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Ellen Meister’s ‘Take My Husband’
Laurel Applebaum is a devoted daughter, wife, mother, and soon to be grandmother who works hard keeping her family thriving and comfortable with very little help from her husband, Doug.Doug, who can’t even find the impetus to fill his own pill container and stay on top of his medications and doctor’s appointments.Doug, who has taken…
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Carmel Rhodes’s ‘Cherry Bomb’
From page one there was so much about Cherry’s story that drew me in; the working in the service industry to get by, a slight tendency toward self-destruction, and a taste for forbidden older men that generate steam just by walking into the room.Cherry and Cash are addicted to each other from the moment they…
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Brenda Janowitz’s ‘The Liz Taylor Ring’
This review was commissioned by Harper Collins. We meet the Schneider siblings- Addy, Nathan, and Courtney- at a season in their lives where they are navigating the problems of middle-aged people; the detritus of two parents who have passed away, teenaged children and their antics, rocky marriages, and established (and crippling) behavior patterns and addictions.…
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Sarah McCraw Crow’s ‘The Wrong Kind of Woman’
This review was commissioned by Harper Collins. The Wrong Kind of Woman has the dark, sleepy feel of many movies from the 70s, which is fitting since it is set in that era as well; it starts with a tragedy, it delves into the existential tragedy and dread of being, mixed with the inevitable observations…
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Helen Cullen’s ‘The Dazzling Truth’
This review was commissioned by Harper Collins. I love books that focus on family drama; I love them way more than I love being embroiled in it in reality, that’s for sure. We meet Maeve and Murtagh way into their relationship and go backward to the beginning; we learn about their beginnings, their peccadilloes, Maeve’s…
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Gretchen Anthony’s ‘The Kids Are Gonna Ask’
This review was commissioned by Harper Collins. The premise of this book, teenage siblings who do a podcast with their grandmother, Maggie, didn’t seem like the kind of book that would take me on a twisty ride with lots of questions, a healthy dose of suspense, and a few surprising reveals but damned if that…
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Brianna Wolfson’s ‘That Summer in Maine’
This review was commissioned by Harper Collins. From the moment we meet Hazel and her mother, Jane, and the rest of their family, it is evident that there is a lot of tension and misunderstanding in their blended familial dynamic. We see how Jane’s remarriage to a perfectly fine man named Cam and the birth…
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Molly Fader’s ‘The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season’
This review was commissioned by Harper Collins. Every family has secrets; some dark, some upsetting, some that are so silly it’s not clear when they come to light why they’re even a secret in the first place. From the moment we meet Hope, Peg, and Tink it’s obvious that everyone, even Tink at 10 years…