Monthly Archives: January 2025

My Friends

Book reviews often begin with the description and, at times, quotes from the book to support why they like or dislike what they have read.

I’m not going to do that. I want you to experience every word, every sentence, every everything just as I did. All for the first time. 

Therefore this review is solely based on emotion.

That’s why we read books. Isn’t it?

To be stirred? Stimulate the imagination? Step in another’s shoes? Maybe we do so just because we want to feel.  

Every time we crack open a book we wish, and hope, for so much.

That’s why we read books.  

But then, there’s THAT book. That magnificent page turning beauty we hope it will be.  We all want it. When we hear that binding crinkle it’s first time we are hoping – wishing – it will be something we haven’t experienced before. 

I think we are all realistic enough to know we’re not going to find something amazing every time we open one.  But we are graciously willing to. accept a “that was good, I liked that,” book and we are on to the next. 

This book, however, is different. You CAN WISH for something extraordinary. 

Wish for something beautiful.

For something thoughtful and kind. 

Wish for something poetic and artistic. 

For a story not told before – even if you can liken it to others you’ve read (it was A Little Life for me).

Wish for picture-perfect imperfections with brief and calming respites for your heart. This way the rest of your body can catch up to how hard it is beating. 

One you could read again and again, finding more beauty in each experience.

Wish for the book you want to wake up with in the morning, nestled in your arms, not wanting to let these people go (I felt that with A Man Called Ove).

Because when you have finished you’ll realize My Friends will forever be a part of you. 

You will feel a want – maybe even a need – to be a kinder and more understanding person than you already are. 

You will be stirred by memories of your youth. 

You will feel something profound happening in your chest … You’ll realize it is your heart growing larger.

But most of all, and best of all, you will find your wish had come true.

That’s why we read books.

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Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Fiona Davis’ The Stolen Queen

Released January 7, 2025

Not unlike all previous books written by Fiona Davis, she captures a strength and resolve in women that, in my opinion, is far too often understated.

In all eight books she has had published, there is a New York City historical landmark set as the novels centerpiece. These buildings are usually the start of most discussions regarding Davis’ work, and understandably so. Whether it is The Barbizon, The Dakota, or as in The Stolen Queen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they’re major players in our story. When she writes she turns brick and mortar into something that lives and breathes. They are expressive characters that leave us with an indelible experience.

But she does so much more than that.

It’s the women. It’s how she writes them.

Davis writes women of strength and character. They are bright and resolute. They show us their vulnerabilities and not once would they be confused as a weakness. They are, and I say this in the most impressive of ways, capable. Capable of reaching heights they work toward.

In The Stolen Queen, Charlotte is our main protagonist and Annie becomes her assistant. These women, like so many she creates, are what I have just described. Both strong, they show their strengths in their own ways.

Charlotte, with her steadfast and determined nature, overcomes a devastating tragedy at a young age. She remained in her profession, in spite of the heartbreaking misfortune and loss she met with in that world. Her research continued and her passion renewed with a theft of an important artifact.

After her loss she lived her life as she chose to. When you consider she was 19 years old in 1938, that, to me, is further testament to her strengths.

Annie, a young and inexperienced woman who played nursemaid to a perfectly healthy but emotionally defective mother, seeks to find her own path. As she did so, I saw in her a perseverance of someone beyond her years. She knows there’s something out there for her. It’s something big and she is relentless in chasing it down.

I have to admit, I went into this one intimidated. I know nothing of, nor have I had a working interest in, Egyptian history. However, to my delight, Davis deftly and easily made that a nonissue.

Throughout the story I was enveloped in her writing style and couldn’t wait to get the next page. Additionally, she continues to master two timelines and pulls them together seamlessly.

The Stolen Queen continues Davis’ terrific run of historical fiction set in New York City.

This woman could make a grocery list gripping.

The only downside I found was, after I finished it, it will feel like forever until her next one.