The Dime by Kathleen Kent  is a treat! A real kind of book-bite dessert!

Betty Rhyzk loves being a Brooklyn detective—it’s her family’s legacy to do so—and her worst case, smartly taking down a cult member, won’t be her last. Betty relocates to Texas after her partner, a radiologist named Jackie, transfers to be closer to her bigoted family, and her overly dramatic, ailing mother. The transfer to a new state, a new city, and a new police department is disorienting at the very least. Luckily, she’s a great detective and murder, drug cartels, and cult leaders, are her specialty.

The book is quick-paced with interesting characters, clever solutions, and a corkscrew plot. This is a murder mystery worth reading! Get ready with your oxygen tank this summer it’ll leave you breathless!

 

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng  gives a lot of information to chew on, a Main Course book-bite for sure.

This is a story of two families in exact contrast to one another, starring two strong females as very distinct mothers.

Mrs. Richardson is beautiful, loving, well mannered, well connected, and expertly manicured. Her family is the prototypical image of a modern-day Brady Bunch; a hard-working lawyer husband, and four kids, ranging a year apart, all going to the same high school. Mrs. Richardson is also a writer for the local newspaper and the owner of a townhouse she rents out to those less fortunate. Enter, Mia and her daughter, Pearl. Mia is a modern-day gypsy, a single mother, traveling from place to place on a whim, running from her secret past. She is a talented artist not interested in making it big as her art seller, and her talent would imply, but instead supports her and her daughter through doing odd jobs.

The two women meet when Mia rents Mrs. Richardson’s townhome and a love triangle between Pearl and the two Richardson boys forms. Will Mia allow her daughter to live in this place, to put down roots as she promised, or will she pack her up and run like she always does?

A well-written story with a question, is the grass always greener when it’s not under your own feet?

 

The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd is junk food, but not the good kind.

Warning: Spoiler Alert!!!

Samantha is terrible at relationships, especially once her grandmother dies, she is on shaky ground with her mother, and her boyfriend recently left her—if he was in fact, her boyfriend, Samantha couldn’t say for sure. Her grandmother was the only person in the world that understood Samantha until she starts writing Dennis Danson, a convicted murderer, rotting in prison in America. Samantha’s interest is peaked once a documentary of Dennis’s conviction brings to light that he was wrongly accused. Plus, the two seem to understand one another quite well.

With England behind her, this public school teacher packs her suitcase and travels to America to pursue a relationship with Dennis. Their relationship is great until his conviction is overturned and he is released. Is he the man she thought he was when they married? Or is he the man who should have stayed in prison?

I hate to admit it, but I terribly disliked this book. I liked the idea of it—a real sign of the times tribute to a man wrongly accused, a fan base fighting for Dennis’s release, and a woman who believes, from being an armchair detective and watching documentaries about Dennis’ supposed crimes, is in love with the man. Pure gold!

My issue is with the character of Samantha. She does nothing. She gets married because he asks. She moves with him to his hometown where he is unwelcomed and despised because he says, that’s just how it is.

When Samantha finds out that Dennis might have secrets, including a woman on the side and despicable photographs of dead women, still she does nothing about it—well hardly anything about it.

It was maddening to read a book staring a two-dimensional character who had no opinion, no reason, or seemingly, even a pulse. It isn’t the story about an innocent woman as much as it is a story of a stupid one. Strike this one from your summer reading list!