This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

Publisher: Berkley

On Sale Date: February 3, 2026

Pages: 416

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Mathilda 'Tilly' Nightingale's husband Joe died five months ago. One day she get's a call from her local London bookstore, Book Lane, that there is a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her there. The birthday gift is a handwritten letter from Joe every month she gets a new book from, specially selected by Joe for her, to help her cope with this first year of grief without him

The bookshop is owned and managed by Alfie, who took the store over from his late father. A friendship starts between Alfie and Tilly. The monthly books truly open a new chapter in her life, and also make her travel, for example, to Paris and other places. But mostly it are monthly travels to Alfie's bookstore, as she is looking forward to the next book each month.

But just as something beautiful and romantic is blooming up between Tilly and Alfie, the bookshop is in danger of being closed for good. The bookshop is an important part of the local community, can they come up with a plan to save it?

This Book Made Me Think of You is a fun, lighthearted and very charming read. I loved the storyline set around an independent  and cozy bookstore (that also had a cute tabby cat living there..) . The characters of Tilly and Alfie where both so charming, I think they really where storybook perfect for each other, and I really liked how the bookstore and Alfie made Tilly step into a new chapter in her life. What is also a great and very original part in this book is that Tilly gets a new book every month from her late husband, so he is still in her life a little bit in a good way, I never have found something similar in any other story. When the store is in danger of closing, Alfie is heartbroken, but then, just as he was there for her, Tilly comes up with an idea to save it. This really was a perfect wrap up for an already very good novel. Overall, this book truly lived up my expectations this is a cute feel good book to escape with a cup of hot tea,  and I recommend it!

When News Breaks: A Memoir of Love and War by Carol Lin

 

Publisher: Third Rail Press

On Sale Date: December 9, 2025

Pages: 268

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

CNN news anchor Carol Lin was the first news anchor who broke the news on television that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City on 9/11, 2001. In this powerful memoir, she writes about her Chinese parents, her dad who sadly passed away, the relationship with her mother, how she became a news presenter first on local television and later on for CNN, and how she met her husband, Will.

For CNN, she travelled all over the world; she reported for CNN in Pakistan close to the border with Afghanistan in often dangerous situations and in Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia.

In her personal life, shortly after 9/11, her life changes in both good and bad ways. Her husband admits that he had a one-night stand with another woman, and later on, just shortly after their daughter is born, Will is diagnosed with a rare and untreatable form of cancer. After his passing, she tries to pick up life again and to raise her daughter alone and questions how her career fits into her new life after everything in it fell apart.

When News Breaks is a moving and very powerful and beautiful memoir. I immediately was drawn to this book because I remember Carol from watching CNN. Just as she was a fantastic news anchor then, Carol is also a fantastic and brilliant writer. She describes her upbringing by Chinese parents. Her mother didn't immediately like her husband, Will, and the sad passing of her beloved father.

She describes what it is like to be a female news anchor in a mostly white male-dominated and very competitive workplace, which is also doubly difficult because she is Asian-American, and many people confuse her for Connie Chung. She describes how she worked her way up from local news channels to become a news anchor at CNN, where she was the first to break the news of 9/11, just when she was about to interview author Amy Tan. I really liked how this book was written; Carol writes in a very direct and clear way, it was easy to follow although there are quite some serious things happening. It was especially heartbreaking for her to lose her husband and to pick up the pieces of her life after everything fell apart.  That part was truly moving, because we all know someone affected by cancer or loss. I also really liked how the book ended, as Carol had to make some tough choices on her career. 

Overall this is a memoir not to miss; I loved reading it, and I highly recommend it.

When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen

 

Publisher: Berkley

On Sale Date: January 20 2026

Pages: 400

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

New York, 1952; Eve Arnold is a documentary photographer in her twenties who works for the Magnum Photography agency, which is a small world dominated by men, who often don't take her work that is different and original and has its own specific style, serious.

One night at an event where Eve is attending, she meets Norma Jean Baker in the powder room. Norma Jean Baker is a superstar as Marilyn Monroe. She created her character of Marilyn Monroe to be photographed and to be in the spotlight as much as possible, and she has a proposition for Eve; she wants her to be her personal photographer, as she has seen her work, which shows the true person in the pictures. And so their professional partnership and friendship starts, and Eve photographes Marilyn everywhere, and so she learns more about who Marilyn/Norma Jean Baker is, and follows her during her ups and downs in her turbulent life in the spotlight. Marilyn is more in the spotlight because of Eve's pictures, and Eve's is getting more well known because her work for Marilynn. The story is fiction, but is build on two women who really existed. Eve is married and has a young son, her marriage truly has to endure a lot of her abscence because her work for Marilyn. The book is a story of friendship, and the challenges women who had a proffessional career in the 1950's and 60's.

The story is well written, but as a reader I found the story and the character lacking depth. The characters of Eve and Marilyn stayed very one dimensional during the whole length of the story. I truly would like to see more depth in character for Marilyn, but she stayed the  blonde starlet and not more different then that, except for some traumatic childhood experiences she shared with Eve, she doesn't really grew as a person in this book. Eve has her own struggles as a woman aspiring a career as a professional photographer in a world of photographer agencies dominated by men, and at home with a  young child and husband who is developing board games but is anything but successfull, in that time it was not usual to be the breadwinner in a marriage and this leads to friction in her marriage, also because she is often not at home because of her work. Her character stays the same in the book, and besides of making it as a photographer with and because of Marilyn, her charachter doesn't make much progress. She photographs and attends events with many famous people together with Marilyn, which became very repetitive.

The overall idea of this story was nice, but the story and character lacked depth and progress, and I truly wanted to like this book more then I actually did..

The Secret of the Brighton House by Cathy Hayward

 

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

On Sale Date: November 1, 2024

Pages: 300

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

The main character of the book, Joanne, always was told by her father and his wife (who she always considered as her mum), that her biological mother died at childbirth. Joanne and her husband are finally expecting a baby after experiencing several miscarriages in the past years. But now, in her forties he pregnancy seems to go well, and her father brings her a box of her old baby things that she can use. In the box is also her own baby journal. There are pictures of her and her birth mother, Grace, holding her weeks after her birth. Joanne is shocked, as she never seen these pictures, and apparently Grace didn't die at her birth, but as she discovers through research, years after. When she goes to her dad for more explanation, she is met with silence, and later on closed doors, and eventually estrangement from her dad Mike, who apparently is hiding many secrets. We travel back in time to the 1970, when Mike and Grace where expecting a baby. Grace was truly looking forward to become a mom, and sewed many sweet baby clothes for her coming baby, and had good times with her best friend Susie talking about both their upcoming motherhood. Back in that time, women where induced at the hospital to acommodate the schedule of the doctors, and their husbands where not welcome during the childbirth. Treated very badly by the hospital staff, and alone and very frightened when Joanne was born, she got bad psychological  and psychotical issues after her birth and eventually is locked up in a psychiatric hospital. And this was always kept a secret in the family.. and Joanne goes on a search to find out what happened to her mother and what was always kept away from her..

The Secret of the Brighton House is a moving and thrilling novel about motherhood and mental illness . The story alternates in chapters between Joanne's pov in the present time and Grace's in the 1970's. I really liked the storyline, it truly had depth and it switched from the two different time periods very well, and I just liked how the book ended. The characters are also very realistic and I loved how the author connected the characters of Joanne and Grace, altough they never truly seen each other later in life. The search of Joanne for answers about Grace was very moving, and I loved how she forgave her father in the end and their relationship was good again after alll that happened.

Overall, a beautiful novel that I recommend reading!

Detained by D.Esperanza and Gerardo Ivan Morales

 

Publisher: Atria/Primero Sueno Press

On Sale Date: May 13, 2025

Pages: 256

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Detained is the personal story of the author, D.Esperanza. D. was born in a little rural village in Honduras. His aunt and uncle take care of him, as his parents have crossed the border years ago and live in Nashville, USA.

But when he gets in an accident in the van with his uncle, his uncle dies all of a sudden, and later on also his beloved aunt. Now he has no one to take care of him and his cousin Miquelito anymore, and they have no other option to try to cross the border to the USA, at that moment, D. was only thirteen years old.

D. tells the story in diary entries adressed to his late aunt/Tia.

Together with two other cousins, hey depart on the dangerous journey from across Honduras, through Guatemala and Mexico, partly on the roof of a train to get as far as possible.  But when they reach the Mexican-American border, D and Miquelito and their cousins are caught and detained in a detention facility, where he is kept for five months in total, separated from Miquelito and his cousins, not knowing when he ever will get out or where he will stay the next night, as he is frequently moved from one detention center to the other, which repeats many times, and at one night he has to go through four different centers. He makes real friends though at the detention center he stays the longest time, and some of the volunteer mentors of the faciily truly give him hope, especially an advocate who fought on his behalf, and wh named Gerardo Iván Morales, who helped with the creation of this book. Will D. ever get out of the faciilty and be runited with his parents in Nashville?

Detained is a true-life story of the current immigration topic in the United States, and the current state of harsh detention facilities.  It is a raw and real story of Central-America,  border crossing, survival, hardship but also family and friendship. The story reminded me a bit of the books by author Alexandra Diaz, about Santiago who goes on a similar border crossing journey with his cousin Miquel from Guatemala to the USA. I found Detained a very moving , eye opening and most of all very raw and real memoir about a very current topic, about young refugees who truly don't have any other choice than to search for a better life. I truly enjoyed reading it and I recommend it.

Surviving Paris : A Memoir of Healing in the City of Light by Robin Allison Davis

 

Publisher: HarperCollins

On Sale Date: September 16 2025

Pages: 304

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Emmy Award winning journalist and television producer, Robin Allison Davis moved to Paris after her ten year television career, to follow her dream of a more international career. She finds a job and an apartment. And a lump in one of her breasts. When she gets it checked, a true cancer diagnosis nightmare starts. Her cancer is treated, but apparently it wasn't really cured, and has to get treated a second time, just as the Covid-19 pandemic also breaks out, and beside battling her cancer, surgeries and  chemotherapy treatments, she also has to self-isolate to prevent getting even more ill. And then there are the side effects of the chemotherapy, losing on of her breast an the reconstruction that goes wrong, terrible itch attacks, and the toxic-positivity comments of people around her  ('if you stay positive, you can win it from cancer..') and the French bureaucratic health insurance system she has to deal with.

But luckily she also finds a new friends community in Paris, with true friends that are beside her during the therapy, especially when her family from the USA can't visit because of the lockdowns.

Surviving Paris is a moving and inspiring memoir. I found it a very open and honest memoir that I think is the best memoir that came out this year. Robin writes it in a beautiful and captivating way, as a reader it is difficult to put this book away. As someone with a chronic kidney illness, I also recognized the toxic positivity people drop on you; ''Stay positive, then you win over your illness''  for example, is something I hear also frequently and I loved it that Robin mentioned this topic in this book. Robin describes everything in great detail, life as an American  in Paris, the bureacratic French system, the side effects of her treatments, the search for new apartments when her Parisian landlords decide to sell her apartment, everything. I loved reading her memoir, and you can only wish as a a reader that Robin will stay cancer-free forever. This is truly one of the very best memoirs of 2025, and I recommend reading it!

Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen

 

Publisher: Knopf

On Sale Date: October 21. 2025

Pages: 352

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Loo-Shu-Hsin is born in 1925 in Shanghai in a wealthy family. In a time where women and girls where expected to be obedient and quiet, and when they don't, they are told they are bad bad girls. But Loo-Shu-Hsin is one of the girls that is lucky to get a good education, instead of becoming a mother and housewife. She is sent to a Catholic School for girls, where she is renamed in Agnes and also is baptized. Being a booklover, she is reading her Chinese-English dictionary every night with a flashlight, and studies so well that later departs for the United States to get her Ph.D. She leaves in 1947, just when the cultural revolution is about to start in China, her country she will never return to. Later on, when she lives in Manhattan, she starts dating Chao-Pei, who is also from Shanghai. Together, they set up their new life in the USA, while their families back in China update them on what is going on there during that time in history, and it is not good. They get a number one son, which was their wish as Chinese parents and a daughter, Gish. Agnes bitternes of her forced abandonment of her Ph.D program to become a mother resonates in bitterness and anger towards her children.

Gish always had troubled relationship with her mother, who was emotionally absent and verbally abusive to Gish, as she is always dissapointed in her, and disapproves of everything she does. When her mother passes away, Gen only has a few of her notebooks, the memories her mother told her about and a lot of traumatic guilt. 

It is difficult to tell where in this book the fiction stops and the memoir part starts. There are lot of blurred lines between them, and as a reader it is difficult to tell them apart, especially because the book is so fragmentaric and jumps from one point in history to the next point in the present time. it is not a book that stays long in your memory because of this. I like the writing style though, and the historic parts set in Shanghai of the mother, and I liked how the author wove her difficult relationship with her mother into a book that is part fiction, part memoir. Overal, I liked this book!

The French Honeymoon by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau

 

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

On Sale Date: April 15 2025

Pages: 288

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Taylor Quinn is an American woman who at the start of the book, arrives at her hotel in Paris, alone at the honeymoon suite, without a suitcase. The only thing she has with her are the clothes she has on and stolen cash.

It appears for the reader that Taylor has arrived in Paris alone to spy on and stalk the newly wed couple Cassie and Olivier. What their relation to Taylor is stays unclear untill the middle of the story.

American Cassie and  French Olivier recently ''married' so Olivier could stay in the USA, they don't have a real relationship it seems, it is more a marriage to solve a legal problem. Taylor follows Cassie’s picture perfect Instagram posts, but when she hears an argument between the couple she realises things aren’t what they seem. All three of the characters have their own  agendas, and there are twists to be revealed, that will change all of their lives. And it seem like Taylor is not who she says she is and that her name is not really Taylor too..

The characters and the storyline of The French Honeymoon are anything but likeable. I expected a plot twisting thriller set in Paris, but there wasn't that much thrilling I found in this story. It was quite boring and the storyline fell flat on many points. What I also though was that the relationship between Taylor, Cassie and Olvier was quite weird, especially when we find out who Taylor really is, that really was not a good plot twist and also nothing that kept it interesting.

This was just a book I expexted more from, but it just didn't live up my expectations.

Strangers, a Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

 

Publisher:  The Dial Press

On Sale Date: January 13, 2026

Pages: 256

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

In this moving and gripping memoir, author Belle Burden writes about how her happy marriage with her husband James fell apart all of a sudden, and the impact this had on her life.

Everything in Belle and James' life was perfect. They where 20 years together, they lived in New York City and also had a beachside home in Martha's Vineyard, where they spent the pandemic days, and they both had a very succesfull career at a law firm.

But then a phone call to her from a man unknown to her changed her life forever; the man announces to her that her husband James has an affair with his wife, a woman twenty years younger. After she confronts James with this, he admits and leaves her and the children for good. An icecold and very stressfull divorce process follows. Belle keeps wondering why James changed all of a sudden, he was always a loving and caring husband, it seems like he became a different person overnight that does not even want custody of their three children. She tries to navigate her new life and has to come to terms with the divorce, picking up the mental shards that James put her into, but society also gives her bad looks for, especially after she starts to write about it and gives an interview about it. She wonders if she did miss something along the road of her marriage, or did she do something wrong? James just walked away out of their marriage heartless, telling her that he was done. And a lot of questions remain unanswered for Belle.

Strangers is a very personal memoir about a topic many divorced women can relate too. It happens often that a man walks out of a marriage without a clear reason. The beautiful writing of the author puts the reader in her shoes after the cold divorce and the years after that. She also describes the gender mysogyny she experiences, mostly by men, who see James as the good one and her as the bad one, would the same happen if she had walked out? In this book you feel Belle's pain, worries, and confusion about what happened. This is a very honest personal and sometimes raw memoir, about a topic so many women have experienced. I truly liked how it was written and the pace of the writing, and how Belle tells her story. One of the memoirs to look out for in 2026!

The Fallen Women's Daughter by Michelle Cox

Publisher:  Woolton Press

On Sale Date: February 18 2024

Pages: 417

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Chicago, 1932; All of a sudden, Nora and her younger sister Patsy are brought by a woman unknown to them, to the Park Ridge School for Girls, a strict and horrible orphanage. Nora has no clue why they are brought there, has she and her sister been that bad that her mom wanted to get rid of them? The school's matron, Mrs Morris is strict and mean and locks up the free spirited Patsy often in the dark celler for days and makes hints at them that their mother was a fallen woman and a prostitute. There are visiting hours every other week, but their mother never shows up, not even after all of Nora's letter pleading for her to visit or to take them home again. Nora fears that she will never see her again.

Years earlier, their mother Gertie, who was from a poor rural coal miners town in Iowa. She runs away with Lorenzo, who works at the traveling carnaval that visit town, and seduces her in a bad way, and Gertie falls for it. An abusive marriage with the violent and alcoholic Lorenzo follows, until Lorenzo dies and Gertie lands in another abusive relationship. Gertie has always been told that her two daughters where send to a posh boarding school where they would get a good education and also extra activities like art classes and ballet. Which is not true. Gertie can not read and therefore never knew where Nora and Patsy where sent to, and never could read Nora's letters. She goes on a search though to find them years later and when she finds them Nora and Patsy finally hear why they where send away and find out the false stories they both where told. And now they have to find a way to make peace with each other, but that is not so easy as it seems, and we follow the three women for the next years of their life with ups and downs..

The Fallen Women's Daughter is a gripping, tragic and moving novel. The characters and the storyline are fantastic. Somehow it reminded me a bit of the movie Annie because of the strict orphanage-like school Nora and Patsy where sent to, witch a cruel headmisstress who punishes the girls for the smallest things.  The character of Nora was fabulous, she truly is desperate for her mom to get them back to home, but Gertie, I don't know what to think of her. She was not a responsible woman, and why did she not want to get her daughters back earlier in her life? It was like she did not miss them at all, which was strange. Later in life Nora and Patsy find it difficult to trust her again, which is logical, and their life after they leave the school and with their mother again is anything but easy.

But the novel itself is moving and entertaining, and full unexpected plot twists and turns. I really liked reading it and I recommend reading it!