Author: Tirzah Price

Lucy Clark was dropped off at her grandmother’s house by her globetrotting parents as a baby, and when her grandmother died, she was placed at a horrible boarding school. But when a group of bullies pushes Lucy to the brink and she lashes out, she’s suspended and sent to New York City to live with her cousin and take care of her cousin’s elderly landlady. Lucy expects someone feeble and quiet, but is surprised to find that Edith is glamorous, independent, and certain that someone is trying to kill her. Lucy is taken aback, but the more she learns about Edith’s life, the more she becomes convinced that Edith is telling the truth…and Lucy is the only one who will listen, and therefore the only one who can help.

I was totally delighted by this gentle mystery that isn’t violent or extreme in any way, but still features some terrific suspense and tension. I felt deeply for Lucy, who is deeply lonely and only has her best friend. Her parents are extremely controlling and yet emotionally (and physically) distant, unwilling to listen to Lucy or understand who she is. (Content warning for some disordered eating encouragement from Lucy’s parents.) New York City is a breath of fresh air for Lucy, who’s never before had such freedom, and not been treated as kindly by anyone as she is by Edith since her grandmother died. The friendships in this book are great, and I love that Lucy strikes up true connections with seniors who treat her generously, alongside depictions of friendships her own age. Another bonus is that Lucy is Jewish, and she connects with her best friend over their shared desire to feel connected to their faith and roots, both of which they feel are lacking in their lives. It’s nice to read a book about Jewish teens that isn’t about antisemitism or the Holocaust.

The mystery is also very fun and Agatha Christie-esque, complete with capers, close calls, puzzles and riddles, and at least one daring reveal followed by a dramatic chase. Overall, this is a charming winner of a book, and I loved how it unfolded.

Hal grew up a boardwalk “psychic” alongside her mom, hustling tourists by reading their cards. But things have been hard for Hal lately — her mom died recently, and she’s in over her head financially with some very bad people. So when the letter arrives, proclaiming that Hal is a beneficiary of Mrs. Westaway’s will, it seems like it’s too good to be true. And it is, because Hal’s mom wasn’t related to Mrs. Westaway, despite what the letter says. But Hal is desperate, and if she can just play the game and get a little windfall, maybe she get ahead. Only, once she arrives at Mrs. Westaway’s estate, ready to give the performance of her lifetime, she’s stunned to realize that maybe her mom had a few secrets of her own…and Hal is not safe until they’re all uncovered.

Ruth Ware has often been proclaimed the Agatha Christie of our time, and while it’s true she’s a really great writer of mystery, thriller, and suspense novels, I would argue that she has her own flair. However, of all of Ware’s books this one feels the most like an homage to Christie, and it has a deliciously creepy and stately setting in the old Westaway family estate, complete with an assortment of dissatisfied to conniving relatives who are all shocked to learn of Hal’s existence. I love the tension that arises between Hal keeping her own secret about her identity and her con, and slowly realizing that the Westaway family is not at all what she thinks. There are some really good classic mystery elements here, and a touch of unknown. While you might not be surprised by every twist and turn, there are some very satisfying reveals and a few surprises that you might not see coming. It’s one of those books that will have you thinking, I truly don’t know what the outcome of this book might be, and that’s really satisfying in a mystery, I think! Mrs. Westaway, although dead before the book begins, had a strong presence throughout the story which lends to the air of intrigue. Of all Ware’s books, this is my favorite and you can’t go wrong picking it up!

Happy reading,
Tirzah

When she was a teenager, Emma Blair couldn’t wait to get out of Acton, MA, excited to travel the world rather than find herself stuck in her family’s bookstore. When she falls for Jesse when she’s 17, they both get out of Massachusetts and head to L.A., where they build a life together, traveling the world. But then a year after their wedding, Jesse is in a helicopter over the Aleutian Islands when it crashes, and he’s lost. Emma is devastated, and unable to face a future without her husband, she goes home to Acton. A couple of years later, she runs into Sam, and finds the courage to fall in love again. Emma and Sam get engaged, and then mere months before their wedding, Emma receives a phone call. Jesse is alive. And he’s coming home.

Taylor Jenkins Reid explores an impossible choice in this book, which is plenty heartbreaking but also heartwarming. The author starts with the moment that Emma learns that her husband is still alive and then weaves back in time to tell of Emma and Jesse’s love story, Emma’s grief, and how she finds love again with Sam. Despite covering many years and lots of ground, the book is really compelling and moves very quickly. It’s about falling in love and losing love, but it’s also about finding the courage to build the life you’ve always dreamed of…and finding the courage to reimagine your future after devastating loss. I loved watching Emma’s character growth as she grew up, and as she was impacted by circumstances outside of her control. Her story is a reminder that we are more resilient than we know, and that the meaning of true love may not be as straightforward as we think.

Bonus: The audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan, and the movie adaptation looks marvelous — it’s out in early April. Check out the trailer.

Maizy Chen and her mom live in L.A. and Maizy has never visited her grandparents, who live in Last Chance, MN where they run the Golden Palace, a Chinese restaurant that’s been operating for generations. But now Maizy’s grandfather is sick, and so they head to Minnesota one summer until he gets better. There, Maizy gets a first hand look at where her mom grew up (and a few hints about why she never returned), and she meets the townspeople of eclectic Last Chance. But when it becomes clear her grandfather isn’t getting better anytime soon, they extend their visit and Maizy spends her days in her family’s restaurant and listening to her grandparents’ stories of the past, learning all of the Golden Palace’s secrets and about her own family’s incredible legacy.

One warning going into this book: Don’t read on an empty stomach! There are so many delicious descriptions of food, Chinese and German in particular, that I found myself craving some of the same dishes that Maizy eats, but I fear none of my local options could hold a candle to the Golden Palace. But that’s just the beginning of the delightful descriptions that await. Yee does a great job of bringing the entire town of Last Chance to life, and populating it with interesting characters that feel believable and real. While this Midwestern town is filtered through Maizy’s eyes and feels a bit too cute at first (there’s a Ben Franklin with a soda counter, for heaven’s sake), Yee slowly pulls back the layers to reveal a community that may have good intentions and good people, but isn’t always as accepting or as progressive as they’d like to believe themselves — which honestly tracks with my experiences of small Midwestern towns. While there is little Maizy can do to challenge the status quo on her own, she learns to stand up for herself and her family, which is important.

Some of my favorite parts of the book were when Maizy’s grandfather would tell her stories about his grandfather, Lucky Chen, who first came to the U.S. from China and how he founded the Golden Palace. Hearing the history of this family was a great way for readers to learn about the complicated history the U.S. has with Chinese immigrants and their own Chinese American citizens, and there were things that I even learned from this book! Overall, this is an excellent book with a funny, warm contemporary voice and so many great teaching moments packed in, but in a way that feels informative and entertaining and not didactic. Definitely pick it up for yourself or the kiddo in your life!

In the two years since her parents got divorced, Effie has been unable to truly come to terms with how drastically her life has changed. Things aren’t helped by the fact that her dad has begun dating a younger woman named Trista, who is truly awful…and as a result, Effie has become estranged from her dad. When she learns that her dad and Trista are selling her beloved childhood home and throwing one last party, Effie is devastated. When she’s left off the party guest list, she’s hurt. But then she remembers a beloved childhood memento is hidden in the house, and her last chance to rescue it will be sneaking into the party…and Effie learns all sorts of surprising things about her parents, siblings, and one-time love when they don’t think she’s around.

This is kind of a cheesy premise, but it totally grabbed me. I liked the setting of the sprawling Victorian house, called Greenoaks, that is the center of this family and their conflicts. Being an old and quirky house, there are plenty of nooks and crannies for Effie to hide in, making her plan to steal inside, grab her childhood memento, and then slip away again seem plausible. But of course, nothing goes according to plan because who wouldn’t want to eavesdrop on so many party conversations? The sibling relationship in this book was nicely done, with each of them figuring out how to process the loss of their childhood home. Trista was definitely the type of character you love to hate, and readers will be right with Effie and her siblings in their hatred of her as Trista paints over their mom’s kitchen and sells off their childhood furniture. Although the family drama is at the center of this book, there is a lovely little second-chance romance that offers Effie a little perspective and distraction from the current heartbreak. The story takes place over the course of a single day, and Kinsella packs a lot of emotion and confrontations (and a few reconciliations), making this a heartfelt book about confronting change and holding on to memories as you move toward the future.

In this series starter novella, a security AI unit in a sci-fi world has hacked its protocols and is in full control of itself…but it’s hiding it pretty well because contrary to popular belief, it has no desire to do much more than watch media. After naming itself Murderbot (not that it advertises this), it pretty much does all the work that it’s supposed to do as a security unit for a human research team on a distant planet, using all its free time to watch shows and think about not caring about humans. But when an attack on another research outpost puts its humans on edge, Murderbot realizes that they might be the next targets and has to act to ensure that doesn’t happen…even if humans are totally stupid and frustrating and a distraction from what’s happening in the next episode of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. But perhaps the most surprising development comes when Murderbot begins to actually care about what happens to them.

I am not normally the type to take to non-human narrators in fiction, but Murderbot totally won me over within the space of a few pages. Here is a funny, snarky, and maybe a bit nihilistic robot who just wants to be left alone, but soon finds that when it starts caring, it’s hard to stop. The humor is pitch perfect, and the action scenes are thrilling. I think it can be a challenge to write highly technical sci-fi and not have readers lose interest or lose track of what’s going on, but Wells does a really great job of balancing the technical details, world building, and character development with moments of great tension and comic relief. Although Murderbot’s character arcs and inner journeys seem deceptively simple throughout this book and into the sequels (Murderbot learns that it’s good to care about others, Murderbot learns to make friends, Murderbot learns that it’s worthwhile to take own evil corporations even if there isn’t anything in it for Murderbot personally), I think that’s what makes these novellas so…endearing? And engaging? Because we are watching a robot who self-identifies as a Murderbot (for reasons, which will be divulged) learn what it means to be human, and there’s something really great about that journey. Also, it’s funny as hell.

The audiobooks narrated by Kevin R. Free are really excellent, and Free has great comedic timing. The series is running seven novellas and one novel strong at this point, and I can’t recommend them enough!

Aaron Falk is taking a vacation and heading to wine country for the baptism of his best friend’s baby. The baptism is a year late because last year a disappearance in the family rocked the small Australian town and delayed the ceremony. Kim, a woman in her thirties with a new baby, vanished while at a food and wine festival, leaving her infant daughter in her stroller before presumably walking into a deep reservoir, although her body has never been found. The case is just as puzzling a year out as it was in the moment, and although Aaron is trained in financial crimes, he can’t help but turn his investigator’s eye to the case as Kim’s surviving family struggle to find information and make sense of the disappearance. But the more Aaron pries into the case, the more confusing and discordant information he uncovers.

I’m a big fan of Jane Harper’s Aaron Falk mysteries, The Dry (which was made into a great movie) and Force of Nature (also in production with Anna Torv co-starring), as well as her standalone mysteries The Lost Man and The Survivors. Her books always feature the rugged yet beautiful Australian countryside, and they offer up compelling mysteries that often dive into family secrets, preconceived notions, and the unreliable nature of memory. As an outsider, Falk has an advantage in how he perceives this case, which isn’t hot by any means. A year later, Kim’s family is desperately grasping at straws and trying to poke holes into the timeline of events from a year earlier to try and find some clue as to how she might have disappeared. Falk observes this all, and is always aware of his role as an outsider, but soon finds himself sucked into the mystery of all the close-knit friends in this town who have dark secrets and big tragedies in their pasts. The solving of this mystery isn’t as explosive or dramatic as some of Harper’s books, but the “twist” is deeply satisfying, and even more gratifying is seeing where this one last mystery takes Aaron Falk. I’m sad to say goodbye to this character, but overall this is a great final entry into his saga—and as I promised, no need to read the previous novels if you want to just dive in, but I highly recommend them anyway.

Definitely pick up this book if you love literary mysteries that have a strong sense of place, just like Tana French!

The setting of this brand new graphic novel is Arden High. Vi has just transferred because her old boarding school requires a dress code and she was tired of skirts. But she’s facing the ultimate betrayal: Her beloved twin decided to stay at their old school. Now Vi is facing a new beginning on her own…but it’s not long before she meets a poet, Orsino, and develops a quick crush. The only problem? Because of how she dresses, everyone assumes Vi isn’t into guys. And things get complicated when Orsino asks Vi to help him woo Olivia for the Twelfth Grade Night dance…and then it turns out that Olivia has a crush on Vi! Add in some twin confusion, and it’s a drama no one will forget.

I loved this modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and I am so pleased to find that we are in the era of YA where people are realizing that Shakespeare makes for some amazing gender-bent and queer YA retellings! Twelfth Night is the perfect play to queer up, and I loved that this story takes a look at a female protagonist who is assumed queer when she’s really crushing on a guy. There’s also a great supporting cast of characters, and one thing the creators do really well is make space in this story for everyone to have their own storylines that feel satisfying.

I would have been so on board for this book if it had been a contemporary retelling alone, but one thing that surprised and delighted me was the inclusion of fairy characters, who just exist in this book with no explanation, being the drama. It also clued me in that, oh hey, there will probably be MORE BOOKS in this series, and sure enough, King Cheer is out later this year. I think this is a really fun and clever way to bring Shakespeare to a modern teenage audience, and the illustrations are colorful and vibrant, and totally fun. I can’t recommend this one enough!