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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The Shippers by Katherine Center

The Shippers by Katherine Center
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am not sure whose nice list I got on, but yesterday a magical email arrived with a widget for an ARC of this book, and suddenly my December has been made! As per last time Katherine Center’s publisher smiled down upon me and entrusted me with the honor of reading one of my most-anticipated releases of the (next) year early, I will probably spend today on my couch and will not emerge from the pages (?) of my Kindle until I am ready to review. Stay tuned!
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Thank you to St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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After a whole lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton decides to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. With the help of a little pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss (and who just happens to be a newly-divorced wedding guest ), and she decides to woo him during the cruise for some long-delayed closure. Only problem is, her sister’s a little busy being a bride at the moment—so JoJo ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, to be her wing man. Cooper: who RSVPed no, but then showed up, anyway. Cooper: who left town without a word four years earlier and moved to London. Cooper: who was, if she’s honest, the worst heartbreak of JoJo’s life. It’s bliss for her to see him again, and it’s agony, too—and the more they team up for Project Conquest, the more she obsesses over questions she can’t bring herself to ask.

Shipboard antics ensue in this witty, heart-tugging, childhood-friends-to-lovers romance—as JoJo and Cooper fake flirt, slow dance, share a cabin, sing duets, treat sunburns, get jealous, rescue each other over and over, and finally, at last, figure it all out in the most blissful, swoony, romantic way.
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What is there even to say about another Katherine Center masterpiece being released into the world? Year after year, we get treated to the kind of romance that is absolutelyI fun to read. There are parts that are just laugh-out-loud funny. There's some excitement thrown in. There's plenty of will-they-or-won't-they tension (although we know we are going to get a HEA from this author, so of course they will in the end). And every year, Center finds some fun new central plot point to build her book around, and I have yet to be disappointed in one of them.

JoJo and Cooper's story is a witty, touching, satisfying journey from their childhood days all the way up until the last page of this summer romance. With shades of fake dating and the classic childhood-friends-to-lovers trope, along with some miscommunication (which is usually one of my least favorite tropes but works very well in this instance) and a bit of a redemption arc, we get some of Center's best, and I would recommend this to anyone who loves love. I often go back and purchase Center's book as audiobooks so that I can experience them again in a different format, and I can already tell The Shippers will be added to my audiobook library. It was an easy decision to rate this one five stars!

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Like Family by Erin O. White

Like Family by Erin O. White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Radclyffe, New York, is an idyllic upstate town, nestled in the hills and complete with artisanal bakeries, pottery studios, and hidden swimming holes. Ruth and her wife, Wyn, are living the dream (or Wyn’s dream, at least) with their four children on their small farm, which is also the bucolic gathering place for their circle of friends. It’s a sweet life, but there’s a secret at its center, one that not even Ruth’s best friend, Caroline, knows.

What Caroline does know is that she loves and depends on Ruth, and on the bond between their families. More than anything, she wants her tender-hearted son not to grow up lonely the way she did. Unfortunately, no one can assure her of that, especially not her husband. He just wants things to be easy, drama-free—which is impossible, as he has donated his sperm to his cousin Tobi and her wife so that they could have kids of their own. Now those children are asking unanswerable questions.

After an unexpected death in their community, all three couples are forced to confront the tensions that have long been buried beneath the surfaces of their lives. Richly textured and big-hearted, this exhilarating debut is an unforgettable story of the alchemy of love and loyalty that makes friends Like Family.
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This is a beautiful debut novel that celebrates the nuance and complexity of all types of female relationships. As White leads us on a journey, told through the experiences of one member of each of the three couples at the heart of this story, we are introduced to three different versions of the American family and the impact that an unexpected death in their community has had on each of them. Some of the characters felt at times a bit polarizing, as they were as imperfect and real as the people you meet in your everyday life, but they also resonated strongly with me because this is a book that is written about people of my generation (X), and that is not something I often find. It was a beautiful celebration of female friendship, an acknowledgment of the uncertainties that can accompany midlife (Am I doing any of this right?), and an exploration of the messiness that is family life. However, as I sit here with my thoughts, having just read the last word, I am left thinking about how heart-warming and big-hearted the book was and how much I enjoyed reading it. I hope that it is just the first novel we can expect from this author. This is just the kind of immersive, character-driven writing that I love to fill my bookshelves with.

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The Forget-Me-Not Library by Heather Webber

The Forget-Me-Not Library by Heather Webber
My rating: 5 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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Juliet Nightingale is lucky to be alive. Months after a freak accident involving lightning, she’s fully recovered but is left feeling that something is missing from her life. Something big. Impulsively, she decides to take a solo summer road trip, hoping that the journey will lead her down a path that will help her discover exactly what it is that she’s searching for.

Newly single mom Tallulah Byrd Mayfield is hanging by a thread after her neat, tidy world was completely undone when her husband decided that their marriage was over. In the aftermath of the breakup, she and her two daughters move in with her eighty-year-old grandfather. Tallulah starts a new job at the Forget-Me-Not Library, where old, treasured memories can be found within the books—and where Lu must learn to adapt to the many changes thrown her way.

When a road detour leads Juliet to Forget-Me-Not, Alabama, and straight into Tallulah’s life, the two women soon discover there’s magic in between the pages of where you’ve been and where you still need to go. And that happiness, even when lost, can always be found again.
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I am of the opinion that nobody writes magical realism as well as Heather Webber. In fact, until I read Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe, which had been loaned to my mom by a friend of hers, I wasn't even really aware that was a genre of literature. However, now I have come to love it, and specifically Webber's brand of it, so much that I eagerly await her new offering each year. I know that I have to set aside a full day to read it because I likely won't be able to put it down. And this year, today was that day. I am happy to report that this book did not disappoint.

Within the first few pages, I knew that this town and these characters were going to be special. Within the first pages, we are introduced to the mischievous young reader Katy (I would hazard a guess that many of us will see ourselves in her), our protagonist Juliet (the person who needs that special Heather Webber magic), and a whole town full of the sorts of people that help create the kind of found family that has become Webber's specialty. With a library at the center of the action, some romance at the outskirts, and a redemption arc that left me reaching for a tissue, I couldn't rate this anything less than five stars.

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