Tantalizing Tales — September 2024 — Part Two

Had a mini panic attack when I thought we were in October already: reading all the spooky stories currently rolling out will definitely do that to a reviewer! But here we are considering the middle to late part of September and all the intriguing books that I haven’t quite had the time to get to yet but am sincerely hoping to.

First is a holdover from August that I’m finally having to admit defeat at being able to slot into my packed/chaotic schedule. Not Nothing by Gayle Forman is a heartwarming intergenerational tale with a historical angle. Our young hero Alex has had it rough. His father’s gone, his mother is struggling with mental health issues, and he’s now living with an aunt and uncle who are less than excited to have him. Almost everyone treats him as though he doesn’t matter at all.

So when a kid at school actually tells him that he’s nothing, Alex snaps and gets violent. Fortunately, his social worker pulls some strings and gets him a job at a nursing home for the summer rather than a stint in juvie. At the nursing home, he meets Josey, a 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who stopped bothering to talk years ago, as well as Maya-Jade, the granddaughter of one of the residents with an overblown sense of importance. Unlike Alex, Maya-Jade believes that people care about what she thinks and that she can make a difference.

Alex and Josey form an unlikely bond. With Josey confiding in him, Alex starts to believe that he can make a difference, too — a good difference — in the world. If he can truly feel he matters, Alex may be able to finally rise to the occasion of his own life.

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Next up is Lucy Ashe’s The Sleeping Beauties. This tale of intrigue set in a historical ballet milieu is right up my alley as a girl who grew up just as obsessed with Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes as with mystery novels and fairy tale retellings. With World War II finally over, Rosamund Caradon is returning the last few war evacuees she helped to shelter up in her Devonshire home. She’s accompanied by her dance-obsessed daughter Jasmine, whom she’s sworn to protect from any peril. But when a beautiful stranger bursts into their train carriage and immediately strikes up a kinship with both mother and daughter, will Rosamund be able to see through the newcomer’s performance for what it really is?

Briar Woods is a dancer with the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. When she invites Rosamund and Jasmine to watch her dance, Jasmine is ecstatic. Her mother is more cautious. Something about the charismatic yet elusive Briar strikes Rosamund as false, but she doesn’t quite know how to explain it or how to deny such a treat to her beloved child. As Rosamund and Briar veer towards an inevitable collision, will any of the three emerge unscathed?

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I picked up Jordan K Casomar’s How To Lose A Best Friend because apparently I haven’t put myself through enough pain this September. In all seriousness, this is a really important, relevant look at the myth of the friendzone and how toxic masculinity impacts friendships.

Zeke Ladoja and Gen Parker have been best friends since forever. Practically everyone thinks that they’re meant to be together: their parents, their classmates, even the school custodian. The only thing that’s stopped Zeke from closing the deal is the fact that Gen’s parents have forbidden her from dating until she’s sixteen. But now that her milestone birthday party is coming up, Zeke is determined to sweep her off her feet in front of everyone they know.

Unfortunately for Zeke, Gen has a crush on new guy Trevor Cooke. She knows that Zeke loves her and she loves him too, but only as a friend. The last thing she wants to do is hurt him. Irritatingly, everyone else seems to be just as invested in a romance narrative between them as he is.

Things come to a head at her birthday party, when everything goes wrong and Gen somehow winds up shouldering most of the blame. An emboldened Zeke is determined to fight for his feelings and what he feels he deserves. But Gen isn’t about to give up on her own feelings and desires, no matter the fallout. Frankly, good for her.

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I’ve really enjoyed the continuation of the various Robert B Parker series, and this is probably the most intriguing of the ones I haven’t yet been able to dive into. Alison Gaylin breathes fresh life into iconic private investigator Sunny Randall in Robert B. Parker’s Buzz Kill.

After a near-death experience, Sunny is ready to lighten her load as a PI. But then she’s hired by billionaire media magnate Bill Welch to investigate the disappearance of his son Dylan, cofounder of the Gonzo Energy Drink company. Lazy, unscrupulous and a notorious partier, Dylan isn’t exactly the most reliable of people. Dylan’s mother Lydia insists that this time is different and her son must be in serious danger.

Unable to turn down the Welches’ life-changing offer, Sunny takes on the case. She starts by befriending Dylan’s smart young business partner Sky, who seems like his polar opposite. Sky is bright, innovative, ambitious and empathetic. To Sunny’s surprise, Sky actually adores Dylan and desperately wants Sunny to find him.

As Sunny traces the marks left behind by Dylan’s past, she must unearth all the skeletons in his closet. She discovers not only his bad behavior with women but also his reckless moves within the business world, producing an energy drink that, despite its marketing, has proven dangerous and even deadly. Still, Sky insists he’s a good man. Who is Dylan, really? And why has he vanished? When bodies start to pile up, Sunny must find answers quickly, before she — and those she cares about — get caught in the crossfire.

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Finally, we have Caroline Woods’ The Mesmerist, a ripped-from-the-headlines historical fiction thriller about America’s first-known serial killer.

In the wake of a national financial crisis, spiritualism of every stripe is all the rage in 1894 Minneapolis, even as working class women keep turning up dead. When Faith arrives at the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers, she is mute, dressed in torn satin with bruises on her neck, and carrying a purse full of money that Abby Mendenhall, treasurer and board member of the Bethany Home, suspects is stolen.

Faith’s reticence is quickly interpreted as malevolence, setting the house abuzz with whispers of dark magic. Abby, a staunch Quaker and lifelong supporter of progressive causes, thinks the rumors of mystical powers swirling around Faith are nonsense, but recognizes the danger of a good story.

As the rumors begin to gain traction in the city’s yellow papers and threaten the Bethany Home’s relationships with investors, Abby enlists Faith’s roommate May to help her uncover the truth. May came to Bethany after her upper-middle-class family disowned her for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. She’s determined to regain her status — and find a husband – before her tenure at the home is over. May’s hunt for the truth draws her into a world of working women, gambling dens, dinner parties, wealthy widows and dark secrets. Connecting all of these clues — and even May’s beau Hal — is mesmerism, the precursor to hypnotism that has the city in its thrall. Secrets stack up, with the future of Bethany Home, and May and Faith’s very lives, hanging in the balance.

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Let me know if you’re able to get to any of these books before I do, dear readers! I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will help spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books this year so far in my Bookshop storefront linked below!