Two Terrific Books
Hey, Hungry Readers,
It’s really springy here, and it makes it perfect audiobook weather, so of course the two books I want to talk about were ones I read in print. Digital print though, on an ereader, which you could read in the park if you have an e-ink device.
Also, these two books take place in Virginia, which was more happenstance that I read them close together. But Virginia is just over the river for me, and while that sometimes seems very far, it mostly isn’t.
Bookshop links included.
It’s worth noting, I do know Tif Marcelo, since she’s a local to me writer. Her It Started with a Secret is one of those plots that sounds convoluted when you try to explain but is really very simple. A chef has a bad TV experience and is encourage to take a break and so decides to go visit the inn in the Shenandoah Valley that his father - who he never knew - ran before his death. And in the way of these things, they have an urgent need for a temporary chef. And a hot manager. Who he hooked up with on his first night in town. It’s closed door, but still lots of sexual tension.
And Rachel Vasquez Gilliland’s Witch of Wild Things is, as you might suspect, paranormal. The eldest sister, who mostly raised her siblings when their mom left them, has returned to town after being fired from her university job by her ex and is now back living with the aunt who mostly didn’t raise her, her sister who still seems to hater her for everything, and the ghost of the sister who died right before she left. So, things are messy but she has plant magic and there is a rose farm in town, and, as it turns out the very hot dude she used to chat with online before they had a disastrous attempt at a real life meetup in high school. But everything is going to be fine.
I know messy families. Very annoying in real life. Often very interesting in fiction.
Have you read either of these? What did you think?
Happy reading!