Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem

Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem by Jude Isabella
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lovely picture book for older kids (or adults) about the effects of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park, an ecosystem devastated by the systematic killing of apex predators in the late 1800s. There were a few spots where I felt like a little additional content would have been helpful, or at least don’t leave me hanging and searching for where the story thread picks back up. But overall an excellent book for anyone who wants to know more about the critical and sometimes surprising effects keystone species like wolves have on their environments.

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The Bromance Book Club

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gavin Scott messed up. Badly. The love of his life, his wife of three years and the mother of his twin 3-year-old daughters, wants a divorce. He hadn't even realized they had grown so far apart until the night he found out she'd been faking it in bed for their entire marriage. The pain of her revelation sent him into a tailspin, shutting both his mouth and his ears until she got fed up and kicked him out of the house.

The thing is, Thea is furious because somehow over the past three years she lost herself, subsumed her identity and morphed from an artist into a stereotypical baseball wife, one whom Southern Lifestyle magazine called "wholesomely pastel." What Gavin doesn't grasp is that it's not just sex she's been faking, but everything, and she is D.O.N.E. being a stranger to herself.

Gavin, though, is desperate to save his marriage. So desperate, his best friend drags him to a very unique book group. A dozen or so alpha men of Nashville society--business owners, athletes, city officials--meet to read romance novels ("We call them manuals") and save each other's relationships. What?! Gavin thinks he's being punked, but the men are completely serious. What better way to learn the language of women than to read books "written by women for women...entirely about how they want to be treated and what they want out of life and in a relationship"? The men formulate a plan for Gavin to win Thea's heart all over again. In short? Backstory. It's ALL about backstory, and Gavin needs to understand not only Thea's, but his own if he is to have any hope of success.

I am so glad this is just the first in the series, because it's hilarious, heartwarming, and I wish men would try this strategy in the real world! Seriously, so many relationships could be saved and strengthened.

There is so much to love about this book. One of my favorite quotes is from a funny-but-serious moment in chapter 5 when one of the men says, "Don't be ashamed for liking them. The backlash against the PSL [pumpkin spice latte] is a perfect example of how toxic masculinity permeates even the most mundane things in life. If masses of women like something, our society automatically begins to mock them. Just like romance novels. If women like them, they must be a joke, right?" OMG, yes! Well, I don't know about the PSL--I hate coffee-flavored anything--but Ms. Adams is Spot On about the pervasiveness of toxic masculinity and the constant condescension toward the romance genre in particular.

My biggest beef with this book is that I really wanted Gavin to have more of an Aha! moment after he and Thea are cleaning up the puking toddlers and he has zero idea where the extra towels are. I mean, DUDE. It's your own house, how can you not know where the linen closet and clean towels are? A telling moment, no? But Ms. Adams moves on and passes up the chance for Gavin to have a meaningful awakening there, and I SO wanted him to.

I also kept forgetting the main characters were supposed to be in their mid-20s. Most of the time it seemed more like they were in their early or mid-30s. But given the belly laugh I had in the scene where Thea and her sister Liv come home earlier than expected and interrupt book group in progress, I forgive Ms. Adams entirely!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and language secondary. There is no violence, but there is a lot of swearing amongst the witty banter and some very steamy sex scenes. Gavin struggles with a stutter and all the self-esteem issues that can crop up around that. The main characters are presumed white, but there are a few POC secondary characters.

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The Bookshop on the Shore

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Single mother Zoe can barely make ends meet. She works hard at a daycare taking care of wealthy people's children but can't afford to send her own 4-year-old there. Her ex, Jaz, rarely helps out and is gone most of the time, trying to make it as a DJ. Her son, Hari, is mute, and no one can figure out why. The last straw comes when her landlord hikes the rent on her lousy, run-down apartment higher than she can afford. Relief comes in the form of a job offer from Scotland. Well, two, actually. Jaz has finally told his sister he has a son, and when Surinder discovers that Zoe loves to read, she connects Zoe with Nina, from The Bookshop on the Corner. Nina needs someone to run her book van while she's on maternity leave. That's job #1.

Job #2 is as a nanny on evenings and weekends for the 3 children of the local Laird, Ramsay. This job comes with room and board in the form of a tiny attic bedroom in a Scottish castle and toast. A lot of toast. The three children have gone through six nannies in the past few years, and they are not excited about a seventh. If Zoe weren't so broke and desperate, she'd be happy to leave, too, but Hari loves Scotland and latches immediately onto the youngest of the three kids, Patrick. Eventually, with no good options remaining, Zoe straightens her metaphorical spine and begins to make changes, discovering that the siblings and their neglectful father aren't so much feral as traumatized, and though the locals don't want to buy books until Nina returns and tells them what to choose, the tourists are delighted with all the Scottish and Loch Ness-related volumes Zoe can lay her hands on.

The second book in this series conveys a tone of palpable grief, struggle, and emotional heaviness that slowly begins to lift as the characters grow and learn from each other. There is a slow-burn romance between Zoe and Ramsay, but it's not the focus of the story. Much of the book deals with mental illnesses and the effects those illnesses have on the family members who love them. Though the story begins with a weighted-down feeling, it ends with hope and strong family bonds.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways. No violence or sexual content, though sex is implied or mentioned as having occurred in a couple of places. Some swearing is sprinkled throughout, plus a great deal in one scene with Ramsay's drunk and angry girlfriend. "Found family" is a strong theme.

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Party of Two

Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

A fun rom-com about an African American attorney moving to L.A. to start her own firm with her best friend who meets a charismatic, idealistic white senator in a hotel bar without recognizing who he is. When they meet again by chance, they decide to start dating discreetly, despite Olivia's misgivings relating to Max's high-profile job.

I enjoyed the book very much. It's the fifth in the series, but only the second one I've read so far. It probably helps to have read the others, but it isn't necessary, particularly for this installment. I personally would have liked a bit more time to develop the characters and the relationship, and a bit less angst from Olivia, but it was a fun read nonetheless.

For readers' advisors: story doorway was primary. Several steamy sex scenes, but not terribly graphic. No violence, but plenty of swearing.

I read an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in return for my honest option.

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Ways to Make Sunshine

Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ryan Hart loves to cook and experiment with unusual flavor combinations. She has a real talent for the culinary arts (too bad that's hard to translate to a Talent Show stage). However, Ryan's love of ice cream takes a beating when her favorite treat is used to soften the blow that her family will be moving to a new (old) house. On the plus side, she'll be at the same school where she's in the 4th grade, it's closer to her friend KiKi's house, and she'll have her own room. On the minus side, the house is smaller and decidedly NOT the only home she's ever known, the center of her memories. But her father's new job pays less than his old one with the post office, so they can't stay where they are.

My daughter and I absolutely LOVED this book. My son got bored because there weren't enough illustrations (he's only 4), so my daughter (age 7 1/2) & I read it on the nights my son fell asleep early. Ryan is a delightful character, and we couldn't wait to find out how she navigated the ups and downs of moving house, a mysterious keepsake tin, Easter Sunday recitation disasters, the school talent show, friendships, and birthday parties with jealous girls. My daughter identified with so many universal aspects of the story, but the scenes related to Ryan's hair were a revelation to my blond, straight-haired daughter, and it was the perfect way to introduce the concept of different hair types and reactions to water. Most of the characters are African-American, and some secondary characters are bi-racial or white.

One thing we especially loved were all the local references. The book is firmly and accurately set in Portland, Oregon, with mentions of so many real places ("I've been there, Mommy!"), it really added to the story for us. Probably more so for me than for my daughter, who is young enough not to remember going to a few of the places, particularly since we haven't gone *anywhere* since the pandemic began. But I think the only place I haven't been from all those referenced in the story was the North Portland Library, although I've been to several other branches. I certainly understood the nuances of Amanda's family moving to Lake Oswego to a huge house with an indoor pool--my husband and I used to live near some of those, and more recently we used to drive past some of them on the way to LOHS for the kids' swimming lessons.

We are looking forward to reading book #2 in the series, Ways to Grow Love, which we immediately put on hold at the library as soon as we finished book #1 last night.

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Evvie Drake Starts Over

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Evvie Drake's husband died as she was packing up to leave him, and a year later everyone still mistakes her trauma for grief. The truth is, their golden boy was actually emotionally abusive, and now that he's gone, she simply doesn't know what to do next. But no one, not even her best friend Andy, knows the truth. She's got baggage. And bills. Lots of them. So when Andy asks her to rent the apartment off the back of her kitchen to his friend Dean, who used to be a famous pitcher until he inexplicably lost the ability to throw a baseball where he wanted it to go, she agrees. Over the course of the next year, Evvie and Dean grow from acquaintances to friends to lovers, but they each have so much healing to do, can they move forward together?

I stayed up past my bedtime to finish this novel. I didn't want to put it down until Evvie got the therapy she needed and Dean figured out what direction he wanted his life to take now. I loved that the author didn't write easy, magical fixes, and that the romance was slow build. Since I would categorize this book as Relationship Fiction--Evvie's relationships of all kinds were important to the story--I was afraid for a while that Evvie and Dean would permanently go their separate ways.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary. There are swear words sprinkled throughout and some alcohol consumption, but no violence, and the sex scenes are fade-to-black. Evvie is a survivor of emotional abuse (constant gaslighting and some social isolation), so that might be a trigger for some readers, though it's all in the past, as the perpetrator dies in the first chapter.

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Kill the Farm Boy

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

This is a fantasy novel that takes many of the usual tropes and turns them upside down: the Chosen One is not a innocent farm boy (saying who it *is* would be a spoiler); Fia, the warrior, hates the bikini chain mail she begins the story wearing; the Dark Lord isn't very dark; the rogue is both female and not very good at sneaking or questing; the witch isn't really wicked; the quest goes sideways constantly and for unusual reasons (both helpful and not); there are allusions to pop culture (Nardstromp's department store at the Goblin Market, artisan cheese and crackers), and so on. The authors were clearly having a great deal of fun writing the story, and it's very entertaining but not as riotously funny as I was expecting (which is not the authors' fault, just a fact of how other readers/reviewers had hyped the book). I am looking forward to the next books in the series, though!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and setting are secondary. Characters have various skin tones/colors, although the fictional world of Pell and its surrounds doesn't map culturally to our own. There is some creative language throughout, especially from Argabella the bard, who likes to say words like "Shoutful," "Songful," and "Deadful." Argabella and Fia have a very sweet romance. There is quite a lot of violence, but it's not graphic--often more absurd than anything. A few main characters don't survive the quest.

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