Frothy and romantic summer reads ...

A LADY'S GUIDE TO FORTUNE-HUNTING by Sophie Irwin is set in Regency-era England and is exactly what the title implies. Conjuring visions of Bridgerton or Jane Austen stories, Irwin acquaints readers with Kitty Talbot, the eldest of five sisters who is determined to marry well so as to settle the family debt and support her siblings. Heading to London for the Season, she manages all kinds of manipulations to be included on guest lists and to mingle with high society. Lord Radcliffe, the brother of a potential suitor, calls her out for fortune-hunting and they end up forming an unlikely alliance to safeguard his family name and bolster her chances. Frivolity and satire abound in this wonderful debut, as when Radcliffe’s younger brother remarks: “‘You displayed so little anxiety about my being murdered,’ he said to her hotly, pride very much injured, ‘that I have a great mind not to tell you whether I was or not.’” A LADY'S GUIDE TO FORTUNE-HUNTING is a diverting, fun read and is a LibraryReads Selection for July.  

A SHOE STORY is a modern-day, entertaining story by the author of Nine Women, One Dress, Jane L. Rosen. In her latest, Rosen introduces Esme Nash who is about to move to New York City with her boyfriend, Liam Beck, after they both graduate from Dartmouth. Fate intervenes and Esme spends the next seven years in Honeoye Falls (upstate New York) instead. I enjoyed the references to local color (e.g., shopping at Wegmans, paddle boarding on Lake Ontario or Irondequoit Bay), but Esme’s story jumps forward and centers primarily around the month she then spends in New York City as a dog walker for Catherine Wallace who has an amazing shoe collection. With chapter titles like “The Baby-Blue Satin Jimmy Choo Slingback Pumps” or “Brand-New White Converse Chuck Taylors,” Rosen sets the mood and moves the story along. Supporting characters, especially Sy Katz, a fellow dog walker and World War II veteran, are wonderful caricatures who add warmth and adventure. Despite its romantic, “fluffy” nature, A SHOE STORY raises questions about how to recognize and become the person each of us was meant to be: “You don’t necessarily have to stick to the life plan you started out with. Look at cauliflower… for centuries it was just a vegetable. Now it’s rice, pretzels, even pizza. If cauliflower can be pizza, you could be just about anything.”