1st Light - Dawn Reads and Reviews

My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan My rating: 4 of 5 stars 🌅 From the outside,  My Oxford Year  looks like a classic “study abroad rom-com.” The novel begins as an ambitious young American woman earns her long-dreamed-of Rhodes Scholarship, arrives in Oxford, and then promptly collides (literally) with the infuriatingly attractive Brit who turns out to be her class tutor. But Julia Whelan’s debut quickly reveals itself to be something more profound: a story about ambition, grief, love, and the choices that shape who we become when life refuses to follow our carefully written plans. "She realizes in that moment that love has a cost. And she knows that she's going to have to figure out what that cost is." Ella, a rising political star from Ohio, is balancing coursework with her dream job on a U.S. presidential campaign, until she falls for Jamie Davenport, the brilliant and rakish tutor she first dismissed as a “posh prat.” What begi...

The Dogs of Venice by Steven Rowley My rating: 4 of 5 stars 🌅 Few writers can pack as much emotional weight into a slim volume as Steven Rowley, and  The Dogs of Venice  proves it. At barely more than a novella, this story captures the grief, confusion, and tentative hope that come with starting over after heartbreak. Paul, still reeling from his husband’s sudden request for a divorce, travels alone to Venice on what should have been their Christmas trip together. What unfolds is not a romance in the traditional sense, but a meditation on loneliness, self-discovery, and the surprising ways connection shows up when you least expect it. Paul fixates on a stray dog wandering the Venetian streets, envying its independence and freedom, while also forging a brief but meaningful encounter with a kind waiter. These experiences force him to confront the gap between the life he thought he would have and the one he has left to rebuild. Rowley excels at maki...

My Friends by Fredrik Backman My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars 🌅 My Friends  is a sweeping, messy, beautiful exploration of friendship, grief, art, and the way love reshapes itself across decades. It is by turns hilarious, devastating, and profoundly hopeful, the kind of novel that makes you both mourn what you’ve lost and cherish what you still have. The story threads together two timelines. In the present, Louisa, a young woman adrift after aging out of foster care and losing her best friend, discovers a world-famous painting whose small, easily overlooked figures pull her in with magnetic force. Her obsession brings her into the orbit of Ted, a man haunted by ghosts of his own, and together they retrace the origins of that painting and the group of friends who inspired it. Those friends—Joar, Ali, Ted himself, and a gifted artist—first collided as teenagers, each carrying wounds from home yet finding refuge in one another. Their summer togeth...

All We Have Is Time: A Novel by Amy Tordoff My rating: 4 of 5 stars 🌅 All We Have Is Time by Amy Tordoff is a sweeping, star-crossed romance between Beatrix, an immortal woman cursed never to die, and Oliver, a time traveler who slips through history in twelve-hour bursts. Their paths first crossed in 1605 in London, and from that moment on, their lives intertwined through revolutions, wars, the Apollo 11 liftoff, and beyond. For Beatrix, who has survived the loneliness of eternity, Oliver is a tether; for Oliver, she becomes proof that even borrowed hours can matter. What I loved most was the ambition of this book. The idea of one lover enduring decades before the next meeting while the other only waits a few weeks is hauntingly bittersweet. The scope is vast—covering major historical moments while maintaining a focus on these two fragile, extraordinary lives. The writing often leans lyrical, capturing the ache of love that shouldn’t exist b...

Such a Bad Influence: A Novel by Grace Demyan My rating: 4 of 5 stars 🌅Thank you, Grace Demyan, for sending me the advanced reader copy (ARC) of Such a Bad Influence. It is a fantastic debut novel that shows what happens when grief, a blueberry farm, and a troublemaking teen collide. It was an enticing mix of heart, chaos, and small-town drama that, for the most part, kept me turning the pages. At its core, this is Felicity’s story. Still reeling from the loss of her mother, she spends her days running the family farm and leaving voicemails on her mom’s old number. But when that phone number ends up in the hands of Alex, a foster kid recently aged out of the system, Felicity’s solitary routine is disrupted in ways she never expected. A single call for help turns into bail money, an unexpected roommate, and eventually—thanks to Alex’s wild imagination—a side hustle in “revenge consulting.” Toss in Wade, the handsome-but-complicated neighbor wi...

The Midnight Bookshop by Amanda James My rating: 3 of 5 stars 🌅 A bookshop that only appears when you need it most—what reader could resist that premise? The Midnight Bookshop invites us into the lives of Jo, Adelaide, and Kye, three strangers weighed down by secrets, disappointments, and broken relationships. Each stumbles across a mysterious flyer that leads them to Fay’s bookshop, where the motto is simple but powerful: “You don’t choose the book, the book chooses you.” From there, their paths begin to shift in unexpected ways, suggesting that stories can help us rewrite our own. At its best, this novel is warm, comforting, and steeped in the quiet magic book lovers will immediately recognize. The underlying themes of healing, resilience, and friendship shine through, making this an easy, cozy read for a rainy afternoon or a lazy beach day. That said, the execution didn’t always match the promise of the premise. The multiple points of vi...

Archive of Unknown Universes: A Novel by Ruben Reyes Jr. My rating: 3 of 5 stars 🌅I received an advance listening copy of Archive of Unknown Universes from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. This novel blends love, war, and the weight of silence through the speculative device known as the Defractor. The story moves between Ana and Luis, Harvard students in 2018, unraveling family secrets, and Neto and Rafael, revolutionaries in 1970s El Salvador, whose forbidden love unfolds amid conflict. Together, their timelines reveal layered echoes of history, love, and generational trauma. While the premise is compelling, the execution often falters—especially in the audio version🔊. The book constantly shifts timelines and points of view, sometimes multiple times within a single chapter, and without clear markers, it becomes disorienting to follow. In print, distinct fonts or headings might have clarified whose perspective or which era we ...

The Summer War by Naomi Novik My rating: 5 of 5 stars 🌅Naomi Novik’s <i>The Summer War</i> reads like stepping into a dream spun of mist, fire, and fragile promises—a novella that carries the weight of an epic while still feeling intimate and personal. At its heart is Celia, the daughter of a war hero, whose childish outburst sets off a chain of events that tie her family’s fate to the immortal Summerlings. What begins as the story of a sheltered young girl grows into a tale of sibling loyalty, betrayal, and the terrible costs of pride, played out against a backdrop where songs can kill, oaths have teeth, and war lingers like a curse. I am a HUGE fan of Novik. What I loved most is how she puts family at the center of her fairy-tale tapestry. While other fantasies lean on star-crossed romance, this story shines in its messy, tender sibling bonds—Celia’s devotion to her brothers feels more moving than any hurried romance the novella...

Wild ​Reverence by Rebecca Ross My rating: 5 of 5 stars 🌅When this book hits bookshelves, run, don’t walk to get it. Then, crack it open. From the very first page, like a spell, this novel will pull you in, like it pulled me under with its dreamlike prose and aching romance, the kind of story that lingers like an echo long after you’ve closed the book. Set in the same world as Divine Rivals, it works beautifully as both a standalone and a prequel, giving depth to the mythology of gods, mortals, and the fragile bonds between them. The plot unfolds through two perspectives: Matilda, a young goddess bound by duty, and Vincent, a mortal boy haunted by nightmares. Their connection begins almost accidentally—born out of protection and longing—and slowly grows into a love story marked by yearning, sacrifice, and an ever-present awareness of its fragility. Alongside them, the tapestry of gods and realms expands: we glimpse their powers, jealousies,...

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley My rating: 5 of 5 stars 🌅The Guncle Abroad isn’t just a sequel—it’s a reunion with your favorite cocktail-wielding, caftan-loving uncle who can turn any family drama into a comedy of errors. Five years after his summer crash course in parenting, Patrick O’Hara’s career is on the rise again, but his love life is in shambles after a breakup he can’t quite justify. Enter his niece, Maisie, now a sharp-tongued teen with a flair for Stephen King novels, and his nephew, Grant, an 11-year-old gamer with a bottomless appetite for gelato, magic, and presents. When their father announces a wedding in Lake Como, the kids enlist Patrick to sabotage it—never mind that Patrick actually likes the bride. What follows is a European escapade of sibling squabbles, cross-generational snark, and Patrick’s own midlife identity crisis, complete with “Guncle Love Languages” ranging from the finer things in life to the joys money c...

The Guncle by Steven Rowley My rating: 5 of 5 stars 🌅I was so looking forward to this book from the cover and description alone. From the moment Patrick O’Hara—semi-retired sitcom star, caftan enthusiast, and kid christened GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick)—reluctantly agrees to care for his young niece and nephew for the summer, you know you’re in for a story that will make you laugh until your cheeks ache and tear up when you least expect it. What begins as a short-term arrangement after the loss of the children’s mother (Patrick’s best friend) and their father’s stint in rehab becomes a transformative season of unexpected family, unfiltered humor, and tender healing. Patrick’s Palm Springs lifestyle—equal parts martinis🍸, snark, and Oscar Wilde-worthy one-liners—is hilariously ill-suited for two grieving kids, yet it’s in this clash of worlds that Rowley finds the novel’s magic. Through “Guncle Rules” that range from irreverent (“Rule number five:...

The Man in the Stone Cottage by Stephanie Cowell My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

An Introvert's Guide to Life and Love by Lauren Appelbaum My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews

The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars View all my reviews