The Dinner List: A Review

Who are the five people (living or dead) with whom you’d like to have dinner?

Sabrina knows her answer: her best friend Jessica, her estranged father Robert, her philosophy professor from college, Audrey Hepburn, and Tobias the love who broke her heart when he left.

What Sabrina doesn’t expect when she arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner is that her dinner list is actually happening. And Audrey is already annoyed that they’ve been waiting an hour.

Over the course of this unlikely dinner Sabrina will confront old regrets, lost opportunities, and perhaps most importantly second chances in The Dinner List (2018) by Rebecca Serle.

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Serle makes her adult debut in this whimsical and poignant novel. Chapters alternate between Sabrina’s birthday dinner and flashback chapters that detail her decade-long romance with Tobias from their first meeting in college to the moment that ended it all.

The Dinner List combines a fun premise with solid writing. Thoughtful contemplation both at the dinner and in the flashbacks force Sabrina (and readers) to consider what it means to let go of old regrets and choose a new path moving forward.

Because of the structure, the writing can sometimes feel stiff as if readers are at a remove from the characters but as at any good dinner party the guests warm up over time. Serle’s writing is deliberate and restrained as she walks readers to a somewhat surprising reveal and a bittersweet conclusion.

The Dinner List is the perfect choice for readers who like their fiction with just a big of magic.

Famous in Love: A Review

“I can’t touch him. The only thing I want to do is run to him and have him put his arms around me, to take me someplace that isn’t here. Someplace it’s just the two of us and none of this matters. But I can’t do that because no one knows. Not Wyatt and not Sandy, not even Cassandra. They think we’re just friends–that I belong to someone else. They don’t know that I’ve made a huge mistake. They don’t know that, like August, I chose wrong.”

Seventeen-year-old Paige Townsen never expected her audition to for the coveted part of August to come to anything. She never thought she’d be the only unknown picked to star in the next big blockbuster when the bestselling book Locked was adapted for the big screen.

Except that’s exactly what happens and suddenly instead of starring in community theater productions and high school shorts, Paige is at the center of a major production. Her co-star, Rainer Devon, is right at Paige’s side helping her make sense of her sudden fame and the rigors that come from movie production.

When troubled actor Jordan Wilder is cast as the final piece in the love triangle at the center of the film, Paige’s life begins to uncomfortably imitate art as she is torn between these two very different young men. With everything changing, Paige will have to figure out who she is before she can begin to choose who she wants in Famous in Love (2014) by Rebecca Serle.

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Famous in Love is the first book in a trilogy. The “book-within-the-book” Locked is also slated for a tie-in publication.

Serle draws inspiration from real life celebrity drama to create this story of fame and romance. Readers will be with Paige from the start when she first hears about the audition right through to the post-production of the first film. While Paige vacillates between Rainer and Jordan throughout the book, both relationships feel authentic and offer very different things for Paige.

Although Paige’s friends and family often feel like one-note characters, they are happily present showing that Paige had a life before getting famous and will have support for whatever pitfalls Hollywood may have in store. Being the first in a trilogy, readers can expect a lot more love-triangle based drama as Paige is forced to choose both on-screen and off.

Famous in Love is an all-access pass to what happens off camera and behind the curtains of a movie production. Sure to appeal to hopeless romantics, celebrity junkies and movie fans alike.

Possible Pairings: Behind the Scenes by Dahlia Adler, Now & Forever by Susane Colasanti, Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan, A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall, Open Road Summer by Emery Lord, The Romantics by Leah Konen, Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy

*A copy of this book was required for review consideration from the publisher at BEA 2014*

The Edge of Falling: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

Caggie should have everything she could want growing up as part of New York City society. She used to. She had a picture perfect family. She lived in a beautiful Manhattan apartment. She went to an elite private school. She had a handsome, smart, nerdy, perfect boyfriend. She had a quirky, beautiful best friend even if she did live all  the way downtown.

She had everything until she lost the most important thing.

Nothing seems to matter quite so much now that her younger sister is dead. Drowned.

Caggie blames herself–maybe for the right reasons. Maybe for the wrong ones. She can’t be sure when nothing makes sense anymore. Even Caggie’s attempt to escape at a classmate’s party goes horribly awry. Now everything thinks Caggie is some kind of hero.

She doesn’t know a lot, but Caggie is certain she isn’t a hero.

When she meets Astor, Caggie thinks he might be the perfect solution. Someone to help her forget. Someone who never heard about the drowning. But Astor has his own secrets; his own grief that he’s been carrying.And his own secrets.

Caggie was already buried under her own grief, her own regrets. Now, as she becomes closer to Astor, Caggie will have to decide if the combined weight of their loss will be too much for either of them to hold in The Edge of Falling (2014) by Rebecca Serle.

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Caggie is a realistic, honest character. She is quick to point out her own shortcomings and accept her due in terms of blame. Although narrated by Caggie, the story eventually comes full circle as Serle illustrates that a tragedy never affects just one person.

Set in New York City’s upper class, The Edge of Falling is set against the privileged, shining backdrop of New York’s Upper West Side. What could have made the story flippant or decadent is instead tastefully handled with Caggie–a character who has never felt comfortable with her own family’s wealth.

Sharp, though sometimes predictable, The Edge of Falling is a quiet, meditative story about loss and what comes after.

Possible Pairings: Can’t Look Away by Donna Cooner, Where She Went by Gayle Forman, Last Night at the Circle Cinema by Emily Franklin, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, The After Girls by Leah Konen, If I Fix You by Abigail Johnson, Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson, The Secrets We Keep by Trisha Leaver, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, Hero Type by Barry Lyga, Drawing the Ocean by Carolyn MacCullough, Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta, The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee, Even in Paradise by Chelsey Philpot, Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb, We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt, This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, A Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell, Cloudwish by Fiona Wood, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin