Review: Suddenly

Suddenly by Isabelle Autissier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thank you to Booklist for the ARC.

Married Parisian couple Louise and Ludovic take a sabbatical from their everyday lives to sail around the tip of Cape Horn. Despite warnings from others, they decide to anchor their ship near an island with a protected nature preserve and sneak in for a closer look. But when the unexpected happens, and the couple’s ship disappears, they are left stranded in the Antarctic. With few supplies in a harsh landscape, Louise and Ludovic must depend on each other to make it off the island. French sailor and writer Autissier’s (Jane Austen, 2020) real-world expertise is evident throughout the book, and the descriptions of the landscape and the trials Ludovic and Louise experience are extraordinarily vivid. The emotional and physical turmoil these characters experience will pull at the reader’s heartstrings. This tragic and thrilling story is recommended for readers who enjoy harrowing tales of people surviving in extraordinary circumstances, such as Robinson Crusoe or Aron Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

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Review: Her Father's Daughter

Her Father's Daughter by T.M. Dunn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Thank you to Booklist for the ARC.

Linda Donovan has spent her whole adult life working for her father's exterminating business. Raised by Anthony, a single parent, she thinks she knows everything about him. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Anthony tells Linda she must take a job on her own. When she arrives, she finds the client dead. Linda panics and calls the police. Suddenly, Anthony is nowhere to be found, and the police think his disappearance is not coincidental. Linda investigates to prove her father's innocence, but every bit of evidence leads only to more questions: does she know her father at all? Told from Linda’s POV and in letters Anthony writes to her, the book reveals details of Anthony’s upbringing, his relationship with Linda’s mother, and how the events of the present came to be. Debut author Dunn's writing style is straightforward, and the plot can be gruesome at times, but readers will want to see this through. Recommended for fans of thriller authors who use multiple perspectives to build the plot, like Mary Kubica and Paula Hawkins. Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.

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Review: The Bookbinder of Jericho

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to Library Journal for the ARC and the opportunity to review this title!

Williams (The Dictionary of Lost Words) brilliantly weaves a new thread into her world of words at Oxford University. Peggy Jones has been told her whole life to bind the books, not read them, but as a child her love of words grew despite her limited access. Now, as the Great War looms and steals Britain’s men and boys, the women of the Oxford University bindery must step into new roles to keep their small town running. Between volunteering to read to wounded soldiers, welcoming Belgian refugees, and taking on the tasks of the men who have left for battle, Peggy loses hope that her own desire for a higher education will ever come to be. Relentless in her pursuit of knowledge, she pushes past her own fears into a new, unknown world. With heartfelt characters, a bit of romance, and a bleak and deeply sad place in time, Williams’s novel is a deft story about the meaning of words, who is allowed access, and how they’re inevitably interpreted. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction about strong women, like the works of Kate Quinn, Beatriz Williams, and Laura Willig.

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