February’s reading recap features five books, a new record for me this year so far! I dabbled a little bit in Korean fiction – a random pick from my birthday book haul – that contains magical realism; a favorite trope of mine. No five star books this month though I did enjoy all five books I read this month:
The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa – Sam Leto is back in her hometown in Tybee Island, Georgia after 20 years away. After she left home to become a pilot, Sam came back to help her grandma Pearl pack up her house. Not totally in love with the idea of her grandma leaving her home, Sam agrees to help her pack even though being home makes her feel uneasy. Amidst the memories from her youth and high school, she finds her beloved old CD player, and a mix CD her then bestie Damon Rocha made for her. While she considered throwing out the CD player and the mix CD, she powers it on and listens to the first track, which magically transports her back to high school, where she witnesses an alternate Sam and Damon’s lives together after that very pivotal moment they shared.
As she listens to song after song and witnesses her alternate self’s life, feelings of confusion swirl as the answer to her ultimate “what if” flash before her, which leads her to question if present Sam should do anything about it. I really wanted to like this story because there’s magical realism and I love that in a story. However, I found the story itself to be a little boring. While the focus was on high school Sam and Damon with the song visions, their characters overall lacked some dimension. I only felt mild tension between Damon and Sam in both cases, and there wasn’t anything in the story that made their connection to each other noteworthy.
Marigold Mind Laundry by Yun Jung-eun – Marigold Mind Laundry, translated from Korean, is the story of a woman who owns a magical laundromat that can erase people’s painful memories. The woman, Jieun, also magical, was born with mysterious powers she did not know she had and does not know how to control them. As a child, she overhears her parents discussing her powers and accidentally causes them to vanish. Since that moment, Jieun vows to go in search of them, living many lives in the process filled with hurt and sadness. In one of her lives, she ends up in Marigold where she ideates the Mind Laundry, created to wash away people’s pain. Patrons can come into the laundry, put on a clean white shirt, speak their pain out and watch it stain the shirt. They can release the pain of the memories on the shirt in the laundromat’s washing machines and find solace within their hearts.
In the story, Jieun meets five people with five distinct stories who wish to make their hurt go away. In the process, Jieun learns what it means to heal as she searches for her own happiness. I randomly picked this up at my last trip to the bookstore. As a lover of magical realism, I was intrigued by the plot. The story is so interesting; there are opportunities to connect to the characters as their experiences are common, which made me think about my own inner pain and what I would want to vanish. The concept of the laundromat reminded me a lot of going to therapy and while you can’t wash away memories like that in a session, you learn to heal and how to move forward. I gave it three stars for its interesting concept and the fact that it pushes you to think about yourself but also to carry the lessons learned throughout the story.
Sleeping With The Frenemy by Natalie Caña – Sleeping With The Frenemy is the third installment of Natalie Caña’s Vega Family Love Stories. While the three books in the series are interconnected by their characters, each book can be read as a standalone (see my reviews for A Proposal They Can’t Refuse and A Dish Best Served Hot). Sleeping With The Frenemy follows the story of Leo Vega, hot shot firefighter who unfortunately had to leave the fire department due to an accident where he got shot. Not only was his career hanging in the balance post injury, but his love life was too. Leo’s been in love with his sister’s best friend Sofi, who left for Europe over a year ago after finding out her best friend had lied to her. She vowed to disconnect herself from the Vega family, including from Leo with whom she had a secret on and off again relationship.
Now, Sofi is back in town looking to make amends with her bestie, but not so much with her former flame. Cut to Leo’s grandfather plotting and scheming to bring Leo and Sofi back together. If you’ve read the first two books, then you’ll know Abuelo Papo has successfully schemed twice to help two of his grandkids get with who they belong with, so this situation wasn’t any different. Leo and Sofi end up becoming roommates, because what can possibly go wrong? Throughout the story, Leo is faced with having to come to terms with the reality of his injury and his desire to get back to being a firefighter While Sofi is struggling to figure out who she is and what she wants out of life and her career. Leo and Sofi are both stubborn and get in their own ways, especially when it comes to each other. I kind of struggled to believe their chemistry because Sofi was very much an independent woman who was firm in her ways, and Leo came off as a peak fuckboy. Either way, I enjoyed parts of the book and loved seeing the Puerto Rican culture all over the story.
The Problem with Falling by Brittainy Cherry – The Problem with Falling is the latest installment n Brittainy Cherry’s Problem series, which follows the three Kingsley sisters, with this one focusing on Willow Kingsley. If you read the other two books in the series (which I did here), then you’ll know Willow is the youngest of the three and is considered a free spirit. She lives on her school bus turned mobile home Big Bird and travels around the country and the globe, never really putting down roots anywhere. In her positive and free spirit way, she connects with people she meets everywhere she goes, but nothing is permanent given her constant traveling. She ends up spending the summer in a small town in Wisconsin after connecting with a friend, Molly, who Willow offers to plan her and her sick husband’s 60th wedding anniversary party. What she didn’t know was that she’d be spending her summer rooming with Molly’s grumpy grandson Theo, who she unknowingly met the previous night.
Now, you can probably see where this is going to go. While this is a grumpy/sunshine, close proximity love story, there are heavy themes weaved into the story – please read the author’s note in the beginning of the book to understand the trigger warnings before diving in. Of the three books, this one is the most emotion provoking, at least for me, given that I got teary in the prologue. The common theme throughout the series is grief, and this is displayed big time in Willow and Theo’s story. While the story was full of depth and character development, I wasn’t a huge fan of the inclusion of Molly and her husband Harry’s story because I do feel like it did take away from Willow and Theo’s but I understand why it was included. That said, this was an unexpected way to close out the Problem series (assuming this is the last book) as I expected Willow’s story to be light and fun given her character’s nature. Either way, I enjoyed the story and the way the characters handled their emotional baggage with each other.
Another Sky by Cynthia A. Rodriguez – Another Sky follows the story of Teofila Morales, who found her soulmate, Elijah, when she was seven years old. Throughout the story, we follow Teofila and Elijah’s friendship go from childhood friends to young adults. As a kid, Teofila knew Elijah was special and didn’t realize her romantic feelings for him until they were in high school. Everything feels big when you’re in high school and in an effort to not ruin their friendship, she held onto her secret and tried to only be Elijah’s friend. As they got older, Elijah was exposed to opportunities that could propel him to stardom where Teofila had to decide whether she was going to follow Elijah or find her own space in the world. Can she figure out her own path and hold onto Elijah?
When I went into reading this story, I was expecting an adult love story of childhood friends to lovers; I didn’t expect to follow their friendship all the way from the beginning. It was important to illustrate their bond but also to understand the impact they had on each other and how it affected their actions. As they got older and their lives got real, I grew frustrated with both of them because Elijah absolutely took advantage of how Teofila felt about him to string her along, and she was too in love with him to let him go and move on for real; it made me think she deserved better than him – and I still think that even after finishing the book and seeing how they ended up. Either way, I was captivated by the story and gave it four stars. I am going to go back to read the rest of the books in this series as I am curious as to how they’ll all connect
