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The title refers to the name rich Fernanda gives to the fancy room she's designed as maid's quarters in her elegant house in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The maid, Maju, is essential to her life because Fernanda is seldom home. Cora, Fernanda’s young daughter, is very attached to Maju. In a desperate, somewhat mysterious act, Maju boards a bus with Cora, en route to the rural area she came from. When Fernanda and her husband start to search for them, they realize they know very little about Maju's history and private life. Tension builds but no real harm comes to Cora, except for exposure to these dysfunctional parents that she’ll experience without Maju as buffer when she’s finally returned. I seldom read books from Brazil and found this one quite fascinating.
In this chilling novel, Edward and Isabel have a harmonious marriage until a nightmarish event guts them psychologically. Nigel, who's been observing them surreptitiously, invades their house and forces Edward to tie up Isabel and lie on the carpet in the next room while he assaults her for hours. Afterwards, Edward is guilt-stricken over his "cowardice," and their relationship goes to hell. Nigel isn’t apprehended until improved DNA testing catches up with him. Meanwhile he’s added murder to his reign of terror. A 4-year-old child, Nina is left alive after her parents are slain and over the years, a surprising relationship develops between her, Edward, and Isabel. We're privy to his trial as Edward and Isabel tell the story from very different points of view. This horrendous event was indeed the death of their old life, but there's a sliver of hope at the end that some healing will happen
Lila's on the ascent in the publishing world as an editor when she gets word that her grandfather in India has died and left her the family's mansion in Kolkata. She takes a leave and finds a big mess—no surprise. Physically the house needs lots of work. The floors are divided between households: grandmother up top, mother one floor below, more relatives filling the many rooms. On a personal level, there's strife galore, including Lila's tormented relationships with the two matriarchs who are also at odds with each other. She reconnects with her teenage love, Adil, now married. Then her star writer who's also her lover appears all the way from Brooklyn. There's a pileup of needs, confusions, secrets and hurts—very challenging indeed. Atmospheric and packed with culture, history, phrases in Hindi, and food. At times the book felt overstuffed, but it was worth the read.
A delightful contemporary fairy tale in which Linda, once a flight attendant, is about to marry Trone, an eccentric tec billionaire. A complex cast of characters is invited to their wedding on a private island in Maine. Among them is Linda's ex, Sean, who's made good in the gym business. And Sean’s client, Rob, an editor who worked for a subsidiary of Trone’s holdings. He’s been fired because Isabel, a new hire, objects to some un-woke word choices in Tremble's debut novel—she’s Rob’s discovery, and makes her way to the wedding as well. Many guests have axes to grind or dreams they hope to fulfill. Often funny, surprisingly tender—a feel-good rom-com I embraced.
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