Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus (Doubleday)
Here comes another strong protagonist who challenges the status quo! Filled with humor and quirky characters, this title is easily comparable in tone to Where’d You Go Bernadette or Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk.
In the early ‘60’s, Elizabeth Zott is a scientist with a mind of her own. She takes a new job as the host of a local daytime cooking TV show when she is fired from her research position for being both pregnant and unwed. As cooking is chemistry and chemistry is change, she brings revolutionary ideas to American housewives via her cooking show.
She is a one-of-a-kind heroine with a great canine companion both of which you will wish you could get to know in real life!
The Paris Dressmaker - Kristy Cambron (Thomas Nelson)
Perfect for historical fiction devotees, this novel is based on true events, and real lives lived during World War II Paris. The story focuses on two memorable, courageous women who resist Nazi occupation and the darkness of those war years in Paris. One is a dress designer, and another is an art cataloguer, both of which narrowly survive Nazi entrapment. While maintaining their faith that “lighter” times will prevail, both protagonists are Resistance supporters who champion France, Paris, and the French way of life. A great combination of romance, intrigue, and history!
– L.Q.
Perfect Timing - Owen Nicholls
This is not the fun and whimsical tale of love you’re expecting. There is a likely possibility that the reader will not like these characters at all times, but they are the embodiment of the idea that everybody deserves love and to be loved for they really are.
– C.B.
The Vanished Bride - Bella Ellis (Berkeley 2019)
The Vanished Bride is a very enjoyable historical mystery set in Yorkshire and features the Bronte family; yes, the whole clan is involved in one way or another with a strange disappearance. Ms. Ellis’ knowledge of the famous family shines through as the sisters and brother figure out how to be “detectors” in a place and era when everyone was effectively isolated. Combine this tension with the stress of novice authors, hostility to women, overfondness for drink, and a semi-benign intruding father, all in a well-researched and written narrative, and you will be reading a fine debut novel.
– M.W.
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
This absolute doorstopper of a fantasy book does not waste any time throwing the reader into a world full of political intrigue, criminal scandal, and dragons.
– C.B.
Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Admittedly, this novel has received ample enough praise already. That being said, Moreno-Garcia deserves every good review thrown her way for Mexican Gothic. If you are looking for a reason to be wary of shrooms and a little more skeptical of colonizing English families, you are looking at the perfect novel to start preparing for the spooky season.
– C.B.
The Invisible Like of Addie Larue - V.E. Schwab
In this beautifully written novel, Addie Larue seeks new experiences and a wider world that her early 18th-century French village can afford her. On the run from an arranged marriage, Addie strikes a bargain with a certain Dark Stranger: live forever in complete freedom. Freedom to do as she wishes, but also “freedom” from being remembered by anyone she sees, including her family. While the Stranger believes she will soon tire of the struggle, Addie is determined to live, learn, and find what love she can, living through three centuries until a new experience in21st century New York City changes everything.
Addie, resilient and determined, drives this compelling story of love, freedom, and the human need for connection, and readers will want to journey with her to the book’s end and beyond.
– J.R.