The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross

The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Emerson Clarke can’t remember a time when she felt in control of her life. Her father—a celebrated author—blew in and out of her childhood like a hurricane until he got Alzheimer’s. Her mother numbed loneliness with gin. And recently, her teen daughter has shut her out without explanation. The only place Emerson has ever been in charge is in front of the keyboard where, as a ghostwriter, she dictates everything that happens on the page. If only she could arrange reality the same way, life could be perfect. An impossible fantasy—or so she believes until she makes a startling discovery.

After her father’s wake, Emerson steals her father’s vintage typewriter—the very one he’d forbidden anyone to touch—and tests its keys by typing out a frivolous wish. After it comes true the very next day, she tries another. When those words also spring to life, she becomes obsessed with using the typewriter to engineer happiness for herself and her daughter. Easier said than done.

As Emerson shapes her real-life circumstances, she uncovers disturbing truths about her family’s history and the unexpected cost for each story-come-true. She should destroy the typewriter, but when her daughter's secret finally emerges, Emerson is torn between paying the price for bending fate and embracing the uncertainty of an unscripted life.
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The first magical realism book I ever read was one by Heather Webber, and just like that I was hooked. Therefore, when I was invited by the publisher to check out a debut novel in that genre, I jumped right on it. I am so glad I took a chance on this one! While the magic is more subtle than other books that fit that description, there still was a fantastical element that was the centerpiece of the story. However, most of all, this was a book about family...all the messy, beautiful, painful, joyful, difficult, rewarding parts of being a family.

While Emerson leaned toward almost unlikable at times for me, there was an earnestness to her actions that still made me root for her. I am sure we have all wondered at one time or another what we would wish for if a genie came along and granted us three wishes...reading what Emerson does when it seems she has an endless supply of wishes at her fingertips makes for a compelling and memorable novel that I could not put down. I read it in one afternoon.

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The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America's Lawsuit Factory by Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

The Pain Brokers: How Con Men, Call Centers, and Rogue Doctors Fuel America's Lawsuit Factory by Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria/One Signal Publishers for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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For decades, late-night television has blared a familiar refrain: If you or a loved one has been injured by X product…

But behind those ads lies a lesser-known world where elaborate scams revictimize the injured. Why else would thousands of women with health insurance take out loans with astronomical interest rates and fly to south Florida to have their pelvic mesh surgically removed at a chiropractor’s clinic?

The Pain Brokers, by law professor Elizabeth Burch, is a damning investigation of a scheme made possible by a medical and legal complex that too often views women’s bodies as cash machines and fails to take their pain seriously.

As Burch unfurls each level to the scheme, we meet an enthralling cast of characters, from a world class scam artist who reaped tens of millions of dollars at a south Florida call center, to the ultimate white shoe power lawyer who defended Big Pharma but became an unlikely hero, to a newly minted small-town Arkansas attorney who advocated for the unseen and unheard. But at the center are three women, Jerri, Barb, and Sharon, whose lives were upended by the very procedure they were told would save them.

A page-turning, urgently necessary work of public service journalism, The Pain Brokers is not only a chilling exposé of a legal system gone awry, but a wake-up call to the ways in which it harms those it is meant to help.
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Malpractice attorneys advertising their services to fight against things like cancer from asbestos or talcum powder exposure or medical mesh (the topic of this book) on late night television always gave off a feeling of "ick" to me. And it turns out I was not wrong, as I learned in this book from Elizabeth Chamblee Burch. Although I am not of the opinion that all lawyers are bad, there are definitely members of the profession that are unsavory, and we meet some of them in her book. While this is the story of three different women and their search for justice, it is also an indictment of a system that allows them to be exploited in the first place. While you might expect such a work to be dry and difficult to work through, as some nonfiction books can tend to be, Burch's style and focus on the humanity at the center of this story makes this a very readable book, and I found myself invested in the stories behind her cast of characters as much as in the very scheme that she came to expose.

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The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews

The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love—but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it.

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit—beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy's quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.
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Mary Kay Andrews (or as we fans like to call her MKA) is always good for a sweet, feel-good Christmas story, and this book is no exception. Ivy is taking advantage of her second chance, and she finds herself starting over in a new small town in a new-to-her old house, and of course there is a hunky neighbor on hand to help her with her renovations. However, this is more than just a holiday romance. This story has at its heart a bit of a mystery, a bit of a miracle, and a supporting cast of characters to welcome Ivy to her new home. I could see reading this every Christmas as a way to get into the spirit of the season. It was the perfect feel-good holiday read.

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The Invisible Woman by James Patterson and Susan DiLallo

The Invisible Woman by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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No one sees her, but she sees everything. Elinor Gilbert was once a young woman with a thriving career at the FBI.
Now decades past solving crimes with the bureau, she is personally and professionally forgettable.
Which is exactly what her former FBI boss needs. He disguises Elinor as a middle-aged nanny, and casts her as an agent on the inside of his investigation into a New York art dealer suspected of ties to organized crime.
But as Elinor pushes toward the truth, her superpower—anonymity—morphs into a fatal flaw.
The more the invisible woman integrates into her “host” family, the more dangerously memorable she becomes.
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There is something about a good James Patterson book that can just pull me in and make me lose track of time as I spend a day engrossed in one of his compelling storylines. In this latest offering, he brings us one of those types of books, and I am happy to say that I spent this cold Sunday curled up on the couch, enjoying what he does best. The short chapters and propulsive storyline kept me entertained from the first page to the last. Elinor is a likable protagonist, and there are enough twists and turns to keep the action moving, without veering into any of the overused tropes that sometimes appear in the thriller genre. If you are a fan of Patterson's other standalone crime thrillers, this is the perfect book for you. I will always look forward to more from James Patterson and his co-authors.


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