"Unforgiven" by Shelley Shepard Gray

Unforgiven (May 21, 2024) by Shelley Shepard Gray.*

<This is the first book in a series.>

Two former Amish live in the Amish community they grew up in. Seth Zimmerman is an ex-con, having served time for a death most know was an accident, in which he was fighting off Bethanne Hostetler’s attacker. These three years later, Bethanne is withdrawn from others due to the trauma. Tabitha Yoder, while not excommunicated from the church, was still shunned by many for divorcing Leon, even though her ex was so horribly abusive that she landed in the hospital with critical injuries. Their unborn baby didn’t make it. Seth has been helping Tabitha. Three years her junior, he had a crush on her as a 14-year-old schoolboy when Tabitha was their school teacher. He chops wood, drops off food and clears her driveway. He helps take care of her where others won’t. Slowly, Tabitha opens up to Seth, and an uneasy friendship emerges. Around this time, gifts begin appearing on her porch, and it’s obvious that they’re from her abusive ex. She’s fought through fire and has worked hard to maintain her freedom, and she intends to keep that freedom to live her best life.
        This is only the second story I’ve read by Gray, but I’ve already found that it’s easy to get swept up in her stories. I rooted for Tabitha and Seth right away, reading as they found happiness, redemption and forgiveness. I enjoyed the suspense element in this Amish contemporary romance novel. There is a refreshing blend of idyll and danger with the hesitancy of opening one’s heart to another and the power of faith and hopefulness. Her writing is charming and magnetic. Gray excels at her storytelling craft, and I look forward to reading more of her stories, including those in this new series set in Crittenden County, Kentucky.

* Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions are expressly my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

"I Hope This Doesn't Find You" by Ann Liang

I Hope This Doesn’t Find You (Feb. 6, 2024) by Ann Liang.

<This is a standalone novel.>

Just as she looks on paper, Sadie Wen is perfect. She’s a school co-captain at Woodvale Academy, is on her way to becoming class valedictorian and is a model student and daughter, tirelessly helping her mom at her bakery. Her face hurts from the ever-present, model-student smile she keeps plastered on it. She manages this by channeling all of her frustrations into her email drafts. Take that Julius Gong, fellow school co-captain with annoyingly gorgeous, soft-looking hair! And you, power-tripping English teacher, and you, vainglorious classmate who claimed her science fair project as one’s own! No one will ever see them except her. She has a deeply ingrained need to be liked, accepted and forgiven. But then the day comes when the emails are sent out. (How??) Now everyone knows what Sadie really thinks of them, including Julius. The one person she’s sworn to hate may be the one person who appreciates the “real” Sadie, who doesn’t hide behind fake smiles, perfect grades and overachieving.

            Two Chinese Australian seniors take center stage in this contemporary YA novel filled with the awkward, dramatic romance that encompasses the teenage years. The novel is a lively, snarky one (with the occasional cuss word) that shows vulnerability in Sadie, Julius and even Sadie’s best friend, Abigail Ong, and includes underlying themes of perfectionism, academic stress, parental abandonment and the pressures of being a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. This bildungsroman is chaste (kissing is the extent, for concerned parents/readers), and I applaud Sadie for realizing that she doesn’t always have to be a people-pleaser. For anyone who enjoys a YA rom-com, I hope this book finds you.

2024 Reading Challenge - Update 8

 With the posting of Spare comes my eighth and final 2024 Reading Challenge Update! As it's a book featuring the life - thus far - of someone actually born into a royal family, it easily fits the "A Book That Features Royalty" tile. Hooray!

        I completed the self-created Challenge in the fifth month of the year. Subtracting $48 for the first four months in which I did not complete the Challenge, I donated $96 to my local church. Last Sunday, a check went into the Offering plate as a donation to the General Fund.

        Overall, this was a fun Challenge. At the outset, I felt gung-ho about making this an annual thing, but I've now changed my mind. As fun as it was, it added a layer of stress that I didn't need. Yes, it forced me to read books that I might never have read, but I also sometimes felt stressed reading library books to fulfill tiles when I have a full TBR shelf. Since this is undue stress that I can control, I don't plan to create a 2025 Reading Challenge.

        For the initial 2024 Reading Challenge post, click here.

"Spare" by Prince Harry

Spare (Jan. 10, 2023) by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.

It’s easy to relegate Prince Harry to the role of second son, the Spare, the once lost-looking young boy trailing along at his mother’s funeral procession, growing up to act out. But he’s much more than how the media and tabloids have painted him. He’s always a son, a brother, later an uncle, a husband and a father. He’ll always be part of a royal bloodline, a veteran of the British Army and an advocate for social causes. Parsed into three parts, we see a carefree Harry who’s close to his adoring mother, the late Princess Diana, and the dramatic turn when she’s tragically gone, and he’s struggling at school, at life. There’s his time finding his place in the military and awakening his passion for social advocacy. And then he finds Meghan Markle, whose beauty strikes him “like a punch in the throat.” Their love story is a whirlwind fairytale filled with nightmare thorns.

            Full admission: I am guilty of growing up thinking of Prince Harry as a bad boy, up to no good. In comparison to my goody-two-shoes self, he actually was a bad boy. But he’s also had to live in a spotlight that I never will, and I can’t begin to imagine what that’d be like or how horribly I’d handle it, what vices I might turn to, to try to cope with such celebrity.

            Harry’s memoir is refreshingly insightful, compelling and harrowing. From doing his own laundry to drinking and controlled substance usage to PTSD, from his late mother to now-wife, from military service to racist and misogynistic attacks on Meghan and her family, and the vulture-like media and infernal paps (paparazzi), Harry leaves no stone unturned. One cannot blame him for wanting to share his story, and I appreciate his transparency. He can be disparaging, even toward members of his own family, but it’s no secret that there’s been a rift. There’s self-doubt and self-assurance, vulnerability and strength. This autobiography is intimate and authentic, as Harry details his adventurous road of highs and lows, from grief and panic to healing and love. Maybe you want to pick this up because of the hype or the spilling of royal tea, but I hope you stay for the candor.

            Since I empathize with sweating easily, these lines made me chuckle: “I wasn’t sure I could endure this kind of hot. The Australian Outback had a climate I didn’t understand and which my body couldn’t seem to accept. ... I wilted at the mere mention of heat: how was I supposed to put up with an oven inside a blast furnace inside a nuclear reactor set on top of an active volcano?” (p. 85)

"The Memory Thieves" by Dhonielle Clayton

The Memory Thieves (Sept. 26, 2023) by Dhonielle Clayton.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

Welcome back to the Arcanum Training Institute for Marvelous and Uncanny Endeavors (ATI). This year, the great sky school is hovering above the Norwegian Sea. Please pack your wardrobe accordingly for the wintry elements.

Ella Durand, Brigit Ebsen and Jason Eugene are now Level Twos at ATI’s Lower School. This is the year they can wield stapiers (“a universal channellor to channel light”) and try out for the Marvel Combat teams. Since putting a stop to Gia Trivelino’s (the Ace of Anarchy) master scheming last school year, Ella’s found some celebrity. Unfortunately, not everyone back home in her New Orleans Conjure community supports her choice to return to the ATI. In their eyes, Ella and Aunt Sera Baptiste (who’s teaching at the Arcanum) are giving away Conjure secrets to the Marvellers. Ella and her friends want Conjurors and Marvellers alike to understand and accept the role of Conjurors in the creation of the school. She discovers the involvement of a Conjuror architect who also happens to be a many-greats grandfather. The blueprints would be a piece of history that’d prove to everyone that Conjurors have always belonged. The architect’s memory-cask would help, too, if anyone could find it. Digging deeper is put on hold when a mysterious, magical illness sweeps through the Arcanum, causing nosebleeds and fuzzy marvels. Is Gia somehow behind this illness? Why does new Level Two student Noémie Lavigne behave the way she does?

The return to the fantasy adventure world in the Conjureverse series is wonderfully, culturally diverse. This is a captivating sequel novel that enriches all who read it. In addition to a diverse cast, the story itself is immersive, inclusive, clever and thoughtful with dashes of mystery and plenty of magic. I absolutely want to live in this world! My sweet tooth does, too. Let me try Marveller-bars and caramel Paragon coins, cinnamon starbread and tornado tea with hiccupping honey. A word of advice that you eat the halo-halo within 20 minutes, otherwise your dessert will attack you! Good marvelling to you all!

            Book One: The Marvellers