What Happens in Amsterdam

By: Rachel Lynn Solomon
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 384

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Dani Dorfman has somehow made it to her thirties without knowing what she wants to do with her life. So when an office romance ends poorly and gets her fired, she applies for a job in Amsterdam, idly dreaming of escaping the mess she’s created, but never imagining she'll actually get it.

Except she does. By the end of her first week in Amsterdam, she’s never felt more adrift or alone. Then she crashes her bike into her high school ex-boyfriend—and suddenly life is blooming with new opportunities.

Wouter van Leeuwen was a Dutch exchange student Dani’s family hosted, a forbidden love that ended in a painful breakup. Years later, there’s still sizzling chemistry between them, and okay, maybe a little animosity. More importantly, Wouter needs to be married to inherit a gorgeous family home on a canal—and when Dani's job falls apart, she needs a visa. As the marriage of convenience pushes them together in unexpected ways, Dani must decide whether her new life is yet another mistake—or if it's worth taking a risk on a second chance.

First Impressions

Rachel Lynn Solomon is one of my favorite authors. I love her YA books but her adult novels can sometimes be hit or miss for me. I either love them or they’re meh. I love the colors of this cover so I knew I wanted to read it as soon as I saw she came out with a new book.

What I thought

Danika has moved to Amsterdam after breaking up with her boyfriend and getting fired from her job. Within a matter of days she runs (literally) into her first love, Wouter. He has been an exchange student that stayed with her family when they were 17. They had fallen in love, but shortly after moving back to Amsterdam, Wouer broke up with Dani and broke her heart. However, now that she’s lost the job that brought her there and Wouter needs a wife to inherit his family’s home, they determine a marriage of convenience would be their bet option.

There was a lot going on in this book. I felt like Solomon threw every trope under the son in here. We had second chance romance, marriage of convenience, and forced proximity. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that second chance romance is not my favorite. I was mostly able to forgive them because of them having had a short relationship and only being 17. I did end up getting annoyed when they finally talked through why Wouter originally broke up with Danika and then she continued to harp on it. Like, you got your explanation. Move on.

I also just didn’t understand some of the choices Danika made. She was a micro-premie who her parents coddled her entire life, but she felt very immature to me. Dani was lost in knowing what she wanted to do in life, but she frequently acted like she was the only person to ever experience this. Also, she’s allowed 3 months to look for a job to stay in Amsterdam and to immediately jump to getting married felt a little extreme.

I did enjoy Wouter and I liked his chemistry with Dani. It was so obvious that he had never gotten over her. He was very understanding and kind to Dani and I just felt like he was a great catch.

Unlike Business or Pleasure and Ex-Talk, this is one of Solomon’s adult reads that didn’t click for me. I wanted to love it and I think she did a great job making Amsterdam jump off of the page, but there was a lot going on and I just found myself not connecting with Danika most of the book. I can’t wait for Solmon’s next book though!

Book Club May 2025- The Sons of El Rey

By: Alex Espinoza
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 384

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): From the American Book Award­–winning author comes a multi-generational epic spanning 1960s Mexico City to contemporary Los Angeles, following a family of Luchadores as they contend with forbidden love and family secrets.

Ernesto and Elena Vega arrive in Mexico City where Ernesto works on a construction site until he is discovered by a local lucha libre trainer. At a time when luchadores—Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes—were treated as daredevils or rockstars, Ernesto finds fame as El Rey Coyote, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico.

Years later, in East Los Angeles Freddy Vega is struggling to save his father’s gym while Freddy’s own son Julian is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes. The once larger-than-life Ernesto Vega is now dying, leading Freddy and Julian to find their own passions and discover what really happened back in Mexico.

Told from alternating perspectives, Ernesto takes you from the ranches of Michoacán to the makeshift colonias and crowded sports arenas of Mexico City. Freddy describes life in the suburban streets of 1980s Los Angeles and the community their family built as Julian descends deep into the culture of hook-up apps, lucha burlesque shows, and the dark underbelly of West Hollywood, The Sons of El Rey is an intimate portrait of a family wading against time and legacy, yet always choosing the fight.

What I thought

I wanted to pick a book by a Mexican author since we were holding book club so close to Cinco De Mayo. Sadly, it was tough to find contemporary Mexican authors but this one sounded really interesting.

Sons of El Rey follows three generations of Mexican/Mexican-American men. Ernesto, the grandfather, was a Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestler) in Mexico. When he moved to America with his wife and son, he stopped that career, until he later opened a gym and got his son Alfredo (Freddy) into la lucha. Freddy’s son Julian, has never been into the wrestling world and works as a college professor. This story is told through each of their perspectives as Ernesto is dying, as well as some chapters from his wife Elena and his la lucha personality, El Rey Coyote.

While I really enjoyed the lucha libre part of the storyline, the format was a bit much for me. Ernesto’s perspective took place in the early years of his marriage and his start of lucha libre, while Freddy’s alternated between the present day, visiting his father, and the past when he was participating in a lucha. Julian’s mostly took place in the present but he did have occasional flashbacks. The there was this weird conversational quality between Elena and Ernesto and his alternate la lucha personality.

I found Ernesto’s storyline to be the most interesting. Freddy’s was fine. I didn’t like Julian’s at all. Unfortunately, that made it a little more annoying when I cam across his chapters. I found him to be immature and emotionally closed off. He held a lot of disdain for his father and I couldn’t quite figure out why. Freddy didn’t seem that bad to me.

Overall, I thought it was an interesting story and unlike anything I have read before. It was a little more sexually graphic than I expected. I do enjoy multi-generational stories so I liked how Espinoza dealt with the trauma of moving from one country to another and how that could impact generations down the line.

What Book Club Thought

Feels like we were mostly on the same page with this one! We all thought it was an interesting and educational read. Maybe not one we would’ve picked up on our own and maybe not even one we would think to recommend but one that we enjoyed while we were reading it. It was interesting to see how we felt differently about the different characters. Initially my least favorite storyline was Julian’s, but after some discussion I realized that Ernesto might’ve been the worst character even if I found his story interesting. It led to some decent discussion. I would recommend it is you are looking for something different to read with your book club.

From Here to the Great Unknown

By: Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 204

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir.

A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.

First Impressions

The cover is really cool. It definitely caught my eye. However, I have never been an Elvis fan so didn’t have any intention of reading this one. Then it ended up on the list of a ton of people as one of their favorite reads of the year or even their favorite audiobook of the year, so I decided to give it a shot.

What I thought

Wow. Absolutely wow.

Lisa Marie passed away before she could write her memoir. She had planned to finally write one with her daughter, but shortly after they made that decision, she died. Luckily, over the years, people had wanted her to write a memoir so she had multiple interviews and recordings of ideas and stories for her memoir. Riley took those tapes and stories and helped to both transcribe the stories as well as add to them. The audiobook is narrated by Julia Roberts reading as Lisa Marie and Riley, reading the parts of her own stories that she added for portions that her mother didn’t cover.

Each chapter also starts and ends with a snippet directly from Lisa Marie’s audio recordings. Even if you’re not normally an audiobook reader, I highly recommend you listen to this one. It’s really cool to hear Lisa Marie’s recordings and I think Julia Roberts does a fabulous job. Plus it made it really cool to hear Riley adding in her own portions and commentary.

Lisa Marie’s life is fascinating and traumatic. The stories she told about her childhood and being in the public eye were wild. It also shed so much light as to why she and Michael Jackson were drawn to one another. This might just be the book to get me back into celebrity memoirs.

I don’t normally do trigger warnings, but I was caught off guard by a few things. There is a lot of discussion about addiction, which I expected. There also is an entire chapter in which Riley talks about how her brother committed suicide and the following grief that she and her mother experienced. I did end up skipping a lot of the final chapter as that was something I was unable to read.

This might end up being one of my favorite books of the year. I learned so much and was riveted from start to finish. The way the story was told was unique and creative. Even if you are not an Elvis fan, I highly recommend picking this up. Like I said, I do specifically recommend it as an audiobook, but I’m sure it’s just as fascinating in physical form.

One Death at a Time

By: Abbi Waxman
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 400

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When Julia Mann, a bad-tempered ex-actress and professional thorn in the side of authority, runs into Natasha Mason at an AA meeting, it’s anything but a meet-cute. Julia just found a dead body in her swimming pool, and the cops say she did it (she already went to jail for murder once, so now they think she’s making a habit of it). Mason is eager to clear Julia’s name and help keep her sober, but all Julia wants is for Mason to leave her alone.

As their investigation ranges from the Hollywood Hills to the world of burlesque to the country clubs of Palm Springs, this unconventional team realizes their shared love of sarcasm and poor life choices are proving to be a powerful combination. Will secrets from their past trip them up, or will their team of showgirls, cat burglars, and Hollywood agents help them stay one step ahead? Are dead piranhas, false noses, and a giant martini glass important clues or simply your typical day in Los Angeles? And will they manage to solve the crime before they kill each other, or worse, fall off the wagon? Trying to keep it simple and take it easy is one thing—trying to find a murderer before they kill again is a whole other program.

First Impressions

The cover looked like a cute cozy mystery. I also have read a lot of Waxman’s previous books, but they were more along the contemporary fictional lines. I was intrigued that she was testing out a mystery. I do love the cover and think I would’ve picked it up when I was wandering the library or a bookstore.

What I thought

Wow. There was way too much going on in this book.

Natasha Mason, who goes just by Mason, meets Julia Mann, a famous retired actress, at an AA meeting. Julia is court ordered to be there whereas Mason has been going for 3 years. When Mason becomes Julia’s interim sponsor, Julia sucks her into the case of finding out who murdered her old director turned nemesis Tony. Julia is currently the one suspected of the murder since it happened at her house.

I thought this was going to be a cute buddy comedy murder mystery but it just didn’t connect. I never really liked Mason or Julia. I wanted to so badly. Mason felt very flat to me, just repeating lines from AA books. I didn’t fully understand her sobriety journey or what it had to do with the story other than being a way for her to connect to Julia. And I was so annoyed when she would just randomly look at Julia and be like “you need to go to a meeting.” Why? What is Julia getting out of these meetings? Or even what is Mason getting out of these meetings?

Julia I did like a little bit more. She came of as brusque at first, but the more you learned about her the more it made sense. She collected a band of misfits around her which made her more likable, but the jump from Mason being her sponsor to being her right hand gal was a bit quick for me.

I also found that not only were there too many side characters for me to keep straight, but there were too many mysteries. Besides the main murder, there were at least 2 other murders in present day added to one that had happened in the past. Keeping everything straight was way too hard. At one point in the final quarter of the book, one of the characters even makes a Power Point to explain everything they know and how everything is connected. It felt like a way to remind the reader and help them get back into the story and mystery but I was even more confused. I ended up skimming the last 25% of the book because I just wanted to know who the murderer was.

The disappointing part what that the murderer was obvious. The motive was a bit convoluted and I felt like when Waxman was trying to tie everything back together she was making things up as she went. Honestly, I enjoyed the first half of the book. I thought maybe it was the type of series where they had to lay a lot of ground work and I would look forward to them solving more mysteries together in the future. Unfortunately, in the end I didn’t care about anyone.

This book is fine. If you like complex mysteries with a lot going on, you’ll enjoy it. Given that this is Waxman’s first mystery, I would be willing to give another book by her in the genre a chance. I don’t think I would read a second book with these characters though. They just weren’t my cup of tea.

Book Club April 2025- Marrying the Ketchups

By: Jennifer Close
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: Knopff
Pages: 320

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Here are the three things the Sullivan family knows to be true: the Chicago Cubs will always be the underdogs; historical progress is inevitable; and their grandfather, Bud, founder of JP Sullivan's, will always make the best burgers in Oak Park. But when, over the course of three strange months, the Cubs win the World Series, Trump is elected president, and Bud drops dead, suddenly everyone in the family finds themselves doubting all they hold dear.

Take Gretchen for example, lead singer for a '90s cover band who has been flirting with fame for a decade but is beginning to wonder if she's too old to be chasing a childish dream. Or Jane, Gretchen's older sister, who is starting to suspect that her fitness-obsessed husband who hides the screen of his phone isn't always "working late." And then there's Teddy, their steadfast, unfailingly good cousin, nursing heartbreak and confusion because the guy who dumped him keeps showing up for lunch at JP Sullivan's where Teddy is the manager. How can any of them be expected to make the right decisions when the world feels sideways--and the bartender at JP Sullivan's makes such strong cocktails?

What I thought

This book stressed me out.

Marrying the Ketchups follows the Sullivan family. They are restaurant owners in Chicago and the story takes place in 2016-2017. It starts right as the Cubs are winning the World Series and into Trump winning his first term as President. The story is told mostly through three points of view, Teddy, Gretchen, and Jane, the three 30 somethings in the Sullivan family. Jane is dealing with the fallout of her marriage, Gretchen just moved back from New York City, and Teddy is struggling to find his place within Sullivan’s.

I think if I had read this book before Trump was re-elected I might’ve felt slightly different about it. Right now, this book was too close to reality. It put me back into that initial space of negativity after the election but at that point there was still some slight hope that things wouldn’t be as bad as they actually were. As a Chicagoan, I did love the references to the city and the World Series. I very much remembered all of the feels during that time and the hope and joy everyone felt.

Besides the timeline being a little bit of a struggle, I also found none of these characters to be likable. This family is dysfunctional with a capital D. The older Sullivan’s are stuck in their ways while the middle Sullivan’s come off as entitled with no real motivation or drive. Gretchen was maybe the most tolerable for me until the final quarter. She definitely has a bit of Peter Pan syndrome and, even though she was 34, acted like she was 18.

The writing is well done and I did enjoy how the story wove so many generations together. However, by the time I got to the final 20 pages or so I was ready to be done. I didn’t quite know where this was ending up and what the point of some of the storylines were. I think if you like reading about drama and dysfunctional families, this is a good choice for you. You also need to be ok being brought back to 2016/early 2017 as it does touch a lot on politics and the tough state of the world at that time.

What Book Club Thought

Seems like we all were on the same page. We enjoyed it and felt it was an easy read but hated pretty much everyone. I do think my memory of the book is a little more positive than my initial impression. We did have a lot of discussion about the characters and how our feelings changed about them as the story continued. It was a fun book to talk about and I am glad it’s one I read with book club. While I may not run around recommending this book, if you are a Chicagoan looking for a book club choice, I would recommend picking this one up. Just maybe wait 4 more years.

Swept Away

By: Beth O’Leary
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 384

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Two strangers find themselves stranded at sea together in this epic new love story by bestselling author Beth O’Leary.

What if you were lost at sea…with your one-night stand?

Zeke and Lexi thought it would just be a night of fun. They had no intentions of seeing each other again. Zeke is only in town for the weekend to buy back his late father’s houseboat. Lexi has no time for dating when she needs to help take care of her best friend's daughter.

Going back home with a stranger seems like a perfect escape from their problems. But a miscommunication in the dark, foggy night means no one tied the houseboat to the dock. The next morning, Zeke and Lexi realize all they can see is miles and miles of water.

With just a few provisions on the idle boat, Zeke and Lexi must figure out how to get back home. But aside from their survival, they’re facing another challenge. Because when you’re stuck together for days on end, it gives you a lot of time to get to know someone—and to fall in love with them.

First Impressions

If you’ve read my blog at all, you know that O’Leary is one of my auto-read authors. I read her debut, The Flatshare, in 2019 and loved it. Since then I have read every new book that has come out. I also love the colors on this cover so I absolutely would have picked it up even without being a fan.

What I thought

Loved. Did not disappoint.

Zeke and Lexi decide to have one night of fun. They head back to Zeke’s houseboat for a one night stand but the boat floats out to sea and they end up stuck on the houseboat in the middle of the ocean waiting to be rescued.

One of my favorite things about O’Leary’s stories is that there is always more to them than what you originally see. This books comes off like a silly forced proximity romance, but the characters have such depth and grow throughout their survival. There is also the expected O’Leary twist that hits you in the heart. I was a little disappointed in myself for not calling it sooner.

Zeke is like this perfect man. Well, not in your stereotypical pulled together suave man, but in an emotionally self-aware and willing to change kind of way. He definitely has his flaws but he is so willing to look at them head on and make changes. It was extremely attractive. Lexi is a little rougher around the edges. She’s a bit more damaged and struggles to make growth as easily as Zeke does. I guess my only issue with this book is that I wish there had been a little more exploration into Lexi’s background and issues. Zeke’s were more fleshed out which maybe is why it made his growth feel a little more genuine.

I was so surprised that I enjoyed a book stuck on a houseboat for almost its entirety. I kept expecting to get bored but O’Leary kept it exciting without making it feel unrealistic. It also had an element of a slow burn, even though it takes place over about two weeks. I just truly cannot think of what I’d want more out of this book.

This was a knock out of the park for me. I loved Zeke and Lexi, which is important since the whole book is just the two of them. This might be one of my favorite of her books. It was so unique from many romance centered books I’ve read and I devoured it in 2 days. I still think The Flatshare is the place to start with her novels, but if that one doesn’t strike your fancy you should definitely pick this one up.

The Favorites

By: Layne Fargo
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 448

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating about a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and rollercoaster relationship. Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the "real story" through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary. But she can't stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy either. So, after a decade of silence, she's telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.

Inspired by the powerful love and hate that fuel Emily Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, The Favorites is an exhilarating dance between passion, ambition, and what it truly means to win.

First Impressions

This book was advertised as Daisy Jones & The Six meets figure skating so I was immediately in. Add the beautiful cover and this book jumped to the top of my list so fast. This might be one of the strongest first impressions a book has made in a long time.

What I thought

This might end up being my favorite book of the year.

Kat Shaw has wanted to be an Olympic ice dancer her entire life. When she and her skating partner/boyfriend get accepted to a camp being held by the best US ice dancer female skater, they feel like it’s going to be their first step towards greatness. But scandal and drama erupt behind the scenes.

The story is told in alternating chapters. The first perspective is Katerina and the second is told as documentary interviews with multiple people’s points of views. I listened to this on audiobook and it was told with a full cast of narrators. I would absolutely recommend listening to this because it’s one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to, but I’m sure it would be just as good as a physical book.

This is also apparently a retelling of Wuthering Heights. I don’t remember much about Wuthering Heights other than it was a bit nuts, I didn’t like it, and I thought Heathcliff was the worst. After reading this book, I do still think Heath is the worst. I got so frustrated with him in this story, but I didn’t dislike him as much as in the original. He did have some redeeming qualities in the end in this version.

I am a big ice skating fan, so I know there is a lot of drama within the sport. I loved how this story played into that. Johnny Weir, an American male figure skater, voiced one of the skaters in the story. He ends up having a skating gossip blog and he played it so well. I felt like it could’ve easily been real life behind the scenes of the figure skating world.

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know it’s rare that I can’t predict where a book is going. This story took so many twists and turns I truly had no idea. They would end up at a competition or a certain plot point and I would look down and see I still had like 5 hours left in the book when I thought that’s where the story was going to end. It was so fun to be on this wild ride.

Truly unlike any book I’ve ever read/listened to. I loved all of the characters and didn’t know where this was going next. If you love drama I would highly recommend this book, even if you’re not a figure skating fan. I have already recommended this book to a bunch of people. If you love audiobooks, I recommend checking it out on that but otherwise I’m sure it’s just as good as a physical read.

A Map to Paradise

By: Susan Meissner
Published Year: 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 352

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I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): 1956, Malibu, Something is not right on Paradise Circle.

With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation.

Then one early morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone?

As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact and one little spark could send it all up in smoke…

First Impressions

Meissner has written some really lovely historical fiction. I’ve enjoyed a lot of her stories in the past and love how she writes strong female characters. I was intrigued to read a story about an actress in the 50s. I also loved the cover!

What I thought

This book was not quite what I expected. I thought it was going to be more of a story about the communists and how it influenced Hollywood and instead it ended up being more of a mystery.

Melanie has been blacklisted because her costar was named as a communist sympathizer. As a result, no one in Hollywood will hire her. Carson, her costar, has put her up in a house in Malibu since she’s the reason she can’t get work. Her next door neighbor, Elwood, is a reclusive screenwriter. When Melanie doesn’t hear from him or see him for a few days, she starts to get concerned and sends her maid over to the house to work for Elwood’s sister-in-law to see what is really happening.

I liked the first half of the book more than I liked the second half. The first half talked about Eva, the housekeeper, and what she dealt with as someone who was living in Russian during World War 2 and was now living in America claiming she is Polish. It also discussed Melanie dealing with the reality of being an assumed communist and how it took over her life. Once the story started centering more around June, Elwood’s sister-in-law, and how she had been in love with Elwood and taken care of him, I was less invested.

I found June and her story about being in love with Elwood to be irritating. I also found how she dealt with Elwood to be frustrating. Melanie was the only one in this story who spoke any kind of sense. Eva became invested in June so quickly and projected so much of her trauma on June.

While I was curious about the mystery of whether Elwood was still in the house and if not, where was he, the way it played out was not my favorite. I sided with Melanie a lot more with some of the decisions as opposed to June and found it difficult to be cheering for June in any way.

This book straddled a weird genre of mystery and historical fiction. As a result, it didn’t feel like it filled either of them enough. The mystery was predictable and the historical portion wasn’t in depth enough for what I wanted. I enjoyed some of the characters and the time of the story, but overall this one just wasn’t for me. Meissner’s writing was still well done and enjoyable so I look forward to her next novel.