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It’s impossible to do justice to The Water Dancer (2019) in a book review. The story is powerful and haunting, the characters are expertly and thoughtfully portrayed throughout, and the time period and settings are drawn such that I felt that I was viewing the horrors of slavery on a Virginia plantation and experiencing the terrifying dangers of the flight to freedom.

She did it again: with her latest novel, Tom Lake (2023), Ann Patchett has created a story that is accessible, believable, meaningful, and moving, a down-to-earth tale about a family of five, trying to keep their cherry farm in northern Michigan afloat during the global pandemic, the horrors of which are kept at a relatively safe remove.

Lone Women (2023) by Victor LaValle is a historical slow burn horror set in 1915 Montana. After losing her parents, Adelaide Henry travels alone from California to settle a claim of land in Montana supplied with very little - namely the heavy burden she has carried all her life.

This is a great book for anyone who loved Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu. The main character Margot Mertz is funny, and headstrong. Margot runs a business that cleans up after other people’s digital presence in order to save money to go to Stanford.

One morning an elevator in a New York skyscraper plunges to the ground, killing four people. The next morning, in a different building, another person dies in an elevator incident. By the third day, when another elevator crashes in a different building, it's clear that these are not accidents. Are these attacks targeted or random? Who is behind these attacks and why and how are they happening? With so much of the city only accessible by elevator, New York City comes to a standstill.

Due to the encouragement of Kazuo Ishiguro, author of such contemporary works as The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, I spent some days in August reading R.C.

A Dreadful Splendor (2022) by B.R. Myers is a fun blend of mystery and romance, sprinkled with a little bit of spooky.

In her latest book, The Half Moon (2023), Mary Beth Keane tells the story of a married couple in crisis, thanks to circumstances beyond their control. Economic turmoil, infertility, and the shifting values of a younger generation of consumers—these things and more have fractured the lives, loyalties, and love of Malcolm and Jess Gephardt.

V.E. Schwab takes us on a deliciously adventurous ride back to the world of The Shades of Magic, where parallel worlds exist and a select few can open doors between them.

If you enjoy dual narratives, flawed characters, and twisty plots, try The Lost Apothecary (2021) by Sarah Penner. Alternating between the late 18th century and contemporary London, the story is told from the perspectives of three women. In the 1790s, a secret apothecary shop caters to women seeking poisons to rid themselves of men who have wronged them.

We Could Be So Good (2023) by Cat Sebastian is a romance set at a large New York newspaper in the late 1950s. Veteran reporter Nick Russo is a closeted gay man whose fear of being outed keeps him from developing any close friendships… until he meets Andy Fleming.