saltygalreads's reviews
306 reviews

The Retreat is about a former professional dancer who escapes an abusive marriage and wishes to start her career and life anew by attending a wilderness retreat for artists. Once there, she discerns an atmosphere of threat and tension among the group of artists there for a short residency. Then one of them dies...a tragic accident or something more sinister?

Unfortunately this novel did not work for me at all. It wandered, seemingly without purpose or direction, in the most repetitive and maddening way. There was not sufficient motive or explanation for the characters' actions, so it just did not make sense to me. It felt as if the author did not have a strong plot for this or sense of where she wanted it to go. I cannot recommend it.

Elsewhere is an unusual story set in a fictional mountaintop town which suffers from an "affliction" in which the mothers of the town disappear into thin air. The townspeople have come to accept this eventual fate for its mothers, and have built up a set of commonly accepted norms and rituals around it. The novel is told from the perspective of Vera, as she grows up in the town, becomes a wife and mother herself, and witnesses the disappearance of mothers, including her own.

Through Vera's story and observations on the town and its inhabitants, the author comments on the complex nature of relationships between mothers and daughters; of the fulfilling yet exhausting and thankless nature of motherhood and the desire of a mother to be remembered and cherished after she is gone. The novel also makes subtle commentary on the meaning of home, what it is to be considered an outsider or stranger, and how we perceive home once we have left it and experienced other places and people. Can we experience it in the same way, once we have known other places, experiences and people?

The more I ponder this novel, in light of my own life, motherhood, travel and experiences, the more I find in it. Thank you NetGalley and Celadon for this thought-provoking read.

In The City of Pigs is the debut novel from Andre Forget. At the opening of the novel we meet Alexander, who has left Montreal with the taste of failure and dejection in his mouth, to come to Toronto for a fresh start. Although relatively young, Alexander seems older than his years, demonstrating a complex mixture of skepticism and jadedness along with a naivety that endears him to his new friends. With a background as a failed performance musician, Alexander appears adrift and directionless until he takes a writing position at a small arts and music magazine. He becomes fascinated with underground avant-garde performance art and opera which pops up in abandoned and neglected spaces around Toronto - old theatres, warehouses and performance halls. These performances often end in very unconventional and unsettling behaviour - heavy drug use, public sex acts and property damage. Gradually Alexander begins to suspect a connection between these cutting edge artistic performances and the relentless march of condo development across the city, lining the pockets of politicians and unscrupulous businessmen while pushing ordinary people out of affordable housing.

I have read some mixed reviews of this novel, mainly due to the fact that there is a considerable amount of obscure musical and literary references particularly in the first half of the novel. However I was not deterred by this, sensing that there was a moving story underneath this and I was not wrong. There is so much here that is worth reading and that was meaningful to me - the bulldozing of a genteel and graceful city to transform it into a bland monolith of glass and steel, the pressure in your thirties to do something worthy and make something of your life, and the manner in which the 1% skirt through life taking advantage of every possible loophole and connection to grab wealth while screwing over everyday people trying to get by. Not to mention it has the best passage on the concessions and accommodations of marriage that I have ever read, period. I think it is quite an achievement even if some parts are more than a little pretentious.

I leave you with one of my favourite lines about the transformation of Toronto: "From below, it was more ephemeral, a dream of concrete and glass and steel hanging above the solid earth."

A 4 star read for me, possibly a 4.5. Sincerest thanks to Dundurn Press for allowing me to have a copy to read and review.

n the second book in the series about Electra MacDonnall and her safe-cracking family, she again comes to the assistance of Major Ramsay to track down a group of young women spying for the Nazis as bombs rain down during the Blitzkrieg.

In this audiobook from Dreamscape Media and narrated by Alison Larkin, the tension still sizzles between Ellie and the Major as they try to locate a cache of film taken by spies for the Germans. Felix returns as the longtime friend and competitor for Ellie's affections as she navigates her feelings for him and the Major.

I enjoyed this, although not quite as much as the first one since I felt the plot for the spy intrigue in this one was a little weaker. The bombing of London was well handled however, as discussed from the perspective of Ellie and her family as ordinary citizens coping with air raids, explosions, fear and destruction.

If you are a fan of this era, as I am, and like a British mystery with a lighter take, then you will love this series. Alison Larkin is impeccable as the narrator, with her beautiful, expressive voice bringing all the characters to life. Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape for the opportunity to review this audiobook.

The ubiquitous tomato as you have never experienced it before! Who knew there was so much to learn about the history of tomatoes? A fruit/vegetable that is omnipresent takes on new meaning in this fascinating nonfiction journey of the humble tomato over the centuries.

William Alexander does a bang-up job of telling interesting tales about the tomato from the facts behind the San Marzano, to the tasteless and watery Florida tomato in your supermarket, to the tomato of the future, grown hydroponically in a massive greenhouse. He is a good storyteller and I thoroughly enjoyed learning all the juicy facts behind a food we take so much for granted.

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for my copy to read and review. Added to my keeper shelf of nonfiction reads.

In The Vanishing Hour tells the story of Frances and Harris, two teens from small town New England who are impacted by and linked to the deaths of two young people in their town. The novel alternates between the 1950s and the 1970s to show how the mysterious deaths are connected to both Frances and Harris, and how those who deeply touch our lives never leave us.

In The Vanishing Hour has a ghostly, other-worldly atmosphere, in which the past is never really gone for the two main characters. They both grapple with conflicted feelings about the town and the people in it, as well as the way they are perceived and viewed by the town. They are haunted by their past, by unsolved mysteries, and by regrets about what they might have done differently. It is a slow-moving novel and more of a character study than a mystery, although the mystery element is present. I appreciated that some minor aspects are left to the reader's imagination to decide, and that, as in life, justice isn’t always served. Although the pace could have been a little faster, this was a well written novel, and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Many thanks to the author and to BookSirens for the opportunity to read and review.

Eleanor has face blindness, or prosopagnosia, and cannot see the details of a person's face. When she suddenly walks in on her grandmother's vicious murder, she cannot identify who actually did it. Then she finds out that her grandmother has left her an old family house in the woods - a house that Eleanor has never seen in person and that grandmother Viviane refused to return to. Eleanor goes there, and in the process, uncovers all the terrible family secrets that Viviane wanted to leave behind her forever.

I listened to this one on audiobook through the Libby app, although I feel I would have enjoyed it much more if I had actually read the book myself. It was a twisty, menacing read with lots of tension and nail-biting moments. I feel that Sebastian's character was a little flat and unexciting, and perhaps the author could have done more to flesh out Eleanor and make her more than a vessel for Viviane. There is a masterful job done on setting and atmosphere however, and the plot twists are well-executed. A solid and enjoyable tense read. I plan to purchase the book and reread it.

The Viral Underclass was a sobering and important read for me as a middle-class, cisgendered heterosexual Caucasian woman. Steven Thrasher tells the story of coping with the medical system, government bureaucracy and societal indifference through viral epidemics like HIV and COVID as a vulnerable and disenfranchised member of society. Whether through poverty, disability, immigration status, incarceration, sexual orientation, gender identity or some intersection of these factors, the people discussed, in Thrasher's detailed and heavily researched book, have to navigate the challenges of viral outbreaks without the supports that they should have. Along the way, they do get support, not from government institutions, insurance or the medical system, but from others in their community and social network who go above and beyond to challenge traditional institutions and systemic discrimination to get the recognition and support that they require.

This is a thought-provoking book which makes timely points about equality and social justice. We like to say "we're all in this together", but Steven Thrasher makes it very clear that this is not true. I would like to thank Celadon Books for providing me with a copy of this important book to read and review.

After years of loving Bosch the series and being obsessed with LA and Titus Welliver, I finally read the first book in the series. It did not disappoint! This novel later became the inspiration for a season on the series although it wasn't the first season. In this first novel about Harry Bosch, he gets called out to the scene of a death by the Mulholland Dam, in which he finds the body of a man in a drainpipe. The scene is staged to look like a drug overdose, but Bosch sees through this and also realizes with a shock that he knows who it is - Billy Meadows - an army vet that Bosch knew in Vietnam. This leads Bosch to a tense and nonstop chase to prevent a vault heist with roots going back to the war decades earlier.

I loved reading the original story of the introduction of Eleanor Wish into Bosch's life, and the insight into his early life and his experiences in the war, which helps explain Bosch's stoic demeanor and difficulty processing his emotions. I totally loved this book about an iconic detective in an iconic city. I definitely plan to continue with this series.

I actually listened to this novel on Audiobooks and not Audible, however there wasn't an edition there for it.

This is classified as a "cozy mystery" but I don't think there was anything cozy about it! Gabrielle (Gabby) has a great job she loves in publishing, a fiance, friends and a good life in London. Then one night after a special event, she is late getting the tube home and suffers a traumatic and life-altering experience at the hands of the "tube killer". Fortunately she survives, although with little memory of the event and with debilitating PTSD and anxiety. She decides a complete change is necessary - leaving her thoughtless and callous fiance, job and London behind, she moves to a small cove to be the manager of an up and coming local bookstore run by the vivacious and warm Nell. Before long, Gabby is settled into the cove in a lovely cottage and surrounded by a circle of wonderful friends. But all is not peaceful in the cove, and when Gabby is the sole witness to a terrifying attack on a young woman one rainy night, she is in danger once again.

This is a quick and entertaining listen, at just under 6 hours, and I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator's enthusiasm and accent. The atmosphere wavers between idyllic and menacing and the action is nonstop. A perfect summer mystery. I will be looking for more novels from LJ Ross.