Mysterious, duo timeline, good/bad, bravery, sister love
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok is a thrilling mystery/suspense story. About two-thirds of the way through, I guessed what the ending might be and hoped I was wrong. Kwok creates characters that try hard to be what they think others want, whether love, respect, or being truly seen. Successsful brilliant Sylvie Lee has disappeared, and no one but her still-living-at-home, socially awkward little sister is searching for her. But who is Sylvie Lee? The police interviewed the family and asked her nationality, and got three answers. She's American, she's Dutch, she's Chinese. For her sister, Amy, to find her sister, she must get to the bottom of who her sister was. The story's narration moves between Sylvie, Amy, and their mother, building tension and giving slivers to who Sylvie is. It is effectively told and worth the time.
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I could tell Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan was a Romance book because of the happy pink and green on the cover. I just knew good things would happen after the sad things, of course. Recently divorced Nora Hamilton writes scripts for the romance channel. She barely keeps herself, her two children, and her one-hundred-year-old house afloat. She takes the pain of her divorce and crafts her first nonromance script, which sells big. It is filmed on her property, and the leading man, Leo Vance, doesn't want to leave. He offers to pay her a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. They get to know each other.
Given the fantastic premise, Nora Goes Off Script felt well grounded in a life with school drop off, single mom schedules, noisy neighbors, and a mortgage. I also appreciated the sly winks at the romance tropes; even the names made me think of Nora Ephron and Leonardo DiCaprio. Nora also frequently refers to how she crafts her romance scripts--the formula she uses--and it's clever how her romance story starts the same but "goes off script." It made me smile.
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The second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi continues in the same cafe about seven years later, with many of the same characters. I find these stories surprising and comforting. A theme in these tales is an opportunity to say what had been neglected to be said, to show love and care that hadn't been expressed. It is a place of second chances.
I have reviewed other books in the series here: https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/search?q=Tashikazu+Kawaguchi
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Once, in a faraway library in the 80s, I stumbled upon a short story collection on the best seller's table. All fiction best sellers were novels, except for FireWatch by Connie Willis. I read it, and she became my favorite author. Her book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, is my favorite book. This week, I read The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories. The short stories in this book are incredibly well crafted. Some are humorous, some are heartbreaking, and some are horrifying--imagine a world where all the dogs have died. I'd already encountered these stories in other anthologies, but they still drew me in and made me wonder about what-ifs. My favorite short story, "Even the Queen," is here. It is about mothers and daughters and that sometimes antagonistic relationship. It never fails to make me laugh.
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