Everything I Read This Month: April 2023

Oh, this was a wild read. Claire Legrand does a great job world building, overall, and creates beautifully flawed characters.

It took me a few chapters to get oriented in the novel, since the action picks up right from the start, but it quickly becomes apparent that Legrand’s imagination really thought of everything when creating the world in this novel.

Overall, I’m really looking forward to future books in the series!

*Note: this book deals with issues relating to suicide, ideation, and self harm*

A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand comes out on May 9, 2023. It is currently available for pre-order from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Epic of Helinthia. MJ Pankey has a lovely writing style, fluid and melodious, bringing the reader along between different perspectives.

I was a bit confused about who was who for a while in the beginning of the novel, which may be a reader fault. So, when you pick it up, just be sure to really take note of the names at the beginning, as many look and sound similar.

All in all, though, the novel seems like a great set up for further books in the series, which I was excited to see were planned in the author’s note at the end of the book! It’s a quick read, well-worth a pre-order!

Epic of Helinthia by MJ Pankey will be released on October 1, 2023 and is available for pre-sale from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

I picked up Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait on a whim after I saw a stellar review of it in a Facebook group for historical fiction readers. I haven’t read Hamnet yet, but will certainly be prioritizing it after finishing the audiobook version of The Marriage Portrait. O’Farrell’s writing style is languid and emotive, especially when read by the narrator. You can almost feel the tension in the air, whether the characters are speaking or not.

The story starts with almost a premonition-like intro and the brings the reader up to speed throughout the novel. Lots of fascinating historical details, courtly intrigue, and an all-too-timeless story of a toxic relationship.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Currently included in the Audible Plus catalog, Next Year in Havana was a fantastic audiobook, and I listened to it in a matter of days. Telling the multi-generational story of a Cuban-American family exiled from Cuba after Castro came to power, Chanel Cleeton taught me more about Cuban (and Floridian) history than I ever got in school.

With various layers to the narrative, Cleeton’s Next Year in Havana had the potential to be confusing or disorienting, but was anything but. She leads the reader through the political unrest of then-and-now with a deft hand. I almost didn’t want it to end, until I realized it was part of a series!

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Book two tin Chanel Cleeton’s Cuba Saga series, When We Left Cuba tells the story of a side character from Next Year in Havana. When We Left Cuba focuses on Beatriz Perez, one of the Perez sisters who fled Cuba in book one, as she is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro’s inner circle.

Beatriz’s story is full of drama, politics, and heart-stopping espionage. Though much of the novel is set in Florida, the story tells the plight of Cuba under Castro in engrossing detail. It also pulls in contemporary American politics, which offers an interesting vantage point of many of the moments we all learned about in U.S. history classes.

When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

The Last Train to Key West predates both of the previous books in Chanel Cleeton’s Cuba Saga (Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba). This book follows the parallel stories of three women in the Florida Keys as a terrible hurricane approaches: one, a native to the area; the second, an earlier family member to the Perez family in books one and two; and, three, a fallen debutant (also related to a figure in book 2).

Over the Labor Day weekend of 1935, all three women are caught in one of the most powerful hurricanes in history. As a Floridian myself, I found so many parts of the storm prep so relatable (IE: the unreliable weather forecasting) that it hardly seemed like the book was set in the ’30s.

The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

I had seen A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas all over TikTok for some time. So, when I came across it at a local bookstore, I decided to give it a shot. And wow…I can see why it’s so popular.

With engrossing world building and a fantastical mythology, this novel blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore in almost equal parts. While I found myself confused at some of the lore once the main character travels to the faerie world, I found the the logic of it all came together for me in the last third of the novel.

Luckily enough, this is book one of eight, so if you enjoy it, there’s plenty more where it came from!

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Kate Quinn never ceases to amaze me with her gripping, female-driven historical fiction. Seriously, this woman can write amazing novels about just about any period in history, from Ancient Rome to Renaissance Italy, to World War II Belgium.

Alternating between two women’s stories — one in 1947, the other in 1915 — surrounding World Wars I and II, The Alice Network is a gripping novel of espionage, familial devotion, and the endurance of human strength. Really, this book has it all. I could hardly put it down!

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

P.S. learn more about Kate Quinn’s earlier historical fiction, The Empress of Rome series, here and her duology The Borgia Chronicles, set in Renaissance Italy, here!