NYC – The Spine View

Not Your Ex’s Hexes by April Asher

There is not much better than a good romance except maybe one involving a witch and Not Your Ex’s Hexes by April Asher was filled with all the witchy goodness I could want. The second book in the Supernatural Singles series, this book was funny, flirty, and oh so good.

Rose is one of the Maxwell triplet witches. She was trained to be the next Prima on the Council until recently when she stepped down. Now trying to find a new life for herself, she runs afoul of Damian Adams, a sexy half-demon veterinarian, when she attempts to steal a horse she thinks is being abused. Her punishment? Community service hours at the aforementioned vet’s animal rescue.

Soon sparks are flying between these two and they agree to be F-buddies. Yeap, friends-with-benefits, no strings attached and no commitment because the hunky half demon vet has been hexed by his Ex. But, as we all know, the heart wants what the heart wants.

This book has a solid plot with a few twists that keep my interest. So good, it only took me a couple of days to read this one. I loved the banter between the two main characters and Rose’s names for Damian, like Mr. McGrumpy Pants, had me laughing out loud. As an animal lover, the fact that part of the story involved animals was an unforeseen bonus.

The character development was solid and I loved learning more about Rose and getting enough of Damian’s history that I understood his actions and why he was a grumpasaurs. Even the minor characters, such as Damian’s brother Julius, were well thought out and added to the story.

The only negative thing is, I have to wait to read the next book! I hope the author does not make me wait long. This was delicious and I need more soon!

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good romance with a bit more edge to it and it works well as a stand-alone. Also a great choice for that summer vacation reading list.

I received a free copy, via Net Galley, in exchange for my honest review.

The Widow’s Walk by John Anthony Miller

I found The Widow’s Walk, by John Anthony Miller, to be a highly entertaining story. The mood is set by lovely descriptive prose and I quickly became absorbed in this character driven story.

Audrey Taylor is recently divorced and is seeking to reinvent herself. When she inherits a historic home, in an up-and-coming beach town on the New Jersey coast, and a small amount of money from a distant relative, she decides to leave the city. Her daughters are in college and she can work from home. It seems now is the perfect time to make a change.

When she arrives and discovers all the things that need fixing in this old house she starts to second guess herself. Then an unexpected discovery in the wall of her library has her trying to unravel a one hundred year mystery. Along the way she makes friends and if she allows herself, she even may find a little romance.

Great plot in this book and I loved that the romance was not overpowering. It added just the right amount of additional substance to make the story more interesting. The clues to the mystery were placed well in order to keep me intrigued and it was fun to work through the clues with the Audrey. Yet the best part of the book was the descriptive prose. I loved reading about the various places in Cape May and I ended up Googling some of the places mentioned to see the image for myself.

The character development was also outstanding. I felt like I had a connection to Audrey. The result was I became truly invested in the outcome and rushed to get to the end. It’s such a wonderful feeling when I get this involved with the character and story. Totally looking forward to reading more great books from this author.

In summary, this book is a charming feel good story and the perfect beach read that will have you devouring it. There is a lot to love in the story and is the perfect choice for fans of Nora Roberts. I highly recommend to lovers of historical fiction, cozy mysteries and romance.

I used my Kindle Unlimited to download a copy of this book. However, the author did request a review. Regardless of how I obtain a book, my opinion is entirely my own. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my book blog at www.thespineview.com.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Plot is most definitely one of those books you just can’t put down. Such a lovely slow burn and the ending, well it just smacks you in the face. Highly inventive and truly addictive!

Jacob “Jake” Finch Bonner is a ‘has been’ writer. He wrote one novel that was received well by the critics and had lukewarm commercial success followed by a couple more that should never have been published. He is now drowning in self-pity and unable to write another book worthy of print. Instead of writing, he is now teaching writing at a MFA program at Ripley. One of his students is an arrogant asshole but he does have a killer idea for a novel that is sure to be an instant success.

Years go by and the book is never published. Jake stars wondering what happened. By doing a little research on his computer, he discovers that his former student is dead. Such a shame to let a fabulous idea go to waste and he rationalizes that a plot can’t be copywrited. He will not use any of his student’s words, not that he can remember much after all this time has passed, everything will be his own except for the basic plot. No will ever know, until they do.

The day he has been dreading has finally arrived. While on the road to promote the book, aptly named “Crib”, he receives a message through his author website that simply says, “You are a thief.” Other messages follow, then a Facebook post, even a message at his home. The cat is out of the bag and there is no way to put it back. Jake is now obsessed with finding out more about his former student. What he uncovers is shocking and leads to a chilling conclusion.

This is not one of those thriller that you are totally engrossed in from page one. It was more like a speeding train, it took time to build up energy but once it got going there was no stopping it. I appreciated that the author took her time with this story because it allowed the reader to get an in-depth look into the life and mind of Jake. Something I miss in some thrillers and just the kind of pacing I adore.

I felt the character of Jake was perfect for the story. It needed a character that was self-doubting and so insecure as to be cringe worthy in order to make the story really sing. While the whining would have normally driven me crazy, in this case it gave me feelings of empathy for Jake and I found him very relatable.

Fabulous story, great characters and the pacing is just the way I like it. I was starting to get bored with thriller type novels; however, this book has reawaken my love for the genre. Highly recommend to all readers.

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

People We Meet On Vacation is a lively rom-com from author Emily Henry. The familiar troupe of opposites attract drives this heartfelt story of two people who just can’t seem to get it right. So glad I made this my Book of the Month pick.

Poppy and Alex meet during freshman orientation and there is no connection. Poppy is everything Alex is not, loud, fun loving and a total extrovert with a passion for travel. Then she hitches a ride home with him and everything changes. They become best friends and stay in contact despite Alex still living in the same small town in Ohio and Poppy living in NYC. Every year they take a vacation together and it is always a grand adventure, until it isn’t.

They screwed up the friendship and have not spoken for two years. Now Poppy wants to give it a try again. She reaches out to Alex and to her surprise he answers. She convinces him to take another vacation with her. This time she wants to not only patch up their friendship but finally tell Alex how she really feels about him. Will it work, so much could go wrong.

The opposites attract troupe worked so well in the story because the characters were perfect. Yes they are opposites and yet they complement each other so well. They just go together like PB&J and the author did a fabulous job of showing this to the reader. The character development was perfect.

Though the story is character driven, there is plenty of tension to make the reader want to keep turning the pages. In fact, there were some places that the tension was almost unbearable. Sometimes I felt like shouting at the characters in order to get them to speak honestly and from the heart. It would have saved them so much heartache if they had.

The plot was all about this slow buildup of tension. Of course, there was the sexual tension between Poppy and Alex. However, that tension is overshadowed by the buildup to the crest when the reader finally finds out what caused the rife in their relationship. I kept wondering if they slept together on that last trip and something awkward happened that they could not reconcile the event. So many possibilities went through my mind as I read and I had to know what happened.

This is the rom-com you have been waiting for if you liked When Harry Met Sally. It has all the elements of wonderfully slow burn of a story. This is most definitely one of those books that you want to rush through to see what happens and yet dread to finish because you are not ready to say goodbye to the characters. Highly recommend.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has become my favorite book by V. E. Schwab and my favorite read this year. It is an absorbing story that is brilliantly written and absolutely flawless is execution.

Addie LeRue is born in 1741 in a small, rural French community. Her dream is to travel to bigger cities and experience the greater world. These dreams are far more than a simple girl can ever aspire to. Her circumstances, and the times, will see her wed to someone she does not love. She will die young, worn out by domestic life and children she does not want.

Addie is desperate to avoid this fate. So desperate in fact, she makes a deal with a dark god whom goes by the name Luc. The deal she strikes is simple, she wants her freedom and in return the god will get her soul when she is done with it. Luc agrees and the deal is sealed with blood.

The deal turns out to be not everything Addie bargained for. She has gained her freedom, in a sense, but the cost was high and much more than a soul. In truth, she has just traded the shackles her situation has placed on her with ones that tie her deeply to Luc. In addition, she quickly finds out that no one can remember her. There is one perk to this deal, she no longer ages. In essence she is immortal. Thus begins the second life of a forgettable girl named Addie.

The prose was fabulous. It had an almost sensual quality to it. I once read an author’s advice about how a setting should be treated as a character and thus requires time to be spent discovering that setting. Schwab has assuredly done that here. I could smell the dirty streets of the Paris of the past and feel the energy of New York City as it is viewed from a rooftop.

This is not a novel that the plot skips along carefree in an almost haphazard way. It moves slowly and purposefully in a well thought out way. Much the way a river winds through its course, sometimes swiftly and sometimes with languid ease, on its journey to the sea. It is the trip that the reader should savor here, it is entertaining and deeply satisfying.

The story is totally character driven. To keep the reader reading, I feel that the author walks a fine between keeping the reader’s interest and boring them to death. Because Addie lives such a long life it would be easy to lose the reader in too much detail. However, Schwab has managed to straddle that line to perfection. For example, Addie’s feelings of loss and loneliness come through elegantly. I felt it especially in one particular Paris scene in which Addie sees the first man she ever loved when he is much older. It was one of those moments when she truly recognizes and acknowledges what she has given up. There are many more scenes like this that the author uses them to entrance the reader.

I could go on and on in my praise because there is a lot to love about this story. In short, this is by far Schwab’s best work. A stunning piece of fiction!

Obvious I loved this book. It should be on everyone’s to-be-read-list. In addition, this book would make a great pick for a book club. There are so many layers and themes in this book that the topics for discussion are nearly endless.

Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock

Bluff, by Jane Stanton Hitchcock, gives new meaning to the idea that revenge is a dish best served cold. Maud, the main character, not only serves it up cold but in a big heaping portion! Full of intrigue, wonderful characters and a nasty plot of revenge to pay back the bad guys, this book is absorbing from page one all the way through to the end.

Maud is a 50ish divorcee who is primed and ready for a fight. She has always suspected that Burt Skylar, an accountant to the rich and famous in NYC, swindled her mother out of over 100 million dollars. She has spoken against him for years and has earned the nickname “Mad Maud”. However, she has never been able to prove anything.

Finally all the right cards are in her hand and she sees her chance for revenge. She enters The Four Seasons, one of the swankiest restaurants in the city, and pulls the trigger and shoots Sun Sutherland, a wealthy and prominent businessman, who is dining with Skylar. Did she miss or is there more to this story than meets the eye?

Love, love, loved the character of Maud. She has a brilliant mind and is downright devious. I also loved how she played people like she played poker. Most everyone is totally taken in by the frumpy middle-aged woman act that she carried off better than a Broadway actress. I would hate to get on her bad side and can only pity those she plays poker against. The supporting characters also hit the mark with me. They helped round out the revenge plot nicely.

The plot has more twists than the Mississippi River and it was fast paced. I really appreciate the balance the author was able to achieve between pace and character development. I find that in this type of book one or the other is lacking. Brilliantly done!

I highly recommend this book to readers of mystery and thrillers. In addition, if you love strong female characters you will enjoy Maud and her story.

I received a free copy from the published in exchange for my honest review.

A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire

When a book is compared to great classics you are setting a very high bar from the start. The reader is expecting to be blown away and rightly should be. However, when you failure miserable at meeting that high standard, the reader is terribly disappointed. This is exactly what happened to me.

There are two main reasons I didn’t enjoy this story. First is Laura. She was very whiny. I get that her parents are no longer in the picture and she is very resentful of having to live with her grandparents whom she finds very dull. She is also not happy in school and does not have any friends. All a recipe for feeling sorry for yourself. I get that. What I have issue with is that the whininess bled over into all the aspects of the book and it became boring after the first forty pages.

Secondly, there was not much going on with the plot. It was so slow. You have to read to about the halfway point before anything happens of interest. Then the author packs everything into the latter part of the book. As it stands, I think this would have been better as a novella.

I received a free copy, from the publisher, via LibraryThing’s early reviewer program.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

This book took me by surprise. It had been on my TBR list for over a year. I just kept putting it off for other books. Now that I am finished with it, I truly wish I had read it earlier. It is a look at mental health and the lasting effects it has on those surrounded by it. There is much heart ache, drama, loss and love in this book and the author handled it with elegance and grace. It is a story that will touch you and keep you contemplating for a long time after the last page is read.

The book follows two NYC officers, Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, whom settle next door to each other in the same small commuter community outside of the city and they both raise their families there. Kate, who is one of Francis’s daughter, and Peter, who is the only child of Brian, grow up together and are fast friends. They do everything together. Then tragedy strikes and the two are separated for many years.

Some years later neither of them has totally forgotten the other. It seems that they are both castaways adrift in the world and without realizing, they both are waiting for the other. They reconnect when, on what appears to be a whim, Peter writes a letter to Kate. What was once a fast friendship quickly develops into much more. While they think they have put the past behind them, it is only festering under the surface and they both will have to come to terms with their shared past.

The book started out slow, but the story did build to the epicenter of the tragic event (no spoilers here) that would change the lives of both families forever. While I struggled to reach this point, once there, I could not read fast enough.

There is not much in the way of a plot. Instead, it is all about the characters and understanding how events shape and guide our lives. It is a contemplative book. It draws you in and has you agonizing over things that seem obvious to the reader yet the character(s) refuse to recognize to the detriment of all.

They say to be able to move on you have to accept the past and forgive. While words are easy to say, it is never easy to do and both families struggled with this. Some members more successfully than others. This made for a roller-coaster of emotions. The author presented the major and minor characters in all their faulted human glory. While the tragedy permeates most of the story, subtly most times, you do get a feeling that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. I liked that the author gives you hope so that the reader is not drowning in despair. It would have been too difficult for me to read if that had been the case.

This was a wonderful story and I highly recommend it to readers who love a story with drama while still remaining hopeful. In addition, it would make a good choice for a book club because there are many layers to this story and it would make for a lively discussion.

I received a free copy a t BookExpo 2019 in exchange for my honest review.

Tuesday Mooney Talk to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, by Kate Racculia, is, in many ways, an ode to Edgar Allan Poe. In fact, the entire book abounds with Poeness. It is chalked full of literary references to all things ghoulish, spooky and other cultural references to the supernatural. All of which I found delightfully entertaining.

When eccentric billionaire Vincent Pryce dies, he sets in motion a treasure hunt, as part of his legacy, that anyone can play. He was obsessed with the strange and bizarre so it is no surprise that his clues are Poe inspired. This suits Tuesday Mooney just fine. All her life she too has been interested in witches and the supernatural and she just happens to be very good as solving puzzles.

She and her friend Poindexter, aka Dex, play Mr. Pryce’s game and are quickly joined by her neighbor’s daughter Dorry, whom she tutors, and Nathanial Arches a rich playboy. They all are playing for their own reasons and nothing is as it seems even the game… especially the game. With so much hidden under the surface anything could happen and it does. When the many layers are pulled back and the truth is revealed it is shocking and brilliant.

The story is steeped in the supernatural, yet at the heart it is about relationships, love and loss. Like the treasure hunt, the author uses the many layers of the story to explore the connections of family and friendship and how love and loss affect them. It was exceptionally well done and the action of the plot made what could have been mundane and boring, exciting and thrilling.

As good at the plot was, it is the quirky characters I loved the most. Tuesday who always dresses in black and speaks, in her head, to her dead friend’s ghost. Dex, the drag queen, who just wants to be accepted for the “real” Dex. Then there is Dorry who is still dealing with the death of her Mother and Nathanial who has so many secrets and guilt you wonder how he can carry that weight. The hunt brings them all together physically, but it is the unseen, the emotional connection that is what truly shines here. It is subtle, sublime and so well done!

It is a given that readers who are interested in the supernatural will definitely want to read this book. Because of the relationships and themes explored, I think this book will appeal to a much wider audience. So, if the supernatural is not your thing, don’t let the word ghosts in the title deter you from reading this little gem. You will miss out on a truly amazing story.

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.