I was born and raised in Florida so this book has been on my radar since I saw publicity for it! It’s not a novel but a collection of short stories that all feature Florida as a character in some way. What I love is that it’s not the Florida of Disney and sunsets, but the real Florida – with self-destructive hurricanes, animals of all sorts, and the characters unique to this state.

My favorite stories were “Above and Below,” in which a grad student loses her university funding and learns first-hand about homelessness and desperation. The tent cities were sadly accurate.

In “Yport,” a mother drags her two young sons to France to research Guy de Maupassant, hoping that this research will calm her feelings of uncertainty and dissatisfaction with her mundane Florida life. These are not stories with happy endings but they are an accurate portrayal of life in Florida.

This book has been on many “best of” YA lists and I was hoping it lived up to the hype. No worries – it did! This is a twisty novel about a group of three teenage cousins and their friend – The Liars – who spend summers on a private island near Martha’s Vineyard.

The matriarch daughters of each family are consumed by greed and wealth even though they are well educated. Their children, the cousins, all hate what the greed has done to their families.

The main character, Cadence, tries to piece together what happened on the island when she was 15 years old that left her with amnesia. Two years later, she returns to the island where the Liars help her uncover what really happened. And if you ask me to tell you the ending … I’ll just lie!

I literally read this because there was a Dennis Lehane quote on the cover. This is a novel about love, betrayal and obsession, but not what you’re thinking. Donald is an optician in suburban Boston and his wife, Viv, works at the local stables. Viv becomes completely taken by Mercury, a racehorse inherited by her friend, and believes she can return to competition again.

By the time Donald realizes what is happening to Viv, she is a character beyond recognition who will stop at nothing to make Mercury hers. This is about the small secrets and lies that grow to damage relationships. A surprisingly good book.

This was an odd book for me. I saw it first on Instagram and it mentioned how a YouTube influencer and her infant son were almost trafficked by her Serbian partner. I was expecting a first-person story about his con, betrayal and her survival. What I got was a weird cover image and title that didn’t quite fit my expectations.

I only finished this book because I am obsessed with human trafficking and how easily it can happen. However, her writing rambles on and needs more editing. After I finished the book, I learned that there was a shorter YouTube interview she did about her situation and frankly, that was done much better.

Basically, Brittani meets Milos on Tinder and believes he is perfect: a handsome, Serbian doctor. But then his money runs out, there’s issues with visas and all kinds of excuses. When Brittani becomes pregnant, she becomes the target of verbal and physical abuse from Milos, who eventually brings his “mother” to live with them and help out after the baby is born.

Milos steals her passport and birth certificate, along with her son’s information, and it’s only when she starts telling her dental hygienist about Milos that red flags go off. And Milos was prepared, recording her out of context so he had evidence that she was mentally ill and an unfit mother. Eventually the courts rule in her favor and Milos is not granted custody her son, Rex, and cannot leave the country with him. Honestly, this could have been a newspaper or magazine story and not a full-length book.

This is a beautiful little book about the power of imagination and creativity. Young Maya is at the beach, too shy to play with others, when she falls asleep and dreams she is a mermaid. While in her Mermaid Dream, she discovers another mermaid who wants to play. When she wakes up, there is a real girl who wants to play.

Andrew is a 42-year-old single man caught up in a little white lie. While interviewing for his government job, he accidentally mentioned he had a wife and children. Now, several years later, his boss insists each member of the team hosts a dinner party and Andrew isn’t sure how long he can pull it off.

When a new employee, Peggy, joins the team, he realizes he is attracted to her but his social awkwardness makes it tricky. Andrew is likeable in that he doesn’t want to die alone, and his antics remind me a bit of George Costanza from “Seinfeld.” A fun read for those who liked “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.”