41. The Wedding People by Alison Espach

listened on Libby

367 pgs.

2024
Adult Romance
Finished 9/6/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.08
My rating:   4
Setting:  Contemporary Newport, RI

Goodreads synopsis:  It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

2. In a Jam by Kate Canterbary

listened on Audible (also on Kindle, but only read a small portion)

2022
480 pgs.
Steamy Rom Com
Finished 1/7/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.99
My rating: 4 

My comments: Set in contemporary Rhode Island in a small town on the coast, with a charming (though not entirely unexpected) plot with great characters - especially the 6-year-old niece that pretends she's a pirate and swears like one, too.  It didn't get steamy until at least a third of the way through, maybe even further, but is certainly did get steamy!  Told back and forth by the two protagonists, the voice of the male was particularly enjoyable.....

Goodreads synopsis:  When Shay Zucconi’s step-grandmother died, she left Shay a tulip farm—under two conditions.

     First, Shay has to move home to the small town of Friendship, Rhode Island. Second—and most problematic since her fiancé just called off the wedding—Shay must be married within one year.

     Marriage is the last thing in the world Shay wants but she’ll do anything to save the only real home she’s ever known.

     Noah Barden loved Shay Zucconi back in high school. Not that he ever told her. He was too shy, too awkward, too painfully uncool to ask out the beautiful, popular girl.

     A lifetime later, Noah is a single dad to his niece and has his hands full running the family business. That old crush is the farthest thing from his mind.

     Until Shay returns to their hometown.

CW/TW: absentee parent(s), brief mention of parent death, brief mention of parent chronic illness, mention of incarceration, mention of temporary foster care placement, reference to teenage teasing/bullying (not detailed, not explicit), brief incidence of fat-shaming, living with a neurodivergent child

69. Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

listened on Audio, borrowed from CCLS
read by Phoebe Strole (beautifully!)
Unabridged audio (8:47)
2018 Listening Library, (Delacorte Press)
328 pgs.
YA Mystery/Fantasy
Finished 7/27/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.79 - 9103 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Rhode Island

First line/s:  "I hadn't spoken to Whitley Lansing -- or any of them -- in over a year."

My comments:  Just when I thought it was getting a bit too repetitious (a huge part of the story, actually), Pessl would change it up.  So many surprises that I didn't see coming!  Superlative storytelling with an interesting cast of characters, none of whom are particularly likable....  Strong setting in Rhode Island, at a rich mansion and a snazzy private school, everything works together really well and leaves you with all sorts of delicious questions, questions that you have to come to terms with within yourself.  Really cool read!

Goodreads synopsis:  Once upon a time, back at Darrow-Harker School, Beatrice Hartley and her five best friends were the cool kids, the beautiful ones. Then the shocking death of Jim - their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend - changed everything.
          One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft - the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world - hoping she'll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim's death.
          But as the night plays out in a haze of stilted jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she's never going to know what really happened. 
          Then a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them has become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions. 
          Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers... and at life.

Postcards from Rhode Island

749.  Rhode Island

Hi Chris!  My name is Aisha.  Some things I really enjoy are:  reading, vintage items, drawing, collecting postcards, playing sports.  I hope you are having a great day!  Here in Rhode Island the weather is quite nice.

The Bravest Woman in America – Marissa Moss

Illustrated by Andrea U’Ren

Tricycle Press, 2011

32 pages

Rating:  4

Endpapers:  azure

Title page:  Oval of Ida rowing

Illustrations:  cover the entire page – no white – they’re bright, detailed, wonderful.

Alliteration:  “Ida loved the sea.  She loved it when it was calm and coppery in the sunlight.”

Similes:  “She loved it when it was wild with froth like a herd of stampeding horses.”

Incredible description:  “She loved the crash of the waves, the screech of gulls wheeling overhead, the bite of salt in her nose as she breathed in the ocean air.”

Snazzy verbs:  perched, lurched, shinnied, churned

Metaphor:  “bubble of trimph

This picture book is based on the story of Ida Lewis (1842-1911), the Newport, Rhode Island lighthouse keeper who rescued over 18 people during her tenure.