Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews... A Review

Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews

When two estranged sisters—complete opposites in every way—reunite after their mother’s death, they have one shared goal: sell the house and use the money to climb out of debt. But their plans unravel quickly. Instead of a tidy inheritance, they discover a $325,000 mortgage their mother secretly took out to send money to a televangelist in Texas. Worse still, her remaining savings sit in a tin can held by their Uncle Keith, the executor of the estate.

But that money isn’t meant to pay off bills.

Their mother’s dying wish was for the sisters to use it to travel to Ireland—to reconnect with each other and uncover their family’s roots. What follows is a journey filled with mystery and intrigue, a touch of romance, and even a bit of murder. Determined to piece together their family history, the sisters head to Ireland for what becomes the adventure of a lifetime. Long-buried secrets begin to slip through the veil of time—and not everyone is pleased about it. 

Part of those family secrets is the painting that hangs over their Mother’s fireplace. A painting supposedly brought over from Ireland by their great grandmother when she immigrated from Ireland. A painting of Lady Geraldine Fitzhugh. A painting worth millions... maybe. Could this be their real inheritance?

From the first pages of Road Trip, I was hooked. The writing drew me in immediately, and the unfolding family mystery kept me turning the pages. I became so invested that I actually sketched out a family tree as I read. As someone who has done my own genealogy research, I felt especially connected to the story. The Irish setting was vivid and inviting, filled with quirky characters—and yes, a hunky Irishman.

The sisters’ gradual reconnection felt natural and satisfying. I also loved the flashbacks to their great-grandmother’s immigration to the United States. The letters she wrote to her brother added depth and emotion, and for a while the story took on a dual-timeline feel as past and present intertwined beautifully.

Believe it or not, this was my first Mary Kay Andrews novel and it definitely will not be my last! I really enjoyed this book and want to thank St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of Road Trip to read and review! I truly loved it! 

Add this to your TBR list now! 

Release date is June 2, 2026

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar... A Review

It took me a surprisingly long time to finish this 200(ish)-page novel, and at several points I almost set it aside. I found myself losing interest in the story, even as I was consistently struck by the beauty of Megha Majumdar’s writing. Words arranged so gracefully they seem to float off the page, like music meant to be heard rather than read.

Set in a future India ravaged by brutal heat and widespread food shortages, the novel follows two people and the families they are desperately trying to protect. Ma lives with her aging father and two-year-old daughter while volunteering at a shelter. Her husband has already made it to Michigan, where he has found work as an engineer, and the story unfolds during the tense final week before Ma and her family are scheduled to leave India and join him in the United States.

Then there is Boomba, whom we first meet as the thief who breaks into Ma’s home one night. He steals her carefully hoarded food—and, more devastatingly, her purse containing the immigration documents she needs to escape. From this moment begins the story of the “guardian” and the “thief,” though as the novel progresses, those labels become increasingly unstable. The lines blur until you are left asking yourself a deeply uncomfortable question: what would you do to save your family?

Majumdar’s depiction of the city is stunning. The streets of Kolkata feel vividly alive—the heat, the noise, the relentless pressures of living in that environment. But alongside that beauty is an overwhelming sense of desperation. The suffering of the people is rendered equally vivid, leaving the reader weighed down by sadness.

The plot unfolds as a chain of escalating catastrophes, each one pulling Ma’s family and Boomba’s deeper into crisis. By the time the novel reaches its final pages, everything converges in a way I didn’t expect.

When I closed the book, I was left unsettled and unsure how to feel. I found myself wondering what the novel ultimately wanted to say. Is it that morality collapses under extreme pressure? That “thief” and “guardian” are roles defined by perspective? That desperate times demand desperate—and unforgivable—choices?

This is a beautifully written book that left me emotionally drained and deeply conflicted, asking questions it refuses to answer neatly.

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Mejumdar was Published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2025. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was an Oprah's Book Club Pick. 

I'm wavering between 3 stars and 4 stars. So, I think 3.5 stars is the final decision. It's a short read, but not a quick read. An incredibly written book, but a depressing read. I would recommend it, but be prepared...

 

Memoir Monday...

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo... When Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was five years old and his family was preparing to cross the border between Mexico and the United States, he suffered temporary, stress-induced blindness. Castillo regained his vision, but quickly understood that he had to move into a threshold of invisibility before settling in California with his parents and siblings. Thus began a new life of hiding in plain sight and of paying extraordinarily careful attention at all times for fear of being truly seen. Before Castillo was one of the most celebrated poets of a generation, he was a boy who perfected his English in the hopes that he might never seem extraordinary.

With beauty, grace, and honesty, Castillo recounts his and his family’s encounters with a system that treats them as criminals for seeking safe, ordinary lives. He writes of the Sunday afternoon when he opened the door to an ICE officer who had one hand on his holster, of the hours he spent making a fake social security card so that he could work to support his family, of his father’s deportation and the decade that he spent waiting to return to his wife and children only to be denied reentry, and of his mother’s heartbreaking decision to leave her children and grandchildren so that she could be reunited with her estranged husband and retire from a life of hard labor.

Children of the Land distills the trauma of displacement, illuminates the human lives behind the headlines and serves as a stunning meditation on what it means to be a man and a citizen.

When I started to read all the controversy surrounding American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, I found "alternative" books that were recommended to read instead of that book in order to understand the real experiences of undocumented people entering the US. Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is one of those books. Unlike American Dirt, which is a book of fiction, Children of the Land is a memoir.

Marcelo Hernandez is an awarding winning poet, writer and teacher. He received a B.A. from Sacramento State University and was the first undocumented student to earn an MFA from the University of Michigan. His book Children of the Land, published by Harper, will be available tomorrow at your local bookstore. On my Wishlist.

Memoir Monday (almost)... Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai... It's a memoir... but not exactly. It's a children's book, and it did win the National Book Award for YA Lit this year, but it's more than that. Inside Out & Back Again is a verse book, or a book totally written in short verses, but not a book of poetry. What is Inside Out & Back Again exactly then? It's a poignant look at a young child's life as she is being thrown into a new life unexpectedly and how she deals with it all. It's an immigrant's story, but the perspective we see is from the voice of an intelligent 10-year-old girl, who has a little spunk behind her, and who simply tells us in unfaltering prose what it's like to lose your best friend, dream, be torn from all you know and ultimately be the outsider. The last time I read a book that was in complete verse (Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow) I didn't like the medium at all. But this is a different story, and Thanhha Lai measures her words more carefully like a delicate brushstroke at times, almost like Haiku.

The life of Ha is based on the life of author Thanhha Lai, who moved to Alabama at the end of the Vietnam War. And so, though this isn't really a memoir, it really is. Here's what's on the front jacket flap...

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.

For all the ten years of her life, HÀ has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.

But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. HÀ and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, HÀ discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.

This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

The story is moving, and wonderfully written. A sweet story for any young girl at heart, but also a story of the hopes, dreams and reality of immigration.

Cake Boss by Buddy Valastro... A Review

"I Remember all the things that bought my family and me to this moment."

Have you watched Cake Boss on TV?! It is the reality show starring Buddy Valastro, owner and master baker of Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. This reality show, though, takes place right in the bakery, which is filled with his mother, four sisters, brother-in-laws, and all the other people who help create amazing over the top cakes, and it's simply a great show. But what Buddy's book, Cake Boss, does is show us what really makes his family tick, because not only is Cake Boss a more intimate look at the family you know from the show, it is a memoir of Buddy's family coming to America and eventually opening up Carlo's Bakery. (And if you thought things got fiery on the show, there's plenty of fire in the family history too!)

From the book jacket... In Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia, Buddy reveals how he came to be America's Favorite Baker and the inspirational tale of how his ancestors strove to succeed in America. Distinctively earnest, always honest, Buddy shares this story of perfecting his skills, honing his business instincts, and, ultimately, taking Carlo's to new heights, improving even time-honored recipes while breaking new ground with the astonishing theme cakes for which he is internationally renowned. An inspiring tale of life, love, and loss, Cake Boss is also the story behind the bakery's most sought after pastries, pies cupcakes and cakes. Layered with stories of family, tradition, hard work, and innovation, the book also features thirty-seven never-before-published recipes for Carlo's Bake Shop's most popular treats...

Cake Boss is the story of Buddy Valastro and his family, but it is also the story of immigration and success. It is a story of coming to America for a better life, working hard and succeeding. The family's story begins with Antonio Valastro, at the beginning of WWII, when poverty was widespread in Sicily. Antonio left the family to follow his dreams in America (He eventually brought the family over). Antonio was Buddy's grandfather, and this is the humble beginnings of a family of bakers in America. I almost forgot that I was reading about "the Cake Boss", because this family story doesn't need a famous name to be interesting, it's a great story all on its own. The family stories are wonderful, and I loved reading about the family traditions too.

More than anything, I am my father's son, and so I need to begin telling my story by telling his story, and the story of my mother, and of their romance, and of the family bakery they ran together, because it's the world my sisters and I, and our families, continue to inhabit today...

Filled with family photos, family stories, and stories about the bakery,(as well as lots of info about how the show on TLC is put together) this would be a great read without anything else added, BUT then we get a treat at the end of the book! Chapter 10 begins "Recipes from Mia Famiglia: Cookies, Pastries, Pies, Cakes, and Cupcakes! First we get a mini lesson on basic tools, equipement, techniques and advice. And then we get RECIPES! These recipes are well written and easy to understand, they are scaled down for a home kitchen, and they are 1 or 2 pages long (except for the Lobster Tails recipe that only the brave would try!) Some of the highlights to me are the Tiramisu, which has a wonderful full color photo in the beginning of the recipes, Ricotta Pie, Banana Cream Pie, and RED VELVET CAKE! But there are plenty of recipes to satisfy any baker, including Italian Buttercream, Chocolate Mousse, and Chocolate Ganache!

Since I was writing the review during Thanksgiving, I decided to give Buddy's Pumpkin Pie a try. Not really a traditional Italian specialty, Carlo's Bakery always sold Pumpkin Pies at Thanksgiving. Since I never make one before, this would be a true test for a pie everyone is familiar with. Well, in one word, Buddy's Pumpkin Pie was a hit at Thanksgiving! Firm but creamy, with lots of flavor! Easy to put together, and Buddy even allowed me to use an unbaked store bought pie crust, although there is a homemade pie crust recipe in the book. Now, this will be a tradition in our house on Thanksgiving!

If you love to bake, if you love to read, if someone on your Christmas list bakes, this would make a great gift! The writing is as entertaining as Buddy is on his show Cake Boss, but if you've never seen the show you will still enjoy reading the story of this family coming over from Sicily. And if baking is your thing, or if you'd like a few tips and some great Italian bakery recipes, this is a well written, good variety baking book. I make this my pick for a great Christmas gift for the baker on your list. (Or anyone who loves Cake Boss!) * Sound like something you'd like to read? Well, stop back later in the week to enter to win a copy!

Go to Carlo's Bakery to learn more about those great cakes that the Cake Boss makes! BTW, want to make that Pumpkin Pie? You can find the recipe on ReadersDigest.com. And to make reading this book even sweeter, Cake Boss is available for Your Kindle!

I want to thank Free Press and Simon & Schuster for sending along a copy of Cake Boss for review! Loved it!

Memoir Mondays... Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

"Edwidge Danticat is a master storyteller who allows her readers to experience the Haitian culture, history and emotions through her insightful and compelling writing."

Brother, I'm Dying is the memoir of Edwidge Danticat . "From the age of four, award-winning writer Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for America. And so she was both elated and saddened when, at twelve, she joined her parents and youngest brothers in New York City. As Edwidge made a life in a new country, adjusting to being far away from so many who she loved, she and her family continued to fear for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorated. In 2004, they entered into a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Brother I'm Dying is an astonishing true-life epic, told on an intimate scale by one of our finest writers." In Brother, I'm Dying she uses her gift of storytelling to tell her story and give us a glimpse of the Haitian immigrant experience...

In 2007, Edwidge Danticat won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Brother, I'm Dying. She is one of Haiti’s most acclaimed writers. Her other books of fiction are Krik? Krak!, Breath, Eyes, Memory, and The Dewbreaker. Read an excerpt of Brother, I'm Dying. And for reading groups, there is a Reading Guide. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal Edwidge Danticat "took the time to recommend some books and music that people who are interested in Haitian history and arts should seek out in order to place the current disaster in a broader context." Included in the recommendations is Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy” by Marie Vieux-Chauvet which was recently translated into English. You can read the article and see the complete list in the article entitled Earthquake in Haiti: A Reading (and Listening) List by Edwidge Danticat. *Currently, Brother, I'm Dying is available for the Kindle for under $6!

My thoughts and prayers are with the people affected by the horrible tragedy in Haiti...