When Abe and Ruth meet on a blind date while students at the University of Washington it’s not love at first sight. In fact, it’s not even like. Ruth finds Abe to be stodgy, full of himself, and boring. He, on the other hand, is captivated by her vivacious personality and her varied interests, even if her ideas about the future seem flaky. From this inauspicious beginning, The ... Read More...
Bear by Julia Phillips
Small, character driven novels have not been good reading for me recently so I was surprised to be drawn into Bear. Somehow, author Julia Phillips makes the unexpected presence of a large bear in the lives of two downtrodden women magnetic. Elena and Sam are sisters living on an island off the Washington State coast. Bears are an unusual sight on the island, but the appearance ... Read More...
A Wild and Heavenly Place
A Wild and Heavenly Place by Robin Oliveira begins in 1870s Glasgow where orphaned, teenage Samuel, is living hand-to-mouth working in a shipyard and taking care of his little sister. He’s in love with Hailey, a wealthy girl he admires from afar. Until circumstances throw them together and they begin to fall in love, only to be pulled apart and separated by half a ... Read More...
The Return of Ellie Black
A father and son hiking in the forest in Southwestern WA encounter a young woman, emaciated and bruised. Her name is Elizabeth Black and she’s been missing for two years. This is the attention-grabbing opening of Emiko Jean’s new novel The Return of Ellie Black, a tactic she uses superbly right up until the end of this slow burn suspense novel. Ellie’s return brings joy to ... Read More...
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Hello, everyone! I’m easing back in today with a novel that melted my curmudgeonly heart. Remarkably Bright Creatures is a debut by Shelby Van Pelt that takes place in Sowell Bay, a fictional small town in northern Washington State. Tova is an elderly woman, who works nights cleaning the town’s aquarium. It’s quiet work that, on the one hand, suits her wish to avoid prying, but ... Read More...
If, Then by Kate Hope Day
It feels a bit as if alternate realities are all the rage in fiction this year, which is not too surprising if you pay attention to what’s happening in the real world. First, there was The Dreamers, where people fell asleep and dreamed of different lives. Dreams so vivid that upon awaking they believed their dreams were real. Kate Hope Day takes things further in her debut ... Read More...
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