Weekly Mews: Bookish Mewsings on The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan/Thoughts on Recent Audiobook Reads/January's TBR Winner

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz  where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.

I am linking up Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently.  

Hello again! It was a difficult week at work and the weekend couldn't get here fast enough. Can you believe we have nothing planned for this weekend? It's a blank slate. The best kind. I have finally started taking down the Christmas decorations. I may or may not get the tree down this weekend though. Mouse headed back to school this past week after her winter break, and so we are back into her regular routine. What have you been up to this weekend? 

This week I finished reading The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan and Ceremony in Death (#5) by J.D. Robb. See below for my thoughts on both. 

I am still enjoying my bedtime reading, Kim Harrison's The Witch With No Name, the 13th book in the Hollows series. It feels like I have been reading this one forever, but I have been saving it to savor before bed each night, and sometimes I am just too tired to read much of it at all. You know. That kind of tired where you try to keep your eyelids open but they fail to stay open no matter how hard I try--and believe me, I try! It's an intense book!

I recently started Hammers and Homicide, the first in a new cozy mystery series by Paula Charles, featuring an older widowed protagonist who owns a hardware store. I liked it right from the start. 

What are you reading now? 

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Thank you to everyone who voted in my  January TBR poll! I am excited about reading all three from my TBR List poll, but which one will I be reading this month? Let's find out! 

Coming in with four (4) votes, is The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi received twelve (12) votes. Winning with seventeen (17) votes is Legends & Lattes (#1) by Travis Baldree, which will be my next read. Thank you again to everyone who voted!  

My TBR List is hosted by the awesome Michelle  at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Saturday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and let you vote for my next read during that month. My review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

Teenage boys had begun to disappear. ~ Opening of The Storm We Made

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan

S&S/Marysue Rucci Books, 2024

Fiction/Historical; 350 pgs

Source: Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own. 

The Storm We Made is a heartbreaking and poignant novel about the Japanese occupation of Malaya during World War II. Cecily is taken in by General Fuijwara's charm, his talk of an "Asia for Asians" and the liberation of Malaya from British colonialism. Cecily has long felt discontented with her life, and working with Fuijwara awakens something inside her that gives her a sense of purpose. She thinks nothing of spying for him, believing the outcome will prove worth it in the end. 

The ousting of the British by the Japanese did not bring the rewards Cecily hoped for. If anything, it brought with it more suffering, fear, and violence. Cecily's guilt weighs heavily on her and only grows when her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, disappears. The family fears for the youngest daughter, Jasmin, dressing her in boys' clothes and locking her in the basement during the day for her own safety. Cecily is barely able to hold it together, and much of the household responsibilities fall on her daughter, Jujube, when Jujube is not working at the teahouse fiending off drunken Japanese soldiers. 

The strength of the novel is in the characters who are all fully developed, flaws and all. The Storm We Made follows four different characters and spans over a decade of time, from British occupied Malaya to Japanese occupied Malaya. While I did not warm to Cecily as much as I might have liked, I could understand where she was coming from and why she made the choices she made. She wanted more from life, more as a woman, and more for her family. Reading the novel, I could feel her guilt and self-blame. It felt so raw. My heart broke for all three of Cecily's children and what they suffered. I loved Jujube for her strong will and fortitude, but I also really felt for her. She takes so much on her shoulders over the course of the novel, and has to endure abuses at work and still maintain a facade, stuffing down her anger, fear and sadness. Then there is Abel, once so full of life, whose spirit is destroyed over and over due to the brutality he endures. The youngest, Jasmin, is so innocent, the joy of the family, who longs for freedom to come and go as she pleases.

It was hard to find the hope in such bleak circumstances, and yet it was there now and then, glimmers of light in the form of family bonds, friendship and connection. I often found myself cursing humanity for our cruelty and lack of compassion for others as I read the pages of The Storm We Made. People are monsters. But then reading about how Abel and Freddie were there for each other, Takahashi's occasional small acts of kindness toward Jujube, and the joy that Jasmin and Yuki found in their friendship would remind me that kindness can exist, even in the darkest of times.

The Storm We Made was not an easy read in terms of subject matter and had me in tears throughout, and more so by the end. I will not soon forger this novel or its characters. 

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New York Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas is tenacious, strong-willed and extremely independent, and by her side is the filthy rich self-made businessman love of her life, Roarke. The two are quite the pair. He is extremely protective (but respectfully so) and she doesn't always take that very well. Eve is surrounded by competent and loyal friends and colleagues who are just as skilled at their jobs and she is. Peabody is one of my favorite characters, aside from Eve and Roarke. 

I am coming into the In Death series later than most, and have (very) slowly been making my way through the series. In December I was able to fit in two J.D. Robb novels, Immortal in Death and Rapture in Death, and this month I listened to Ceremony in Death. It is a fun series with a good mix of suspense and romance. Given the 2058 setting with some of the scientific advancements in the book there is a bit of science fiction added in too.  I enjoy Susan Ericksen's reading of the books. She is the voice of Eve and Roarke for me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Immortal in Death (#3) by J.D. Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen (Brilliance Audio, 1996; Mystery/Suspense/Thriller/SciFi/Romance) 

Getting married was murder. ~ Opening of Immortal in Death

Immortal in Death takes Lieutenant Eve Dallas deep into the high fashion industry in search of a killer who took the life of a top model. With her best friend as the prime suspect, Eve will stop at nothing to get to the truth. I enjoyed getting to know Mavis a little better in Immortal in Death. The whodunit came as no surprise, but it was still fun to see Eve and her team connect all the dots and figure it out. There was spice and plenty of suspenseful action scenes to keep me listening.  

Rapture in Death (#4) by J.D. Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen (Brilliance Audio, 1996; Mystery/Suspense/Thriller/SciFi/Romance) 

The alley was dark and stank of piss and vomit. ~ Opening of Rapture in Death

Suicide or murder? Lieutenant Eve Dallas suspects the recent suicide of three prominent people who seemingly go happily to their deaths are not what they seem, and the small burns on a couple of the brains confirm her suspicions. Eve and her team are on the trail of a dangerous killer--trying to find out who is behind the murders and exactly how the killer strikes. 

Leave it to Eve to make work for herself on her honeymoon. In Rapture in Death, there is more focus on Eve's childhood, which we already know was an abusive one. J.D. Robb pulls no punches in describing the horribleness of it all. It's all the more clear why Eve is the way she is and why she doesn't trust so easily. There was one scene involving Roarke that had me cringing in particular, especially given Eve's past--when he gives her a tranquilizer without her consent. Yes, she really needed the rest, but it doesn't make it okay. I guessed the who from the moment of introduction, which seems to be a given with this series. Still, it was an enjoyable read overall. 

Ceremony in Death (#5) by J.D. Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen (Brilliance Audio, 1997; Mystery/Suspense/Thriller/SciFi/Romance) 

Death Surrounded her. ~ Opening of Ceremony in Death

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is assigned to investigate the death of a fellow police officer. Her investigation leads her into the world of Wiccans and Satanists and the stakes have never been higher for Eve. I enjoyed Ceremony in Death a little less than I have the others, but I still enjoyed it. It was action packed with some spice interspersed here and there. I really don't want to like Roarke as much as I do sometimes, but he certainly is charming and good for Eve. Considering how much trouble she finds herself in, it's good he's around to help. 

Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think?

New to my shelves:

Recent e-additions to TBR:

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis (gift card purchase)

Babel by R.F. Kuang (gift card purchase)

Lies and Other Love Languages by Sonali Dev (gift card purchase)

Dead Before Dinner (Maddie Swallows #1) by Kat Bellemore (free)

Dead Upon Arrival (Maddie Swallows #2) by Kat Bellemore (free)

My latest TBR additions:

Above Ground: Poems by Clint Smith

The Fragile Threads of Power (#1) by V.E. Schwab (gift card purchase)

Galatea by Madeline Miller (gift card purchase)

Mouse's latest additions to her TBR:

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Blood Debts (#1) by Terry Benton-Walker

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

What new books made it onto your shelf recently? 

 I hope you have a great week ! Let me know what you have been reading!

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