Monthly Archives: December 2021

heart, humor, reviews, romance, women's fiction

Laura Dave — London is the Best City in America

The back of this book says it’s a romance novel, but I would call it an anti-romance. People have a tendency to stick with a relationship on expectations of what they want it to be. This is a story of ending those relationships and getting on with life. It was somewhat humorous, a little too repetitive, and for some strange reason divided into five parts. If you read it with your sense of humor in tact, it’s enjoyable.

The characters were likeable. The brother sister relationship was believable. Emmy finally got out of her rut in the end.

I read this book because I recently read Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me, which captured me.

character, mystery, reviews, thriller

Kris Calvin — All That Fall

The book kept my attention even though I felt there were some holes in the plot. I liked characters Emma, Alibi, and Luke. I even liked Tommy but felt he was removed from the story too soon. I wasn’t crazy about Dylan (stalker mentality) and felt he was added to the story just to help Emma find out what was going on.

The biggest hole in the plot was the lack of attention paid to the kidnapping of the governor’s granddaughter. The police appear to be more interested in the murder of a young man and even the accidental death of one of their own, Tommy. Everyone seems to be overlooking big clues that Luke is in trouble.

I enjoyed the read and look forward to the next book in the Emma Lawrence series.

character, head, heart, mystery, reviews, women's fiction

Laura Dave — The Last Thing He Told Me

Great writing. Excellent story-telling. Characters that captured my heart.

This novel was a welcome change from a lot of books I’ve read recently. I’m tired of reading about characters who are drunks and/or totally screwed up psychologically. Hannah is a strong intelligent woman who loves her husband and stepdaughter. When husband Owen goes missing she wants to find him and to know why he left, not only for herself but for step-daughter Bailey. Bailey is a believable teenager. The contentious but growing relationship between them is a big part of the story. I liked all the characters including Owen who doesn’t actually appear in the story. But we know him from Hannah and Bailey’s hearts.

The story is unusual and the ending unexpected. It was a pleasure to read a story without lots of gratuitous violence. Hannah follows the threads of Owen’s life to find out who he is and where he came from.

Some reviewers mentioned bad editing. As an editor, I sometimes get turned off by a book with questionable editing. But I was so involved in the story that I didn’t notice any errors if they were there.

I will look for more books by Laura Dave.