I absolutely loved this book. An ambitious young Congressional intern Aviva Grossman has an affair with her married boss. Like Monica Lewinsky, she is eventually found out and vilified by the public as the Congressman’s team rapidly launches into damage control PR. Aviva’s reputation suffers from the fallout, and she finds herself unable to land a job in either politics or communications. Fast forward a few years, and Aviva has reinvented herself as Jane Young, a wedding and events planner in small town Maine raising her daughter Ruby. This is where the novel begins.

Young Jane Young is told in multiple perspectives. I absolutely loved the first section, told by Aviva’s mom Rachel, who longs to reestablish a relationship with her estranged daughter. I thought her voice was the strongest of the sections, and while the other sections of the book eventually intersect and reconnect with Rachel, I still wish we had gotten a chance to revisit her story and her perspective later on. She had been a vocal opponent of Aviva’s relationship from the beginning, yet looking back, she realizes that her aggressive, overprotective response may not have been what Aviva needed. Her regret is palpable, as is her fierce love for her daughter, and for the longest time, I shared in her resentment for Aviva, at not listening to her mother and making such stupid decisions.

Jane’s section is next, and while the story itself — about a wedding she has to plan for a sweet and meek woman and an overbearing politician — is interesting, her voice didn’t grab me as immediately as Rachel’s did. There was also an annoying coyness at the beginning about Jane actually being Aviva, which I thought was unnecessary, given that this reveal is already made on the back cover and Goodreads summary. Still, this section sets the groundwork for what happens afterward, which is well worth the set up.

The bulk of the action in the novel takes place over the next two sections when Jane decides to run for mayor of her town and her daughter Ruby runs away from home to track down the man she believes is her father. Ruby’s precociousness and independence strain credulity, but I actually liked her character and especially her emails to her pen pal in Indonesia.

My main sympathy for these sections of the book lie mostly with Embeth, the congressman’s wife who is surviving cancer, supporting his reelection campaign, and surprised to learn that after all this time, she is still expected deal with a scandal she’d thought long buried in his past. I’m so glad we got a section from her perspective, and that we got to see her humanity, as people around her don’t often see past the cool facade. She definitely deserves much better than the Congressman and I hope her story after the events in this book leads her to some form of happily ever after.

I thought Zevin handled these sections well. Ruby’s running away is a melodramatic act, yet Zevin’s treatment of the story and the multiple perspectives keeps the characters grounded and their emotions real. I also like how each section keeps a tight focus on its own perspective, so that even when other characters re-enter the picture, we are privy only to what the narrator sees. For example, Rachel appears in Embeth’s section during the whole drama over Ruby’s running away, but we don’t really get a sense of how her presence at this time impacts her relationship with her daughter or granddaughter. While part of me wanted to know more, another part acknowledges that Embeth would likely not be involved at all in that, so her perspective has a different focus.

The final section takes us back in time and reliving Aviva’s affair through a Choose Your Own Adventure. Part of me thought this format was a bit cutesy, but I also like how it framed Aviva’s affair as a series of bad choices, and filtered through a more mature, knowing perspective that understood how alternative choices (e.g. leave the room instead of pulling the congressman in for a kiss) may have been better options.

Overall, I highly recommend Young Jane Young. Some sections are stronger than others and some plot threads are frustratingly left unresolved, but I liked seeing how a youthful mistake can lead to some long-lasting consequences for many people beyond just the individual. I also liked the realistic depiction of power dynamics (the Congressman is a dick for taking advantage of Aviva like that) and the unfairness of gender disparity (Aviva being labelled a slut and unable to escape this label). I remember growing up in the Clinton era. Then and now, I firmly sympathize with Hillary Clinton, who has faced the public fallout from the affair even longer than Bill has, which I think is ridiculously unfair. But looking back, I also realize now how unjustly I viewed Monica Lewinsky, and reading this book prompted me to think about what she must have gone through.

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Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Twelve year old Daisy Tanenbaum is sent to live in Paris with her cool code breaker aunt, and gets embroiled in a spy caper involving the Queen’s Diamonds. Daisy in Exile is very much targeted to the middle-grade crowd, and includes an entertaining series of hijinks as Daisy and her Parisian friends — a cat burglar from the wrong side of the tracks named Sief and a beautiful, stylish teen named Nina — race around the city and through the sewers to escape Russian spies.

The first book in the series was written as a pitch for a Disney Channel show, and I can definitely imagine Daisy on the small screen. The danger is lighthearted, the adults are almost unbelievably naive, and the mystery of the secret code and the diamonds are almost secondary to the romp around Paris. It reminds me somewhat of the Mary Kate and Ashley books I read when I was younger, or the Lizzie McGuire movie, and will likely appeal to middle grade readers.

There are middle grade books that also appeal to adult readers, but this one didn’t quite make the cut for me. The story is fun and whimsical, the plot hits all the notes of teen action adventures, and it was a solid read overall, but it never quite hooked me. The writing is strong enough, but the plot twists felt predictable, and despite Daisy’s mad dash around and underneath Paris, it never quite felt urgent. Possibly, younger readers will enjoy it more. I do really like the Paris descriptions, and the beginning in particular really made me want to visit Paris.

One note of warning is that this book has much smaller font than what I would expect for a story for younger readers. I don’t need to read large print books, but I found it a physical strain at times to read this one, though I admit that may have to do with my expectations around fonts for this kind of story. If I were to try another Daisy Tanenbaum book, I may consider the ebook version instead.

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Thank you to the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Warbringer is a YA take on the Wonder Woman origin story, which for the first half of the book, feels like Bardugo just took the story from the 2017 movie and changed up a few details. In this book, Diana is 17 rather than in her 20s/30s, the mortal she has to save is a teenage girl rather than a World War I pilot, and her venture into the human world is with present day New York City rather than early 20th century England. But pretty much the entire first half is exactly the same.

I realize that this book should be judged as a completely separate entity from the movie, and that superhero stories are rebooted and retold multiple times, even within the comics universe. The problem is, this book’s retelling felt stale. I like the added diversity (the teenagers whom Diana befriends are persons of colour, and one of them is also bisexual and plus-size), but for the most part, I felt like I’ve seen this story before. I could even predict the kind of jokes Bardugo was going to make about Diana’s fish-out-of-water naivete in our world. (e.g. A teenage boy goes skinny dipping, and Diana takes off her clothes as well and wonders why the other teenagers react differently to her nakedness than to the boy’s. The naivete is understandable, but the humour is flat.)

The story picks up in the second half, once the Warbringer mythology has been established and the characters are off in full quest mode. The central human in this story is a teenage girl named Alia Keralis, who is a direct descendant of Helen of Troy. Like Helen, Alia is a Warbringer, which means that her very presence incites discord and strife, and her birth signals that a war is to come. When Diana takes her to Themyscira to save her life, the presence of a mortal causes the island and its Amazons to sicken and proximity to the island causes Alia to sicken. To save both Alia and her people, Diana must take Alia to Helen of Troy’s resting place to be purified in a spring before a particular phase of the moon on her 17th year (basically a week or two in the book’s timeline). Alia’s bathing in the spring before the deadline will remove the Warbringer in her and end the Warbringer line altogether, which will end wars for all time. The problem is, that solution isn’t very well known in the mortal world, whereas there are people who know that killing Alia before that same deadline will stop at least whatever specific war she’s destined to bring for her generation. Alia’s brother Jason and their friends Nim and Theo join Alia and Diana in the quest to get Alia to the spring safely before the deadline.

I like the Warbringer mythology, and I particularly like the point another character makes that conflict is in the very fabric of humanity, and simply solving the Warbringer issue isn’t likely to end all wars. I personally wish this thread had been delved into a bit more, as with the movie, where Diana has to learn that war isn’t as simple as she’d like to believe. I don’t think she quite got that opportunity here.

The quest half of the novel is entertaining and fun to read. There are the usual elements of romance, bickering, family issues, and coming to terms with who you are. I like the friendship between Diana and Alia and the deepening understanding of Jason’s overprotectiveness towards his sister. Still, I felt Nim and Theo had so much untapped potential as characters. It seemed like a lot of their actions throughout the quest had to do with their proximity to Alia’s brand of discord or their being possessed by some spiritual being, and I thought it was when they were simply human and dealing with stuff that they shone the most.

I also enjoyed learning more about the Amazons and Themyscira. For example, I had no idea until now that the Amazons were once mortal women warriors who died in battle and were taken to Themyscira as a reward for their bravery. I’m also glad the Aamzons here are more diverse than in the movie — they come from various countries in the world. Much as I like the Warbringer mythology and the human characters, I personally would have preferred a prequel to the movie, an exploration into 17 year old Diana’s life in Themyscira and some kind of conflict on the island before mortals ever crossed that barrier.

Still, the story, particularly the second half, was an entertaining read. The book cover art is absolutely beautiful (kudos to the artist Jacey), and the hardcover includes a fold out poster with a beautiful coloured artwork of a teenage Wonder Woman by Afua Richardson.

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Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.