The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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I have read only one other Matt Haig title, The Comfort Book, which Heart.Wants.Books reviewed in December 2021 as part of our Comfort Reads theme. I’m frustrated and yet unsurprised that it has taken me 1.5 years to read another title even though his backlist has been on the TBR for that long. But, lately our reading has been taking into consideration other ‘Comfort Reads’ – those of a more Distracting variety…the collective works of one Sarah J. Maas. Nikki and I have completed our re-reads of both The Assassin’s Blade and Throne of Glass, and have started Crown of Midnight. So keep coming back, check out the Reading Life Review, to see where we are on this Maas Distraction Journey.

So, here we are, reading another emphatically humanitarian title by British author Matt Haig. He has many more titles for adults and children in his published works which you can find on his website above. He lives with partner and fellow writer Andrea Semple with their two children in Brighton. Haig has made no secret of his depression and the darkness of his own suicidal thoughts. He has used those times of his life to create poignant works. 

With The Midnight Library, I struggled at the very beginning. I did not feel connected to Nora Seed and her depression and her negative outlook on life in general. What the blurb of the book avoids saying is HOW Nora arrives at the midnight library, the place where time stands still between life and death and where a person can decide to try any of the infinite lives that they could have lived had they made one decision differently. Nora is guided through her possible lives by her childhood librarian Mrs. Elm to find the one life that she would rather live than the life she left. The beginning of the book and Nora’s lackluster attitude about any life, her root life or the possible lives she could have lived, was the opposite of such critic reviews like: “A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits.” that I almost had to put it down. But, once Nora meets Hugo I was in it until the end and loved it so much.

I’m going to give The Midnight Library a solid four-starred review. I struggled too much at the beginning and I’m thinking that the book was just not the right title for me at the right time and so my star rating reflects that struggle. I will still recommend Haig’s work without reservation but also with the warning about the negative life outlook espoused by our main character. But, I want to leave you with a quotation that I might put on a sticker: “All good things are wild and free.”

~Ashley

The Midnight Library has been staring at me from my physical TBR stack for about a year and a half, when a friend of the blog (and IRL) sent me a copy along with a note that she’d found it really inspiring.  As I am want to do, once Ashley and I decided to dive in, I didn’t read the jacket copy and went for it, as much as I do with any physical book, and I agree with Ashley’s assessment of the situation wholeheartedly, yet I have more to say.  

Darling readers, please do heed a trigger warning for severe depression and attempted suicide.  (If it is discussed in the first line, it is not a spoiler.)  I could list more (deaths of loved ones, pets, etc.), but instead, know the DMs are always open if you have specific concerns.  

Matt Haig is an amazing writer, with such depth to his works.  I don’t think I could have emotionally handled binging The Midnight Library if the stars aligned.  I did pick this book up, and put it down several times over the week I read it, sometimes for life, and other times because the first chunk of this title is heavy.  Themes of “what if” abound as Nora considers what she regrets and how making different choices in those moments would have changed her life, and therefore which book she should open in the titular library.  I won’t spoil where Nora (and presumably Haig) land with that complex topic, but y’all, THAT is the hope in this book.  If you’ve ever struggled with your own what ifs, please consider if this title might be right for you.  

Despite the lack of a bow, because the amazing bow of an epilogue was right there and yet does not exist in canon, I’m still giving The Midnight Library four emphatic stars.  In keeping with Nora’s headspace at the beginning of the book, it is a hard start, but the middle and end are so fun.  I really enjoyed the idea of thoroughly exploring how life might be different if the big things were different, and absolutely adore the grace and hope in the ending.  I’m not sure I’ll reread this, but it has earned staying power on my shelf and confirmed my interest in anything Haig has written or will write.

What’s a book that has granted or confirmed a season pass but was hard to read?

~Nikki 

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The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!

TL/DR: I finished the title in 25 hours.  Cleeton is a master, and her season pass is confirmed.  The Cuban Heiress has great potential for your book club!

Buckle up darling readers, because this is going to be an adventure of a review à la how to talk about this book without revealing part of the mystery.  The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton opens as a luxury cruise is embarking in New York in the 1930s. The story focuses on an actress secretly playing the part of an heiress who’s engaged to a rich socialite and a woman who’s supposed to be dead, but clearly isn’t.  While sailing towards Cuba, our heiress discovers a jewel thief, the not dead (as opposed to undead – this is straight historical fiction) woman pursues revenge.  I want to say SO much more about these three, and a couple more of the supporting cast, but I’m afraid to ruin the fun!

As you may have guessed by my completing The Cuban Heiress in just over a day, this novel is a very fun hang!  It’s very plot driven, and as we go along, we learn so much about our leading ladies via flashbacks.  I don’t think it’s precisely a mystery, but there definitely is an air of mystery about how our fake heiress came to be playing this part, what happened to our not dead woman to get her here, and how in the world is this all going to shake down on a luxury cruise!  I had a great time figuring out some of these questions as the action went along, and there were twists and turns I wasn’t expecting which made the chaos so much more fun (especially the author’s notes where Cleeton tells us what’s fact and what’s fiction).  

Here’s some how the sauce is made for my star ratings – I’m giving The Cuban Heiress 4.5 stars and rounding down.  While I stand by Cleeton’s season pass and gorgeous, engaging, and so picturesque, this content isn’t living rent free in my head and I’m not likely to reread this, and those are two key pieces of a 5 star review from me.  Let this be a reminder, a four star review from us is a solid, emphatic recommendation, but not a likely contender for favorite of the year.  

What’s a book that surprised you with how fun it was to read consume?

~Nikki 

Darling Readers, I want to remind you that Heart.Wants.Books. Has reviewed two other Chanel Cleeton titles: The Last Train to Key West and Our Last Days in Barcelona. We have three more titles in her historical fiction titles with Cuban women as the protagonists. Cleeton also has nine romance novels and one thriller listed on her website. And truly, the only reason we haven’t read her entire backlist is because there are so many books and so little time. Some day, at some time, I’ll get to the rest of her titles.

But for now, we need to discuss The Cuban Heiress. And, similar to Nikki, I read today’s title in one day, according to Goodreads. I didn’t read on my Kindle the day before I read the entirety of this title, according to Kindle Insights, and I am going to trust the technology to know how often I read. I have all the faith that the algorithms can keep track and suggest more interesting things for me to consume. Remember that your reading life is not a competition with anyone except yourself (if you so choose to make it into one) and it’s sole purpose is to bring you joy. So I’m not saying that I liked this book more than Nikki did, or that I’m a faster reader (I’m not) I am saying that I had way more time on Sunday to sit my butt in the big chair and knock out this entire 300 page novel. It was engrossing, but at times a little predictable for me when it came to the mystery and murder. I also was mentally distracted by the constant question of “where does the money come from?” How are these women funding their shenanigans? That’s all I want to know. Also, can I figure out how to fund my own shenanigans on luxury cruise lines, that would be excellent.

Even though I only have four highlights in the entire book, each of them are poignant for specific reasons. The tale of the SS Morro Castle and all the research Cleeton undertook to write the story is a rabbit hole I will go no farther down except to share: Herbert Saffir, an actual survivor of the tragedy on the Morro Castle, would go on to help develop the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale for classifying hurricanes. I wonder if his experience on that trip at seventeen years old changed his personal trajectory so much that his work for the United Nations in the 1970’s studying low-cost housing in hurricane prone areas  is now why we have a five category scale to describe the possible destructive power of these weather events. What an interesting branch of the rabbit warren I went down when I should be telling you all about how I, too, will be giving The Cuban Heiress a four star review. It was a perfect read for a perfectly stormy Sunday at home.

~Ashley

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Take a knee darling readers, as this is a bit of a lengthy lead in today.  I was first introduced to Dani Shapiro by Anne Bogel via one of her memoirs, Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage.  Shortly after reading this enthralling, concise work, Inheritance was published, which was a favorite of the year and earned Shaprio a season pass for me. (I was so uninterested in this based on the description, and now it lives rent free in my head.)  So, when Signal Fires was announced, it was an easy yes.  Getting it pulled up to the top of the TBR list was a different story, but when Roxanne Coady of RJ Julia was chatting with Bogel and called it “perfect fiction,” it quickly climbed the list.  

Coady describes this title perfectly, so I want to lead with her words:  

“You don’t need to work hard to get into it, you’re gripped immediately, you’re attached to all the characters. The story makes you think about how you live your life, what matters to you, what do you want to pay attention to?”

I also want to include some warnings for death, dementia, cancer, description of a challenging birth, deadly car accident, and substance abuse.  Yes, all of those tragic things are included in the novel, and yet, it’s so very hopeful.  

In addition to Coady’s description of what makes Signal Fires perfect fiction, I want to add interesting structure, compelling characters, and redemption arcs (yes, plural).  The story focuses on two families, living their best suburban lives, one starting in the 1980s and another in the 2010s.  The tale is about how the families function and grow, and how each member of the family deals with the unexpected and copes with tragedies.  Even in death and terminal illness, there is hope because of the way they’re handled on the page, and because of the changes brought about in those left behind.  The story is more about how those who remain are changed by the people they lose, and what they do as a result of it, and with each other.  Having now lost another in my community far, far too young, I keep thinking back to this hope Shapiro so gloriously discusses, and how these two amazing men gone too soon have shaped me and my people, and how we can live in ways that honor their memories.  That sort of hope in how we live after the loss, how we let the kindness and love of our loved ones influence our futures, sometimes in spite of the past, feels like what Signal Fires is really about.  

I’m giving Signal Fires five glittering stars for a gorgeously written, concise novel with an engaging story, dimensional characters, and a fun structure.  While tragic, truly devastating things happen in this novel, on and off the page, the ending holds so much hope for us all.

What is giving you hope recently?

~Nikki 

Signal Fires is the first Dani Shapiro work that I have read, but I’ve been hearing about her from my book buddy for quite a long while, starting when Nikki read Inheritance. Both of these works have won Shapiro a National Jewish Book Award, among other accolades. The author of nine other works of fiction and non-fiction, Shapiro’s works have been translated into fourteen languages and she is currently working on the TV adaptation of Signal Fires. In 2019 she created an original podcast on iHeartRadio entitled Family Secrets. Born in New York City, Shapiro and her family moved to Connecticut in the early 2000’s. Besides writing and podcasting, Shapiro occasionally teaches workshops and retreats, but notably is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.

I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started Signal Fires, but I struggled to put it down. It was an immersive experience into the life-changing, traumatizing events of several families. But, with every trauma experienced, there is a human connection between the survivors and growth for them in the future. It’s in the marketing copy, so I don’t feel spoilery discussing it, but the first tragedy is a horrific car crash into the oak tree at the corner of 18 Division St. It’s 1985 and at the time the Wilf family does not discuss the trauma – and as we Millennial children know, not discussing the trauma allows it to fester inside of us and we can’t heal from it. The hopeful theme is buoyed by each character’s growth and understanding of that very first trauma and how it negatively and positively affected their lives. I specifically appreciated how the car crash forces Sarah into a protective role of Theo, and she allows her ambition to propel her life which she describes as: “the degree from the right school, the string of jobs each more excellent than the last. No one would know that she is only, ever, a few steps away from the abyss.” Do we not all often times feel that same way, hovering over the rift in ourselves, in our family, in our understanding of our own place in the world? Phew, that was one of my favorite lines and yet it wrecked me. 

The very human story and connections made in Signal Fires could not have been made without the Wilf family’s home at 18 Division St in the sleepy town of Aurora. I love how the house and neighborhood became more than just a place, but also a character all its own. It changed and grew with the times and the families that surrounded it, especially the magic oak tree. I, like Nikki, am giving five enthusiastic stars, because of how Shapiro’s writing will live in my head rent free for a while, and make me move her backlist closer up to the top of the TBR.  (Which will disappoint my mother because she’s been trying to get me to read the author she’s currently obsessed with and it’s been a struggle to get those books added with all the new titles and scheduled re-reads…)

~Ashley

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