Roger's Reads

Author & Book Reviewer

Review of Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

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This was such a fun, unusual book. It follows our main character Lillian who is a bit down on her luck at the moment. She is then summoned by her wealthy best friend Madison to her mansion, where Madison offers her a position: to work as a governess for her husband’s one-year-old twin children, Roland and Bessie.

Up until now, they were homeschooled and living with their mentally unstable mother until she recently passed away. But there’s a catch. Apparently, the twins spontaneously combust whenever they are agitated, setting fire to pretty much everything around them; though the fire doesn’t harm them at all. Lillian also has to keep the kids’ “ability” a secret as their father, Senator Robert, vies for Secretary of State.

It’s also worth mentioning that the children, who are suffering from trauma brought on by their mother, are wild, with violent tendencies leading to biting and attacking people and then…the flames come.

So Lillian agrees to be their nanny, and we follow her and the fire children over the course of the summer as she slowly establishes trust between the nearly feral kids and herself. She begins to realize that she needs these extraordinary kids as much as they need her. She begins to fight for the kids’ best interests as feelings of protectiveness arise within her, and the kids provide her with a new sense of purpose.

And as the story moves towards its explosive conclusion, Lillian has to make an enormous decision that could affect her and the kids’ lives forever.

So I really, really loved this quirky little book about exploding children and, ultimately, acceptance. It was wickedly funny, charming, and endearing — an all-around feel-good yet odd story with a super weird storyline, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Review of The Paris Hours by Alex George

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This is a historical fiction novel that was a recent Book of the Month Club selection and alternates between four different characters over the course of a single day in Paris in 1927. There Jean-Paul, a heartbroken journalist who continually searches for his missing daughter; there Camille, the maid of Marcel Proust who, when asked to burn all of his notebooks kept one for herself, Guillaume, who owes a debt to a crime boss and if he doesn’t pay up by the end of the day, will be killed and Souren, an Armenian refugee who performs puppet shows for children, some of them a tad on the grisly side as he relives his tragic past via his shows.

We get their stories through a series of flashbacks, and we see first-hand the secrets, regrets, sadness, hopelessness, and betrayal that each character is carrying. Via the book’s short chapters, we get a glimpse of their past and present, their life journeys, their heartbreak, their life lessons. There’s a lot to untangle with these highly complex and damaged characters.

The author dives into numerous themes in this novel: war, love, loss, grief, murder, guilt, secrets, deception, and loneliness, which an undercurrent of hope beneath it all. This was an elegant, evocative book with beautiful lyrical writing, which had a melodic flow to it, and I found each character’s backstory to be utterly compelling.

We also have some cameos by Gertrude Stein, Marcel Proust, Maurice Ravel, and Josephine Baker, which added a bit of extra interest to the story.

The four characters’ stories come crashing together in a rather explosive and shocking way at the end of the book. Now I will say that the ending was left open to interpretation, so if you like everything completely and nicely wrapped up at the end, then this may not be the book for you.

But if you like historical fiction and/or Paris, then you may want to give The Paris Hours a try.

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Review of Again Again by E. Lockhart

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Again Again is a YA contemporary story that takes place over summer and follows our main character Adelaide, a high school girl about to begin her senior year at a private school.  Heartbroken and somewhat depressed, she’s spending her summer as a dog walker.  Her boyfriend has just unexpectedly dumped her and left the country; she’s failed to turn in a major project for one of her classes, which could cause her to be expelled, all while trying to come to terms with her feelings about her brother’s drug addiction.  Over the summer, she encounters some new people, some of whom may or may not become a new love interest.

What’s unique about this book is that certain events in this book are played out in several different multiverses, each resulting in a different outcome. In other words, we see Adelaide’s story play out in a variety of different ways.  It’s kind of like seeing her story unfold in parallel universes where there are numerous versions of herself. She makes different decisions in each multiverse, falls in love with different people, and has different conversations about the same topics.  

This aspect was unusual, in that it allows us to contemplate the “what ifs” in our lives, and look at how changing one decision or saying something differently could change the outcome.  Even the smallest of changes can affect how things turn out. 

For instance, we see her have several different versions of a conversation with her professor or modified versions of the same text message thread with a boy she likes.  In some versions of the storyline, she suffers enormous setbacks and heartbreaks; in others, she finds happiness with someone different.  I especially got a kick of Adelaide’s inner dialog with the dogs that she walks.  

Again again is an experimental novel in an unusual format, and because of that, it’s not the kind of story that you can simply kick back and settle into.  I actually found that the format pulled me out of the story every time we dipped into the multiverses, which I personally found a tad jarring. 

It isn’t easy to discuss the plot, given that there are several different versions of it.  But what I found to be the heart of this novel is Adelaide’s complicated relationship with her brother Toby, which was heart-wrenching in places and hopeful in others. In every multiverse, she navigates her feelings about her brother’s situation: anger, regret, mistrust, fear, but with love at the root of it all.

All in all, I enjoyed Again Again though truth be told, I’m personally not a fan of experimental fiction, and as such, I am not the ideal reader for this story.  Though I did find the multiverse format unique and creative, I also found it a bit difficult to connect with the characters because of it.

But readers who enjoy experimental novels or multiverse storylines should definitely give Again Again a try as it’s a refreshing take on the contemporary novel.  It’s also a story with a lot of depth and many layers, and with a variety of themes such as love, loss, regret, siblings, heartbreak, family dynamics, addiction, self-esteem, the interconnectedness of things, and how even the smallest of choices can have huge repercussions. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for providing a free advanced e-copy of the book.

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Review of Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover

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The Hideaway Inn is a character-driven LGBT romance that follows Vince Amato.  We learn that as a child, Vince was bullied quite severely because of his sexuality.  The moment he graduated, he blew town, and during his years away, completely reinvented himself from the skinny, frightened kid he used to be to a domineering muscular power alpha.  

Now he’s back, but only because he recently purchased an inn called The Hideaway Inn.  He plans to renovate the inn, flip it, make a gigantic profit, and then return to his life in the city.  But what he didn’t count on was his childhood crush, Tack, a charming farm boy who broke Vince’s heart in high school.  We also learn that Tack stood by and did nothing during Vince’s bullying.  

But Tack has changed, and he’s determined to win Vince’s heart.  But Tack unaware of Vince’s plans to sell the inn.  So the question is:  can Tack win Vince’s heart and cause him to change his mind?

This was a sweet, tender, and endearing novel about redemption and second chances. I really enjoyed getting to know these two characters and enjoyed how they both grew throughout the pages of the book.  Character development was certainly among The Hideaway Inn’s list of shining accomplishments, and the author really brings them to life here, letting all of them thrive in their complexity, both haunted by the ghosts of their past. I loved the tension and chemistry between our two main characters, and they both tried to figure out how they fit into the other’s life.  

I really, really cared about these two guys making it to a happy ending and thought the journey that takes them there is an utterly remarkable read. This is the kind of book that makes you laugh, makes you sad, and even makes you pine for lost love and lost opportunities. I thought that this is a beautifully rendered contemporary story of love and friendship, with all of its exhilaration, disappointments, and mistakes, and if you’re in the mood for a sweet and cozy read, then The Hideaway Inn is surely worth checking out.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of this book.

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Review of Secret at Skull House by Josh Lanyon

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This is the second novel in Josh Lanyon’s new Cozy Mystery series (Secrets and Scrabble), and we follow our snarky and often clueless main character Ellery Page who once again finds himself him a whole heap of trouble. 

As it turns out, Ellery’s ex-boyfriend and famous horror author Brandon Abbott has just come to town and purchased the supposedly haunted/cursed Skull House.  Abbott has purchased the house because of the two murders that have occurred there. Ellery is not happy about Abbott’s surprise appearance in Pirate’s Cove, given that their relationship ended badly.  

Things become even more complicated when Brandon stirs the hornet’s nest of a twenty-year-old murder case of a local high school football player and the subsequent disappearance of his supposed killer — a case that certain townspeople want to be forgotten.  As Brandon begins to investigate the cold case — much to the chagrin of certain locals — Ellery finds himself once again thrust into the middle of a murder case. As in the first book, Ellery begins ‘sleuthing’ to clear his name and reputation, which are once again being smeared in the local paper. As in the first book in this series, Ellery’s amateur investigating leads him into even more trouble. 

In this story, we also see the continuation of Ellery’s hot and cold, romance/non-romance with Police Chief Jack Carson, which again, stalls before it can take off, which, truth to told, resulted in somewhat of a frustrating reading experience. So like the first book, romance in this one is mostly non-existent. The author does a magnificent job of placing the story’s primary emphasis on the murder mystery with a small (and possibly developing?) side story on the two principal characters.

As this is a cozy mystery, there is no sex, cursing, or on-page violence, but what we do have is a fast-paced, whimsy, light and comforting read with a few exciting twists along the way as decades-old secrets become revealed.  But that being said, I found that Secret at Skull House contains all the things that cozy mystery readers live:  quirky and colorful locals, a small town, plenty of gossip, and a compelling mystery to solve and I’ll be interested to see where Lanyon takes the series in future books.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.

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Review of Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert

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Conventionally Yours is a new adult romance follows our two main characters Conrad and Alden, both expert players of a fictional game called Odyssey.  This book contained three of my favorite tropes:  enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract, and a road trip (complete with a hotel room with only…one…bed).  I wasn’t sure about the gaming aspect of it, though, as I’m not a gamer, but I needn’t had worried as the tensions between our two characters along with their hidden pasts rendered this an utterly compelling story for me. This was the first book I’ve read about gamers and gaming conventions, and though I’m not personally a gamer, I found this aspect of the story a lot of fun.  

What made this story especially intriguing was both of our characters’ backstories. There’s Alden, who may or may not be on the autism spectrum but who is suffering from crippling anxiety as well as the need to fulfill his moms’ expectations; and Conrad, who has suffered enormous setbacks over the past year and is on the verge of being homeless.  

What’s fun is that each character sees the other in a completely different way than the person’s actual reality.  And of course, there’s the “I hate you, I hate you….yet I find you strangely attractive” aspect of it, which I always love. So in this way, both of our characters are quite complex and leading complicated lives.  

So our two enemies, each who is at a significant crossroads in his life, are forced to travel to a gaming convention together alone and in the same car.  And as their trip progresses, they each find themselves developing more than a casual interest in the other, complete with unwelcome romantic thoughts.

I was nearly giddy as I saw them moving toward an inevitable romance, and it was so much fun watching these two fighting their attraction to the other and, ultimately, giving in to it.  There was also the extra added intrigue of the uber-important Odyssey Con competition — where both of the men feel that they must win… NO MATTER WHAT.

Overall, Conventionally Yours is a sweet, fun, heartfelt, nerdy romance  – an excellent, well-crafted story that was a perfect blend of romance and gaming — a rare find.  It’s a heartwarming story of two boys finding their way to each other, and I ended up loving the quirky plot and the endearing secondary characters.  A rivalry between two master gamers turns into a whirlwind romance in this charming story about true love and doing what’s right.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing me with an ARC of this story.

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