#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers featuring Kristen Ciccarelli

Diane Chamberlain is a master of pulling readers into another time and place, making the not so distant past intriguing backdrops for her novels. Moving between the turbulent 60’s and 70’s and into the early 2000’s and beyond, The Dream Daughter requires the reader to let go and give in to the questionable premise of the novel (no spoilers). I’m not gonna lie, when I saw where the book was headed I did an internal eye roll, but the story is so engaging you have no choice but to buy in and go along for the ride. The story revolves around Carley and the decisions she must make to save her child. It’s ultimately a story about the strength of love, the bonds of trust between family members, overcoming loss and honoring memories. More uplifting than it sounds, The Dream Daughter celebrates the strength one finds when put to the test.

There are moving vans at her home when Fiona stops at home before heading off on a romantic getaway with her new boyfriend. Sure that these strangers moving into her home are scamming her, she tries to track down her future-ex-husband, but he hasn’t been seen since dropping their kids off at his mother’s house.
As the story unfolds, everyone is lying to everyone-and has been for a long time–in this perfect neighborhood. Our House kept me interested all the way to the end–which is not easy for this genre–and I found it refreshing to have a mystery that wasn’t centered around someone’s death. That’s not to say people won’t be dying…

The Caged Queen is a sequel/companion novel to The Last Namsara, which I raved about and which we read for Boozy Book Club. It centers on Roa and King Dax, who we briefly saw in The Last Namsara. I didn’t think Kristen Ciccarelli could create another couple as great as Asha and Torwin, but she TOTALLY DID. King Dax is a dreamboat and I will fight you for him.

Roa is a foreigner whose marriage to Dax is a purely political alliance; she gave him the army he needed to overthrow his evil father, and in exchange Dax has promised to lift the taxes and embargoes that have driven her people to starvation. But they have a history. Dax spent much of his childhood being raised in her house, and Roa blames him for the death of her twin sister. When Roa learns of ritual that could return her sister to her, she’s determined to see it through, even though it means killing the husband she’s starting to fall for.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. Ciccarelli crafts such passionate, exquisitely crafted characters that they immediately spring to life, and I was immediately invested in Roa and Dax’s story. Her writing is beautiful; not fancy, but with emotions and motivations that are incredibly poignant and vivid. Her world building is on the spare side, but she deftly weaves in mythology and magic in a really satisfying way. If you liked The Last Namsara, or just enjoy character-driven fantasy, than you will love this. I guarantee it.

Penny is 34 year-old married mom of a child genius with a successful husband, big house, nice cars, and she’s miserable. Gavin is the man she has been friends with for 14 years, her best friend, and perpetually the one that got away.

This is a book about making decisions, some hard, some foolish, and living with them even when it feels impossible. It’s a book that’ll make you want to scream with frustration, sigh from sweetness, and cry from heartbreak. It’s messy, just like life. And it’s really, really great.