Cherry Baby by Rainbow Rowell

 

Cherry is in management, working her way up the ladder at a big train company.  Cherry is a fat woman who comes from a family of fat women, including her four sisters named Hope Honesty (Honny), Cherity (Cherry), Faith, and Joy.  Her mother is deeply religious, as are some of her sisters, but Cherry isn't.  The sisters have texting threads where they talk to each other.  Recently, they started one without Hope, whom Honny believes has committed the unforgivable sin of going on Ozempic.  The sisters believe that it is alright to be fat because they cannot lose the weight, no matter how hard they try, and that Ozempic is cheating and denying who they are.  

Her husband, Tom, worked for an ad agency that did a lot of work for the train company, and that was how they met.  They both studied art in college, but Tom was the real talent of the two.  Tom has been writing a comic strip since before he met Cherry.  The main character is 'The Guy, and Tom adds Chery as the character Baby.  He posts the comic, as a kind of diary of his thoughts, online, where no one really notices it for a long while, until they do.  A publisher of graphic novels offers Tom a contract, and Cherry encourages Tom to take it.  Cherry is the driving force behind Tom, who can't seem to make decisions.  The graphic novel becomes a hit, and Hollywood wants to make a movie out of it with Tom as screenwriter.  Tom goes to L.A. and ends up staying there for a year.  All the traveling for the book and writing the screenplay have put a strain on their marriage. Cherry tells him she wants a divorce when she catches him with another woman via FaceTime.

It's been a year, and Cherry is going to a concert by a much-beloved band from her youth.  While there, she meets Russ, a guy she fell in love with in college, but who decided to date her skinny, beautiful friend.  They leave the concert early and go home together.  Pretty soon, they are dating. Russ is very different from Tom, and he makes her happy.  Then Tom comes back from L.A. to pack up his stuff to move to California.  Cherry hasn't spoken to him in a year, so things are a bit awkward between them, though they accidentally share a kiss.  

Cherry is under a lot of pressure because of the movie, and everyone sees her as Baby, not Cherry.  Russ has some problems with it too when he sees the trailer by accident, and begins to think he may be dating Garfield.  Cherry invites Russ to Thanksgiving and Tom to Christmas with her family.  Two men can possibly make her happy, but both must accept Cherry as she is.  I loved this book, and I loved Cherry, who is confident, except in certain situations, like her job, but less so in her private life.  This is a very interesting, well-written read, as evidenced by the quotes I took from it. The book goes back and forth in time, examining her relationships with Tom and Guss from the beginning to the present, and leaves you rooting for both.  They've both made mistakes with Cherry and want to make it up to her.  Rowell is known for her young adult novel "Eleanor and Park," which I reviewed here https://nicolewbrown.blogspot.com/2019/08/eleanor-and-park-by-rainbow-rowell.html)

Quotes

Anytime Cherry had tried to take Tom to a concert, he'd spent the whole night frowning at everyone, and he didn't even realize he was doing it.  Tom had resting uncomfortable face.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 3)

Cherry watched them for a while-- then realized she was staring at people like some sort of twentieth-century weirdo. She should stare at her phone like a normal person.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 7)

He looked like the token Irish actor on a BBC drama--a little flintier than everyone else and a little more alive.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 10-11)

Goldenrod was the band that made "Omaha emo" a thing.  Simple, pretty guitars, whiny, breathy vocals. Base-level unhappiness. All of Goldenrod's songs were about being lonely or feeling guilty. The lead singer was a famous depressive.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby)

Everybody was going to the Galway that night.  They were twenty-two and still feeling like they had to go out and drink legally every weekend just because they could-- because it's what adults did.  Adults drank in bars, not in dorm rooms and basements.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 15)

All Russ had told Cherry about his ex-wife was, "I think she always kind of hated me, and I mistook that for 'interesting.'"

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 91)

Cherry parked her used Hyundai at the end of a long line of black SUVs (Railroad execs drove the same cars as rappers).

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 125)

If you charted Tom's attractiveness to Cherry over these first few weeks, it would have looked like runaway inflation.  

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 140)

It was chilly, but Cherry wasn't wearing a coat over her baby blue angora cardigan.  It would spoil the effect.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 146)

She thought about texting someone, but there came a point when you'd been so sad for so long, and so repeatedly, that you could not actually bear telling people anymore. When it felt like you were telling the same story.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 234)

I'm very pretty for a fat girl. It's like being very pretty for someone with three eyes or no nose, or very pretty for a malamute.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 241)

Dimples and freckles, that shouldn't be legal.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 269)

Women are born with clocks in their hips and calendars in their bodies, and Cherry's brain never stopped ticking.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 276)

Cherry's mom ignored everything that she possibly could, and forgave everything that she couldn't.

Rainbow Rowell (Cherry Baby, p 365)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cherry-Baby-Novel-Rainbow-Rowell-ebook/dp/B0FCS6PL5X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2M3FX7HN0A3O5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ueg-2DZkrA0ePm-DcnlsV42b9C9sPsohSHTxzkGX-3H33FOIo74wndi9DrDj7jkxi8YXbGO_k2HabVPwn1ehgCo6BTWBf207p7dLo5G0hbGpPhDXrFDjoU9v3-QKlr2G.RVuLUOubeIVWVL9xKOmMafDj5WSLvKInHZ2_xfQ9RhI&dib_tag=se&keywords=cherry+baby+rainbow+rowell&qid=1780498280&s=digital-text&sprefix=cherry%2Cdigital-text%2C334&sr=1-1

Healing Hearts : A Workplace Romance With A Little Bit of Mother's Day Magic (Holiday Hearts) by Kiva Hart

 

This is one of the latest novellas in the twelve-book series centered on the holidays.  Alyssa is a single mother and a nurse on the pediatric ward of the hospital in Whispering Falls, Arkansas.  Her child's father left around the time Cathy was born.  Alyssa's parents help out, but it's hard to hold down a demanding job and raise a five-year-old.  Matthew is a new doctor taking over her ward, and is from Oklahoma City, and thinks they should keep talking to the patient at a minimum, asking only questions about the injury, and quickly move on to the next patient.  That was how things were done when he ran the emergency room in Oklahoma City.

Alyssa despises him right off the bat.  She believes in getting to know the kids and the families.  Matthew keeps screwing up with what he says to her.  Back in Oklahoma City, his job had a very high turnover rate as doctors burned out.  His boss insisted that he take this position in a small town where the pace is slower and he can learn to relax and think of things other than the hospital.  Alyssa believes that he wants to return to his emergency room job, but the truth is, he is beginning to fall for her and the way of life in Whispering Falls.   

This sweet romance tells the story of a single mother who does not feel she can trust the doctor with her heart and the heart of her daughter.  This is one of the better novellas of the series.  Alyssa is a character easy to fall in love with.  Matthew grows on you until you realize that he is perfect for Alyssa, if only she could discover this herself.  These characters will stay with you long after you put this book down.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Hearts-Workplace-Romance-Mothers-ebook/dp/B0GGX9XTZB/ref=sr_1_2?crid=73659DW7XTWL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.D-rYLR-fB9FUdX_uGeNdWDLwZGhv7Nj0RCQgAy3NVRwPC9NDgyByifMavox7E-_Jdi8WOXlCJcjeuCvgqjPhnLb11aCf1NPee03EMPC4IYKWDPAF04roMEaCDHFtqHDcAHPjwnHTjAlIpVwS0r2mqTZiljngKvOu_N0RYzBATUA9B0oCyD-rVrJpwXCywc4RaO7ee4J_HwK3ojWVVIQzrWxkMe2HtO9SckkwUCoOss8.ESF-_HKzgzS0BpWj8keS5JuT80GA3ZCs-EohOUuB7TY&dib_tag=se&keywords=healing+hearts&qid=1780242573&s=digital-text&sprefix=Healing+hearts%2Cdigital-text%2C304&sr=1-2

Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell

 

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Virginia. She has taken over the cases of a serial killer in Richmond who ties women's hands behind their backs, then uses an electrical cord from her bedroom to tie her up so that the cord is wrapped around her throat and will strangle her if she tries to straighten her legs out from being bent.  The killer rapes them multiple ways and lets them strangle and die, leaving behind a substance from his hands and body that sparkles like the Fourth of July under the laser, which is used to pick up on fibers and other trace elements missed by the eye.   The book opens with the fourth killing, a young surgeon whose husband spends the week away at school and comes home for the weekends.  All the other women lived alone, and if the killer was staking out their houses, he would assume that the surgeon also lived alone.  But nothing else connects the women; they are different sizes, different hair colors, and even different races, as in one case where the woman was African American.  

Detective Marino, who is running these cases, strongly believes the fourth victim's husband killed her because she found out about him raping and killing these women.  He does have greasepaint on his hands from acting in a play and was once accused of rape years ago.  The charges were dropped for whatever reason.  Marino does not want to let this go.  This is your first meeting with him, and you tend to want to hit him.  He is so annoying.  He is a man of the streets from a working-class background who feels threatened by those who have higher degrees.  Bill Botz, the Commonwealth Attorney (CA), is seeing Kay in secret (according to her wishes) and finds himself a suspect when someone comes forward to say he has roofied them.  Kay doesn't know what to think, and Bill leaves for vacation to avoid talking to her, which is a rather guilty response.  

Kay's niece, Lucy, is staying with her for vacation at her sister's insistence; then the sister runs off to travel with her new husband, the illustrator of her children's books. Lucy is a precocious ten-year-old with a very high IQ and knows how to work computers.  Kay feels guilty that the cases keep her from spending time with her niece.  When it appears that someone has tried to get into the computers at work, looking for information on the fourth case, which hadn't been entered in yet.  Kay doesn't want to suspect Lucy, but it's the better option when otherwise it's possibly the killer or worse, a reporter.  

Kay is also having trouble with Dr. Amburgey, the commissioner and her boss.  She is summoned to his office, and her office is accused of leaking information to the press.  From now on, she is not to release a press release.  Instead, it will come from Amburgey's office.  He has never cared for Scarpetta, and it shows in how he treats her.  Kay feels as though her legs have been cut out from underneath her and that she may be set up to be the scapegoat.  

This book is a hard-driving mystery that could have used a little more editing.  It's a little long at 440 pages.  Cornwell explains everything in depth, considering it was all new when this book was written in 1990.  DNA, for example, only tells you so much, considering that the human genome hasn't been mapped yet.  It also takes 4-6 weeks to get results at a lab in New York.  Today's reader knows how lasers work and doesn't need a tutorial.  But overall, it's a great read, and Dr. Kay Scarpetta makes a great detective, solving the case with a little help from Marino.  

Quotes

I assumed when she came home from school most days, she walked into a quiet, indifferent house where dinner was a drudgery to be put off until the last minute. My sister should never have been a mother.  My sister should never have been Italian.

Patricia Cornwell (Postmortem, pp. 164-5)

Link to Amazon

; https://www.amazon.com/Postmortem-Kay-Scarpetta-Book-1-ebook/dp/B002YPORR6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2E38Q2TV1YBMX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RcCAFfby4bTxtwYQRImay46Rq8Tymo6ICHK8nd4fdGuVq6MR6mhMEasEKd_8ceSYCSm4Tu7lS2jQpd3PCP4-5x9mBd8NtBn6dH1VXdjtb46lGXKuZnvHmhqNiPCUfHu3wEae9mLCm4YyLQQ6AaGPG-b5YE8H8vskWVayyJkAnSEsIIMcJkWT5AIeo7Svq36wcd-vnUNp-WzXKvmHz4wUKMrOVT1qH_sK4_GSiMZ4TzM.A9nsafZDg61Tu4JKzeAkVo7tjkINTB5vpAczHXamcz4&dib_tag=se&keywords=postmortem+patricia+cornwell&qid=1780163259&s=digital-text&sprefix=post%2Cdigital-text%2C259&sr=1-1

Link to ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/postmortem-by-patricia-cornwell/245820/?resultid=46ad0699-e8d6-49eb-bfd1-a6161f4c5f3e#edition=2377084&idiq=888689

Entwined Hearts by Kiva Hart

 

Mia is the owner of an Italian restaurant that her late mother started up.  The restaurant is a real place for the community, where they hold events like a book club.  Mia's life is the restaurant, and because dates get canceled and she has little free time, her dating life is nonexistent.  Thom is from Dallas, Texas, and is a businessman who, after meeting her at the wedding of Mia's last single friend and sharing a memorable kiss with her, decides he wants to franchise her restaurant across the state.  Mia doesn't think he could possibly be serious, or he might be interested in her romantically, and she knows how that will end and doesn't want to go there.  The two make a deal where Thom will work at the restaurant doing what she tells him to do for two months.  At the end of the two months, will she be able to say goodbye to him?  

This book is part of the twelve-book Holiday Hearts series.  This one is for Wedding Magic.  They are sweet romances that are better written than they have a right to be.  This one, however, wasn't as well written as Lucky Hearts, the St. Patrick's Day book.  This is supposed to be an opposites attract book, but it doesn't come off that way.  The only thing standing in their way is Mia, who feels the relationship is doomed from the start.  Parts of this book were good, like when Thom is working at the restaurant and convinces everyone there to order less sought-after meals, and when he goes to the all-female book club.  I give it three out of five stars.    

*Only available as an E-Book or on Amazon Kindle Unlimited for free.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Entwined-Hearts-Opposites-Attract-Romance-ebook/dp/B0D46NQGHY/ref=sr_1_2?crid=N8S5JOGNIFK3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.g9vHDQiO-weptd0sABe06OzFLBeqNhPvAGwU_9364_E_rKNRug_xl4t78RdJOf6ViqiPy-_VqJV6KJmJiGYAyuEDHStbqBEwN9uzXVUJMVSFw6l_V6xZ_3Ulw_BRdoEHXSMaMi4B-yXww8N5RAnN-IRI78TINfwDsvumSj7iK2L5iWlbJ6SJ72nbOn3iA3jbR84gDkaOEeQ_aEf9s5733ejS1lFFWfnGF2IYajJHszQ.84gHi5zfSwY0nDBCqLPrORukrBygz0B-xUesr5wJrHg&dib_tag=se&keywords=entwined+hearts&qid=1779985036&s=digital-text&sprefix=entwined+hearts%2Cdigital-text%2C250&sr=1-2

The Variants: A Jessica Jones Mystery by Gail Simone (writer), Phil Noto (artist), and VC's Cory Petit (letterer)

 

This collection of comics picks up where the last Jessica Jones book left off, with Jessica marrying Luke Cage when she finds herself pregnant with the Purple Man's child. Matt Murdoch has a client who was the first victim of the Purple Man, who takes over people's minds and control of their bodies.  He left this victim alive but promised to return.  Ten years to the date, she kills her entire family while under his control. Jessica talks to her and realizes that it will be ten years for her the next day.  She sends Luke and their child away for their protection.  Every time she gets a massive migraine, a variant of her shows up.  They include Captain America, Omega, Jewel, and Knightress. At first, she tries to fight them, but realizes that they are from other universes.  What these variants are doing here and how to prevent the Purple Man from taking over Jessica again.

Gail Simone, known for writing graphic novels with strong female characters, such as Wonder Woman, takes Brian Bendis's series and expands on it.  Phil Noto, known for his art on several Star Wars books, keeps up the watercolor look started by David Mack.  The art is well done and muted in tone.  My only complaint, and this after reading an incredible story with vivid characters, is that the very end of it, the answer is a little lame.  But this book is still worth reading for the strong female characters and storyline.   

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Variants-Gail-Simone-ebook/dp/B0BQJTC8XB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UFIYP0H3KKV5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VNSToxnQ1_OWPUwaH2Dl15Rwz7l1s_2LVgpvntNzNJtLiB6Ilv0zhjG2qNhqQX-r40a2BmYtpgreiPjwvDhZrGMKisODZJzEmoBMRIomHezKYOXYtujGl9f8qF6WoJ6viXrRbttwCDdTV0AwSFSTpTVmI5__onk5B2jyefP_RzMwPDtCsB5kKKnOqR3zqwVcL4db2rS9Bfsh4Xl5rVJ6I1_gju-SKsJ96RQNtgpntvA.OfMfX-mhXEZfrYtZXubvduEN5yxc0Q-60cqGJzmD2hg&dib_tag=se&keywords=variants&qid=1779816890&s=digital-text&sprefix=variants%2Cdigital-text%2C210&sr=1-1

Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs

In this third installment of the Dr. Temperance Brennan series, Brennan, a well-respected forensic anthropologist, finds herself called to a plane crash in the mountains of North Carolina.  A girl's college soccer team was on board, as well as her partner from Canada, Chief Inspector Ryan's fellow officer, who was escorting a dangerous criminal back to Canada.  The NTSB believes the plane fell apart in midair due to an explosion.  There are plenty of people on the plane who could have been the intended victim.  

Brennan finds a foot that doesn't belong to the plane crash victims.  It seems to be from a Native American who was quite old.  Brennan goes out to where she found the foot and looks for more body parts with the lone foot. She stumbles upon a lodge where no one seems to live and no one seems to know about.

Suddenly, Brennan finds herself in the crosshairs of the Lieutenant Governor, who has set out to destroy her reputation and career.  Brennan is then kicked off the plane crash investigation, but this doesn't stop her from continuing her investigation into the foot and the mysterious lodge, where a spot against the wall has soil with human remains in it.  The material from the soil matches the foot, but where is the rest of the body, and why is someone trying to stop her from investigating the lodge?  

The ending of this mystery goes far into left field, but you feel confident of going there with Brennan, who is a strong character who refuses to back down from those who seek to destroy her.  Warning, though, when you get into the last third or fourth of the book, you won't be able to put it down, so plan for that contingency.  Brennan must also choose between her estranged, philandering husband and Ryan, who is a mystery and seems to be seeing someone.  

Quotes

Look at you, you're thin as the broth at a homeless shelter.

Kathy Reichs (Fatal Voyage, p 48)

A poster had decorated Pete's office during his stint in uniform, guiding words embraced by JAG attorneys uncommitted to the military system: Indecision Is the Key to Flexibility.

Kathy Reichs (Fatal Voyage, p 221)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Voyage-Novel-Temperance-Brennan-ebook/dp/B000FC0OCC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=193P2IFQNJZI6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.m4HgTirQDHstBrTd_mjpT0U09RRH1vNxYZ_zMiM8e7faiYo2xJL9UwrRbQjWe58ixSsJYoHuVOxKIFu3DqHxUlZQrQdP2M8DNP2Yw1SCEMuCvsn9Qw4NRaW9FqgQy597W22Ogq_teGvzsZavAzaVIhzl-f0FYWYkwDMqDsdsqHVNtAKM-Q5_bP5F79oMZ6fx54ouD1_CdwYJu9FimWxgc1w1qDctj6yla3OwMPfN4bs.YJlFwCZdRk4wl50gWrM6yQk_Wk9ihkwkjOpRlwv7iO8&dib_tag=se&keywords=fatal+voyage+kathy+reichs&qid=1779034635&sprefix=fatal+voya%2Caps%2C479&sr=8-1

Link to ThriftBooks:https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/fatal-voyage_kathy-reichs/260527/?resultid=2a43a0dd-e7ae-4303-a6d1-d4e129048be4#edition=2278546&idiq=489659

Cut Off From Sky and Earth by Melissa F. Miller

 

Emily is a women's fiction writer who has been asked to write one of a twelve-book series that features retellings of fairy tales.  She has chosen the Grim tale, Maleen the Maiden, in which a princess defies her father by wanting to marry whom she wants to marry.  Maleen and her hand servant are locked up in a windowless tower for seven years, only to realize no one is rescuing them, and they must break out on their own.  Seven years ago, Emily walked into her apartment to find her roommate dead from a stabbing.  Emily is a readhead and believes that she was the intended target. She hasn't told her husband any of this. Tristan, her husband, works as a forensics expert.  He also knows about Emily's past and believes that the recent stabbing death of a local redhead is connected to what happened to her.  He believes that there is a serial killer who may want to circle back and kill his intended victim, Emily.  Tristan is keeping all of this from Emily due to her anxiety and panic attacks.  He's also hiding the fact that he has an evil brother and a father who committed suicide.   

Tristan's therapist (also Emilly's therapist, though she does not know this) suggests a cabin retreat to get away from all his problems.  Triston sees this as perfect for Emily, who has writer's block and a deadline looming.  The cabin is owned by Alex Liu, a woman running from her own past, who is married to a military man and lives on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  When Tristan and Emily drive down from Pennsylvania and meet Alex for the first time, she tells them that she was born and raised in a small town in Maine, where Tristan lived until he was nine.  Tristan recognizes the redhead as the woman who was stabbed but survived.  He realizes that her stabbing fits in with the others, and the serial killer seems to strike every seven years.  There is a massive snowstorm coming, and Alex and Emily will find themselves all alone with the sense that someone is watching them.

I enjoyed this book that entwines sections of Emily's book with what is going on.  It is a true page-turning thriller.  But as with books of this nature, there is a real twist at the end that doesn't make a lot of sense.  The ending is not as good as the rest of the book, but I'm still going to recommend it because it is a very enjoyable read with interesting characters, including a marriage where both parties are keeping major secrets from the other and believe they have a great marriage.  They love each other incredibly, but do not really know each other.  This book has a great start to it, but fizzles at the end.  I give it three out of five stars.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cut-Off-Sky-Earth-Novel-ebook/dp/B0FCCMLW8T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=10V5AG59VF87O&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SOo_z3jGgQ2d6P2Qh6aXSEGsJgPYnEIdpjiSEEAAjCruAeRYE55nnfQloSgTgxUvyfkdr2ox9A6YNLZTiKP37_vIquUXRxFuklmhVjoW5p4.ElG-pzfbEoCJU-_r6hIhOkWNdp7IbKVjbGQAQQKdhCc&dib_tag=se&keywords=cut+off+from+sky+and+earth&qid=1779030880&sprefix=cut+off+from+%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-1