Bookreporter.com Bets On...

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

July 2024

I enjoyed Liz Moore's previous novel, LONG BRIGHT RIVER, so I was eager to read THE GOD OF THE WOODS. She does not disappoint. I never attended summer camp, but friends of mine have loved this experience. And in these pages, I felt like I was there.

Here we have an interesting setup. It's 1975. Next to Camp Emerson is a property in the Adirondacks owned by the wealthy Van Laars, which has been in the family for generations. They own the land where the camp is located, and it is now managed by the daughter of the camp's founder.

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The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

July 2024

I enjoy J. Courtney Sullivan's writing, so I was looking forward to reading THE CLIFFS. Here, she returns to Maine in a book that is full of character, history and stories woven together.

First, there is an abandoned house, one that Jane Flanagan, a teen with a less-than-happy home life, explores in her free time. Her imagination is in gear about who may have lived there and what their story was. Things seem hurriedly abandoned as if a family fled. There are clothes in closets and dishes in cabinets. But life moves on. And so does Jane.

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The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

July 2024

A few years ago, I read and loved Marjan Kamali’s THE STATIONERY SHOP, which was so beautifully done. I am happy to share that her latest book, THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN, is just as special. While readers will see it as a touching story of a friendship, it is much more as Marjan gives us an inside view of the political situation that erupts again and again in Tehran, Iran.

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Bad Tourists by Caro Carver

July 2024

Caro Carver’s BAD TOURISTS sets up as one kind of book but quickly flips to another. Then comes even more twists. Caro was inspired to write this thriller as she was on vacation in the Maldives. She envisioned a hotel, like Sapphire Island, a plush location where guests would have everything taken care of for them. This spectacular setting is a star and a character since the setup of these accommodations lends itself to the action. And the beautiful waters around them hide danger. There also is a page where Caro refers to a manta ray and shares, “How difficult can it be to tell innocent and villain apart?” That is the central theme of the novel, and a tone is set.

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All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

July 2024

I was a huge fan of Chris Whitaker’s previous novel, WE BEGIN AT THE END, and I have been waiting impatiently to see what he would write next. When the 600-plus-page ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK came to my house, I just wanted to hunker down and see where Chris was taking us now. Once again, he did not disappoint.

The book opens in 1975 in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, where we are introduced to its two young protagonists. The first is Saint, who is somewhat of an outsider. She is a pianist and a beekeeper. Her parents are absent, and she is being raised by her grandmother, Norma, who drives a bus and embraces the differences in her. The other is a boy nicknamed Patch because of the patch over his missing eye; his real name is Joseph. There is a bond between these two that is forged after Patch attempts to steal honey from Saint. He is like the bad boy who is always getting in trouble, and she is the girl who wants to set him on the right path.

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Husbands & Lovers by Beatriz Williams

July 2024

I smiled a lot while reading HUSBANDS & LOVERS, loving what Beatriz Williams captures in a book that is genre-bending. It’s both historical fiction and women’s fiction, and it features a great love story…or two. Beatriz once again tackles two time frames --- actually, there are three --- but for the first time, one of them is in present day…or at least in this decade (2022 New England). Mallory is a single mom whose 10-year-old son, Sam, is at camp and has eaten poisonous mushrooms, which have destroyed his kidneys. He is in weekly dialysis and needs to be watched carefully as too much water or too many salty foods can throw his body off. He desperately needs a transplant.

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Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate

June 2024

I know little about Eastern Oklahoma, and I never have traveled there. But after reading SHELTERWOOD by Lisa Wingate, I would love to see this part of the country.

The book is set in two time frames. In 1909, we meet 11-year-old Olive Augusta Radley, who knows that the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards are not safe around her stepfather. The older girl disappears, and shortly after, Ollie flees to the woods with the younger girl. After the passage of the Dawes Act, which gave every Indian man, woman and child land, the youngest of these inheritors were preyed upon by men who wanted to lay claim to their oil rights. Children were hidden in the woods in places like the Winding Stair Mountains. There they would forage for food and protect one another, setting up their own systems of order in which the older children would watch out for the younger ones.

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Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris

May 2024

I was not familiar with heir property before I heard Terah Shelton Harris talk about it at a book preview event as she discussed her new novel, LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE. I found myself intrigued by this idea of land that was bought by Black people during the time of Reconstruction. These properties often were held by entire families and passed from generation to generation, but without much in the way of printed documents. Many times, the land was in areas that were swampy or near water, which was not considered desirable as people wanted property that could be farmed. As a result of the scant paperwork, there have been lots of ways for developers to try to lay claim to this land.

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The Stolen Child by Ann Hood

May 2024

Ann Hood has been interested in World War I for a while. She has traveled to battlefields and read extensively on the subject. So her writing a novel, THE STOLEN CHILD, set partially in this time period makes a lot of sense. She knows her way around the facts to create a beautiful story up against them.

Nick Burns was a soldier in the war, and he has been haunted by something for decades. As enemy forces headed into town, a young woman thrust her baby and two of her paintings into this young American’s hands, imploring him to take care of her son. And then she was gone.

Nick was unable to keep the boy and left him in what he thought would be a safe place. But the child and these paintings, which he still has, have been on his mind for the longest time. What happened to the baby, and what happened to the painter?

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Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews

May 2024

I love big hotels that have a lot of history to them, so I was immediately drawn to SUMMERS AT THE SAINT. Here, Mary Kay Andrews has all the elements for a perfect beach read --- a beloved hotel with a storied reputation, a great cast of characters, and a few mysteries that include a murder. And she parlays this into a page-turning story!

The St. Cecelia (which everyone refers to as “the Saint”) is being run by Traci Eddings, who grew up as “an Ain't,” meaning that she was not wealthy or connected enough to frequent the resort. She married a man whose family owned the hotel and took over his position running it when he died in a plane crash.

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