dbricker

720 points

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

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dbricker commented on dbricker's review of Adrift: A Novel

dbricker

Feb 01, 2026

Adrift: A Novel

4.0

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.0

🚤

😵‍💫

📓

A sickeningly tense domestic suspense

An abusive man moves his wife and teenage son onto a canal boat, pushing them further and further away from their struggling small town.

While I do think that domestic suspense is the best possible descriptor for this claustrophobic book, it's not at all the typical "happy-seeming family slowly uncovering secrets" example of the genre.

From the jump, this is so dark and sinister. While there is escalation in action, the tense atmosphere has little rise and fall -- it remains steady and sickening.

The characters are very realistic. I've helped friends through and out of abusive relationships and let me tell you, I wanted to drop kick this man into the sun. I did occasionally have to suspend a little disbelief regarding how much the outside world reinforced his power over his wife, but I think that's because these moments are closer to reality than we're often willing to accept.

There were a few places where I struggled with the way the narrative presents information. Scenes like an instance of bullying, for example, where there is so much detail in the build-up and the aftermath but the actual act is glossed over. I had to double take and re-read and question whether something really happened. I think in a book largely about gaslighting, this is purposeful, but it was a little disruptive to my reading experience and I especially dislike that this trick was pulled in the epilogue.

It was a distastefully unsettling cap on things given how excellent the story's climax was. It's rare for me to find a thriller's culmination so satisfying. The author successfully seeds just the right details throughout the entire story for that ultimate moment to land really well.

A significant portion of the plot is a coming of age story and I appreciated how much tension was spread among the fears of a young man becoming allied with or similar to his abusive father.

There are lots of nods to the power of writing and libraries, and I feel very justified in my near lifelong dislike of Hemingway.

Highly recommend, but oof -- what a heavy read.

CW: domestic/emotional abuse, gaslighting, bullying, misogyny, forced institutionalization, some homophobia, brief animal death

Thank you to publishers Atria and Emily Bestler Books for my advance copy, provided in exchange for an honest review. This book publishes on February 17, 2026 and is currently available as a February pick with Aardvark Book Club.

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How to Find a Romance in a Bookshop

Poppy Alexander

After a social media post gone wrong, a literary agent runs away to look after a seaside bookshop for the summer—and forms an unlikely friendship with a charming novelist struggling with his latest idea. Petra doesn’t like books anymore—not since her career as a literary agent imploded after a social media typo went viral. Now she is stuck for six months, babysitting a little bookshop by the sea—surrounded by books that just remind her of her failure. Ross McCloud’s award-winning debut novel blew the minds of the world’s literati, but that was five years ago. Now Ross and his keenly awaited second work have vanished. Something has gone wrong—horribly wrong—and Ross doesn’t want to talk about it. Marooned in Capelthorne’s Bookshop miles from London, Petra can’t stop thinking about all the ways she has let people down. Then she discovers Ross lurking, incognito, in the second-hand books section. Misery loves company it seems, and a kinship tentatively forms. In the meantime, the magic of the bookshop slowly begins to enchant Petra. Soon, her book recommendations assume legendary status; she is chairing the newly formed Beach Reads Book Club; leading a weekly writing group and hosting a series of popular talks and signings by local authors. She is even starting to read again. Petra is also finding time to help her new best friend Jess—owner of a local telephone box library—to launch the inaugural Portneath Literary Festival. What better opportunity to put the Festival on the map—says Ross—than for Petra to unveil his second novel to the world there, before re-launching her career representing him at the Frankfurt book fair? What a comeback! But can Petra find the courage to help the man she loves? Their love of books may be re-ignited, but is that enough to save them both from their own worst enemy—themselves? Friends to loversGrumpy x GrumpySmall-town romanceSlow burn

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No Rest for the Wicked

Kat Anderson

Beneath the flickering neon of the Las Vegas Strip, private investigator Max West thought he had encountered every enigma the desert could conjure. But when a young socialite vanishes from a powerful family, Max is drawn into a case that defies conventional logic. What begins as a missing-persons investigation quickly spirals into a dark web of ritualistic murder, high-society intrigue, and a centuries-old secret guarded by shadows who will kill to protect it. The patterns of the case feel dangerously familiar to Max, echoing the unexplained disappearance of his own parents-government scientists lost to a void of official silence. At the center of the conspiracy lies the Heart of Khepri, an ancient relic rumored to bridge the gap between science and myth. To uncover the truth, Max must navigate a world where power is absolute and time itself is a prize. As bodies fall and allies turn uncertain, Max must decide if the answers he's chased for a decade are worth the danger of inviting in the darkness to uncover who has been pulling the strings all along.

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The Last Time I Lied

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Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips. Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends. Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price. In the new novel from the bestselling author of Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied follows a young woman as she returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.

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Take What You Can

Naima Coster

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Appetite: A Novel

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A propulsive, heartfelt, and utterly original debut about a young chef trying to find her way in a world that’s not built for her to succeed—and the pro wrestler she idolizes who derails everythingZarina, a prep cook at a fancy New Haven restaurant, is underpaid, overworked, and might as well be invisible. The only they get to take home leftover ingredients. Every night, Zarina whips up modern spins on the Bangladeshi dishes she grew up eating, all while enjoying her second greatest professional wrestling. Namely, Zarina’s hero Sierra Myst—the massively successful, high-flying heel who’s built like a superhero and is every bit as confident and daring as one. One night, Zarina posts online about one of Sierra Myst’s wins, and the most improbable thing Sierra reaches out to Zarina. Zarina is elated at the chance to become closer with her idol, and at first, their friendship is everything Zarina’s ever dreamed of. Zarina’s confidence grows, their world gets bigger, and opening their own restaurant doesn’t feel quite so impossible. But as the weeks fly by, Zarina starts to feel more like Sierra’s unpaid personal assistant and relationship counselor—and her desire to make Sierra happy eclipses their own goals and threatens everything they’ve worked for.Deliciously unsettling and ultimately uplifting, Appetite is about the unique torture of being a twenty-something who’s torn between the person someone else wants you to be and the person you really are.

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How the Story Always Ends: A Novel

Wendy Heard

In this sweeping, suspenseful journey, a woman discovers she is connected to a murder committed before she was born—and she has the victim’s memories. Paloma is grieving the loss of her enigmatic mother when she discovers a book in her effects that explores the phenomenon of young children who remember their past lives. Flipping through the pages, she finds that she was one of the children, interviewed about her memories of a man’s brutal murder when she was only four years old. But there’s someone else who is having memories of the same man’s death. For years, Dante has been reliving the details of a murder that occurred before he was born. When he stumbles upon a reincarnation research team, he reaches out for help but instead meets Paloma, whose memories are eerily similar to his. They quickly realize that their lives—and love stories—are more interwoven than they could have imagined. Now, they must work together to uncover the truth about their last deaths or fall prey to the same violent end that haunts them in life after life. What ensues is a gripping tale of reincarnation, memory, and fate that spans from the sun-drenched streets of modern Los Angeles to the colonial-era Caribbean Sea. Each remembered life and forgotten history proves pivotal in Paloma and Dante’s search for answers, but only time will tell if they can escape their fate . . . or if their story is destined to end tragically once again.

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Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)

dbricker

Jul 11, 2026

Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)

4.5

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 4.5Characters: 5.0Plot: 4.5

🏝️

👨‍👩‍👧

💘

dbricker finished a book

Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)

Abby Jimenez

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work. Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka. It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

dbricker wrote a review...

dbricker

Jul 11, 2026

Cherry Baby

2.5

Enjoyment: 2.5Quality: 3.5Characters: 3.0Plot: 2.0

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❤️‍🩹

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An introspective not-quite-a-romance

A thirtysomething on the cusp of a divorce reconnects with her college-era crush, but their relationship is plagued by insecurities over her weight and her husband's super famous webcomic-turned-blockbuster-movie which features a character based on her.

This wasn't a book that initially spoke to me and on a whim, I had second thoughts and decided to give it a chance. I'm not sure I'm glad I read it and am seriously waffling between 2 and 3 stars.

Things in the book's favor:

Well developed characters who feel pretty real. (This was helped along by a fantastic audiobook narrator.)

In a similar vein, sex scenes that add a lot to the characterization and relationship development. These were so clearly written not to titillate but to add substance. They're deeply rooted in the emotions and practicalities of sex, even (perhaps especially) the bits that aren't that sexy.

The main character's stellar fashion sense. Super detailed outfit descriptions are often a turnoff for me, but these showed off so much creativity and joy -- they were a lot of fun.

Successfully intense emotions. I teared up more than once.

A very good dog to whom nothing that bad happens.

Dragging me down:

They might be realistic, but nobody was particularly lovable. Our protagonist is sometimes just this side of insufferable and her journey through the relationships with her soon-to-be-ex-husband and her new beau gets frustrating.

I didn't root for either one of these love interests and the book falls in that awkward liminal space between romance and contemporary fiction. It's too focused on romantic relationships to feel like a strong piece of general fiction, but it doesn't follow enough genre conventions to be a romance. (This is the part where I remind myself that this kind of book just isn't my thing and I should listen to my gut when making reading selections!)

Highest on that frustration and disappointment scale, however, is how little Cherry seems to have grown, changed, learned, or healed by the end. Things are presented with such a sense of inevitability that I'm left wondering what the point of all that was.

CW: fatphobia, infidelity, minor references to alcoholism

dbricker finished a book

Cherry Baby

Rainbow Rowell

Everybody knows that Cherry's husband, Tom, is in Hollywood making a movie... Almost nobody knows that he isn't coming home. Tom is the creator of Thursday--a semi-autobiographical webcomic, turned bestselling graphic novel, turned international phenomenon. Semi-autobiographical. That means there's a character in this movie based on Cherry... "Baby." Wide-hipped, heavy-chested, double-chinned Baby. Cherry never wanted this. No fat girl wants to see herself caricatured on the page--let alone on the big screen. But there's no getting away from it. Baby looks so much like Cherry that strangers recognize her at the grocery store. While her soon-to-be ex-husband is in Los Angeles getting rich and famous and being the Internet's latest boyfriend, Cherry is stuck in Omaha taking care of the dog he always wanted and the house they were going to raise a family in...and wondering who she's supposed to be without him. Cherry had promised to love Tom through thick and thin. She'd meant it. One night, Cherry decides to leave all her problems, including Tom's overgrown puppy, at home. She ventures out to see her favorite band play her favorite album...and someone recognizes her from across the room. Russ Sutton knew Cherry when she was a young art student with a fondness for pin-up dresses and patent leather heels. Before Tom. Russ knows Cherry. He likes Cherry. And best of all...he's never heard of Thursday.

dbricker started reading...

Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)

Abby Jimenez

dbricker wrote a review...

dbricker

Jul 06, 2026

Her Last Breath

3.5

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 3.5Plot: 3.0

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😱

A gripping subterranean stalemate

After a caving expedition with her best friend results in a horrifying attack, a young woman in hospital recounts her story of survival to a police detective.

This is going to be a really difficult book for me to discuss without spoilers. Because while it started strong, once major plot twists entered the picture and our detective starts openly questioning the secrets of a toxic friendship, the second half of the book was a long downhill slide to a slightly underwhelming ending.

Most of these reveals were quite obvious thanks to heavy foreshadowing, hints at certain characters' unreliability, and irritating plot holes that only make sense after a lie or misdirect is uncovered.

There is one major loose end that continues to nag at me. And a subplot that I feel is handled distastefully.

What's saving it from a lower rating is how damn riveting it is. It's been a long time since I couldn't put a book down because I had to know what happened. I tore through almost the entire book in a little over 24 hours.

Many sections perfectly evoke horror and dread, both in the environment of the cave and the threatening standoff between killer and victim.

This was a very mixed bag, but I think I'm leaning net positive as it's just not 4th of July weekend unless I'm tearing my way through a popcorn thriller.

CW: guns, knives, Mother Nature, and more -- lots of graphic injury and murder; stalking; gaslighting; child abuse; self harm; some misogynistic language; dementia; pregnancy and mentions of abortion

dbricker finished a book

Her Last Breath

Taylor Adams

From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground. After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Alma. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school—Alma is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she’s a little jealous of Alma’s globe-trotting life. Who wouldn’t be? As Tess and Alma descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Alma insults the guy—and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive. Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Alma’s true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn’t so random after all. Who was Alma, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?

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