell the truth.

And so begins eighteen years following these three around as they deal with the aftermath of that night.

The story takes us through the minutiae of their lives following Joel’s dramatic rescue. We watch them deal with life and all the things thrown at them, or not.
None of them are happy. Nobody seems to be getting what they want and they hover round each other, each blaming the others for how their lives turn out. People come and go from their lives and yet the focus is always on this bizarre triangle.

Unfortunately, all three characters make decisions that are infuriating. They are selfish and hurt those around them. We can sense how things might be different but just have to watch them orbiting each other, butting heads and getting frustrated by their inability to see a way out of their situation. Eventually, we assume things will be resolved but it felt like a long slog to reach that point. I’m sure there’ll be many readers who’ll find this life-affirming and heart-warming, who’ll fall in love with these three and their experiences and finish the book feeling they’ve been given the answers to how to save their own life. That wasn’t my experience.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance of publication.

‘Second First Impressions’ – Sally Thorne

Having had a bit of a thriller binge of late, this was a light-hearted romance that was just the tonic required.

Our primary focus was Ruthie, the daughter of a preacher, who is only twenty-five but definitely acts like an old soul in a young woman’s body. She works in a retirement village and as we get to know more about her, we see that she is her own worst enemy.

At the point in time our book starts, Ruthie has been left to manage the office. She finds herself caught in a strange situation…where she wants to take the next step to finding romance and moving her life forward though she lacks the impetus to do so. Thankfully she has her temp, Mel, who takes it upon herself to give Ruthie a helping hand. This gets something of a spanner in the works with the arrival of Teddy Prescott, the son of the new owner, who has his own demons to lay to rest.

Of course their first meeting is less than satisfactory. We know from the outset they are attracted to each other and what was nice to see was that everyone around them could also see it.

There were some incidental storylines running alongside this that provided a little light relief.

 

‘The Beautiful Ones’ – Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I have to admit to not having read anything else by this author yet, so it will be interesting to compare to her other novels when I get to read them, but this was quite an unusual read.

The plot focuses on the conventions held in Losail society. The socialites known colloquially as The Beautiful Ones dominate this arena, and dictate how things should be done. Like a spider at the centre of a web sits Valerie Beaulieu, a woman who seems to have it all – but we come to see just what she’s lacking and how this affects her. Thrown into this web is Nina Beaulieu, Valerie’s cousin by marriage, who has been sent to Losail from the country for her first season in society.

Nina has, from an early age, been someone that people talk about. She is a telekinetic, and her fascination with insects/propensity to talk honestly to those she encounters marks her as odd. Her lack of regard for conventions is a challenge, and it is determined that this young girl known as the Witch of Oldhouse should be taught how to control herself. But at what price?
When she forms an attraction for Hector Auvray – a telekinetic who has made his living performing in the theatre – we think this will be a rather stereotypical romance…but Hector and Valerie have a shared secret, and this has a terrible influence on everything that follows.

The book is slow-paced but never boring. There’s a gradual unfolding of the plot and characters. At the start I found myself thinking it was very Austen-like, with polite society being gently ridiculed while showing some of the potential alternatives. I became captivated by Nina and her gauche innocence. Once we understand Valerie’s secret it was hard to see her as anything other than a villain. Her poison seeps into every aspect of the plot, and there were moments where I wondered just how anyone would escape these machinations and their impact.

While much of the book focuses on the conventional society and its unwritten rules, at its heart lies romance and a fascination with what could be deemed magic. The Beautiful Ones were not that beautiful, and it’s a timely reminder that sometimes the most beautiful thing is to be seen and loved for what you truly are.

 

‘Kate in Waiting’ – Becky Albertalli

A huge presence and the kind of book you’ll read with a big grin on your face, even when things aren’t going well.

Our main characters are Kate Garfield and her best friend Anderson Walker. Friends for years they are known for their strange rituals, and their shared crushes. During their recent summer camp they’ve both developed a crush on the same boy, Matt.

From the off we’re plunged into their little world and their shared fondness for drama. There’s the expected cute friend moments, a bit of drama and a general sense of expectation.

As they wait to audition for their annual theatre production, a proverbial spanner is thrown into the works…crush Matt has transferred to their school.

Cue problems.

Kate and Anderson vow not to let a crush derail their friendship. Sometimes the reality is quite different. Of course, though we see this from Kate’s view it is evident from fairly early on that she’s not the most observant of people and I was desperate to see if/when she’d open her eyes and see what was in front of her.

This is another Albertalli hit in the making, I’m sure, and I’m grateful I got the chance to read this before its scheduled April publication thanks to NetGalley. I’m not even that into theatre but still found myself captivated by this.

 

‘People We Meet on Vacation’ – Emily Henry

Due for release in May 2021, I was thrilled to be invited by the publishers to read this prior to publication.

Without giving too much away, this is a book where everything seems as if it should go horribly horribly wrong but it works so well.

Our main characters are Poppy and Alex, two very different people, whose first meeting seems as if it will quickly become the kind of meeting that you talk about in years to come with a sense of having escaped something. They are unlike each other in so many ways, and everything one likes the other dislikes. They have little in common – their only shared ground discovered in their first meeting is that they both have an irrational hatred of anyone who calls boats ‘she’. Yet that first meeting sets in place a relationship like no other.

Poppy and Alex spend years on the outskirts of each other’s lives. A remnant of their college years, they spend time each summer on a vacation. Their only stipulation that it should give them the chance to experience something new.

Over the years they’ve had some memorable trips…and we get to catch up with a few of them, learning as we go just what a place these two have for each other.
Alongside learning about their past, we see them in their present. Poppy writing for a travel magazine and based in New York; Alex teaching at his former high school, in the town Poppy couldn’t wait to escape. Still very different, but with a history whose reach is hard to ignore.

It didn’t surprise me to see what happened by the end. That always seemed likely, but it was great to see how they got to this point in their lives.

 

‘The Upside of Falling’ – Alex Light

This was an unbelievably quick read, and though it was good fun for the most part I can’t help but feel that some elements of the story were a little rushed.

Becca Hart has got used to living alone with her mum. When her dad left them Becca lost faith in the power of love. She closed off a little, and vowed never to fall in love because it would only mean getting hurt. Of course, that makes her ripe for the situation that develops in the book.

Within the early stages we see Becca being criticised for her rather unspoken opinions on love. She is rescued by popular guy, Brett, the boy who seems to have the perfect life and for whom love is something to believe in.

So begins a rather unlikely scenario – the fake dating where both Becca and Brett decide they have something to gain from convincing their peers that they are in a relationship. Naturally, they spend time together and it soon becomes clear that the boundaries are getting blurred and things aren’t quite as fake as they first thought.

The whole story rattles along at some pace. It’s hard not to like Becca and Bret, but I was struck throughout by their naivety and the speed with which they went from disinterested in a relationship to confessing their love for one another.
There’s a little blip on the way, but we know exactly how it’s going to end up.

 

‘Dear Emma Blue’ – Lia Louis

Dear Emmie Blue, you smashed my heart but made me smile, laugh and cry (sometimes at the same time) and I would have to be heartless to not award five stars to this even though some elements REALLY irritated me.
Emmie is a woman who definitely has not had it easy. An emotionally closed-off mother, an absent father who she has no contact with, a friend who refused to stick by her when she was abused by a teacher…thankfully these details don’t come out at once or I think I’d have stopped reading! What Emmie has had as a constant in her life is Lucas, born on the same day and living in France, he has known Emmie since they were both 16 and he found a balloon she released and they started to write to each other.
This kind of friendship over time means lots of memories and recollections. The importance Emmie places on Lucas is evident…and when he asks her to take on the role of ‘best woman’ at his wedding she accepts, even though she’s in love with him and thinks this act will physically kill her.
What we see is Emmie throw herself into this role, determined to do her bit. She smiles at his family, jokes with the fiancé and launches herself into every linked activity as she tries to do the right thing.
For the first quarter of the book I doubted I’d be able to read this. What she was doing wasn’t selfless, it was masochism at its worst. I also found myself intensely irritated by Lucas and how demanding he was of Emmie without ever really giving the same back.
Then things shifted a little. Emmie started to open up to some of the other characters this features, and we see that perhaps her feelings for Lucas stem not from love but a need to feel loved. Big difference.
Once we’d seen this shift I started to get little indications that the love story I expected might be on its way, though not necessarily in the place I expected.
Things don’t always go smoothly. There’s one or two bumps along the way, but I felt privileged to follow Emmie on her journey.

 

‘As Far As You’ll Take Me’ – Phil Stamper

 

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this before publication, and it’s another story that takes you through some of the highs and lows faced by many teens finding their way in the world.

Marty is not yet eighteen, a keen oboe player and struggling to feel comfortable with announcing his identity as a gay man to his conservative parents. With the help of his cousin, Marty concocts a rather elaborate scheme to step out into the world in his own terms.

From the outset I feared for Marty. I felt awful that his situation might still be a common one, and yet he retained such optimism about how he might start to live his life in the way he chose to.

We follow Marty to London where he tells his parents he’s attending a summer school. He’s not, but he hopes to play music and do whatever he needs to in order to live happily. We see him forge new friendships, and summon the strength to call out some less positive older friends. There’s a tentative relationship, but the thing that really struck me was the strength of character shown by Marty in working through a challenge, persevering with something scary and the determination to live the life he wants.