The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley is an absorbing, suspenseful mystery. Its storyline felt familiar, and it is, but turned on its head. Instead of a girl missing under a suspicious circumstance that needs to be rescued or avenged: eight-great-books-about-women-who-disappear, it is a missing, older half-brother. Foley writes a scrappy, down-on-her-luck half-sister as the dogged pursuer of truth. The book features a luxury apartment with dubious tenants with dark, twisting backstories. So good!
I was looking for something bright and breezy, and Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center delivered. Cassie Hanwell is an Austin firefighter who has to relocate to an all-male firehouse in the suburbs of Boston. She reluctantly lives with her estranged mother, who left her dad and Cassie on Cassie's sixteenth birthday. Romance is at the center of this book, but it also vibrates around forgiveness and the life of firefighters. It's caused me to spend time thinking about forgiveness: how and why we do it. I love surprises like this: romance novels that have more to them than girl meets boy.
A couple of weeks ago, I read The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and didn't like it. At All. A former bookstore colleague recommended I read Sea of Tranquility by the same author. With great reluctance, I did. It was mind-bending in the best way. Characters from the TGH appeared in SOT in meaningful, intriguing ways. The two books together tell a strange, time-traveling, alternate universe story. Each book stands separately, but together they resonate beautifully. I find Mandel's characters emotionally distant from the reader even when they are the main character, which is a weakness. Still, the themes she wrestles with are masterfully handled.
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