June 2021 books

Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I LOVE Stacey Lee's books (I read like three in a row last spring) but this one was just ok for me. The Titanic sinking was just kind of tacked on at the end and didn't add any extra dimension to the story. It feels a bit rich for me to complain about that, given that my main problem with Outrun the Moon was that the San Francisco earthquake took up too much of the story!

As usual, though, the examination of Chinese people's experiences in historical contexts was fascinating!

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The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I by Ben Macintyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an older Ben Macintyre book that was written twenty years ago, well before his later books that I love so much. The story itself could be told in a few chapters but he fills out the book with really interesting insights into what it was like to live in a village in France near the front lines of World War 1. And I loved how he built a case for and against each possible informant in order to solve the central mystery.

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You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I...really, really liked this book?!? Even though I read it on a plane?? It felt like justice for all those terrible people in Lucy Foley's books who are married to each other but also hate each other and act in indefensible ways. In this book, the terrible people sort themselves out and work on their relationship and it was so satisfying to read THAT story instead of the one where they are red herrings in a murder mystery and remain hateful people. SO heartwarming and romantic! Also pretty hilarious, to be honest.

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Well Met by Jen DeLuca
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I thought the premise - Renaissance Faire actors falling in love as their characters - was a home run, but unfortunately the book kind of whiffed it! Simon came off as unhinged rather than mysterious or benignly persnickety and Emily should have quit like all the other volunteers. The best thing this book has going for it is its total commitment to the Ren Faire scene - it was entertaining seeing how they put it all together and ran the show weekend after weekend! It reminded me of participating in church plays during the summers when I was a kid.

So I didn't really like this book but I totally picked up the next book in the series just to get more Renaissance Faire logistics content!

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Well Played by Jen DeLuca
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thiiiink I liked this book better than its predecessor even though it objectively has more problematic plot elements (catfishing, slut shaming, Pumpkin Spice Lattes). It also suffers from what I call Harry Potter Camping Syndrome, where the story has to spin its wheels for a while, waiting for a certain time of year to come around so the plot can continue (in this case, it needs to be summer so Renaissance Faire can happen again). And that got kind of boring. But whatever, it's a romance set at a Reinaissance Faire! It's fine!

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Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bit janky at times but fun to read.

I remember thinking with the first book that it was a shame no one thought to properly localize the US-based story for the obviously British author. It was set in a small suburban Connecticut neighborhood and I thought it was so sad that no one told the author that you can't walk to a coffee shop from your single-family home subdivision in places like that, or "ring" your friends on the telephone, like the characters were always doing. Then I picked up THIS book - the sequel - and it was set in England, in a town with a completely different name, and everyone was wearing jumpers and hoping to get into Cambridge! So I looked it up and it turns out that yes, the author is British, and the book was originally set in England, but someone (half-heartedly, I would say) changed the US edition to be set in Connecticut. I read the US edition of book 1 on Kindle but the UK edition of book 2 in hard copy. And I find all of this to be allllmost more interesting than the book itself. Why change the setting? Are today's readers incapable of understanding stories set in other countries? And if you're going to change the setting, why not change all the incompatible cultural references? This is the real mystery!

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Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solid 4 stars. If your favorite Raven Boys book is The Dream Thieves (mine is), then I think you will like this series. I would have liked more Declan and Jordan in this book but what scenes we get with them are very, very good.

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My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An interesting, quick read!

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