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

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Welcome to our BIG SUMMER ENERGY!  We already shared here that we’re planning to read our best lives this summer, but today’s title feels like it might be all of my favorite things in one book, and it’s not even out until Tuesday, June 21!  Yes readers, that is a glowing recommendation for Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score right out of the gates thanks to the ARC provided by Forever, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing with the help of NetGalley (all opinions are our own)!  Let’s back up a smidge first.  If your memory is like mine, you may not remember this is actually our second Score title to recommend, as The Price of Scandal was one of our February 2020 reviews.  While Score has independently published more than 30 books, Maggie Moves On is her first title offered by a traditional publisher (aka not That’s What She Said Publishing operated by Mr. Lucy himself, so yes, that’s the vibe here).  Lucy resides in Pennsylvania with Mr. Lucy (which is how she refers to him on the internets and in her acknowledgements) and their adorable cat, Cleo.  

As Maggie Moves On opens, Maggie, a house flipper who capitalizes on her craft by sharing the stories of her homes with her nearly 1M YouTube subscribers, is moving on to a new project.  She’s just finished an amazing beach house and is now in Western Idaho to rehab a dilapidated showplace that’s over a century old.  Enter Silas, the owner of a local landscaping business Maggie’s business partner called for a scope of work and price estimate.  I don’t want to say more about the plot other than this is a steamy, open door romance full of colorful language, snark, and a bit of a mystery.  

Maggie Moves On is another example of what I’ve loved about Score’s other books that I’ve read, the main characters are layered and complex, slowly revealed as the story unfolds and we meet more of their supporting cast and dig deep into the web of relationships.  She writes witty dialogue, real struggles, and pulls the reader into the world of the book, going so far as to dedicate this title to Binge Readers Anonymous – her Facebook Group of fans (yes, we’re both members).  So, yes, I loved reading this FIVE STAR REVIEWED book.  It has great writing, two complex leads, and the rehabbing of a fantastic old home – which I warned my Realtor was bad news bears for me and her – and I *may* have sent her a listing for a rehabbed home of a similar age (and a second during this writing when I looked up the age of the first).  It was also full of big feelings for me because of some of the character development – like you know when you’re crying reading a book because of how seen you feel even though it’s not a particularly tear-jerky sort of scene you’re reading?  Just me?  That’s fine, the point is here are big feels on both the individual and the couple level, and the only thing that makes me sad about this book is that it’s wrapped up with a fairly sizeable bow at the end, leading me to think we’re not likely to get a series spinning off of Maggie Moves On.  If this sounds like a fun read, go preorder or recommend it to your library today!

What’s a book that made you feel seen in unexpected ways?

~Nikki 

Hello, my name is Ashley and I’m Nikki’s Realtor. The things she says about her sending me old houses listed on the interwebz is true. It’s also true I do the same thing to her and we drool and dream and talk about how maybe we should just go into the house flipping business together… and then we realize that’s more capital and time intensive than we can handle right now and gently steer our conversations back to books, where they should stay…for now. You would be hard-pressed to find a real estate agent who has never flipped a house, listed a flipped house for an investor, or represented a buyer who purchased a flipped house. Plus, who doesn’t love a good house flipping show where someone else has to deal with the headache and work and you still feel like you were part of the end result? Well, that’s exactly what Maggie’s YouTube show does for her subscribers.

Now, let me back up a little bit…Maggie Nichols is not the first home renovations specialist that Nikki and I have experienced through the writing of Ms. Lucy Score. In the Bootleg Springs Series co-written by Claire Kingsley, Scarlett Bodine is a contractor, owner, and property manager of lakeside vacation rentals in her tiny West Virginia hometown. I’d call that being a real estate investor with hands-on experience. And then, we have brother and sister duo Gannon and Cat King in the books Mr. Fixer Upper and The Christmas Fix, respectively. Chances are high in another of her 30+ books, she uses real estate as a career path. I’ll find out first hand eventually, as I do intend to read Ms. Score’s entire backlist. I have communicated to Nikki a theory that Lucy and Mr. Lucy possibly do some real estate investing in this manner and so it’s easy for her to write about it. I could be wrong, but I could also be right!

Nikki mentioned above the snark level in Maggie Moves On, and I am especially appreciative of the banter between Maggie and her business partner, Dean. The first highlight I have in the entire book is in chapter one:

“It was originally built by Aaron Campbell for his wife, Ava, allegedly a romantic at heart,” she said, warming to her topic.

“Oh goodie. A lecture.”

“Mr. Campbell’s family owned jewelry stores and a timber operation in the area.”

“Must have been a lot of money in murdering trees,” Dean mused as he tested the first step leading to the porch.

“Actually, Campbell’s money came from the fifteen western novels he wrote.”

He groaned. “I hate it when houses have backstories. It makes you spend more.”

I just love this, because, as you know, darling readers, we do call the items on our bookshelves “deadtree books.” So, there certainly was money in murdering trees for the Campbell’s. My favorite parts of Maggie’s journey in Kinship, Idaho, however, is how she comes to find family while she’s renovating the Campbell’s house and researching their story to bring provenance to the house for the town. Wallace is a grandfatherly figure Maggie meets when he shows up at the house complaining about people destroying perfectly good homes. He’s just trying to protect the Campbell’s legacy to the town as he was an employee at the house when it was an actual museum about the family. The way Maggie and Wallace express their grumpiness is endearing for the readers and frustrating to Silas, Dean, and the rest of their Kinship family. It makes for amazing snarky banter, too!

Oh, dear readers, did you have any other expectation than that Maggie Moves On would be a double FIVE STAR REVIEWED book? Especially because it’s about an old house and we love them?! We didn’t even talk about how it’s a grumpy and sunshine couple, but it’s gender swapped, because Maggie is the cynical, anti-relationship grump and Silas is all-in on her being his future wife from the first moment he sees her. Plus, we’re not saying anything about the underlying mystery that is slowly revealed during the renovations, and that mystery is my jam. Go. Read. This. Book. I’m thinking about buying copies for my mastermind ladies as gifts during our real estate conference next week. And one for my shelf, too!

~Ashley

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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!

Readers, this is going to shock some of you, but nous sommes fini with Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I, yes, both of us, and it’s not even Friday yet!  As such, we are beyond ready to chat with you about it on Friday, June 10, at 7:30pm CST.  In order to not be mentioned by Lady Whistledown, kindly répondez s’il vous plaît ici so we know to expect you, and send you the link on Friday!

Sometimes not remembering things is a whole situation, and other times it just isn’t.  I’m sure I’d read the marketing copy describing Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, but when I just reread it (to ensure I minimize potential spoilers that aren’t in it), I was glad I didn’t remember.  Let’s start with structure this time.  The structure is back and forth in time, as related to conception of the (presumably) titular baby.  While I have been bothered by this in other books (*cough* All the Light We Cannot See), it really works here, likely because it’s either right around conception or it’s backstory and it’s all really clear where we are in the tale based on what pieces of themselves our main characters are sharing with us.  This feels like a great place for trigger warnings, because yes there are several.  There is some violence against the characters, there is an unexpected pregnancy, and discussion of whether or not to abort it, and there are extramarital affairs.  The pregnancy is central to the story, so if reading a book about that isn’t for you, please take care of yourself in your reading life!  

The structure is interesting, but the story is what makes Detransition, Baby so amazing.  Ames works for Katrina, but they’ve been having a casual affair and Katrina becomes with child (yup, that’d be from the back to back regency romances I just read, you’re welcome!) and doesn’t want to raise a child alone.  Ames, who previously lived as Amy, has detransitioned and doesn’t know that he can be a “father” and wants to be a bit more creative about creating their family unit, so he asks his ex, Reese, if she’d also like to help parent this child.  Sound …creative?  Well, yes, yes it is.  This book follows these three potential parents, but mostly Reese and Ames, as they come to grips with what it might mean to be a parent, what they really want, and ultimately, who they are.  Much, but not all is revealed about Reese and Amy back when they were together, and some about why they went their separate ways, and also how Ames ended up with Katrina.  The story is complex, nuanced, and layered, and it includes a lot of references to New York and the transgender community there.  While I do know a few trans people, I wouldn’t say that I know the community, and I found that aspect a very interesting window to look into.  Just as one trans person doesn’t represent them all, one author’s fictional writing on the trans community is just that, one take, but it still presented some new to me perspectives for which I am grateful.

I’m giving Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters four solid stars.  The story is intriguing, the structure made it more fun, and the writing was very solid.  This is a stellar debut and I’m looking forward to seeing what Peters does next.  I don’t know that I’ll reread it, but I definitely will recommend Detransition, Baby to readers interested in the dynamics of trans women, particularly as related to parenting, and the struggles of someone who does not identify with their assigned gender.  If these are not topics of interest to you, please feel welcome to skip this title.  While I have never had such an experience, I was delighted to be invited in by Peters and to read about it on the fictional page. I am so grateful for authors and other teachers who are willing to share with those of us who have different lived experiences and want to understand more.  

What is a book that has enlightened you to a lived experience that is different from your own?

~Nikki 

I love it when a debut novel exceeds expectations. Not only does Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters get four stars from Nikki, it also won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. It was also on national bestseller lists and marked as one of the New York Times notable books of the year. Additional critical success had it being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, a finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Award, and longlisted for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction. This is additionally important because there was negative and very public criticism regarding Peters’ eligibility for the Women’s Prize for Fiction because of her publicly identifying as a trans woman, meaning she was assigned male at birth. Other authors, nominees, and the committee itself made statements condemning the detractors and supporting her and her work. Detransition, Baby has seen such popular acclaim that previously published novellas are being re-released in a new collection by Random House in 2023. Peters has an MFA from the University of Iowa and a MA in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College. She rides a pink motorcycle (I am ridiculously jealous of her for that!) and lives in Brooklyn… and an off-grid cabin in Vermont.

Now, I don’t want you to begin to think that this debut novel only met expectations for me, when it most certainly exceeded them. I have feelings of excitement over many of the same things Nikki does, the writing, the characterizations, the structure (every chapter is given in time increments from conception, going either forward or backward), the difficult themes and real human emotion brought to the page and straight into your heart. The real heart of Detransition, Baby, and really any work of fiction, are the intimacies and intricacies of human relationships. Not only do we get the different and difficult family relationship of Reese, Ames, and Katrina, but some of the defining relationships for each of them before the possibility of their collective parenthood. Not just romantic relationships, but friendships and cohabitation relationships. Reese’s friend and roommate Iris is honest and unapologetic about her life and the lives of those she comes into contact with, someone might call that judgemental, and you’d probably be right. 

One of my favorite passages is this paragraph from page 9. And maybe it’s because I just finished a first time watch of Sex and the City from season one episode one, through two movies, and the entire first season of the new continuation series And Just Like That, but it feels like a truth of womanhood in my heart.

The Sex and the City Problem wasn’t just Reese’s problem, it was a problem for all women. But unlike millions of cis women before Reese, no generation of trans women had ever solved it. The problem could be described thusly: When a woman begins to notice herself aging, the prospect of making some meaning out of her life grows more and more urgent. A need to save herself, or be saved, as the joys of beauty and youth repeat themselves to lesser and lesser effect. But in finding meaning, Reese would argue—despite the changes wrought by feminism—women still found themselves with only four major options to save themselves, options represented by the story arcs of the four female characters of Sex and the City. Find a partner, and be a Charlotte. Have a career, and be a Samantha. Have a baby, and be a Miranda. Or finally, express oneself in art or writing, and be a Carrie. Every generation of women reinvented this formula over and over, Reese believed, blending it and twisting it, but never quite escaping it.

There’s really no other thing that I can say other than I have felt I needed to become all of those story arcs at some time or other in my 37 years on this planet. Probably all in the past year alone. And that’s what Peters has done in this four star book for me. Made every character’s decision or feelings relatable in a way that it could have just been a piece of me she wrote about. That’s the power of story and how it makes us feel empathy and connection to other people, who might not physically be just like us. They’re certainly all emotionally just like us, and we would do well to remember that.

What are you reading this June to celebrate Pride Month?

~Ashley

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