Emma Brodie's newest book was published by Jenna Bush Hager's imprint and selected by Reese Witherspoon as her April book club pick. This one is hefty, but a quick read. AJ and Noah seem destined to be together, but their relationship suffers challenges that keep them apart for years. When the two are cast in roles in a TV series, they are forced into each other's lives again, and despite their best attempts at avoiding each other, can't seem to live without each other. There's nothing easy about this relationship, but the two have a connection that is impossible to break.
Corey Ann Haydus' Mothers and Other Strangers is a dysfunctional family story which is something I thoroughly enjoy. Mae and Sydney grew up as best friends, but have been estranged for a decade after a secret that Sydney kept from Mae comes to light. Now both are pregnant with their first child and when Sydney reaches out to Mae, the two tentatively begin to communicat with each other. This story moves back and forth in time, and as the story unfolds we get to know Mae and Sydney's mothers: Joni and Beth Ann. The mothers have little in common, but because of the bond between the girls, also become good friends. This novel had a few twists I wasn't expecting and just kept getting better and better the further into it I was.
I love Sally Hepworth's novels, and Mad Mabel is no exception. This one feels different to me than her others-not so much of a mystery in the traditional sense. Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick has lived a quiet life in the same house for more than sixty decades, careful to attract no attention. As a child it seemed that people who came into contact with her often came to a rather horrific and untimely end. And thus the name "Mad Mabel" became a nickname people used when talking about her. But time has passed and a young girl on Elsie's street is uncovering the soft side that Elsie has long kept hidden, and as the book moves back and forth in time we come to understand the various ways in which "Mad Mabel" was born.
Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen a new-to-me author was my last read of the weekend and one I couldn't put down. This novel is heartbreaking as Cleo and her husband Ethan lose their infant daughter just a couple days after her birth. Cleo's grief is so raw and her narration is so real, and although I'm ot a cryer when I read, I can read with a lump in my throat. The funeral home that handles the arrangements for Cleo's daughter Daisy asks if Cleo would consider working there, and although it would seem that being around death after suffering such a profound loss wouldn't be good for her, Cleo does find the job fulfilling. I lived in a house attached to a funeral home for the first ten years of my marriage because my husband was a funeral director, so the inner workings of the funeral home are familiar to me. But it is the various characters who speak of their losses and who offer some perspective that I most appreciated. Nguyen has done an amazing job with this novel.
I'm not sure how I can continue to be lucky enough to find books of the high quality I'm reading right now, but my TBR is still stacked with books that I'm excited to crack open.
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