bethreadsandnaps's reviews
2618 reviews

 

3.5 stars

CAT’S PEOPLE by Tanya Guerrero is a found family novel set in Brooklyn involving a stray cat and the people that care about it. 

Nuria is a single barista in her 30s with three cats that feeds Brooklyn’s stray cats, including Cat, one of the novel’s narrators. It’s becoming more common to have animal narrators in novels and I went with it easily enough. Omar is a gay postal worker and wasn’t given as much to do as I wanted to see. Bong is a grieving widower and bodega owner who recently lost his wife. Collin is a successful writer who looks out of his window at the alley where Cat resides, and he also gets coffee where Nuria works. And Lily is working on a mission of her own. The notes between Collin and Nuria were very endearing. I thought more emotion could have been created between Nuria and Lily. 

I did have to suspend some disbelief at all of these characters crossing paths due to one stray cat. Also, there wasn’t much tension in this novel. Even the big plot point involving Cat seemed resolved extremely quickly and without any debate.  

I thought this novel had excellent representation. I liked the Brooklyn setting. I thought the novel could have had a bit more forward propulsion, but I did enjoy some of the author’s touches on the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

It publishes April 1, 2025. 

 

This has everything I want in a book: compelling narrative, an interesting main character with enough background so you can see the messed-up origination story, and well-researched. 

I was surprised that it took SO long for him to get caught and in Switzerland of all places! And his mom! 

This had a great premise. New mother Cam is going back to work as a literary agent after maternity leave, and on the first morning she’s going to take her daughter Polly to daycare, she can’t find her husband and sees an ambiguous note left for her. She has a sinking feeling despite pretending to be upbeat, and then finds there’s a hostage situation going on. Her husband Luke isn’t being held hostage. He’s the one keeping three others hostage, and he ultimately ends up escaping. 

I enjoyed getting to know the character of Cam and particularly liked learning about hostage negotiator Niall. Seven years and a divorce later, he’s still obsessed with this case. Niall has also sought therapy, which is very endearing. As both Cam and Niall try to move on with their lives, they can’t because the ghost of what happened with Luke keeps nagging at both of them. 

As I said, I enjoyed the characters, and even the side characters like Cam’s sister Libby infuse some realism with her fertility struggle. The plot started out fast-paced with the hostage situation, and it did slow down when time jumped to seven years later. I did figure out where one of the plot strands was going (related to Luke’s occupation) pretty early on, but that didn’t take away my enjoyment of the novel. 

My 4 star rating is really that I thought this was a solid thriller, but I doubt it will rise to my favorites of the year.  

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS publishes February 25, 2025. 

I really liked this relatively slim novel about a young mother who decides to stay in her apartment community’s pool while her husband and boys went to church on a Sunday in 1957 and still stays in once they come home. I was surprised that this book was set in New England in November because it seemed so cold to be in the water then! 

Anyway, the enduring theme of women having fewer choices and those dreams being sidelined for men and children is very strong here. The novel looks back on their lives and the choices they have made. As someone who also is very reflective on how the small choices create a unique life path, I felt a lot of empathy with the main character Kathleen.

I love a good memoir, but I feel like this one dwells on certain things (namely her problematic relationship with her secretive parents, including her donor conception) and gives very little about the things most people are here for (her marriage, kids). 

➕There is a fair amount on acting, especially as she was trying to break into acting and her early roles. 

➖So. Much. About. Her. Parents. 
Very little about her romantic relationships. 

It does hit the trifecta of early sexual abuse, eating disorder, and abortion. But these all seem to be fly-by mentions, and it feels like she went to therapy and discovered that these all seem to originate from her parents (the sleepovers that created a situation where she was abused definitely seemed to be attributable to her parents). Add in the secretive parents, and Kerry has a treasure trove of parent issues to discuss. 

Hey, I like to blame my parents for my issues like the next person. But can we move on beyond that? 

This is decently written, but it is so frustratingly selective that it impeded my enjoyment. 

 

3.5 stars

Katy has recently lost her mother, and that has had her question everything, including her husband Eric. She decides to go on the trip she had planned to go on with her mother Carol to Positano, Italy. 

There she meets Adam and a woman named Carol, who looks like a younger version of her own mother. Is the time travel ever explained? Nope. This is a daughter learning to accept that her mother made her own mistakes when she was younger, just like Katy. 

I liked the message. Lauren Graham narrates the audiobook, and she did a great job but I wouldn’t have known it was her if her name hadn’t been mentioned. I thought the Italian setting would have come more alive than it did. 

 

 

This story reminded me of THE GUNCLE. Lillian’s old friend Madison asks her to look after her two stepchildren who have this problem of spontaneously combusting. Their unsightliness upon the family (Madison’s husband, their biological father, is a Tennessean politician) relegates them to living outside the family home. Lillian bonds with Roland and Bessie as well as fellow employee Carl. Lillian is a spunky protagonist with her own family wounds. 

I think this is a great one to pick up if you’re going to be a stepparent. While it does have some magical realism (spontaneous combusting), the vast majority of this novel is very grounded.

 

 

Historical fiction fans who want to avoid a WWII story, THE STORY SHE LEFT BEHIND by Patti Callahan Henry will likely scratch that itch with an added bit of fantastical whimsy. I would say that this novel has a lot of parallels to a Kate Morton novel, which I really liked. 

Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham is a child prodigy fantasy writer, writing her first story at age 8 and getting it published at age 12 (Bronwyn is based on a real child prodigy writer!). After a tragic event when she’s in her 30s, Bronwyn disappears, leaving a husband and 8 year old daughter Clara. Now, in 1952, Clara is summoned to England by Charlie Jameson, who was clearing out papers after his father’s death and found papers believed to be from her missing mother. Clara takes her 8 year old daughter Wynnie to London, and there they get caught in the Great Smog of 1952, which is especially problematic because Wynnie has asthma. They retreat to the countryside with the Jameson family, and Clara attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery and at the same time is intrigued by Charlie. 

The settings, both South Carolina and England, were well-drawn and very atmospheric. And, of course, the thick, sooty smog that affected so many people’s lungs made me empathize with Londoners at this time. 

I thought the themes of history repeating itself and running away vs. running to something were well-constructed. At times, the novel had moments of being a bit more drawn out and repetitive than I needed and sometimes a smidge too sentimental for my taste. On the whole, I found it enjoyable and learned a lot about this time period. 

Love the cover. Not as fond of the title. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review. 

THE STORY SHE LEFT BEHIND publishes March18, 2025. 

 

4.25 ⭐️

In Curtis Sittenfelds’s latest short story collection SHOW DON’T TELL, we get an assortment of flawed female women mostly in their 40s as they confront various aspects of themselves. Had I not known the author of this collection, I think I could have puzzled it out since a number of these stories are adjacent to academia and the privilege and style that I associate with Sittenfeld’s writing.  

Maybe it’s because I’m in the exact target demographic for this short story collection that most of these short stories resonated with me. I really enjoyed “The Marriage Clock,” “The Richest Babysitter in the World” (the protagonist babysits for basically Jeff Bezos right before a company like Amazon is founded and turns down a job offer from him), “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” and ‘Lost But Not Forgotten.” 

“White Women LOL” addressed race. I have mixed feelings about the story, but that might be because I’m not sure if Sittenfeld as a privileged white women should have stepped into this lane. I also wasn’t a fan of “Giraffe and Flamingo,” but on the whole most of these 12 short stories did speak to me. 

The story “Lost But Not Forgotten” features Lee Fiora, the main character from PREP, going to her thirtieth reunion and connecting with someone she had only known in passing back in school. I have read PREP, but it was so long ago that I didn’t remember anything. However, I felt it was a strong story on its own, and I didn’t feel you needed to have read PREP to enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

SHOW DON’T TELL publishes February 25, 2025. 

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4.25 ⭐️

In Eowyn Ivey’s latest novel BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY Birdie is 26 years old and taking care of  her 6 year old while working at a lodge in Alaska. Birdie comes across as a bit immature, as she leaves Emaleen alone more than most readers might, but she has to earn money to keep up with expenses. The Alaska nature writing is exquisite, as you would expect from Ivey. 

Birdie meets reclusive and odd Arthur. The part I struggled with most in the novel is Birdie’s and Arthur’s relationship. I didn’t “feel” their chemistry. Pretty quickly Birdie decides to move herself and Emaleen in to Arthur’s cabin, and Arthur’s father flies them all to the remote cabin that doesn’t have electricity or plumbing. Carrying pails of water around, keeping food away from bears, very rugged. 

Arthur seems to be acting stranger and stranger, being gone a lot. The novel morphs into one of magical realism/fantasy, which I expected. The setting and isolation felt very vivid, and this quiet novel is one to curl up with, as it is very immersive. However, I didn’t always think Birdie made the decisions that I would had I be in her position.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. 

BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY publishes February 4, 2025. 

#blackwoodsbluesky #eowynivey  #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer  #bookstagram