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From the publisher:

A young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic, highly anticipated debut novel from Kimberly King Parsons, author of the story collection, Black Light (long-listed for the National Book Award).

The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They’ll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.

When she returns home to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle in to her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother’s phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She’s imagining an impossible threesome with her kid’s pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone?

Neon bright in its insight, both devastating and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction—a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.

https://amzn.to/48RZhry

Kimberly King Parsons’s Black Light: Stories was longlisted for the National Book Award, so there were high expectations for her debut novel, a story about sex, psychedelics, parenting, and grief told through a long look into the mind of the narrator, Kitty, a young mother living in a Texas suburb. Kitty’s younger sister died a few years earlier, and she is still trying to come to terms with that. Her mother has always had hoarder tendencies, but since she lost her daughter, those tendencies have risen to the extreme. Her daughter is a precocious four-year-old who is still breastfeeding and sleeping in the family bed, and her husband is a good guy who is just worried about his wife. All of this is told from Kitty’s point of view in a meandering, unfiltered way, but because of that, we don’t really get to know any of the other characters. It is a bit of a slog to get through, with occasional insights and humor amid the pathos.

Verdict: Stream of consciousness is a literary device that will not appeal to all readers, so buy for demand only. Steer toward readers who loved Melissa Broder’s Death Valley, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated, or The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard.

©Library Journal, 2024

5/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

WE WERE THE UNIVERSE by Kimberly King Parsons. Knopf (May 14, 2024). ISBN: 978-0525521853. 288p.

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From the publisher:

The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA’S APRIL BOOK CLUB PICK • NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR FROM THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE STAR TRIBUNE

“Delightfully addictive. . . a bottomless champagne flute of a novel” —The Washington Post

“A charming speculative novel about a woman’s difficulty settling on a mate. . . there’s plenty of intelligence and candor in the author’s creative spin on the conundrum of commitment.” —Publishers Weekly

“The plot allows the author to explore current attitudes and approaches to dating and mating from a fresh perspective… A fun take on a big question.” —Kirkus

https://amzn.to/44s8rdu

Cue the Twilight Zone music…

Lauren meets her husband Michael for the first time when she gets home late one night. He’s there, in her apartment. Except she’s not married. Never been married. And not surprisingly, she freaks out a bit.

Luckily, we all have records of our lives that we hold in our hands – our phones. Sure enough, there are lots of pictures with Michael and their wedding and their friends. Her apartment looks better, too. But still, Lauren just doesn’t know what to think about this. Or how to get out of it.

Then she figures out that there is something going on in her attic. When Michael goes up to the attic, a different husband comes down. She tries it again and again and again – one husband goes up, and a new husband comes down. And different aspects of her life also change. She’s usually in the same apartment, but the decor and level of tidiness changes from husband to husband. Once she marries rich and finds out her apartment is now an Airbnb and she lives in an enormous mansion in the English countryside. Her jobs also change – she works for the town council, but sometimes she has other occupations. Once she’s been promoted at her original job. Sometimes there’s more money and sometimes there’s less. Some husbands are better looking, some are kinder or more interesting. She keeps some for only a minute or two, some for a day or two, and a few make it for a few weeks here and there.

Lauren experiences a couple of hundred husbands before the realization hits that she needs to end this endless parade somehow. The ending was unexpected yet not, but this book is really about the journey. It was an interesting read but not really a quick read for me. It took me a few days to get through it, but interestingly, I found myself telling my husband and daughter about it every night at dinner. I don’t usually talk about the books I’m reading unless I either think one or both of them would find it interesting or I just need to bounce my thoughts off someone. They were interested enough to ask questions and engage in conversation, even though neither had read it. This is a book that begs discussion for a lot of reasons, so if your book group is in need of something different, something hopeful instead of depressing (as I find most discussion books,) this is a great option. This compelling read had the most unusual premise and was completely thought provoking, and it topped the Library Reads April book list. Highly recommend!

5/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE HUSBANDS by Holly Gramazio. Doubleday (April 2, 2024). ISBN: 978-0385550611. 352p.

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From the publisher:

These childhood best friends swore they’d never speak again. But a surprise summer reunion changes everything when it gives them the chance to turn up the heat.
 
Effie Olsen thought she’d never live on the tiny Maine island where she grew up, but she’s returning from sixteen years as a professional chef in far-flung countries for one summer and one summer only. Her hometown boasts one of the best restaurants in the US, and lucky for her, Brown Butter needs a sous chef. Effie’s eager for a chance at redemption after her last job went up in flames, but reluctant to set down roots in a place that reminds her of the ghosts of her past.

Until, that is, she runs into Ernie Callahan, her onetime best friend who now works in the very same restaurant. Early morning swims and late-night games of truth or dare with Ernie remind her of what she’s been missing while traveling the world. He knows her better than anyone, and it doesn’t hurt that his smile lights her up brighter than the lighthouses dotting the craggy coastline.

But their restaurant has a secret that’s bursting at the seams, and if Effie doesn’t keep it, her job will vanish into the foggy Maine air. As summer draws to a close, her dream job and the perfect guy are both within reach. Her salty seaside hometown might be the key to Effie’s sweet ending…if she can learn to let her heart lead the way in time.

“A much less intense version of The Bear, but with all the same familial bonds and restaurant drama. Bilow, a classically trained chef and food writer, serves up a full dish of romance, humor, and meaty plot, with a perfect portion of sexiness on the side.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Bilow’s sweet and summery sophomore outing delivers a tender second-chance romance…Bilow slowly turns up the heat on the central romance as the protagonists try and fail to stifle their feelings. Readers will have no trouble seeing that these two belong together.”—Publisher’s Weekly

https://amzn.to/3UrJj1U

The Brown Butter restaurant on a tiny island off the Maine Coast has earned one Michelin star. It’s a completely local, farm to table type restaurant, with all the ingredients sourced from the island and Maine itself. Or is it?

Effie left the tiny island as soon as she graduated high school, then went to culinary school and traveled the world, working in a variety of restaurants. She finally landed her dream job as head chef at a fine dining restaurant in San Francisco, but she is completely overwhelmed by all her new responsibilities. Six months in, she gets fired. Completely broke, her father buys her a ticket home, and she moves back into her childhood bedroom. She gets a lucky break when the Brown Butter is in need of a sous chef. She applies and gets the job. After the interview, she goes drinking with Jarrod, the head chef who hired her, and wakes up the next morning half-naked with no memory of the previous night. Jarrod reassures her that nothing happened. Wandering his apartment above the restaurant, she is surprised to see he has a deep freezer. When she opens it, it is full of monkfish. That was my first inkling that trouble was afoot.

Turns out that Jarrod is a nightmare of a boss. He is rude, condescending, and misogynistic, and those are his better qualities. Screaming at the staff is his favorite pastime, or maybe it’s hitting on the wait staff. Effie had only planned to stay for the summer and get back on her feet, so she tries not to get involved. But she can’t help herself. She then gains more insight into what is really happening in the restaurant when Jarrod shows off some Italian truffles. When she questions how they are going to serve a product from Italy in their 100% locally sourced restaurant, he bites her head off and she backs down. That is just the beginning of that issue, however.

One of her co-workers is Ernie, whom she grew up with. They were best friends for most of her life, but as high school graduation approaches, Ernie tells Effie that he loves her, and she freaks out. The friendship is ruined, and they don’t speak for the next sixteen years until Effie moves back. To her surprise, Ernie is as kind to her as he ever was, and he’s grown up to be a really good-looking man. Her attraction surprises her, but as they learn to be friends again, she keeps that in check. They decide to spend their Mondays off together, revisiting many of the places they loved in their youth. Things start getting a bit flirtatious, but Ernie knows she is leaving at the end of the summer. It took him years to get over her when she left the first time, and he has no desire to revisit that kind of pain again.

This is a second chance, small-town, friends-to-lovers romance, and the restaurant setting was just a bonus for me. Apparently, the author is a trained chef and food writer, so the kitchen stuff really rings true. Fans of the TV series, The Bear, will love that aspect; I know I did. This was a compelling romance with great characters I couldn’t help but root for. I missed this author’s first couple of books, but I will be hunting them down. Don’t miss this one!

4/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

EFFIE OLSEN’S SUMMER SPECIAL by Rochelle Bilow. Berkley (April 30, 2024). ISBN: 978-0593547908. 384p.

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From the publisher:

Named a Most Anticipated book of 2024 by TIME ∙ The New York Times ∙ Goodreads ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Today.com ∙ Paste ∙ SheReads ∙ BookPage ∙ Woman’s World ∙ The Nerd Daily and more!

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

 Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads —Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

https://amzn.to/4b3yREp

I’ve been a fan of Henry’s since her first book, and she never disappoints. This book takes a crazy situation, makes it crazier, and then somehow it’s all normal after all. This writer has mad skills!

Daphne and Peter are engaged, but when his “best friend” Petra shows up after the bachelor party, Peter doesn’t hesitate for a second. He dumps Daphne and takes off with Petra, his best friend who now decides she wants to be his girlfriend. Except Daphne moved to this small Michigan town for Peter, and she has a great job that she loves as a children’s librarian and Peter gives her a week to move out. She ends up asking Petra’s ex, Miles, if he has room for her, and he does. They are both heartbroken and quickly become friends.

When Daphne and Miles are invited to Petra and Peter’s wedding, they decide to go together. One thing leads to another and Daphne ends up telling Peter that she and Miles are dating. The next thing you know, they really are dating. Everyone gets their happily ever after, but it’s the journey that makes this read so memorable.

Fans of romance subgenres like fake dating, forced proximity, small town romances, and steamy romances have all that to look forward to! Once again Henry gives us a romance with a surprising amount of heart and depth before we get to the happy ending. Highly recommend!

Enjoy this short interview, courtesy of the New York Times —

4/2024 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry. Berkley (April 23, 2024). ISBN: 978-0593441282. 400p.

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