Heather Fawcett amazes me so much. She’s a local (to me) author and she just keeps pumping out books at a wild pace! It’s been so great to see her first adult book, Emily Wilde, getting so much praise, but don’t sleep on her YA and middle grade books! She never disappoints and consistently knocks it out of the park with her settings.
I’m still working my way through her middle grade books, but I read this one was about Vancouver Island and bumped it up on my list. She writes mostly fantasy, but I would say this book is more magical realism or fantasy lite. There’s some ghosty references, but otherwise it’s pretty much fiction.
Anyways, she nails the setting as usual. The Islands Of Elsewhere is about the 3 Snolly sisters, who travel to their granddaddy’s property in coastal Vancouver Island for the summer to help their mom look after him as he battles dementia. They learn about a potential buried treasure that they believe would enable them to move to their granddaddy’s property permanently to look after him, so they set out to explore the nearby fairy islands.
It’s a nice family story, with just enough spookyness from the remote setting. It’s a fictional town, but it’s clearly modeled after Tofino, so I loved imagining the 3 sisters running around the beaches and exploring coves. It’s a fun and lighthearted read, my only criticism would be that it’s maybe a little too conveniently packaged in the end. Lots of children likely have had or will have exposure to their grandparents becoming forgetful and I would have liked to see that theme explored in a little more depth. It’s sad, but children are resilient.
Otherwise, a really quick and nice summer read (though I read it in December lol).
I picked this up right away after really enjoying Ties That Tether, but unfortunately, it didn’t have any of the same charm. Both books are a bit overwritten and don’t do a very good job at “show don’t tell”. But the characters in Ties That Tether had a lot of chemistry, which I felt was really lacking from this story. The romance was very instalove and it didn’t feel organic to the rest of the story.
The central story is really about Hannah meeting her estranged family for the first time and discovering her Nigerian heritage. Hannah grows up bi-racial, living with her white mother and never knowing her Nigerian father. When he passes away suddenly, she is invited to attend his funeral and get to know the rest of her family, meeting an interesting family friend, Lawrence, along the way, to whom she is attracted.
Overall, I thought the story had a very strong central idea, with lots of really great themes to explore around identity, class, family, heritage, and racism. Even though this is labeled as a romance, I actually found the romance detracted from the rest of the story. While it had a great premise, it was lacking in depth.
All of the characters felt really one dimensional and there wasn’t real tension between any of them, despite the author continuously setting up barriers between each of the characters. In my opinion, none of the conflicts had any real emotional depth, and the characters were basically wealthy Nigerian royalty, so it was really hard to relate to them or feel any empathy for them. I empathized with Hannah, but I don’t think the author committed to the entire spectrum of grief that Hannah likely would have experienced. Where was the rage at her father and his family for casting her out? Where was the deep sadness about never having the opportunity to know her father? Even the children who did know him hardly seemed to be mourning him, so the entire thing just read like a fantasy.
Which is really the problem I had with this book. I felt like the author had lived Ties That Tether. She understood Azere’s interpersonal conflict and feelings. Even though Azere and I have almost nothing in common, her emotions and longing were still incredibly relatable. I’m not convinced the author really understood the content of what she was trying to say in this book. Everything about this story read like a self-insert fantasy to me. If you grew up disconnected from your heritage, I could see the longing of gaining a family and a culture and finally feeling seen. But how easily the siblings accepted Hannah, and how they were so rich, and how she immediately meets a sensitive and nice Nigerian man to instruct her in the ways of Nigerian culture, seemed so transparently a fantasy to me. Like the author was dreaming about being adopted into a rich and affluent family.
There was no tension between Hannah and Lawrence, and there was no tension between the siblings – except for Tiya. Everyone was too easily accepted and forgiven. Sure, everyone wants a happy ending, but this was too convenient. Give me some grit! It’s a fluffy read, but neither of Igharo’s books are really fluffy stories. Ties That Tether had a good balance, but it was lost in The Sweetest Remedy and the plotline felt detached from reality.
Anyways, I like it less now that I’ve written the review. It was a disappointment. Read Ties That Tether and skip this one. 2.5 stars.
I picked this book up a few years ago at Powell’s Bookstore as an impulse buy, but I’ve never felt much draw to actually read it. The only reason I think I finally picked it up was because I found the audiobook at my library and the narrator sounded really good, so I listened to it over Christmas while on my jigsaw puzzle kick.
I’m so glad I finally did read it, because it was a lot different and better than I was anticipating. Azere is Nigerian-Canadian. She grew up in Toronto and has been heavily influenced by Canadian culture, but her parents still cling to their Nigerian roots and raise her in fear that she will lose her connection to Nigeria. Her father passes when she is 12 and his dying wish is for her to marry a Nigerian man – a promise that holds Azere hostage for her entire adult life.
Her mother is particularly threatened by the potential loss of culture in her children and is a domineering presence in Azere’s life. Despite working for a successful marketing firm, Azere is characterized as a failure by her mother for not being married or having children. Her mother routinely tries to set her up with Nigerian men and doesn’t seem to care whether those men are actually well suited to her daughter or not. So one night Azere acts out after a bad date and has a one-night stand with a white man, who later resurfaces at her marketing firm as her new co-worker.
This is marketed as a romance, and it definitely has a romantic plot, but I would shelve it more as general fiction. I know this culture conflict is a common refrain for many immigrants, including many of my friends, so I think it makes for a compelling and nuanced story. The characters are frustrating, but you also know they’re coming from a place of love, so it’s hard to either accept or condemn their actions. That said, Azere’s mom definitely had some things to apologize for, but it was nice to see Azere finally take control over her own life and say, “enough is enough”.
My main criticism would be that I thought Rafael had some glaring flaws that I didn’t really like in a male love interest. He hid his past from Azere, and while I understood it was because of the trauma associated with what happened, I didn’t think it was very fair of him to rake her over the coals for not accepting him when we wasn’t willing to share his whole self with her. He also had temper issues that I didn’t have any tolerance for.
But overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and quickly rushed out to pick up a copy of her second book, The Sweetest Remedy. I’d definitely recommend the audio version, but I did switch back and forth between audio and paperback and enjoyed both!
This was fine. Not the best, not the worst; a bit bland and ultimately forgettable.
While this is a romance, I’d say it’s more general fiction than romance, as it centers around a young woman trying to come to terms with the death of her fiancé by suicide. If that sounds like a heavy topic for a romance, it’s because it is.
It is handled well. I can only imagine how painful it would be to be in Anna’s shoes and this is primarily a book about her processing her grief and learning how to move forward with her life. One day she walks out of her job and her life and decides to take her sailboat on a 1700 mile trip through the Caribbean that she was planning with her fiancé.
Along the way, she hires Irishman/sailor Keane to support her on her journey, but he is battling his own demons after losing his leg in an accident and struggling to find work. The story follows these two individuals to beautiful locations around the Caribbean while they both attempt to move on.
The reason I didn’t love the book is because it felt like it had absolutely no tension of any kind. Even though the central themes are around grief, this is a feel good and lighthearted book. There are no conflicts, limited romantic chemistry, and no real depth in processing grief. I would expect both characters to feel anger and sadness mixed with the elation of exploring such beautiful locales. But everything is just bland.
Overall, I don’t think the writing is very sophisticated. Just because it’s a romance doesn’t mean there can’t be depth. There’s a lot of secondary characters, but no meaningful relationships. Everything was solved too easily and I would have preferred to read less about each island they visited in lieu of some real depth from the side characters.
Anyways, I could go in depth about how the narrative is lacking, but it’s not meant to be that type of book. It’s the first in a 3 part series and I bought the whole thing on book outlet, so I will pick up the next one, The Suite Life (which I read is the best one). It’s great if you want a feel good travel book, but don’t expect any real depth. Show don’t tell!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ Author: Andrea Lankford Genres: Non-fiction Pub. Date: Aug. 2023
I’m not sure what to make of this. It’s a well researched and pretty well written book. Andrea Lankford has clearly been heavily involved in the missing cases of all 3 hikers featured in this book for quite some time. She covers each missing person in great detail, explains a lot of the quirks of thru hiking, and highlights different search techniques that are being used to try and find missing persons and the merits of each.
It’s an interesting enough read and it mostly worked as an audiobook. The only real complaint I had about the audiobook is that two of the missing persons are called Chris/Kris. It would be a lot easier to tell them apart reading it, but listening to it was a bit confusing and hard to know who she was talking about and I couldn’t keep straight what happened in each case.
Fundamentally, the problem I had with this book is that it’s become evident to me over the past few years that I don’t believe in extended searches for missing hikers. It’s a personal opinion. As someone who hikes a lot, I have given this a lot of consideration and I personally have told my husband to please search for me for 1-2 months if I go missing, but to then move on with his life. It’s morbid, and I understand the need for closure, especially for parents of the missing, but I feel that an extended search only extends the pain of family members and prevents people from moving on. There’s a very real possibility the missing will never be found. (for clarity, I’m only opposed to extended searches for missing hikers, not those who have potentially been abducted, kidnapped, or murdered – there are very different implications and risks between the two).
This is a very personal decision and I don’t fault parents for not being able to let go. But where I consistently get hung up on the idea of an extended search is when it puts volunteer searchers at risk. No missing person is ever truly abandoned by search and rescue. I do think their initial searches are often a bit on the short side, but they do regularly re-visit missing person cases, even years after the fact, and dedicate resources to searching. Which I’m totally in support of because they are professionals. But extended and self-organized searches can and do put the volunteer searchers at risk, which is why I personally oppose them. The only thing I can imagine that would be worse than getting lost and dying in the woods, would be other people trying to find my body and also becoming lost, injured, or dying.
I was extremely frustrated with the author when she went on a solo reconnaissance trip in dangerous terrain. Yes, she is a former SAR member, but she did become injured and it didn’t appear that she even carried at satellite device, just a phone. I thought if anyone would know better, it would be her. In addition, Pam got lost, Cathy continually put herself at risk, and who knows how many others got in sticky situations searching for lost hikers. This book just solidified for me that I’m opposed to this kind of initiative.
To be fair, Lankford does examine this train of thought in her book. She questions if all the work she and the other searchers have done has only extended the parents period of mourning and inability to move on. She questions whether putting herself and others at risk really justifies her work. She ultimately concludes that neither her or her core collaborators are able to just walk away from the grieving parents as they are, in many cases, the only individuals still searching for these missing hikers.
What I did like is the exploration of different means of searching, primarily, how technology can be used to support recovery missions. The group has had considerable success flying drones in remote locations and having “squinters” study the images to look for clues. It removes a lot of the danger of searching in person throughout extended areas, allowing on-the-ground searches to only investigate specific areas of interest. They have found several missing persons this way.
The book also highlights the many ways in which we’ve let down the missing. Most notable for me was the woman whose husband went missing in the snow and she couldn’t convince anyone to even search for him. A lot of missing people are ignored by the authorities who delay searching until it becomes too late to rescue someone alive. Most people can’t survive very long in the wilderness and postponing the start of their search only makes it much more likely that they will never be found alive.
Fortunately, we have more tools at our disposal these days, both as hikers and as searchers. I did find this to be a compelling read, though it was extremely disappointing that none of the 3 main cases were resolved. If you’re a hiker, it’s a good read, but I question how much our obsession with missing people (both related to hiking and from true crime) is really a productive or healthy use of time.
The Paperback Princess 