Fiction

Ruined

Sarah Vaughn

GRAPHIC NOVEL Vaughn
Fiction, Romance

For fans of Bridgerton comes a Regency-era romance graphic novel about the unexpected passion that blooms from a marriage of convenience. The whole town is whispering about how Catherine Benson lost her virtue, though they can never agree on the details. Was it in the public garden? Or a moving carriage? Only a truly desperate man would want her now -- and that's exactly what Andrew Davener is. His family's estate is in disrepair, but Catherine's sizeable dowry could set it to rights. After the two wed, Catherine finds herself inexplicably drawn to Andrew. But could falling in love with her husband tear her marriage apart? In this richly detailed Regency romance, duty and passion collide in a slow-burn tale of intertwined fates.

tl;dr: Great book for Bridgerton lovers. I picked up this book because I haven't read a graphic novel romance and was very intrigued when I saw it on the shelf. I didn't like the illustration at first but it grew on me as the story went deeper into the characters' lives and motivations. I tend not to read historical fiction but I thought this might be a nice entry into the Bridgerton-influenced historical romance. There's no narration text, just illustrations and dialogue. The clean-line and uncluttered drawings communicated so much on their own. Novels require descriptive writing to detail the setting, but this graphic novel used sparseness to get me into the headspace of Regency England. FYI--some scenes are mature in nature. -Melody

Cuentos completos. 1 : (1945-1966)

Cortazar, Julio, author.

SPANISH FICTION Cortazar
Fiction

Julio Cortazar es un escritor argentino que formo parte del boom latinoamericano. Mi cuento favorito de esta colección es: “El Perseguidor”. Este es un cuento inspirado en la vida intensa y fugaz de Charlie Parker. También allí se puede apreciar una prosa jazzística de Cortazar en la que es difícil distinguir literatura de música. -Alex

Reckless girls

Rachel Hawkins

FICTION Hawkins Rachel
Fiction, Thriller, Suspense

When Lux McAllister and her boyfriend, Nico, are hired to sail two women to a remote island in the South Pacific, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Stuck in a dead-end job in Hawaii, and longing to travel the world after a family tragedy, Lux is eager to climb on board The Susannah and set out on an adventure. She's also quick to bond with their passengers, college best friends Brittany and Amma. The two women say they want to travel off the beaten path. But like Lux, they may have other reasons to be seeking an escape. Shimmering on the horizon after days at sea, Meroe Island is every bit the paradise the foursome expects, despite a mysterious history of shipwrecks, cannibalism, and even rumors of murder. But what they don't expect is to discover another boat already anchored off Meroe's sandy beaches. The owners of the Azure Sky, Jake and Eliza, are a true golden couple: gorgeous, laidback, and if their sleek catamaran and well-stocked bar are any indication, rich. Now a party of six, the new friends settle in to experience life on an exotic island, and the serenity of being completely off the grid. Lux hasn't felt like she truly belonged anywhere in years, yet here on Meroe, with these fellow free spirits, she finally has a sense of peace. But with the arrival of a skeevy stranger sailing alone in pursuit of a darker kind of good time, the balance of the group is disrupted. Soon, cracks begin to emerge: it seems that Brittany and Amma haven't been completely honest with Lux about their pasts--and perhaps not even with each other. And though Jake and Eliza seem like the perfect pair, the rocky history of their relationship begins to resurface, and their reasons for sailing to Meroe might not be as innocent as they first appeared. When it becomes clear that the group is even more cut off from civilization than they initially thought, it starts to feel like the island itself is closing in on them. And when one person goes missing, and another turns up dead, Lux begins to wonder if any of them are going to make it off the island alive"--

I really enjoyed Hawkins' novel The Villa, so I picked this up to take on vacation...it turned out to be a perfectly good beach-read! A group of twenty- to thirty-somethings find themselves on a small, uninhabited island for a spot of remote relaxation, but of course, things go awry when an uninvited guest gets their guard up and their imaginations going. That's not all, though--there are some weird dynamics going on in the background for each of our islanders, personal traumas and fears, that make for unique interactions and hidden motives. There's nothing ground-breaking going on here, but if you want a solid thriller with a great location, and some better-than-average thinking about what it means to live in the aftermath of major change and life interruptions, this book will do nicely! -Candice

None of This is True

Lisa Jewell

OverDrive Audiobook
Fiction, Mystery

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the #1 New York Times bestselling author known for her "superb pacing, twisted characters, and captivating prose" (BuzzFeed), Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie has been listening to Alix's podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can't quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life—and into her home. But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family's lives under mortal threat. Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

This was good...I wasn't even expecting it to be so good! You know, sometimes these mysteries can take on the same flavor after a while, even when certain plot points vary slightly. This is your 'average woman who has it mostly all together crosses paths with the seemingly meek and maybe mousy woman who never got the life she wanted but is ready to make a change' kind of mystery, BUT, with a incredibly highly unreliable narrator (narrators??) and some sinister plot twists thrown in there. It's up-to-date and the characters are well-defined and just introspective enough to make it real without going overboard with detail. Coupled with a stellar narration, this mystery ticks many boxes. -Candice