Book Review - An Inconvenient Wife: A Modern Tudor Mystery, by Karen E. Olson

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

How had that girl ended up the way she did – and in such a vicious way? Underneath it all lurked the stock sell-off. There was no way this wouldn’t affect the stocks even more. Shareholders were a skittish bunch. The word “bankruptcy” was tossed around a bit, and for a moment she wondered what it would be like to be married to a Hank Tudor without the billions, a Hank Tudor who lost it all because of a body found on his property. She’d grown up in a middle-class family, in a suburban, nondescript town with parents who were teachers. She worked summers and afternoons after school at the local diner, serving up BLTs and coffee and ice cream sundaes, scraping together enough money to go to the movies, concerts with her friends, putting a little aside every paycheck to help defray college costs. She knew how to live like that; she wasn’t afraid of it. Hank had grown up with money, though. He didn’t know what it was like to struggle financially.

She imagined the two of them settled into a small house somewhere. She could go back to work, and Hank could start a new business. They could have home-cooked dinners and Sundays in front of a fire, reading and just being together. No media hovering outside the door, no need for security teams. 

Kate Parker wasn’t just Hank Tudor’s sixth wife. She had already been his assistant while he was married to wife number five. She knows what goes in to promoting the image the staff needs the world to see about Hank Tudor and his companies.

Official synopsis:

Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.

But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.

In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago.

This modernization of a splash of Henry VIII’s story was an amusing read. While there seems to be a marked pattern of Hank Tudor leaving each of his wives for personal assistants, Kate Parker is sure that she understands more of what’s up than the others did. But since she’s now his sixth wife and doesn’t have any authority within his life and business dealings, she’s an outsider as the investigation begins regarding a headless body found on his property.

Kate’s confidence may be the death of her, as she is certain she knows what is happening and who all the players are. She also wants to prove that she’s more loyal than the previous wives, and would definitely never question whether her new husband could be behind any deaths or missing persons cases.

It was fun seeing the wives described as contemporary characters: a business woman, an agoraphobic obsessed with him, a lesbian who would never love him that way anyway, and a starlet, to name a few. The story was a fun premise that could be expanded to cover other wives’ stories. The book earned four out of five stars and would be enjoyed by those who appreciate the original Tudor stories, or know nothing of them and just like a curious mystery.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, writing, and doing Legos. When she’s not at work, you’ll find her caring for her family with love. See what else they’re up to on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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Book Review: Conditions of a Heart, by Bethany Mangle

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

“I just invited Oliver to come here,” I deadpan. “Help.”

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down.” She slowly tilts her head back as she drains the rest of her drink, her eyes shutting briefly when it’s empty. “Oof. That’s bitter.” She rolls her hand in the air. “You may continue panicking now.”

I bend over, my subconscious rapidly calculating the odds that I throw up on Tori’s Birkenstocks-and-ankle-socks combo. “What was…what thinking? Why…do?”

Tori pats me consolingly on the head and gestures for me to follow her toward the kitchen. “Do you want breakfast? I have spinach quiche and egg wraps.”

“He’s going to be here in, like, an hour.” My attempts to slow my breathing turn into not breathing at all, leaving me somewhere between stunned blowfish and hyperventilating panic attack. I straighten suddenly and latch onto the sleeve of her oversized purple hoodie before she’s out of reach. “What do I do? What do I do?”

Brynn has never told anyone at her new school about her diagnosis. Now that it’s been years, is there any way to tell them that will let them ever trust her again?

Official synopsis:

Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.

But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being, Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one wanted: herself.

Brynn decided to live her life at her new high school exactly as she wanted to. She became one of the most social students, building up to her senior year. She loves having everyone recognize how capable she is in heading up the yearbook committee, and she enjoys planning big events for the class, like prom. 

When she tries to break up a fight by talking, Brynn ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in order to keep his own name clean, the rich kid causing the trouble tells the school that Brynn started it. To make an example of her, after her suspension, she is banned from the activities she loves for the rest of her senior year. A lot of soul-searching leads her to potentially change her life even more, if she can’t have it like she wants it.

This heartwarming story eventually has Brynn finding out who her true friends are, and realizing that she doesn’t have to do her life by herself. In spite of how much she values her impression of confidence and her independence, everyone needs help from family and friends sometimes. Brynn’s medical diagnosis means that she’s going to need more help than a lot of people along her journey.

The book was the best and worst of a stereotypical private school with the added intrigue of Brynn and her family trying to navigate her Ehlers-Danlos in secret (at Brynn’s request) through it all. In addition to being an entertaining book about the drama of a high-schooler’s senior year, it also was educational about her diagnosis and personal limitations. The book earned 4 out of 5 stars and would be a good read for those who like contemporary YA romance and family dramas.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, really good chicken salad sandwiches, and building Lego sets. Check out her other activities and book reviews on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Beneath the Poet's House, by Christa Carmen {ends 2/28}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

After checking her phone to make sure everyone’s arrived, Stacy turns in the opposite direction from which Saoirse and Emmit have come. “All right, everyone. Our tour has officially started. Onward, to what we in the biz still refer to as the Biltmore Hotel.”

Saoirse and Emmit match their strides to the half dozen or so other participants on the ghost walk. Saoirse wishes she’d thought to bring a pair of gloves. It’s much colder than when she had initially planned to be out with Emmit, nine hours earlier. 

“Are you excited?” Emmit asks.

“Sure,” Saoirse replies. “This is cool.”

“Are you scared?” He grins.

Saoirse feels her mouth lift into a half smile that mirrors the one Emmit so often wears. “It takes an awful lot to scare me these days.”

Saoirse is trying to move on from the death of her husband and create a life for herself after so many years of losing her own desires to her husband’s expectations.

Official synopsis:

Unmoored by her husband’s death and suffering from writer’s block, novelist Saoirse White moves to Providence, and into the historic home of Sarah Helen Whitman, the nineteenth-century poet and spiritualist once courted by Edgar Allan Poe. Saoirse’s certain she’ll find inspiration in the quiet rooms, as well as in the tucked-away rose garden and forgotten cemetery at the back of the property.

Saoirse is immediately welcomed by an effusive trio of transcendentalists obsessed with Whitman, the house, and Whitman’s mystic beliefs. Saoirse, emerging from grief and loneliness, welcomes the idea of new friends taking her mind off the past—even as they hope to summon it. When she meets Emmit Powell, a charismatic and charming prize-winning author, Saoirse thinks she’s finally turned a corner.

Emboldened by new romance, Saoirse begins to write again and, through her writing, rediscover herself. But as old fears return, she finds that nothing about her new life is what it seems—and a secret she’s tried so hard to bury may not be the only thing that comes back to haunt her.

Saoirse has some skeletons in her past, but she’s determined to leave the life that was making her miserable and smothering her creativity. She’s leaving the home she shared with her husband until he died and returning to Providence, where they met in college. She’s hoping to start fresh and get back to writing novels again.

She’s not surprised when things once again don’t go according to plan. The house she picked out to rent happens to have a history, and although it hasn’t been rented for five years, she finds visitors there on her first night. But she’s resilient and reminds herself that she wanted things to be different, and they are definitely seeming to shape up that way. Soon she even meets a new romantic interest, that she surely did not think would happen so soon, or maybe ever again.

Emmit is interested in her and her writing, and wants to know everything about her. Another new friend plants a seed of doubt, but of course Saoirse is a grown up who can make her own choices and judgments about people.

The book is beautifully told, thoroughly researched regarding the area and references of Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Helen Whitman, and intricately plotted for some reminiscing of their doomed love story. This great gothic thriller earned 5 out of 5 stars. It would be an excellent spooky book club read. 

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a black cat mom who enjoys literary history and psychologically spooky stories. Check out more of what she and her family are up to on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Beneath the Poet's House!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Friday, February 28th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be chosen the next day and notified via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Beneath the Poet's House, by Christa Carmen Take Mobile Users to a Host

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Book Review - Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Murder, by Cutter Wood

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

My departure from Florida after this interview bore some resemblance to a man disappearing into a crevasse. One moment, I was sitting in the parking lot of the prison listening to my messages; the next second, one could just make out the whinny of a loose steering belt in the distance as the station wagon banked a curve and headed north. The reason for this hurry was quite simple. There had been three messages on my phone when I left the prison:  the first, from Forrest, saying that if I was free he’d be happy to show me sandcastle pictures whenever was convenient – he was available all week; the second, from my mother, wondering if they’d found that motel woman yet – she hoped I was having fun; the last, from Erin, saying that she couldn’t stop thinking about me – she wanted to meet. 

I had to teach my first class of the semester in Iowa in about thirty-six hours. I spread the atlas out on the passenger-side seat. It was possible. If we met halfway, we could share four or five hours before I needed to turn west. I called her back, and as our rendezvous point, we selected a motel, the very name of which – the Lynnette – seemed to promise some indefinable intrigue. I was on the highway even before we’d said goodbye.

While the story claimed to be about a murder, the murder felt more like the background for the author’s discoveries about life.

Official synopsis:

When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest—her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car. Then the motel is set on fire; her boyfriend flees the county; and detectives begin digging on the beach of Anna Maria Island.

Author Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for her gained momentum. Driven by his own need to understand how a relationship could spin to pieces in such a fatal fashion, he began to talk with many of the people living on Anna Maria, and then with the detectives, and finally with the man presumed to be the murderer. But there was only so much that interviews and transcripts could reveal.

In trying to understand how we treat those we love, this book, like Truman Capote’s classic In Cold Blood, tells a story that exists outside documentary evidence. Wood carries the investigation of Sabine’s murder beyond the facts of the case and into his own life, crafting a tale about the dark conflicts at the heart of every relationship.

Cutter Wood writes about the mystery of a missing woman from Anna Maria Island, Florida, while embarking on his own romantic relationship with a woman he knew from grade school, and furthering his education and career as a writer. Although he felt immersed enough in his research to imagine a relationship with the missing (and probably dead) woman, his interactions and review of information from the three suspects don’t bring him any closer to solving the mystery and possible crime than the police.

The writing style was pleasant, and the book earned 3 out of 5 stars. In spite of the description, this may not be a favorite for those who enjoy true-crime, as it read more like a memoir of the author’s life during the investigation of the crime. Those who like lifestyle stories would enjoy this book.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a Gemini who enjoys the sense of accomplishment that comes with waking up early and checking off the tasks that need to be done. See some pictures of what she’s up to on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY - Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar by Margaret Gardiner {ends 2/14}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Joey lied all the time about little, unimportant things, like the time she told the South African back in Hamburg  about her ‘sisters’ when she had none. Well, none that she knew of, but how would her lie change the South African’s life? It hadn’t. Not really. Charlie wanted to go down a path. She took Joey’s lie to make the journey easier. For Joey? Lying was the lubrication of life. Even if you didn’t lie, everyone thought you did, so you might as well. Joey lied by omission, for control, because she could, and also because it was fun. But she never confused truth and lies. The lies she told hurt no one. They added color to life.

Fran was a whole other story. Part of Joey knew that she lived the lie of Giovanni because Fran could not face the truth of Hamburg. The House of Rest, the lithium, the subsequent fracas? It had been a fog to cover the lie that Fran perpetrated. Joey had tried to get Fran to talk about the truth of Hamburg, but Joey didn’t have a good track record with being heard or believed.

Joey has been let down by nearly everyone throughout her life, but she’s learning that she needs to be able to trust and rely on herself, most of all.

Official synopsis:

Welcome to the world of model Joey Superstar - a whirlwind of cocaine, sex, and money.

Josaphina Brinkley seems to have it all: she’s a superstar model in 1980s America, a cover girl plastered naked on fashion billboards above Sunset Blvd. Women want to be her. Men simply want her.

But underneath the glossy veneer she hides a traumatic past. The end of her marriage to Italian Aristocracy led to a stint in rehab. As she returns to parties, premiers and modeling, she’s hoping a life of designer clothes and beautiful people won’t take her back to blow. If only she could be truly seen, heard and understood, perhaps she wouldn't self-destruct again?

Joey sets out to confront the roots of her wildness – but must admit to a youthful act that haunts her. As Joey fights from addiction to redemption, can she change the course of her life, deal with her dark past and become the superstar she was always destined to be? Former Miss Universe Margaret Gardiner gives readers the key to a secret world of supermodels, sex, style and scandal in her deliciously intoxicating debut, Joey Superstar, the first in an exciting Damaged Beauty series.

Most other characters in the book don’t think very highly of Joey, and it seems like this has shaped a lot of her expectations for herself. Luckily, the ending of her marriage lands her in The House of Rest, where a doctor finally convinces her to look at how she really feels about things, and what serves her instead of just her image.

The craziness of a 1980s party lifestyle was fun to read, but even more curious was watching how the different characters existed to enjoy, manage, or even thrive. The relationships between the characters and Joey’s evolving observations about them was engaging.

Overall, the book earned 4 out of 5 stars, and as the first book in a Damaged Beauty series, it’s expected that the author will bring us more good reads with interesting stories of compelling characters.

{click here to purchase from my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a Gemini who enjoys reading and watching 80s movies. See more of what she’s up to on Instagram, where she posts as SweetlyBSquared.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Friday, February 14th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be notified the next day via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen. 

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar by Margaret Gardiner

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Magic Maker, by Mickey Dubrow {ends 2/4}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

2013

For years, only Sadie continued to lift the matzo box and peer at the world below. But the family joined her when she told them about construction crews arriving at their building. They watched them coming and going and listened to banging and sawing below them. Then, moving trucks brought boxes of all sizes.

After the workers left, Jacob was the one who figured out that 97 Orchard Street had become a form of entertainment. He noticed that groups of people gathered at the stoop at regular times throughout the day. A guide then spoke to the group and gestured at the building before leading the group inside.

“I’m inclined to agree,” Sadie said. “But what kind of entertainment?”

Esther knows what she saw—and Meir (a kishef macher, or magic maker) is the only person who seems willing to believe her. 

Official synopsis:

In 1917, on New York City's Lower East Side, Baruch Rosenfeld invites a beggar to join his family for the Passover Seder. However, his good deed backfires. Baruch, his wife Rebekah, and their children Nathan, Jacob, and Sadie are trapped in time. They don't age, they can't leave their three-room apartment, and the outside world believes they disappeared without a trace.

A hundred years later, the apartment building is now the Tenement Museum. Esther Luna, an educator for the museum, sees Sadie at the window. Esther goes to the apartment but finds it has been empty for decades. She hires Rabbi Meir Poppers, a kishef macher (magician), to solve the mystery of the girl at the window.

Meir's efforts to free the Rosenfelds are blocked by rivals, ancient spells, and his own self-doubt. When Meir finally reaches the trapped family, will his Jewish magic be enough to rescue the Rosenfelds from their eternal prison?

This story was so quirky and fun, in a way, with an underlying dark and sad story about the Rosenfeld family being trapped for a century. The characters were all compelling and mostly likable, and the Jewish history and tradition shared was enlightening.

The book was also well told and the side-plots were amusing. While Meir did his calling, and the job he was being paid to do and risking his life for, he also had to keep in mind that he was of marrying age and should be trying to meet a wife. Esther had moved on from her job at the museum. She was ready to move on in her life with her husband, but felt the only right thing to do was figure out the mystery of the girl she saw in the window, and free her. Her husband was drawn way more into the drama than he wanted to be, while he just wanted to be a supportive husband and thought he was indulging Esther’s illusion.

Overall, the story was intricate and earned 5 out of 5 stars. The characters were engaging and the dual timelines in the book made for an interesting reading experience. Those who like cozy books about Jewish and New York characters, both contemporary and early 1900s, would enjoy The Magic Maker.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who also enjoys reading and learning more about people. Check out other reviews and her life on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Magic Maker!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Tuesday, February 4th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

The Magic Maker, by Mickey Dubrow

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Book Review: A Grandmother Begins the Story, by Michelle Porter

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Gen brought herself to her feet again and found herself swaying between belief and doubt, but she said, Let me close the doors so we don’t wake them up with our playing.

Velma put her fiddle on her clavicle, lifted her bow, and waited. Velma’s hair was falling over her shoulders. At her armpits the dress had turned a darker red because she’d been playing and she always played with her whole self, every muscle in her body making the music. Gen sat at the bench.

I’ve been waiting to play with you since you left for the spirit world, you bloody no-good bastard, Gen said.

The distinct stories of five generations of Mèti women make some interesting intersections as they embrace or deny the trauma of their lives past and present.

Official synopsis:

Carter is a young mother on a quest to find the true meaning of her heritage, which she only learned of in her teens. Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her get to her ancestors in the afterlife. And Geneviève is determined to conquer her demons—before the fire inside burns her up—with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Meanwhile, Mamé, in the afterlife, knows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to cut herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the living, just as they must find their own paths forward. And a young bison wants to understand why he keeps being moved and whether he should make a break for it and run for his life.

The voices in these intertwining stories are definitely varied—from women (living and dead), sacred bison, and even a couple pet dogs (who may not actually be the souls of dogs). They all narrate the stories, gifts, and tragic flaws of five generations of Mèti women. The Mètis are an indigenous people in Canada who were descendants of First Nations women and European men in the 18th century. Their relationships with each other and those around them are compelling and thought-provoking. While the women may seem easier for readers to understand, the animals lend cultural significance that influences them all.

First in chronological time was Mamè, who tells her story from the afterlife and was the mother to Geneviève and Velma. Gen’s daughter is Lucie. Lucie’s daughter is Allie. Allie is the birth mother to Carter, who is recently rediscovering her roots. Carter is also a mother, but her young son does not yet tell his own story.

This book was so endearing and hard to put down. While it did not read as a straight-line novel, all of the characters narrating had their own style that inspired a reader to find out more of their story. The best part of the book was the characters with their unique histories and choices to be made for their futures. The story earned 4 out of 5 stars. 

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys escaping and learning of other lives through reading. See more of what she’s reading and her life on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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