Book 3 The Bromance Book Club

  

 

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams fulfilled the category “Book with a Secret” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge.

I’ve had this story on my “to-be-read” list for a while. How could one pass up that title? I wondered if it was a sweet romance or a male/male. I found out it was a romance between a married couple. OMG, that almost never happens.

In this novel, Thea asks her professional baseball-playing husband Gavin to leave. She’s done with his distance, not to mention how her life is no longer her own because of children. He loves her to the depths of his soul and wants her back—desperate enough to join his buddies’ romance book club.

That’s right. That’s the big secret. The men use romance novels to find out how women think, what they want, and what they truly desire. Depending on their love-live issues, each man receives a different book to assist him in repairing his love life.

OMG, what a premise.

The audiobook had a story-within-a-story with two narrators—one for each tale. It made for interesting listening. In the regency romance inside the contemporary narrative, an English lord must convince his wife he loves her and didn’t just marry her because he had to. Similarly, Thea and Gavin became pregnant early in their relationship. Then his baseball career took off. Thea was left with an absent husband and twins. The plots parallel somewhat, and Gavin uses the lessons from the English lord to help him with Thea.

It’s a romance, and I won’t spoil, so we know the ending. The idea of using another romance novel to show men what women need and desire was wonderful. I mean, the men still didn’t always get it. They still floundered and screwed up, misinterpreting these novels for real life. A little toxic masculinity reared its head. I liked the thinking in these books, our books, showing how women think and feel. It took Gavin a while to understand. But if he’d gotten it immediately, there’d be no story.

The book used the trope of miscommunication. I use it, too. But sometimes I want to scream at the page, “Talk to each other!” as if that’s an easy thing to do. After twenty years of marriage, Hubby and I still fail to connect once in a while (read that as “frequently,” lol). I guess I shouldn’t judge.

The Bromance Book Club had some interesting pieces and a great premise. I’ve got the other books in the series on my TBR list now.

I give The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams Four Regency Romance Novels (probably by Julia Quinn and Sarah MacLean).

 

 

Book 2 Magpie Murders and The Shining Girls

 

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz and The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes fulfilled the category “Book Becoming a Movie or TV Series in 2022” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. Yeah, I have two titles there. I couldn’t decide.

When I made my enormous list for the challenge, all prompts had three titles listed. I jumped on to Libby and Hoopla and ordered many stories. All of December and these first weeks of January, I listened and listened and listened. I duplicated at least two categories, including the current one.

Both books work so well! I opted for a double review.

What makes a book ideal for a TV series or movie adaptation? Subplots, intrigue, cliffhangers, interesting characters, and a fantastic story. Both these titles had that, and something more.

Wait, I forgot to give you a quick summation!

Magpie Murders has a book within a book. There’s another entire whodunit inside the whodunit. Mr. Horowitz is known for his Sherlock Holmes retellings. This time he hits on an Agatha Christie theme. An agent receives a book from one of her bestselling authors, but the last chapter is missing. The writer is found dead before the agent can grab the last pages. Not only do we have to find out what happened to the dead author, but also solve the mystery of his last book.

The Shining Girls can be summed up with the phrase “Time Traveling Serial Killer.” Do I have your attention? I bet I do. In this novel, we meet a young girl who survived the attack of a strange man. Once she is well, she sets out to find the man to gain understanding and closure. She finds more than she bargained for. In her quest, she finds similar attacks all over the timeline and many objects out of time. We also hear his side of the story and about the time-traveling house he resides in.

Why are these books perfect for TV or movies? Because they’ve missed something in the telling. Each book, though well-written, misses a key plot point or an answer to a burning question. For Magpie Murders, we need more about the murdered author. Going back and forth between the novel and the real world will work great on the small screen. For The Shining Girls, the villain’s plot needs fleshing out. I won’t spoil, but I needed more motivation and back story. Plus, this book, with all the stories behind the victims, will work beautifully for a TV series.

I look at these two books and see Dexter and The Umbrella Academy. Books that were good in their own way, but the TV series enhanced the plot, characters, and story of each book. The TV shows gave us more depth, more time, more details, and more reasons to love the characters.

I can’t wait to see the shows! Magpie Murders should be out on PBS sometime this year. The Shining Girls will air on Apple TV in 2022.

Here’s hoping we get both series this year.

I give Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz Four Anagram Puzzles

I give The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes Four Tattered Baseball Cards.

 

 

 

 

 

Book 1 The Midnight Library

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig fulfills the category “Book Featuring a Parallel Reality” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. Forgive me for starting the “Advanced” section of the challenge, but this title fits the category perfectly!

The Midnight Library is a magical place where souls can visit just before death. Each person’s “library” can take any shape that fits their own life—a library, a restaurant, a craft store. Inside this structure, the person can test other life choices and live an alternate life. If they find a good one, they can stay.

A book about libraries and string theory and getting yourself together? Sign me up!

Nora Seed’s life is not going great. Some of her choices have led her down a path where she thinks her only choice is suicide. Instead of dying, she ends up in the Midnight Library with her childhood librarian as a guide. Each book holds the life she would have led if she’d only chosen differently. There are millions of books. Nora tries out simple changes at first, then radical onese, each scenario teaching her a lesson about life and herself.

I won’t spoil it, but the author did a little “shark-jumping” with a few of the parallel lives. We all believe within us is a potential to do anything, be anything, but really, we are limited by physical, mental, and emotional limits in our personality and being.

Nora did not seem to have those limits. She was a rock star, an Olympic swimmer, a glaciologist, a mother, a vineyard owner, and a philosophy professor at Cambridge. Most of those lives are huge. I found it hard to believe that one woman had the potential for all those careers inside her.

Yes, I know we are defined by the choices we make. Most of us could have had different careers, careers, partners, families if we’d only chosen X instead of Y. We hope we can achieve all the things. But to be an Olympian and a rocks star and a professor—maybe not. This is probably my only criticism of the story.

The story was fantastical and wonderful in the genuine sense of those words. It was full of fantasy and wonder. I laughed and cried and rooted for Nora. I wanted her to live the life she was meant to. Her struggle was real, and I had such hope for her. And what more can you ask for in a book than a main character you love and empathize with? (Plus, the ending made me so happy.)

I give The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Five Guiding Librarians to help us find our true selves.

 

 

 

The 2022 PopSugar Challenge

  

 

It’s that time again—a new year and a new challenge. The PopSugar Reading Challenge for 2022 looks amazing. Again, the list dropped on December 1st. As I had finished the 2021 challenge, I jumped into the new one immediately.

I wanted to be prepared, especially with all the trouble I had last January finding books to blog. I’m not ashamed to announce I’ve already read thirteen books for this year’s challenge. (Only one ended up being a double, so far.)

Here’s the list for 2022’s challenge. (You can see why I ran with it!)

Basic Challenge:

• A book published in 2022
• A book set on an airplane, train, or cruise ship
• A book about or set in a non-patriarchal society
• A book with a tiger on the cover or “tiger” in the title
• A sapphic book
• A book by a Latinx author
• A book with an onomatopoeia in the title
• A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid
• A book about a “Found Family”
• An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner
• A #BookTok recommendation
• A book about the afterlife
• A book set in the 1980s
• A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title
• A book by a Pacific Islander author
• A book about witches
• A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022
• A romance novel by a BIPOC author
• A book that takes place during your favorite season
• A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read
• A book about a band or a musical group
• A book with a character on the ace spectrum
• A book with a recipe in it
• A book you can read in one sitting
• A book about a secret
• A book with a misleading title
• A Hugo Award winner
• A book set during a holiday
• A different book by an author you read in 2021
• A book featuring a man-made disaster
• A book with the name of a board game in the title
• A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page
• A social-horror book
• A book set in Victorian times
• A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title
• A book you know nothing about
• A book about gender identity
• A book featuring a party
• An #OwnVoices SFF (science fiction and fantasy) book
• A book that fulfills your favorite prompt for a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Advanced Challenge:

• A book with a reflected image on the cover or “mirror” in the title
• A book that features two languages
• A book with a palindromic title
• A duology (1)
• A duology (2)
• A book about someone leading a double life
• A book featuring a parallel reality
• A book with two POVs
• Two books set in twin towns, aka “sister cities” (1)
• Two books set in twin towns, aka “sister cities” (2)

And you know how I’m an overachiever. I could not pick just one or two books for each prompt. I ended up giving myself three choices for each category. They all look delicious. Check out my List Challenge here for the new choices. Who’s with me?