Calliope

Review: The Newcomer, by Robyn Carr

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3 stars

Book 2 in a new series by Robyn Carr (of The Virgin River series), The Newcomer (Thunder Point) tells a story of small town life. You’ve got the guy running the beachfront bait shop/ lunch spot, his love interest the pilot, her brother the football player, the football player’s girlfriend, the girlfriend’s best friend….

This book has a terrific ensemble cast and several secondary plots, but no main plot line as the focus. Teenage angst takes up a lot of chapter space in The Newcomer, as does parental responsibility. People fall in love, help each other get through their struggles, and come out smiling at the end. It’s light and enjoyable.

I enjoyed The Newcomer, but I liked the first book The Wanderer, even better. I look forward to reading the third Thunder Point installment — The Hero.

-Calliope

Buy it now The Newcomer

Review: A Nantucket Christmas, by Nancy Thayer

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970104_10200426610931208_974928933_n2 stars.

A Nantucket Christmas is the story of a boy, Maddox, meeting a dog. But before he does, Thayer tells us the individual stories of the boy and his family, and of the dog and his plight.

This book meandered and wandered, describing Nantucket in its Christmas glory, and describing the personalities and quirks of Maddox’s family members. Unfortunately, the direction of the plot (boy meeting dog) wasn’t clear midway through. I was left wondering, What ABOUT this boy and his family? What is this book about? Where is the conflict?

Sure, there were small conflicts, but I saw no focal point, no literary conflict around which a compelling story could be told.

So, A Nantucket Christmas was mostly a slice of life story with an exciting birth scene and a warm meeting between boy and dog.

I wanted to love it, but with its uneven writing, sprinkling of puns, and reflective paragraph about yawning, I struggled to finish. This book might work as a short story or a Lifetime movie, but it doesn’t have the forward moving energy required of a good novel.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

-Calliope

Buy It Now A Nantucket Christmas: A Novel

Introduction: The 5 Muses

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Welcome to Random Book Muses blog!

There are 5 of us wonderful book Muses floating around who will be providing the book reviews on here. We are voracious readers who are extremely passionate about our love of reading and take it pretty seriously. At any time of day at least half of us are most likely reading a book.

But not only do we love to read books, we love to share our love of reading. Whether a book was wonderful, horrible or just meh, we all enjoy letting others know what we think. All of us write reviews for books so we decided to join forces and create one supersize blog.

Between the 5 of us our interests cover a wide gamut.  Among us we read Young Adult, New Adult, Classics, Non Fiction, Chick Lit, and even some Science Fiction and Fantasy. We read in the Mystery, Suspense genre, True Crimes and definitely just straight Literature. A few of us read Romance books – and the huge variation there is within that genre.

Basically we’re book lovers at the heart. No book snobs here, we read what we want to and review them based on our thoughts and feelings from the book.  All 5 of us have massive TBR piles that never seem to end and wish lists that grow all the time.

Calliope, Clio, Melpomene, Thalia and Urania  – the 5 Muses at your service here – will be posting the reviews.  We hope you enjoy!

Review: Anybody But Him, by Claire Baxter

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Anybody But Him is a cute, sassy, funny romantic comedy. It started out a little quirky and confusing, but midway through I was hooked on the story of Nicola being back in her small hometown. The characters, plot and dialogue were believable and well-written. The only idea I thought might have been farfetched was the initial meeting between the Nicola and Blair. Once they met, their interactions were natural and fun.

I was satisfied with the predictable happy ending – I like a happily ever after in romcoms and chick lit.

This novella struck me as a streamlined, briefer Jill Mansell-type story. I totally enjoyed it and will read more by Baxter.

My favorite detail in the book was the dog’s name. Quite clever.

This ARC was given to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

–Calliope

Buy it now Anybody But Him (Random Romance)

Review: The Bookstore, by Deborah Meyler

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Buy It Now The Bookstore

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3.5 stars

Smart, studious young Esme is living in New York, studying at Columbia. She falls in love, and then learns to navigate the stormy seas of a relationship while trying to hold onto her Self. The bookstore she works at becomes her emotional home base, and where she finds unexpected but real friends.

I loved the plot. I liked experiencing Esme figuring out her life against the backdrop of her figuring out New York living.

The writing enchanted me. Meyler uses precise and impressive vocabulary. We get to know Esme through Meyler’s smart word choice.

However, at times the book was too wordy. There were entire pages worth of descriptions of art or writers that didn’t contribute to the plot. For me, the numerous art and academia allusions held me up and disrupted the storyline.

Characterization was done well… Esme was a brilliant, idealistic student. Mitchell’s family was blue-blood hilarious and provided a backdrop for a nice bit of social class commentary. Nick’s fondness for Esme made my heart skip a beat.

Because of the wordiness, this was a slow book for me. It took twice as long as usual to read. But I’m so glad I did. Esme was magical, sad, fanciful — and by the end — hopeful.

I received this ARC free from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

-Calliope

Review: Crumbs Aren’t Enough, by Raquel Whiting Gilmer

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Crumbs aren’t Enough tells the story of a young woman, Charlie, and her self-esteem issues around men. We follow her professional career in DC and Ohio, her journey through therapy, and her growth in the “find a man” department.

This book is written like a monologue– imagine yourself sitting down on a comfy couch with your best girlfriend and a glass of wine. And then your friend tells you everything that’s happened to her in the past five years. The author uses a lot of phrases like “you remember when,” “let me tell you,” and “you see.”

All that familiarity brings a reader in… But it was off-putting at the beginning, hence the 3.5 stars. I wanted to say Whoa, I barely know you, slow down a bit!

By the end, I was crying with my new best friend, and rejoicing with her too!

This was fun chick-lit with some serious words about self-esteem issues. I enjoyed it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.