#39 [2026/CBR18] Bombshells by Sarina Bowen

I went through a phase some years ago where I read a lot of books by Sarina Bowen because I found them fun and entertaining. Recently, I was looking for good road trip books, and I looked her up again. I realized that I had missed a couple, and decided now was the time to do some catch up. I'm not sure if I intentionally skipped over Bombshells (2021) or I somehow missed it, but I was happy to find another Bowen book that I had not read.

Sylvie is from Canada. She is still grieving the recent death of her mother. She has a crush on one of the Brooklyn Bruiser stars who lived at her home when she was a teenager. And she has just joined the Brooklyn Women's Hockey team, the Bombshells. With almost no warning, Sylvie takes what she can and moves in with some fellow Bombshells players. The player she's had a crush on most of her life keeps her at arms length, but she meets another Bruisers player, Anton.

Anton is immediately transfixed by Sylvie, and they begin spending time together. They both teach a swim class to local youths, and they jog together. Their attraction is immediate and undeniable, and soon enough they give in to it. Sylvie is confused at first, but she's been slowly giving up on her crush for quite a while now, and Anton is irresistible. Anton was having a more difficult time because he felt like he was betraying his teammate.

So the two keep their trysts secret for a while until it becomes impossible. However, it all works out in the end.

There's not too much drama in this book. Sylvie does have to improve her performance on the ice, and the two share some fun times together. Anton is known as a playboy and he has to stop being scared of commitment before they stop keeping secrets. But for the most part, Sylvie and Anton are on the same page.

I have always enjoyed reading Bowen's novels, and this one was no different. I never get bored while I'm reading. However, I wasn't very interested in the dead mother leaving impenetrable "signs" via hairpin for Sylvie. I found it both annoying that Syvie's mother was controlling her daughter from the grave--and unbelievable. I also realize that Bowen needed a couple of obstacles to throw at Sylvie and Anton, but Sylvie's crush seemed a little bit of a stretch. It was a tricky balance to have Sylvie be hung up on someone else, but also hooking up with her happily ever after.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book.

#38 [2026/CBR18] Bound by Ali Hazelwood

I'm a sucker for all Ali Hazelwood books, so when I saw that she had a new novel out, I picked up the Audiobook without even thinking. Bound (2025) is apparently only available on Audiobook until October of this year, when it will be released in print with its partner book, Unbound. I'm assuming that Unbound is a continuation of Bound, but I'm not really sure.

Veronica "Vero" is a grad student who grew up with her con artist parents. She mostly did not follow in her parents' footsteps, but when she needed money, she began forging some old books and manuscripts for her boss. This brought her to the attention of Dr. Viktor Ashworth, a professor at her school. He kidnaps her and then offers her a million dollars to help him out with his own forgery. Vero agrees.

For months, Vero is driven to Viktor's museum/palace-like residence to work on the manuscript. After a couple of unusual incidents, she figures out that Viktor and his friends aren't quite human. It turns out that Viktor is hundreds of years old and is a Revenant (vampire). He can handle the sun with sunglasses, but that's because he's old and powerful. As the two work together, they begin to like each other more and more.

Viktor wanted Vero to fake a very old document that Viktor had written himself and contained the instructions for turning people into Revenants. He wanted her to change some of the instructions because there was a rogue Revenant killing people left and right, and he did not want him to have the knowledge to turn people.

One day, Vero is attacked as she is leaving Viktor's residence. Viktor saves her, and the two become a real couple. The finale takes place in Boston when the document is finished, and the Revenants lay a trap to find the bad guy. It doesn't quite work out the way they hoped, and Vero runs over there to try to help a friend that gets caught up in the mess. Vero is badly injured. When she wakes up, Viktor has turned her into a Revenant, and the book is over.

This is my least favorite Hazelwood book so far. I'm not that into paranormal stories anyway, but this did nothing for me. The romance was incredibly slow, the love interest's voice was very stodgy. In addition, the whole purpose of the forgery and the bad guy was undeveloped, with everything wrapping up very quickly in the end. 

I also couldn't help but compare it to complaints I've heard about Twilight. Viktor is centuries old and a professor, but interested in a young, graduate student. Before she is aware, he sneaks into her apartment and drinks her blood, so he can read her thoughts and keep track of her better. She told him in conversations that she did not want to be immortal, but he thought he felt something different from her in her thoughts. He also didn't want to lose her, so he turns her without any discussion. She is happy about this, so it's not a problem in the book, but I found it all more creepy than sexy.

Not for me. Unbound might be better, but it also might be the first Hazelwood book that I skip.

#37 [2026/CBR18] Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burk

I can't remember where I first heard of Yesteryear (2026) by Caro Claire Burk, but I was immediately intrigued by the premise. A successful Youtuber "trad wife" suddenly finds herself back in the year 1855 as an OG "trad" wife. I knew nothing else about the novel, but I was hoping for some clever satire.

The book begins with our protagonist, Natalie Heller Mills doing an interview. She lives in a gorgeous farmstead with her husband and five (?) children--with one on the way. Their lives are picture perfect and enviable--at least the lives that are projected out on social media. Natalie makes bread from scratch and homeschools her children while her husband takes care of the farm. They live a beautiful, romantic life. 

But like almost everything on social media, appearances can be deceiving. Natalie has two nannies who do most of the childcare and all of the schooling. They started with money from her husband's father, and they have an army of immigrant labor to help with the farm. In addition, Natalie and her husband are really a couple in name only. They act for the cameras, but there is nothing to envy there.

One morning, Natalie wakes up and its freezing cold. She's in her house, but it doesn't feel like her house anymore. There is no electricity, refrigerator, or heat. All of her creature comforts are gone. Her children look like her children, but not quite. And her husband seems like her husband, but he looks like an old, bearded man. 

The book alternates chapters between Natalie back in 1855, and how Natalie grew up and came to be the wildly popular social media influencer that she was. I found the chapters about Natalie's past more interesting to read. I felt myself feeling sorry for her as well as being shocked at some of her actions towards her roommate, employees, and family. But all of these chapters really clarified Natalie as a character.

I was expecting a quick satire about some of these women I've seen on Instagram who loudly deride feminism while ignorantly using the power feminists of earlier generations fought for. However, this book was much more complex than I was expecting. The characters and relationships were intricate and there was more going on than a simple satire. Instead, the overwhelming feeling I got from this book was that no matter what direction you try to go, being a woman can suck. Natalie tried to do what she had been taught was right, and she found herself trapped and miserable. Natalie's sister was trapped and miserable in a different way. Even Natalie's progressive roommate was trapped in a miserable job that took over her life and men that treated her badly.

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending of this book, but overall I'm impressed with it. It was original, intricate, timely, and thoughtful. 

#36 [2026/CBR18] America the Beautiful? by Blythe Roberson

My husband recommended America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled (2023) by Blythe Roberson. I have a bit of a contest going with my oldest brother to see who can get to more U.S. national parks (I'm winning), and this book seemed on point. Roberson was taking an epic summer road trip to visit every U.S. National Park in the lower 48 that she hadn't yet been to. I chose at the time not to read it, but this summer we were driving back from Glacier National Park and needed some entertainment. We started the Audiobook.

It's hard for me to explain why I originally passed on this book. I have a hard time reading or watching people do things that I've done. This is especially true for Youtube videos of people going to places I've been, especially if it was a meaningful trip. There's a little bit of FOMO that I might have missed out on something cool, but there's also the frustration that comes if I feel they didn't do it "right". I understand that it's not rational, but it might help explain my reaction to this book.

Roberson is a millennial from New York City who grew up camping and obtaining junior ranger badges at various national parks. Now she's decided to take a break from her desk job and go earn junior ranger badges from all the lower 48 National Parks she hasn't been to yet. She picks up her step-father's car and begins at Isle Royale National Park, an island in Lake Superior. She continues around the country, with stops to visit friends along the way.

I thought Roberson could often be funny and entertaining. I enjoyed hearing about her experiences in the parks. I have also camped out of my car, so I could definitely relate. I have gone on a number of road trips to see a couple of national parks at at time, but mine are always limited to a week or two. I think two months would be exhausting. I have also never paid much attention to the junior ranger badges, but it seems like it could be a--sometimes--interesting way to learn more about the parks.

However, I did get a little bored/frustrated with this book. First, I wish there had been more content on the actual national parks. Roberson tended to have very little time, so she would drive in, do a hike, and then leave in a couple of hours. Glacier--the park my husband and I had just left--had maybe a sentence. Others had more, but this book was not really about the parks. In addition, the narrator for the Audiobook mispronounced two of the parks' names: Isle Royale and Guadalupe.

Second, even though I agree with all of Roberson's liberal, feminist tangents, I don't think they all fit well into the book. It felt like she was trying to hit every liberal talking point as filler. Some of these certainly related to the parks, like the fact the land was originally Native American and how Climate Change is affecting these unique and beautiful spaces. However, it all felt like something I'd read before, and her arguments felt a little superficial. 

In the beginning of the book Roberson talks about how few women write travel memoirs or go on adventures like hers. She says that men have much more freedom than women to adventure (often true when kids are involved, but it depends on the couple). She said that fathers can disappear for two months and no one thinks anything of it. I disagree. Again, it depends on the family, but my little brother could not and would not abandon his wife and kids for two months to go on an adventure. I think men traveling solo more than women was more true thirty to forty years ago. I travel by myself all the time, and I see plenty of women traveling solo. There are also tons of Youtube accounts of solo women sharing their journeys. It's not as remarkable anymore.

Although there were some entertaining parts, this book did not really resonate with me.

#35 [2026/CBR18] Patchwork by Kate Evans

I try to read a graphic novel every once in awhile to expand my literary tastes. This year, I saw Patchwork (2025) by Kate Evans on NPR's Books We Love List and knew that I needed to read it. I love Jane Austen, and Pride and Prejudice has been my favorite book since I first read it back in college. I've heard little tidbits about Austen's life here and there, but I really don't know much about her. I figured this book would be perfect for me.

Jane Austen and her sister sewed a patchwork quilt for their mother, which is the inspiration for the title. I thought Patchwork was very well done. The drawings are beautiful--especially the full-page drawings. They really allowed me to dive into Austen's world and imagine what her life was like. In fact, I learned a lot about Austen, including her early years, her family, her connections, and how her writing was originally received. I had heard that Austen and her sister were close--much like Jane and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, but I saw how important they were to each other while reading this book.

Evans often uses text from Austen's books in order to show what happened in Jane Austen's life back in the day. This is a fascinating technique because I could imagine Austen using her own life as inspiration for her novels. I am not as familiar with all of Austen's work as some, so I imagine the people that really know Austen's work would get even more out of this technique. Of course, we don't know what was actually said or thought back then, and apparently Jane Austen's sister, Cassandra, may have burnt the more interesting letters she exchanged with Jane.

In addition, Evans weaves in context of the time period. In one section of the book, Evans describes where all of the different layers of the quilt came from, including cotton from American slavery, linen from the Irish, and other textiles from the East India Company. The context was insightful, helpful, and well done.

The only frustrating thing about this book is that I occasionally found it a little hard to follow. I came in knowing so little about Austen that I sometimes wanted a little more context about her life and how we know what we know about her. In fact, this book has piqued my curiosity so strongly that I am now interested in reading a traditional biography of Austen in order to learn more.

This was a relatively quick read with beautiful pictures. There are also extensive notes in the back. I read a good portion of them, but it was a bit of a slog and I ran out of time to finish all of them. However, I would recommend this book to any Jane Austen fan.

#34 [2026/CBR18] Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

I saw Raising Hare (2025) on so many different lists at the end of the year, but I was a little resistant. All I knew was that a woman raised a baby hare and wrote a book about it. I love animals, so you'd think I'd jump at a chance to read more about them. However, I'm not a big fan of turning wild animals into pets, and I feared that Raising Hare would be some kind of Disney-fied rendition of nature.

Fortunately, I was wrong. I listened to Raising Hare as an Audiobook, and I loved it. As soon as I finished, my inclination was to immediately get the hardcover, so I could read it again myself. (I haven't done that yet, but I think it's only a matter of time).

In February 2021, Chloe Dalton has returned to her country home in the English countryside while everything is shut down by Covid. Her home is a converted barn that sits in the middle of a field and family members live close by. One day she stumbles on a newborn hare lying flat in the middle of the lane. She hopes that its mother will come for it and leaves it be. But when she walks by again, many hours later, the hare is in the same place. Worried that it will get run over or that dogs will get it, Dalton picks up the hare and brings it home.

I learned a lot about hares in this book--primarily, that hares are different from rabbits. Rabbits burrow underground and are born furless and with their eyes closed. Hares do not burrow, but have their babies above ground. Hares are born with fur and with their eyes open. They are able to move very shortly after birth but rely on hiding until they are a little older and faster. When hares are a year or younger, they are called leverets.

Dalton quickly learned that it is very difficult to keep a leveret alive in captivity. It is rarely, if ever, done and there is very little information about it. But she was informed that it was too late to bring the leveret back, now that it had her smell on it. After trying to pawn the leveret off on her sister, Dalton focused on keeping the little thing alive. 

Dalton fed the leveret three times a day, but otherwise handled it only when necessary. She pulled some grasses from the field near where she found the leveret and set up a little home in a shoebox. Critically, Dalton made a hole in the shoe box, so the leveret was not trapped. In fact, the one time Dalton followed "hare-raising" advice from the internet and put the leveret in a cage, was the one time that the leveret did not do well and seemed close to dying. It seems that the stress of captivity is not good for them.

I loved Dalton's approach to keeping the leveret. She used a mix of common sense and a respect for its autonomy as an independent creature. She did not think of it as her pet. She tried not to interfere or control it, and she was always opening up doors in her house so that it had free rein. Dalton wanted the leveret to grow up and live a normal life outside.

It was clear the leveret felt safe with Dalton and the two had a relationship. But this book isn't just about the leveret, but also about how much the leveret changed Dalton. She became so much more aware of the other animals in the fields and the dangers they faced. She started doing research on a large number of new topics as the natural world became more important to her. She learned a number of small things she could do around her house to improve wildlife habitat. The leveret even changed her perspective on success and what she wanted out of life. This small animal that is often overlooked or dismissed as a pest became so interesting and so important as soon as Dalton took the time to observe it with its best interests at heart.

It was inevitable that the leveret raised by Dalton would eventually take off into the fields. Sometimes it would come back in the morning, and sometimes she wouldn't see it for weeks. But one day, Dalton found the young hare's new babies in her garden. And so, she got to learn even more about hares as she watched the hare that she had raised, raise others. 

I loved this book. It seemed like both a small, personal story, and also a meaningful glimpse into a larger world. I'm still thinking about this book many days later. I'm not sure if everyone will find this book as emotional and as powerful as me, but I would highly recommend it.

#33 [2026/CBR18] A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

I was seeing A Guardian and a Thief (2025) by Megha Majumdar all over the place at the end of last year. It was on every best-of list that I could find. It's a finalist for the National Book Award, and has many other accolades. I thought this book was very memorable and well written, but also difficult to read because of the subject matter. It feels a little too real and a little too on point, and it is horrifying to be an intimate viewer to its tragedy. If you haven't read this book, but are interested, I would recommend skipping my review and reading the novel with as little foreknowledge as possible.

Ma, her aging father, and her 2-year-old daughter, Mishti live in Kolkata in the near future. Climate change has wreaked havoc on the city. There is very little food, it is dangerously hot, and the pollution is suffocating. They are lucky to live in a nice house with air conditioning and have a small stock of food. The book begins with the small family making their way to the American Embassy to receive their passports and visas. They are traveling to the United States in one week in order to join Ma's husband and Mishti's father, Babu. Ma is desperate to get out before things get even worse. They were able to obtain the visas because Babu is a climate scientist. He is now waiting for the arrival of his family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

However, the night they receive the passports, Boomba, a young man from outside of the city comes into their home and steals almost all of their food, Ma's purse with the passports, and even Mishti's small toy truck. The family wakes in the morning and realizes their lives have turned from a short-lived struggle to one of desperation and possible despair. The police do not help them. The embassy also has no sympathy for them, and will likely not be around much longer anyways. Both Ma and her father will do anything to protect young Mishti as they figure out what to do.

As I read this book, it was interesting to focus on how I felt about the characters. Beginning the book with Ma, her father, and Mishti naturally had me rooting for them. Who doesn't want an adorable little toddler reunited with her father and living in relatively safer conditions. I hated that Boomba ignorantly stole the precious documents they needed for safe passage--not even recognizing what they were for. Sure, Ma took a little food from the shelter she worked for, but who doesn't want to feed their kids.

But then I learned more about Boomba. He had a family in much worse straits with no promise of the relief of moving to the United States. He came to the city out of a desperation to bring his family to a better place, but he had so few options. When everything was stolen from him, he was left with nothing. And then he saw Ma steal some eggs at the shelter he was staying at and decided to steal them back from her. 

In the end, this story has no heroes and no villains. Ma is a caring person who ran the shelter with compassion; she sacrifices so much for her daughter and family; but she can also steal from that shelter for the security of her family. Boomba is a loving, hardworking brother and son who is willing to work hard to bring them to a better life. But when that is not an option, he will steal, lie, and threaten violence for them. Even Ma's father, an artist at heart with an abiding love for the city of his birth, will do anything it takes to provide for his granddaughter. 

This book was a stressful read because it was obvious that there would be no happy endings with such desperation. But it was also memorable and felt like a pointed reminder of where our world might end up (or has ended up in some places) with climate change and drastic inequalities of wealth.