Dead Letters, by Caite Dolan-Leach, is the story of identical twins Ava and Zelda. If you've frequented my blog, you know how I love a good identical twin story, and this one does not disappoint. However, I'll give you fair warning. It is very dark. This is not an adult version of Sweet Valley High. It's not even a more adult version of the actual adult version of Sweet Valley High. Dead Letters is all about family disfunction, addiction, and identity. It's also a …
Book Review: Everything You Told Me
I'm a bit of an audio book junkie. I love opening my Audible Daily Deal email every morning. An author who is often featured is Lucy Dawson; several of her books have been on sale at one time or another. She's British and writes domestic suspense, and I'm usually entertained by her writing. I was mostly entertained with Everything You Told Me but I must confess, I only finished the book because I wanted to find out if the character who I thought was the villain from nearly the very …
Book Review: Friends and Strangers
Just about every line of J. Courtney Sullivan's Friends and Strangers resonated with me, but one part in particular very much stood out. One of the protagonists, Sam, is having a conversation with the other protagonist's father-in-law, George. Sam comes from a working class family and she goes to an expensive private college, for which she has shouldered the burden of her tuition. George was a limo-service business owner until Uber took over, and now he spends his days fixated on …
The “Write” Time?
Lately, I've been looking for a sign that I should my job of 21 years, complete my MFA in creative writing, and have time to develop and promote my novels and my blog. To some, this may seem like a no-brainer. If I can afford to do it (which I can) I should go for it, because life is short and opportunities to follow our dreams are limited. But my job isn't just a "job", nobody's is when they're a teacher. The school where I teach, the community it is in, the students & staff - they're all a …
Book Review: Big Summer
Big Summer, by acclaimed author Jennifer Weiner, was my Spring Break read. It was a good choice for escapism, and I could definitely use some escapism since travelling wasn't an option and my chilly-Minneapolis-world offered low temps in the 20s. But in the world of Big Summer, it's 80 degrees and Daphne travels to Cape Cod to attend the opulent wedding of her estranged high school friend, mean-girl/multi-millionaire/influencer Drue Cavanaugh. Daphne is also a social media influencer and she's …