Happy After All by Maisey Yates

 

"It's a truth universally acknowledged--at least, in a romance novel--that the moment the main character has her life in order, the exact person she doesn't want to meet will come along and knock all that careful order into disarray. For example, when a respectable motel owner who has decided to focus on her writing career and her own personal happiness is beginning to feel satisfied with the way she's rebuilding her life, a disastrously gorgeous man will walk in and disrupt everything."

Amelia fled to Rancho Encanto to rewrite her life. She's not looking for romance. Then Nathan Hart comes to her motel to write for the summer. He's aloof and keeps to himself, but Amelia can't help feeling a spark of attraction between them. Not only are they both writers, they're both grieving loss and trying to move forward and heal. But heartbreak is hard to overcome. 

"We would never have met if our lives hadn't crashed and burned. But it doesn't feel like something that happened because of tragedy. It feels like a small miracle. An oasis in the middle of the desert, which in many ways is what Rancho Encanto is."

This is such a good book! I loved how Yates starts each chapter with a romance trope, and how Amelia, a romance writer, uses that framework to narrate her own story. I thought it was very clever and fun. But this is not a simple summer romance. There's a range of emotions in this one: laughter and loss, hurt and hiding from that sadness, grumpiness, joy, lots of tears, and love. Both Amelia and Nathan had to navigate their own grief in order to find healing and hope. I also loved Amelia's found family full of quirky characters living in this small desert community. They made me smile. 

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

"I am old. That is the first thing to tell you. The thing you are least likely to believe. If you saw me you would probably think I was about forty, but you would be very wrong. I am old--old in the way that a tree, or a quahog clam, or a Renaissance painting is old .... You see, I have a condition."

Tom Hazard isn't immortal, he just doesn't age at the same rate as normal humans. He's lived through four centuries already and seen the world change. He's also lived through the deaths of the two people he loved most, making him wonder if his condition isn't a blessing, but a curse.

"It made me lonely. And when I say lonely, I mean the kind of loneliness that howls through you like a desert wind. It wasn't just the loss of people I had known but also the loss of myself. The loss of who I had been when I had been with them."

Then the Albatross Society finds him, a society made up of people just like him. And they offer the promise of safety, companionship, and purpose. There are just a few rules he as to follow:  never fall in love, never tell anyone about their secret, and never stay in one place longer than eight years. Oh, and he has to do something for them every eight years in return. And everything seems fine ... until he meets her.

My thoughts:  I love Matt Haig's novels. There's something about the way he writes, the lyricism of his prose, that makes me smile. His stories are always unexpected and quirky. And How To Stop Time is no exception. I liked Tom Hazard immediately, and I love how Haig wove together the pieces of his past and present. It makes for a poignant and thought-provoking novel. This was a 5-star read for me, and one that will for sure make my favorites list at the end of the year.

Happy Reading!

Also check out:

The Radleys by Matt Haig

Sisters in books...

Title: The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

First Line: The night before the worst day of my life, I dreamed the sun went dark and ice cracked every mirror in the house, but I didn't take it for a warning.

Characters:  Olivia and Jazz Moon, two sisters grieving the death of their mother. Olivia, who sees sounds and tastes words, is exasperating and impossible; she's also a dreamer who goes blind staring at the sun. Jazz, who can't compete with her younger sister, is down-to-earth, responsible, and angry; she also feels like it's her job to watch out for her sister.

My Thoughts:  When they're together, Olivia and Jazz bring out the worst in each other; around Jazz, Olivia seems incredibly selfish and spoiled, while Jazz seems rigid and controlling. I liked them much better apart. Luckily, they both do some growing up over the course of this novel. My favorite character was Hobbs, the tattooed train-hopping wanderer the two sisters meet along the way. I knew about synesthesia--the stimulation of senses other than those receiving input (like hearing colors, or tasting sounds)--before I read this novel, but glimpsing the world as viewed through the eyes of someone (Olivia) who has this 'faulty wiring' was fascinating. And I love the way Walsh writes--there's just enough poetry in her words to make her prose sing. Most of all, I liked the way she divided her novel (and Olivia's and Jazz's journey) into the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. What a great way to tell this story!

Similar read: When Venus Fell by Deborah Smith