Review of Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Wundersmith

The Calling of Morrigan Crow

by Jessica Townsend
read by Gemma Whelan

Hachette Audio (Little, Brown), 2018. 12 hours on 10 CDs.
Starred Review
Review written November 6, 2019, from a library audiobook

First, how did this review get buried so long in my unposted drafts? I’m not sure, but here, at last, it is.

Wundersmith is the sequel to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, or I should say the second book in the series, because the story isn’t finished yet.

All her life, Morrigan Crow has been told she was cursed, and any misfortune that happened to anyone around her was blamed on her. In the first book, she learned that she’s actually a Wundersmith – an amazing gift with the ability to manipulate Wunder, and she’s brought to Nevermoor, a magical place that folks on the outside don’t even know about, and she competes to become part of the Wundrous Society.

In the second book, she’s officially part of the Wundrous Society and ready to begin her classes with the eight other members of her unit. They’re supposed to be like her new brothers and sisters.

But things don’t go like the reader expects. Suppose in the Harry Potter books that Voldemort had a particular powerful gift and was still in power outside Hogwarts. And then suppose Harry was the first wizard to have that exact same gift in one hundred years. Would people be willing to actually train him in his gift?

That’s the situation for Morrigan Crow. The “most evil man who ever lived” was a Wundersmith, and he has been banished from Nevermoor and his name is mentioned to frighten children. Morrigan is the first person to have this gift in a hundred years, and no one in the Wundrous Society wants to teach her “the wretched arts” that a Wundersmith uses.

The only class she’s assigned is a history of Wundersmiths, taught by an instructor who goes over and over how evil or stupid every single Wundersmith has been.

Meanwhile, her unit is told that if they tell anyone that Morrigan is a Wundersmith, they will all be expelled from the Wundrous Society. But someone starts blackmailing them, one by one, or the secret will be revealed. Do they care enough about Morrigan to keep her secret?

At the same time, various people and creatures start going missing. Is Morrigan to blame? Her patron, Jupiter North, is spending all his time working on the problem – so he’s not around for Morrigan to confide in.

The situations all work to a dramatic finish, but with hints of more problems to come.

This book is delightful, and I especially enjoyed listening to it, the narrator’s accent adding to my enjoyment. Jessica Townsend has a vivid imagination, throwing fun tidbits into the story – tricksy lanes that do strange things to you as you walk into them, a smoking room that generates different flavors of smoke, a building made of water, and so much more. I didn’t want to think too hard about how some of the things would actually work, but they were great fun to read about.

Now, there were many places in this book where, like the Harry Potter books, I firmly wished they would just tell a teacher! As with those, various motivations were given for why they didn’t, and it did all work out in the end. There was also a huge coincidence that Morrigan ended up stumbling on something that ended up being a major plot point, but all things taken together, it didn’t ruin the book.

So if you want to read another saga set in an imaginative, magical world, where a young magic user must learn how to use her power to fight evil, in the company of loyal friends – look no further! This series would also make great family listening. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

HachetteAudio.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/wundersmith.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Nobody’s Girl, by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Audiobooks, Biography, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Nobody’s Girl

A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice

by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
read by Thérèse Plummer and Gabra Zackman

Books on Tape, 2025. 13 hours, 40 minutes.
Review written January 5, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This one was tough to listen to. I decided I wanted to hear it for myself from Virginia’s perspective, and I think I was glad I did – despite gaining some mental images I don’t want to think about.

Knowing that Virginia ended up committing suicide made it all the harder to listen to. On top of that, the book began with her writing collaborator telling us that Virginia strongly indicated that she wanted her book published, but also that Virginia’s marriage was much rockier than she paints in this memoir. I so wanted this girl to get a happy ending! But she ended up living with lots of pain for unrelated reasons (broke her neck after having encephalitis!) – and that makes her story all the harder to hear.

But something Virginia was absolutely firm about – even in emails not long before her death – was she wanted to stand up to powerful people and stop them hurting more young girls. She wanted to help other survivors find their voices.

Her story was the one we’ve heard about – she was essentially a sex slave to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell from age 16 to age 19. And after she was starting to recover, she devoted her life to bringing the powerful to account. With the money she got from Prince Andrew’s settlement, she established a nonprofit, SOAR – Speak Out, Act, Reclaim, for survivors of sex trafficking to reclaim their stories.

Even though the first half or so of the book – while she was still being trafficked – was awful to listen to, I’m glad I heard her story from Virginia’s perspective. That way I won’t imagine that she had any choice in the things she did, even though she wasn’t in chains. I’ve got a new understanding of what “grooming” entails. Since Ghislaine Maxwell was there from the start, 16-year-old Virginia thought what they were asking must be okay. After all, this woman was there joining in. When she started to get up the courage to stop doing what they asked, they showed her a photo of her much-loved little brother at his school – making clear that if she disobeyed or told anyone, they’d do something terrible to him.

Almost more tragic than her time with Epstein was the sexual abuse she got from her father from as young as 8 years old – and that he gave her to one of his friends to do the same. And then she found others who preyed on her as a teenage runaway after time at an abusive camp for troubled teens. So when Epstein and Maxwell started abusing and trafficking her, she almost didn’t know what normal was.

And these were powerful, wealthy people. Virginia doesn’t name some of them – making it clear later in the book that she was afraid what would happen to her family if she did. But so many of the men were never brought to account. (Virginia speaks about the need to remove statutes of limitations for crimes of child sex trafficking, because it takes time for survivors to recover enough to deal with what happened to them.)

On top of that, Epstein was not only interested in sex – he was also interested in power. So the people he brought to his conferences and events weren’t necessarily involved with the sex trafficking. Though Virginia’s pretty clear that anyone who came to his house couldn’t help but notice the naked pictures and naked girls and have strong clues that something was going on.

So this isn’t a book to find out who is or is not guilty. She goes into detail about Prince Andrew, since she had a famous court case with him. She also makes it clear that Ghislaine Maxwell was very much Jeffrey Epstein’s collaborator and coordinator. And her presence was what enticed so many young girls into their clutches. But most of the others to whom she was trafficked aren’t named in the book for the protection of her family. And it’s not clear how many of the other public figures who are named committed sex crimes, and which were there simply because of Epstein’s front as a power broker.

It was finally when Maxwell and Epstein asked her to have Jeffrey Epstein’s baby that Virginia determined to find a way to escape. The thought of her unborn child being controlled by those two evil people was too much for her, even though she had never learned to value her own safety that much.

In the end, I’m glad I listened to the book. I’m proud of Virginia Guiffre for finding her voice and telling her story. I hope it will give hope to other victims of sex trafficking to know they are not alone and help them find their voices. I hope it will deepen the resolve of the nation to bring justice to people who prey on children. I hope it will make powerful people think twice about using and throwing away people they don’t think have power. And I hope it will silence anyone who thinks that a 16- or 17-year-old is anything but a victim when they are used sexually this way. I also hope that Ghislaine Maxwell will go back to a regular prison for her crimes. And that the Epstein files will finally be released to the public to bring the evil out into the light and more powerful people brought to account.

So, yes, I do recommend this book. But be warned that the topic is important but not at all pleasant.

speakoutactreclaim.org

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/nobodys_girl.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat

by Syou Ishida
translated by E. Madison Shimoda
read by Naruto Komatsu and Natsumi Kuroda

Books on Tape, 2024. 7 hours, 8 minutes.
Review written January 2, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

There seems to be a new genre of books being written in Japan: A quirky place where people from disparate lives go to receive something that changes their lives. It’s a charming and lovely genre, but since this is the third such book I’ve read in three months, I think I need a break from them to more fully appreciate the charm.

The first such book I read, at the recommendation of my friend Suzanne, who subscribes to Book Talking with Sondy, was What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama. I was utterly charmed. So when the reviews on Libby said that it was similar to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I put that one on hold. Then my sister Wendy, who has lived in Japan in the past, told me she was reading What You Are Looking for Is in the Library and loving it – and that it reminded her of the book We’ll Subscribe You a Cat. So I immediately put this book on hold. I indeed enjoyed it very much – but do feel I need a break from this genre for a bit.

This one has a stronger paranormal element than the other two, even the time-traveling Before the Coffee Gets Cold. There’s a “Clinic for the Soul” in part of Kyoto that people can only find if they’re specifically looking for it (and sometimes not even then). It’s run by one doctor and one unfriendly nurse. And after the doctor listens to the patient’s troubles, he prescribes them a cat. He writes a prescription and they take it to the reception desk and get a cat in a carrier, and some gear and food to care for the cat for a specific number of days.

The book is about several people with very different lives who come to the clinic and whose lives are transformed by the cat they are prescribed.

I still like the book featuring a library the best of the books in this genre. Perhaps I was a bit defensive, because I no way no how want to adopt a cat myself. And rolled my eyes a little at how easily a spouse’s cat allergy was resolved with medication. But other than that, it was another delightful and charming book. I think cat lovers will love it as much as I loved the book about the mystical library.

There were some surprises – like the way the man who had trouble with insomnia and bad dreams about his new supervisor was cured by the cat keeping him up all night. None of the cat cures was completely predictable, in fact. And the different ways the prescriptions play out makes for interesting storytelling.

As with the other books mentioned here, this is a feel-good story that will certainly leave you with some smiles.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/well_prescribe_you_a_cat.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of Kareem Between, by Shifa Saltagi Safadi, read by Peter Romano

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Kareem Between

by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
read by Peter Romano

Listening Library, 2024. 3 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written February 15, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner
2024 CYBILS Award Winner, Novels in Verse
2025 Capitol Choices Selection

Kareem Between is about a child of immigrants born in America who loves football and wants to play on his middle school team. But when his best friend moves away on the day of tryouts, he doesn’t do his best and doesn’t make the team.

So when the coach’s son – who did make the team – promises to put in a word with his dad if Kareem will do his homework, Kareem thinks it’s probably worth it just this once. But it turns out that it becomes an expectation.

Now, I’m too much of a rule-follower to have a lot of sympathy for Kareem as he dug himself into a deeper and deeper hole. But then his mother goes to Syria to try to bring her ailing parents back with her to America. His doctor father can’t go, because any Syrian man will be conscripted into the army during war time. It’s the start of 2017, and I remembered what a bad time that was to travel to Syria.

Meanwhile, with his mother gone leaving the whole family on edge, a Syrian refugee family has moved to their neighborhood with a boy Kareem’s age named Fadi, and Kareem is asked to help him at school. But when the coach’s kid starts bullying Fadi, Kareem doesn’t want to get caught in that negative attention.

Well, thankfully Kareem does finally get pushed to the edge and figures out he needs to try to make things right. But as that is happening, Trump’s Muslim ban goes into effect, causing great pain and heartache, and they can’t even reach Kareem’s mother in Syria.

This book is far too timely right now, putting a face and heart to a story of a child of immigrants feeling in between both cultures – and being part of what truly makes America great.

shifasafadi.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/kareem_between.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Historical, Old Favorites, Starred Review 0

The Joy Luck Club

by Amy Tan
read by Gwendoline Yeo

Phoenix Books, 2008. 9 hours, 5 minutes. Original book published in 1989.
Review written December 1, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’m going to go ahead and call this an Old Favorite, though I only read it once before – sometime before I started writing Sonderbooks in 2001. I remember that we watched the movie based on the book when my second was a baby – and felt like it should have a warning label because a baby dies in the movie. I revisited the book because my friend Suzanne mentioned it when she signed up for Book Talking with Sondy. I then discovered that my library has an eaudiobook version available and put a hold on it.

The book is wonderful. It features four Chinese women who immigrated to America and their four American daughters. The women met monthly for a Joy Luck Club where they played Mahjongg, but now one of them has recently passed away, and her daughter has been invited to join the game. And the women in the club have a surprise for the daughter – they have found her long lost twin sisters, and have gotten her tickets to China to meet them, fulfilling her mother’s dearest wish.

The rest of the book gives us stories – stories of the mothers, and stories of the daughters. We eventually learn how the twin babies were lost so long ago during war time. We see how the mothers and daughters lived very different lives and don’t fully understand each other. We see that the daughters have more in common with each other than they ever realize.

The reader did a fine job of consistently giving the characters in this book their own unique voices – but I had trouble in the audio version keeping track of whose story I was hearing and which daughter went with which mother. Unfortunately, the part of the chapter heading that showed in Libby did not include the character’s name, and I listened to this while driving to a new place, and missed some crucial details. I did remember how it worked from having read it before, so I feel like I still appreciated the book.

And this remains a classic novel about mothers and daughters and the experience of being an immigrant. With each character having different experiences in their journeys, literal and figurative, it shows how every immigrant’s experience is unique – yet gives us a window on what the challenges they face, which even their own children may not fully understand.

amytan.net

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/joy_luck_club.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of The Teacher of Nomad Land, by Daniel Nayeri

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Teacher of Nomad Land

A World War II Story

by Daniel Nayeri
read by Daniel Nayeri

Listening Library, 2025. 3 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written December 12, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner

Ahhhh. The Teacher of Nomad Land is my favorite Daniel Nayeri book so far. And he’s already won the Printz Award and Newbery Honor. Traditionally, it usually turns out that the winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature does not win the Newbery Medal. Will this year break the pattern?

But about the book. As the subtitle indicates, this is a World War II story, and it’s set in Iran. Iran wasn’t the main stage in World War II and was officially neutral – but that made it a place where people from all over the world could meet one another – with lots of room for misunderstandings.

Our story begins in Isfahan when Babak’s father has recently been killed by the Russian army. His father had been visiting the nomads in their summer home, teaching their children, and the army fired at them, thinking they were insurgents. Babak promises his little sister Sanna that even though they are orphans, he won’t let them be split up, but their relatives don’t give them any choice.

So Babak works as an errand boy for a year, trying to save money to take Sanna away with him so they can be together. They will ask the nomads to take them in before they leave for their winter home.

After a year of saving, the money doesn’t work out, but Babak and Sanna set out anyway. Babak brings along his father’s blackboard, rigged with leather straps to carry on his back. He offers to teach the nomads’ children and tries to be as good a teacher as his father was, but his first attempt isn’t enough for the chief of the nomads.

But then the adventure really begins. As Babak and Sanna try to find their way back to Isfahan, staying together no matter what, they encounter a ruthless Nazi spy who takes all their food. Later, they meet the Jewish refugee boy from Poland that the German is looking for. Together, they try to make their way to somewhere safe, but there’s lots of misunderstanding along the way, not to mention the need for food and water.

The most brilliant scene of all is when Babak figures out how to facilitate communication between the nomads, British soldiers, and Russian soldiers – using I think it was five different languages.

Along the way, Babak learns to emulate his father and think like a teacher, gleaning plenty of wisdom as he does so.

I also love that the book isn’t overindulgent in its length, despite the heavy topic of war time – under four hours in an audiobook! – just right for a children’s book. Yes, it’s about war time, so there are dangerous and scary situations, but the kids at the center of it come through brilliantly.

danielnayeri.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/teacher_of_nomad_land.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of Not for the Faint of Heart, by Lex Croucher

Alternate History, Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Not for the Faint of Heart

by Lex Croucher
read by Kit Griffiths and Olivia Dowd

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2024. 11 hours, 36 minutes.
Review written June 26, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Not for the Faint of Heart had the look of the author’s other book, Gwen and Art Are Not in Love, so I was pretty sure I’d enjoy it. And sure enough, I was right about all of that.

Both books are set in alternate universes, dealing with descendants of legends. In Gwen and Art it was descendants of King Arthur, and in Not for the Faint of Heart, we’ve got grandchildren of Robin Hood and his Merry Men. In both books, the world has been altered to be LGBTQ-friendly in the medieval context, with plenty of LGBTQ characters and relationships. And both books are light-hearted and a whole lot of fun – with some serious thought thrown in, of course.

The book begins when Clem, a teenage girl who’s an apprentice healer, gets herself kidnapped by the Merry Men in place of her older mentor, who would have trouble with camping in the forest.

But the band of Merry Men isn’t like the heroes Clem has heard legends about. For one thing, they’re not all men, and they’re more militaristic than the folks from the tales. The band that took her away is led by Mariel Hood-Hartley, the granddaughter of Robin Hood, and daughter of Robin Hood’s son-in-law, Jack Hartley, the current commander of the Merry Men, and the one who insists on militaristic order. They’ve kidnapped Clem because she and her mentor have worked as healers on the Sheriff’s men, and they want to set an example. Clem is firm that if someone needs a healer, she will step up.

Mariel is our other viewpoint character. She is trying to please her father and earn her captaincy, but she can never seem to do so. When the larger group is ambushed on their secret forest paths and leaders are captured by the Sheriff, they’re sure that someone has betrayed them. But Mariel disagrees with the other captains about who’s responsible, and sees this as a chance to prove herself to her father.

Of course, we’re not surprised when the two viewpoint characters are attracted to each other. There’s romance and misunderstandings – all in the context of thinking about what is the true mission of the Merry Men and are they really fighting for the people of the wood? And plenty of fighting and plotting along the way.

Yes, there are some casualties of the fighting, but the book is mainly a light-hearted romp through a world that might have been, with romance and thoughts about how to do good in the world – and it leaves you feeling good.

lexcroucher.co.uk

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/not_for_the_faint_of_heart.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of Swordheart, by T. Kingfisher

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Swordheart

by T. Kingfisher
read by Jesse Vilinsky

Tantor Media, 2021. 14 hours, 32 minutes.
Review written December 9, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Here’s a fantasy tale with a self-described middle-aged widow as the main character! That alone would have made the book delightful. (She turned out to be in her late thirties, but still.)

As the book opens, Halla has been locked in her room by her dead husband’s relatives until she’ll agree to marry a cousin with clammy hands. This is all the fault of great-uncle Silas, the only one who’d been willing to take her in after her husband died. After years of caring for Silas, when he died, he left all his money to Halla. Now the relatives insist that she marry the cousin to keep the money in the family.

Locked in her room, Halla realizes that if she kills herself, the money will stay out of their hands and go to her nieces and give them nice dowries. But how does one, in fact, kill oneself? Well, Silas collected artifacts, and there’s long been an old sword hanging on her wall.

But when Halla unsheathes the sword, a warrior appears. His name is Sarkis, and he was bound to the sword over 400 years before. But he’s never had a wielder quite like Halla.

After breaking Halla out of her own home, they go on a quest to get help from the temple of the Rat God, whose priests are sworn to help people in legal trouble. But the journey, both there and back, is full of obstacles and unexpected challenges. And it’s no surprise to the reader that Halla and Sarkis begin to have feelings for each other.

This book was delightful all along the way. Halla is a wonderful character, full of curiosity and always asking questions, sometimes as a way to disarm people who would otherwise be threats. Sarkis, quite naturally, is used to solving problems by cutting off heads or burning down villages. He’s voiced with what I think is a Scottish accent (might be Irish?), and his perplexity with Halla is great fun to experience. And a strong reason I’m recommending the audiobook as a wonderful way to experience this novel.

The priest of the Rat God who travels back with them is a nonbinary person, and it was refreshing how everyone in that medieval fantasy world uses they/them pronouns without batting an eye.

Some of the obstacles they encountered made the story feel a bit circuitous, but in the end I was happier to have that much more time in this world. Although I’m coming to the book four years after publication, I see that a sequel is expected in August 2026, so I feel like I’m right on time.

redwombatstudio.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/swordheart.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris, by Evie Woods

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Romance, Starred Review 0

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris

by Evie Woods
read by Breffni Holahan

One More Chapter, 2025. 8 hours, 30 minutes.
Review written December 1, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Here’s a lovely feel-good romance – with the special touch that it’s set in Paris! Except, wait a minute, it’s not set in Paris. I made the same mistake the protagonist Edie made when she answered an ad to work in a Boulangerie on Rue de Paris and thought of course it’s in Paris – but no, it’s on Paris Street (the “Rue de Paris” – of course!) in Compiègne, a town an hour away from Paris. Okay, but it is true that Edie is from Ireland, and the narrator reads with an Irish accent.

Edie’s mother recently died, and she spent her first decade as a young adult mostly caring for her mother during her long illness, so now in her thirties, Edie is at loose ends, and couldn’t resist the chance to go to Paris – or so she thought.

The owner of the bakery where she’s working is secretive and gruff, and Evie’s not sure she can do the job. But over time, and with a bit of a magic ingredient, Evie makes some friends, including a handsome man who’s a bit mysterious himself.

The story feels a little bit predictable, but the journey there is delightful. Yes, the small business is in danger of going under. Yes, there’s conflict with the handsome young man. No, they don’t tell each other everything when they first meet.

There’s also a small paranormal element to the book, plus rich historical detail – I didn’t realize that Compiègne was an important historical site in both World War I and World War II. We learn this via one of the bakery customers who speaks English and leads tours, and we’re as interested as Evie. But the bakery itself also has an important history during World War II.

And that’s all I should say, to give you a little bit of surprise. Yes, it’s predictable, but the story is sweet, and can fulfill a vicarious dream of running off not to Paris, but at least to France and finding love and purpose and joy.

eviewoods.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/mysterious_bakery_on_rue_de_paris.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

Review of When We Ride, by Rex Ogle, read by Ramón de Ocampo

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

When We Ride

by Rex Ogle
read by Ramón de Ocampo

Recorded Books, 2025. 3 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written July 11, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve come to know and love Rex Ogle’s writing from his award-winning memoirs about growing up in poverty and his recent Printz Honor book about being homeless as a teen after he came out as gay.

When We Ride is equally heartrending. This time a novel in verse. Fair warning: Like the others, it’s not exactly pleasant reading. But the novel is worse than the memoirs because now we have absolutely no guarantee the main character will get through it and come out okay. And here’s a heads’ up without being too spoilerish: The ending does not at all leave me feeling happy.

However, reading this short novel will build your empathy. I heard the author speak at ALA Annual Conference, and he said he wrote it in verse to give it lots of white space, since that’s the only kind of book his best friend from high school would ever read.

And the book is about two best friends in their senior year of high school. They live across the street from each other, and they’ve been friends since elementary school, so close they call each other Brother. Benny is the one telling the story. He’s working hard to go to college and get funds to pay for it. His mother is a drug addict who’s gotten clean, and she wants nothing more than for Benny to make a success of himself. And be nothing like her. She gave Benny her own car and rides the bus to her two jobs. And she works hard to provide for Benny, who also works at a diner in a job he hates, but works to help out his Mom.

Benny’s best friend Lawson, though, has taken another route to make ends meet. He’s dealing drugs. It starts as only weed, but things progress over the course of the year. Lawson doesn’t have a car, and most of the poems in this book begin with Lawson calling and saying, “I need a ride.”

Since Benny is Hispanic, it’s all too easy for him to imagine being pulled over by cops when Lawson is carrying drugs and Benny’s entire future being ruined. Lawson tells him if Benny doesn’t know he has drugs, there will be no problem. And as his brother, isn’t he supposed to be there when Lawson needs him? So Benny goes back and forth with guilt and anger and fear.

All the adults in Benny’s life tell him that Lawson is bad news and he needs to stop spending any time with him. But the reader (or listener) comes to understand how deep that tie of brotherhood runs and to see the great things about Lawson that keep Benny’s loyalty. But none of that makes Lawson’s path any safer.

This book is short, but hard-hitting. These characters will live in my head for a long time. It made me care about someone I would have otherwise dismissed – helping me understand more deeply my own belief that all people are made in the image of God. Yes, even drug dealers. When you know someone’s story, it’s so much easier to see their humanity.

rexogle.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/when_we_ride.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?