Fly with Me

 

Fly with Me
By  Andie Burke

ISBN: 9781250886378
384 Pages
Available in Paperback, Audiobook, and on Kindle
Trigger Warning: On Page Death of a Loved One, Lots of 0Sexism

Synopsis:

A one-way ticket to love or a bumpy ride ahead?

Flying-phobic ER nurse Olive Murphy is still gripping the armrest from her first-ever take-off when the pilot announces an in-flight medical emergency. Olive leaps into action and saves a life, but ends up getting stuck in the airport hours away from the marathon she's running in honor of her brother. Luckily for her, Stella Soriano, the stunning type A copilot, offers to give her a ride.

After the two spend a magical day together, Stella makes a surprising request: Will Olive be her fake girlfriend?

A video of Olive saving a life has gone viral and started generating big sales for Stella's airline. Stella sees their union as the perfect opportunity to get to the boys' club executives at her company who keep overlooking her for a long-deserved promotion. Realizing this arrangement could help her too, Olive dives into memorizing Stella’s comically comprehensive three-ring-binder guide to fake dating. As the two grow closer, what’s supposed to be a ruse feels more and more real. Could this be the romantic ride of their lives, or an epic crash and burn?

My Thoughts:

Fly With Me has been on my to-read list for quite a while. I actually qualified for an ARC from NetGalley before the book was published, but I had a lot going on at the time and never got a chance to download it before it was archived in their system, making it unavailable. So I had to wait for it to be published and become available at my local library, and then sit through months of library (well, Libby really) waitlist. But I feel like it was worth the wait and I am glad that I did not give up on it.

The main character in Fly with Me is Olive, a nurse who is dealing with some serious family drama. Her brother is hospitalized in a coma after an accident and she has found herself at odds with the rest of her family about how his care is being handled. The story opens with her traveling on a plane - which she is absolutely terrified of - to attend a marathon and fulfill a promise she made with her brother before his accident. Mid-flight, another passenger suffers a medical crisis, and Olive uses her nurse training to save the man. Unfortunately, the emergency causes the flight to be diverted, and the inability to secure another flight puts her at risk of missing out on the marathon. Stella, the copilot of the redirected flight, steps in to save the day by offering to drive Olive the rest of the way to the marathon. Olive is initially hesitant, but acquiesces when she realizes that she really has no other options.

The pair hit it off and become friendly, and then return to their normal lives. Soon after, Stella reaches out to Olive with an insane proposal - to be her fake girlfriend. There had been a giant amount of media coverage over the nurse's heroic rescue on the flight, and the airline was getting a lot of media. Stella, who had been repeatedly skipped over for pilot promotions due to the industry sexism, believed that aligning herself with the moment of celebrity could play out in her benefit. Olive considers and decides that the fake relationship could benefit her as well and accepts. This is the plotline that drew me in and made me want to read the book. Fake Dating, or "fauxmance" if you will, is my absolute favorite romance trope. 

Both Olive and Stella are decently likeable characters, though I could definitely relate to Olive more. Most of the narration is from her point of view, and Stella feels a little more distant and detached at times. They both have some variant of trauma; Stella from dealing with rampant career sexism, and Olive from family drama and a loads of anxiety and self-deprecation. Olive's mental hang-ups unquestionably cause their relationship to be slower to develop, but this helps it to evolve naturally in a way that it is believable.

The secondary characters are a mixed bag. Olive's co-workers are super and help her evolve as a person. Derek is a champ. The depiction of Stella's dad is such a refreshing take on a parental role in a contemporary novel like this one, and is a bittersweet yet realistic disability representation. Those characters are all a hit. And then there are the misses. Olive's family are pretty awful. Stella's coworker is a PoS and her boss, while he has a few "maybe he is redeemable" moments, is ultimately garbage. But the worst offender has to be Olive's ex Lindsay. Not just in the "she's supposed to be the villain" way, but the character was just so extra, to an unnecessary degree. And to believe that she could do all the insane stuff that she did and face absolutely no repercussions or comeuppance? It's infuriating.

While the main focus of Fly with Me is clearly to tell a romance story, the book does not forget the non-romance side plots, and even completely throws away the romance for a brief point. There is a lot of additional drama, both family and job related. I would like to say that these side plots are adequately wrapped up at the end of the story, but honestly, some of the outcomes felt underwhelming or less than satisfactory. I don't think this diminished the story overall, but I had a higher expectation at that point.

Overall, I think that Fly with Me was a pleasant read and a nice offering for sapphic romance fans. There are maybe some points that were a little more... meh? But for an introductory book, this was a great showing.

Parent's Guide:

While there isn't anything too graphic in this book, it is a lot of adult situations and sexual banter. There are also some traumatic family situations that would probably be uncomfortable to a younger audience. I would consider this one solidly 16+ at best.

The Anatomy of Ghosts

    

The Anatomy of Ghosts
By  Andrew Taylor

ISBN: 9781401302870
412 Pages
Available in Paperback, Hardcover, Audible Audiobook, and on Kindle
Trigger Warning: Violence, Death, Suicide, SA/R, Ethnic Slurs

Synopsis:

1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge

The ghost of Sylvia Whichcote is rumored to be haunting Jerusalem ever since student Frank Oldershaw claimed to have seen the dead woman prowling the grounds and was locked up because of his violent reaction to these disturbed visions.

Desperate to salvage her son's reputation, Lady Anne Oldershaw employs John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts -- a stinging account of why ghosts are mere delusion--to investigate. But his arrival in Cambridge disrupts an uneasy status quo as he glimpses a world of privilege and abuse, where the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the Master, Dr. Carbury, ever could.

And when Holdsworth finds himself haunted--not only by the ghost of his dead wife, Maria, but also by Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife--his fate is sealed. He must find Sylvia's murderer, or else the hauntings will continue. And not one of this troubled group will leave the claustrophobic confines of Jerusalem unchanged.

My Thoughts:

Anatomy of Ghosts, the book that took twelve years to read. No, seriously. This book was the first ARC that I ever won from the LibraryThing early reviewers platform when I started reviewing books in 2010. I won a physical ARC and I was so excited to read it. It came in the mail right before we left on a trip to go visit my parents for the holidays, so I brought it with me to give me something to do on the 3 and a half hour drive. Sometime during the next few days, the book disappeared. I was pretty sure that I left it in my mom's car, but she insisted that she couldn't find it. Mind you, this was before the book was even published, so I could not easily get another copy. So I shelved the review, sure that the book would resurface eventually. Time went on, my youngest ended up being way more hands on than expected, my mental health took a nosedive, I dealt with nightmare house situations, I lost my home to a hurricane flood, the covid pandemic hit - you know, life happened. The book was forgotten. Then in early 2022, I was visiting my sister and I spotted the ARC on her bookshelf. My mom found it at some point and sent it home with her assuming it was one of her books (which it obviously wasn't, but nobody in my family will turn away a free book...). I have no idea how long she had it. But I finally was able to reclaim it. At which point I attempted to read it, but gave up very fast. I was not in the same headspace that I was when I first received it, and the content was really dark. I feared that this book would become my second official DNF. But after some reflection, I refused to let that happen. So back in September, on a whim, I checked out the audiobook from my library, and FINALLY completed the read.

Now, as for the content of the book itself - the premise was interesting, but I struggled getting into it each time I attempted the read. The writing is good, but the pace starts out very slow.

The driving plot of The Anatomy of Ghosts is an attempt at personal redemption for the main character, John Holdsworth, who experiences financial struggles and then loses his wife. He is hired by Lady Anne Oldershaw, who learned of him from knowledge of his book "The Anatomy of Ghosts", to attend to her son Frank. Frank has seemingly lost his wits after seeing what he claims is the ghost of a friend's wife. Lady Anne hires Holdsworth to both counsel her son and convince him that ghosts aren't real, and also to organize her late husband's library. With nothing else going on, and no other place to go, Holdsworth accepts her offer and travels off to the fictional setting of Jerusalem College in Cambridge, to investigate the ghost matter.

What follows is a story of conspiracy, intrigue, upper class secret societies, and murder. The narration is done in such a way to create lots of suspense, and there are plenty of twists and turns - which I appreciated because I'm disappointed when books are predictable. At points, Holdsworth finds himself questioning his own reality and wondering if the ghosts are, in fact, really there. The gothic imagery used to describe the college helps to support the overall feel of the story, reinforcing the dark vibes. This works well because the events occurring within the story are also very dark, and in some instances psychologically disturbing. This book has descriptive depictions of murder, sexual assault, and other questionable content; and is not for the faint of heart. 

Despite the mystery, and the abundance of lore, the book still fell flat. None of the characters were really likable, and honestly, in this day and age with how the world is going around us, hearing more tales of rich white men abusing their power with no repercussions is just mentally exhausting.

Overall, The Anatomy of Ghosts was an interesting read, but it takes time to get into and because of the slower pace you may have to really like the genre or have a connection to the setting to maintain interest. It wasn't so bad that I wanted to abandon the read, but some days I just wasn't eager to pick it up and continue.

Parent's Guide:

This is not a book for kids. Much older teens, maybe. The content is dark and at times quite disturbing.

July/August Reading Selections

This month's reading list is 2 months in one, because I am posting late in the month. The books included are the result of my finally getting a card at the local library and going wild with it. I now have access to Libby AND Hoopla! And Hoopla had Enchanted Ever After, a book that I had been struggling to get my hands on, so it's on the top of the list. After that there is a slew of other books I grabbed when I went to explore. A lot of them are graphic novels. No reason in particular - I just love graphic novels and they had a really good selection. ^.^

This is what my August reading list looks like:

Enchanted Ever After by Shanna Swendson
The Complete ElfQuest Volume 1 by Windy Pini
Star Trek: The Manga Volume 1: Shinsei/Shinsei by Chris Dows
Heartstopper Vol 1-4 by Alice Oseman
Check, Please! Book 1 & 2 by Ngozi Ukazu
Bloom by Kevin Panetta
Loving a Lost Lord by Mary Jo Putney
Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
The Bride was a Boy by Chii
Zodiac Starforce: By the Power of Astra by Kevin Panetta
Spinning by Tillie Walden

I actually got my library card at the very end of June, so there were two late June reads that will covered as well - both short stories in the Enchanted, Inc. series that I didn't even know existed until I found them whilst searching for EEA.

June Reads:
Paint the Town Red and Criminal Enchantment by Shanna Swendson

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

 

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan Vol 1 & 2
By  Gaku Kuze

ISBN: 9781646511143 & 9781646511402
272 Pages
Available in Paperback and on Kindle/ComiXology
Trigger Warning: Depression, Suicide, Mental Health Topics 

Synopsis:

How did the cynical Uramichi end up hosting a TV show for small children? And how long is the studio going to let him keep teaching the kids the sorrow and exhaustion of life instead of, say, the ABCs? This dark comedy manga started as a webcomic and became a bestseller across Japan -- with an anime coming soon!

Uramichi is a 31-year-old host on a kids' show who leads exercise routines and teaches life lessons colored by one main theme: Adulthood sucks. Alongside mascots played by a couple of bushy-tailed twentysomethings and a singing duo whose music embodies the notion of being kicked while you're down, Uramichi wades through the misery of working life, one sardonic comment at a time...

V2 - While grappling with unexpected overtime, unreasonable working conditions, and unflattering costumes, URAMICHI makes the acquaintance of other jaded professionals working deep behind the scenes. Digital strategist SAITO and merchandising whiz HANBEI almost seem like kindred spirits, but their respective bad attitude and worse temper keep the doors to URAMICHI's fragile heart firmly shut. There must be someone out there who understands... right?

My Thoughts:

I stumbled upon the first two volumes of Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan at my local library and didn't know what to expect. I had seen a friend mention the impending anime series on social media a few days beforehand, so I decided to give the manga a shot. The best description for what I found contained within the pages was "twisted." The story is about Uramichi, a 31-year-old retired gymnast who passes his days as the host of a children's show. Uramichi is the quintessential pessimist, and clearly has a lot of mental and emotional baggage, which is seen in his interactions with the kids and his peers.

His peers being four other performers who work on stage with Uramichi, and who round out the cast of main characters. These coworkers each have their own share of quirks and traumas as well. Because of this, the characters all mesh well together and tell an interesting and funny set of stories.

Funny and dark. The Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan series is definitely what would be considered dark humor. The characters clearly care about the kids that they are working with, but at are frequently sarcastic and go on about pain, depression, and job burnout. If you are sensitive to mental health issues, this may not be the series for you. However, if you are one of those people who likes to laugh through the pain then you will enjoy it.

The art work in these graphic novels is really clean and the story is not too complicated to follow. At some points there is a bit much going on within the pages, but it's all a part of the glorious chaos that makes the story work. One thing that I did like about this series is that there is a glossary in each volume where they cover Japanese terms used in the book that readers may not be familiar with.

As twisted as the story was, I loved Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan. There are currently only two volumes available and, as previously mentioned, an anime which aired during the summer of 2021 (available on Funimation). Volume three of the manga has been announced and has cover art. It is currently available for preorder and will be released on February 1, 2022. I can't wait.

Parent's Guide:

This book is rated 16+ due to content that is somewhat dark. It covers some deep topics like depression, and is probably not for kids. Mature older teens may enjoy it, depending on how twisted their sense of humor is.

A Secret Scottish Escape

 

A Secret Scottish Escape
By  Julie Shackman

ISBN: 9780008455774
340 Pages
Available in Paperback and on Kindle

Synopsis:

When Scotland’s sleepiest hamlet becomes the centre of hot gossip, Layla Devlin finds herself caught in a mystery…

When Layla’s fiancée has an unexpected heart attack and dies – in another woman’s arms, no less – Layla is determined to pack up and leave Loch Harris, the village she’s always called home. But an unexpected inheritance and love for her quiet corner of Scotland send her down a new path.

Now Layla finds herself facing a whole new kind of drama. Rumours swirl that a celebrity has moved into Coorie Cottage and Layla is determined to have him headline her opening night at local music venue The Conch Club. But the reclusive star is equally determined to thwart Layla’s efforts. Rafe Buchanan is in hiding for a reason, and soon his past comes to Loch Harris to haunt him…

My Thoughts:

If you like soap opera level drama and the kind of chaos that you get by watching things like Maury, then A Secret Scottish Escape is probably made for you. The book opens in a depressing fashion and includes lots of trauma. Unfortunately, the pacing is way slower than it should be which makes the story hard to get into. Despite being important enough of a plot device to be mentioned in the synopsis, the Mask character was not introduced until the book was over halfway done. (There is such a thing as TOO much exposition.) Yet somehow, the ending felt rushed. The pace of the latter portion of the story was okay, but it was not consistent with the first 2/3 of the book so it felt wrong. For example, the kiss was random and forced.  I mean the girl who second guesses everything else she does in the book thought he could be a potential murderer earlier that same day and as soon as the issue was cleared up she was in his arms ? The lethargic, and then erratic, pacing of this book resulted in me taking way longer to read it than a book this length usually takes. Every time I set it down, it was hard to motivate myself to pick it back up.

Another reason for this is that there is a painful overuse of adjectives. Simply put, the book is too wordy. The plot of A Secret Scottish Escape is promising, but the unnecessarily excessive adjectives are distracting. On the flip side, the story's location and setting descriptions are beautiful. You can can definitely close your eyes and see imagery of the club, and get a vibe of what the countryside looks like. But then at other times, all the words included are still not enough. Despite the overabundance of adjectives in other places, the writer chooses to describe Mask's scar multiple times, and the EXACT same way every time.

One more issue that I had was that the characters are warm at best and not overly likeable. Layla, the lead character is what can only be described as a paragon. Her family and friends have to constantly remind other characters and you, the reader, about what a good, kind girl she is. The writer has her on a pedestal in the way that a person does the lead character in self insert fanfic when the character is them and they want everyone to know how perfect they are. Well, in spite of these constant reminders of her perfection, in reality she is a nosy neighbor who whines a lot and has bad judgement.

And then you have the supporting characters, who are all just... meh. But what bugged me most about them was the valuation put on the characters. I get that in the real world not everyone is great, but for a book that looks like it is trying to be about a strong woman, it REALLY speaks negatively about women.  The book opens with Layla's fiancé dying in the arms of another woman. While the woman is vilified, Layla is merely upset with the man that betrayed her and he continues to linger in her thoughts. Her mom is labeled the as evil while the man she had an affair with is almost immediately forgiven, encouraged to rejoin the friend group, and practically welcomed into the family . And her best friend is essentially portrayed as unstable and having commitment issues. Layla defends the Mask character regardless of the fact that she does not truly knowing anything about his person even after it is suggested that he is possibly a murderer on the run. A female journalist is described in a negative manner and the source of her story (another woman) is portrayed as absolutely insane.  Even all the minor plot driving side characters that Layla is able to manipulate to do her bidding "against the rules" are women. All throughout the book the men seem above reproach while the women, lead character excepted, range from extremely flawed to the devil incarnate. Had I not known better, I wouldn't have believed that this book was written by a woman.

A Secret Scottish Escape is narrated solely from the viewpoint of the lead character Layla. I feel like it would have definitely helped this book if there had been multiple narrators to give different perspectives. But even then, I don't know how much it would have helped, as the writing style is the flaw. The pacing, the abundance of adjectives, and the "gotcha" rushed ending can all be accounted for by the fact that the writer was originally a journalist. It reads more like the work of a sensationalist writer than a novelist. Remember when I mentioned self insert fanfic? I feel like this book is definitely guilty of being a self insert novel. Layla is also a journalist, and doesn't want you to forget it. A lot of the unnecessary filler revolves around her writing, and how the glorious world of freelance writing is so fulfilling that she wouldn't give it up even if she was so financially set that it wasn't necessary. Yet despite how glorious the world of freelance writing is to her, she has no qualms with mocking and degrading a young writer who is merely trying to establish herself in the same field. Which is just another reminder of how completely un-perfect the lead character really is, and also of how the writer clearly seems to want to place her above other women. Sadly, these quirks made the book an unappealing read.

I received a complimentary copy of A Secret Scottish Escape from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions stated are mine. The book is currently available available on Amazon.

Parent's Guide:

A Secret Scottish Escape talks about sex. A lot. It also focuses a lot on death. Personally, I feel that this is an adults only book. 

Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche

Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche
By  Maria Llovet

ISBN: 9781950912407
144 Pages
Available in Hardcover and Kindle/Comixology

TW: Blood, Suicide

Synopsis:

From the artist of the bestselling Faithless series...comes Eros/Psyche.

La Rosa's female boarding school is paradise for young girls...but only if you follow the rules. Because, if you disobey them, you can end up expelled, or even worse, dead.

Sara and Silje are two students learning the rules of the school, which includes classes by day...and the casting of curses and spells by night. A love develops between the two, which is tender, but threatens to break under the weight of the dark secret society within La Rosa.

My Thoughts:

The artwork in Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche is stunning. The artist is an established graphic novelist with a very distinct style that is lovely. The color palate works really well to give the story an appropriately dark feel. The story, on the other hand, is a little lacking.

The premise is very promising. Magic, mystery, secret societies. What's not to love? Except, when you get down to it, there is little of what was promised. The story has inadequate exposition to actually see many of these things beyond minor allusions. In fact, it has a shortage of dialogue at all, making it jerky and hard to follow at times.

There is mystery around the school. That is made clear from page one. But all the mystery that you see seems to revolve around new students arriving and then getting the "white uniform" and being removed, in a very Survivor "voted off the island" format.

As far as the magic? I didn't see it. The synopsis mentions casting curses and spells by night. But the only seemingly witchy reference you actually notice is that the students are always collecting different herbs. Everything else they do is mundane things like making necklaces or collecting bird eggs. 

The relationship between Sara and Silje, the two main characters, is extremely subtle. It is sweet and isn't graphic or over the top. The use of plants growing to represent different stages of their friendship and developments in the story was really interesting. 

The ending felt very "M. Night Shyamalan plot twist"-ish. That's not always a bad thing, and in this case it worked well to tie it all together and wrap it back around to page one, but it still left as many questions as it answered. Overall, despite it's flaws, it was an enjoyable read.

I received a complimentary digital ARC of Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. This graphic novel book is a collection of all 5 volumes of the comic (despite the fact that the Goodreads page has it marked as #1-#4). It is currently available for preorder and will be released on October 12, 2021.

Parent's Guide:

Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche, while not overly complicated, is confusing and not for the faint of heart. There are scenes with blood - as well as a suicide - that make it not really child friendly. There are also several images of nudity. I would recommend this book for upper level teens who like gothic art and sapphic love stories.

August Reading Selections

I forgot how good it feels to spend all day lost in a book! I have already had to up my reading challenge goal twice in the last month. This month's reading list includes mostly books picked up from a trip to the local library, but also some past review requests and LibraryThing wins. 

This is what my August reading list looks like:

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan (Omnibus, Vol. 1 & 2) by Gaku Kuze

It Takes Two to Tumble, A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, & Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian 

Damsel Under Stress, Don't Hex with Texas, & Much Ado About Magic by Shanna Swendson

Captain Bartholomew Quasar: Starfaring Adventures by Milo James Fowler

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

There are also reviews incoming for my July reads, including:

The Turners series by Cat Sebastian (I had only intended to read the first book that I picked up, but once you read one book in a series you have to read them all asap. Same thing happened with the Seducing the Sedgewicks series on the August list. Her books are addictive!)

Enchanted, Inc. & Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson

Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer

Reviews will be posted over the remainder of the month and well into the next one. So remember to check back. A lot of this month's and last month's reads are books in the same series, so I will try to stagger the reviews with other ones in between them. 

And, as always, I am open to and love discussion, so I invite you to grab a book and read along!