Since travelling has been so restricted of late, I'm sure I'm not the only one who's itching to jet off to some exotic locale just for a change of scenery!  I've done a little bit of world traversing in real life, but I've experienced a whole lot more through books.  As Emily Dickinson famously wrote, "There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away..."  

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic concerns Places In Books Where I'd Want to Live.  Since I read mostly mystery/thriller type books, this is kind of a tough one!  I've learned through many a murder mystery (especially cozies) that no place in the world is entirely safe and idyllic.  Murder and mayhem can happen anywhere—even in sleepy little towns where nothing ever happens.  So, I'm going to twist today's TTT a little bit and tell you about the Top Ten Places I Visit So Often in Books That I Might As Well Live There.  Since I read mostly realistic fiction, I'm going to concentrate on places that actually exist on the map (no Narnia or Hogwarts this time around, I'm afraid).  

If you want to join in the TTT fun, click on over to That Artsy Reader Girl for all the details.

1.  Scotland—I have strong Scottish roots, so it's no surprise that I love to connect with the country through fiction.  If all goes well, I'll be there in person this Fall.  Can't wait to finally see its beauty with my own eyes!  Favorite Scottish Authors/Authors Who Write About Scotland:  Jenny Colgan, Peter May, Anna Lee Huber, etc.

2.  Canada—My American grandmother lived in the Vancouver area while I was growing up, so I've been to the Great White North many times.  I'd love to visit other parts of the country, however, including Prince Edward Island (famously portrayed in the Anne of Green Gables series), Nova Scotia (where my Scottish ancestors landed after leaving their homeland), Quebec (Three Pines is fictional, but still...), Banff, and more.  Favorite Canadian Authors/Authors Who Write About Canada:  L.M. Montgomery, Louise Penny, Kelley Armstrong, etc.

3.  Maine, U.S.A.—Although I have stepped foot in Maine, it was only just over the border.  We spent about an hour there, most of which was in an International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant.  I know there's more to see in The Pine Tree State than waffles!  Books always make it sound like a moody, broody, mysterious place.  Its craggy coastline looks amazingly beautiful in pictures.  Just the other day, my husband and I started planning a trip to visit Maine (where he has ancestral roots) and Nova Scotia (where I do).  Famous Maine Authors/Authors Who Write About Maine:  Stephen King, Cynthia Lord, Rory Power, Sarah Graves, etc.  

4.  Antarctica—Okay, so I've actually only read a few books set in Antarctica and it's not a place I would actually want to visit or live (because I'm a big wimp and also, brrrrrrr), BUT it's a fascinating land to investigate from the safety of my nice, warm home.  Its rugged, dangerous landscape makes a perfect setting for the mysteries, thrillers, and survival novels I love so much.  Favorite Antarctica books:  The Split by Sharon Bolton and My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

5.  Australia—Although a lot of the Australia books I've read are gritty mysteries set against a dry, dusty Down Under backdrop that is perfect for murder, mayhem, and apocalyptic disasters, I know there's a lot more to this wondrous country.  I'd love to see its unique landscape, wildlife, and culture for myself.  Favorite Australian Authors/Authors Who Write About Australia:  Jane Harper, Liane Moriarty, Tea Cooper, Kate Morton, etc.

6.  Ohio, U.S.A.—I do have ancestral roots in Ohio, but it's mere coincidence (or is it??) that I spend a lot of my reading hours in The Buckeye State.  Several of my favorite cozy and historical mystery series are set here.  I've been to northern Ohio, but my ancestors settled more to the south, so there are still places in the state I'd like to visit.  Favorite Ohioan Authors/Authors Who Write About Ohio:  Amanda Flower, Vivien Chien, Jess Montgomery, etc.

7.  North Carolina, U.S.A.—This is a state in which I have no roots and to which I have never gone.  Somehow, though, I end up reading a lot of books set here.  Why is North Carolina such a popular fictional setting?  Not a clue.  Favorite North Carolinan Authors/Authors Who Write About North Carolina:  Diane Chamberlain, Cindy Baldwin, Charles Frazier, etc. 

8.  England—Many Americans have a strong connection to England and I'm no exception (24% of my DNA, says Ancestry).  I've traveled all over the country, from London to Cornwall to the Isle of Man to Liverpool.  At least in books.  In September (fingers crossed), I'll visit the Motherland for real for the first time in my life.  Yippee!  Favorite English Authors/Authors Who Write About England:  Gilly Macmillan, Ruth Ware, Sharon Bolton, Elly Griffiths, etc.

9.  Ireland—With a maiden name like Kennedy, you'd think I'd be more Irish than I am (20%).  Still, I've always loved reading about The Emerald Isle.  Everything—from its craggy landscape to its dreary weather to its rich culture—just speaks to my soul.  It's not on the itinerary for our upcoming U.K. trip, but hopefully I'll get there someday!  Favorite Irish Authors/Authors Who Write About Ireland:  Tana French, Jane Casey, Dervla McTiernan, Maeve Binchy, etc.

10.  New York, U.S.A.—If you take a gander at my right sidebar, you'll see that I keep track of the places where the books I read are set.  Guess which U.S. state I've visited most in fiction?  New York!  Tons of books are set there, which really isn't surprising since it's such a colorful, diverse place.  I've been to NYC (noisy) and upstate (peaceful) and I can't think of any other place in the state that I really want to go.  I did recently discover the Shauna Merchant mystery series by Tessa Wegert, though, and the Thousand Islands region sounds lovely.  Favorite New York Authors/Authors Who Write About New York:  Tessa Wegert, Jacqueline Woodson, Riley Sager, Carol Goodman, A.J. Finn, etc.

There you go with the ten places I visit so often in my reading that I might as well live there!  Which locales do you enjoy reading about?  Which other books/series/authors do you love that fit the categories above?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave me a comment on this post and I will gladly return the favor on your blog.

Happy TTT!       

It's 1942 and Paris is fast becoming a dangerous place for Jews.  This is brought home one terrifying night when Eva Traube's father is arrested by the Gestapo.  A chance visit to a neighbor is all that saved Eva and her mother from being taken as well.  With their names on the Nazis' round-up list, the women have targets on their backs.  Despite her mother's insistence that she's not leaving Paris without her husband, Eva forces the issue.  She forges new papers for them and the two women are able to sneak out of the city to Aurignon, a small mountain village in the Free Zone of south central France.

When the leader of a local Resistance group sees how well Eva's papers are forged, he urges her to put her skills to use by helping to make false papers for the Jewish children the group is smuggling into Switzerland.  Although reluctant to put herself and her mother at risk, she agrees in exchange for shelter and promises for help in securing her father's release.  As Eva systematically gives the fleeing kids new names, thus erasing their Jewish identities, she grows distressed as she realizes some of them will be too young to remember their true names when the war ends.  Using an old, forgotten religious text, she records every one so the information will never be lost.  With tension heating up in Aurignon, however, Eva's work and the secret record book are both in imminent danger...

Sixty-five years later, Eva is stunned to see a newspaper article about books recovered from Nazi stores after the war.  Among them is one she never thought she would see again.  Does she have the courage to revisit the traumas of her past in order to reveal the secrets she once protected with her life?

I find World War II endlessly fascinating, so I've read tons of books set during that time period.  Because so many of them are so similar, I'm always on the lookout for those that bring something new to the genre.  The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel has been getting so much buzz that I thought it might do just that.  And it does.  Sort of.  I've read few World War II novels about the French experience, so the book's setting was a new one for me.  The forgery angle was also one I hadn't really encountered before.  Both of these elements made the novel interesting.  The rest of it, though?  Meh.  The characters are pretty cliché and there are no surprises in the plot.  It's a very run-of-the-mill story, really, and one that is made even worse by stale, simplistic prose (I felt like I was reading a YA novel or even a middle-grade one, at times) and a predictable plot (I saw the twists coming from miles away and the novel's final scene is obvious from the get-go).  The characters are likable because, for the most part, they're good people doing good things, but none of them are developed enough to feel like real human beings.  Eva drove me a little nuts because she doesn't really do anything.  Yes, she risks her life by creating forged documents, but it's all very benign—she's in no real danger until the very end of the book.  Thus, for a war story, The Book of Lost Names is actually fairly dull, with not a lot of action to keep it exciting.  It's really more of a romance than anything else.  Since I never felt any real sparks between Eva and Rémy anyway, I didn't care all that much about the love story.  I wanted more derring-do, more action, more suspense.  

Don't get me wrong, The Book of Lost Names isn't a bad book.  It kept my attention enough that I read to the end.  It's also cleaner than most adult novels, which I appreciate.  My problem is I just wanted more from it—more originality, more character development, more emotion, more excitement, etc.  In the end, unfortunately, this was just an average read for me.     

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other novels about World War II, although no specific titles are coming to mind)

(Image from Amazon)

When cancer steals her mother's life before she has even turned sixty, 38-year-old Kal feels surprisingly adrift.  Over the years, she's gotten used to the fact that her mercurial mother never loved her.  Elena MacKenzie had plenty of affection for her younger daughter, Alice, but none for Kal.  Grief-stricken by the loss of a woman she never understood, Kal is thrown for a shocking loop when she finds a stack of mysterious postcards in her mother's things.  Going back more than 20 years, each was written on the same day of the year and signed the same way by the same Canadian woman:  "Thinking of you."  Kal knows Elena studied marine biology in North America before marrying and moving to England, but she knows little about those early years and she's never heard her mother mention a woman named Susannah Gillespie.  Who was this Canadian artist to Elena?  Why did she send a postcard every year?  What's the significance of the date on the cards?  

Already feeling bruised from suspicions that her husband is cheating on her, Kal makes an impulsive decision to travel to British Columbia and find Susannah.  With her toddler in tow, she sets out for remote Spring Tide Island, hoping to find the answers she so desperately seeks.  Meeting Susannah, a potter who claims to have been Elena's best friend, just creates more questions.  The woman, who seems to have been obsessed with Kal's mother, has also formed a strange attachment to Kal's son, 18-month-old Finn.  Despite frantic calls from her husband and warnings from her father to stay away from Susannah, Kal refuses to leave Canada until she understands who her mother was and what happened between her and her old BFF.  The more Kal learns, the more distressed she grows.  Something horrible happened to Elena, that much is clear and—as Kal finally realizes—the past is about to repeat itself if she can't get herself and Finn off the island.  With a storm threatening to cut off all communication with the mainland, Kal will have to risk her own life to save them both. 

Everyone who hangs out around here knows I can't resist an atmospheric thriller.  The moodier and broodier, the better.  The Missing One, a 2014 debut by journalist Lucy Atkins, certainly qualifies.  Atkins does an excellent job painting Spring Tide Island in thick, foggy grays that make it feel cold, isolated, and eerie.  It's a shivery backdrop, perfect for a gripping psychological thriller, which is exactly what The Missing One is.  The book is not an edge-of-your-seat kind of read (at least not until the end), but it is engrossing and compelling.  Overly long, yes, but not boring.  Predictable to a point, indeed, but not without its plot surprises.  As far as characters go, it's tough to find a truly likable one in this story.  They're a pretty messed up group, with plenty of selfish obsessiveness to go around.  While Kal is the most appealing of the bunch, I still found her irrational, whiny, and slow on the uptake.  Still, I definitely wanted to find out what was going to happen to her.  That need to know kept me reading.  In the end, then, I liked The Missing One well enough, but I can't say I loved it.  I'm up for more from Atkins, though, and that's saying a lot.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of books by Peter May, Carol Goodman, and Ruth Ware)

Jackie "Jax" Metcalf has always lived in the shadow of her older sister's illness.  She spent her childhood caught up in Lexie's manic episodes and depressive cycles, so focused on keeping her sister's moods balanced that she hardly had a life of her own.  Now a psychologist and a social worker, 28-year-old Jax knows the value of boundaries.  Living in Seattle helps her keep her distance—both physically and emotionally—from Lexie's constant drama.

When Jax finds a string of missed calls from Lexie on her phone, she figures her sister's off her meds again.  The truth is much worse: Lexie is dead.  Although she was an excellent swimmer, Lexie drowned in the spring-fed swimming pool at Sparrow Crest, the remote Vermont estate she inherited from her grandmother.  Shocked and grief-stricken, Jax returns to the place where she and Lexie spent every summer, only to find the house littered with research materials about the Metcalfs and Sparrow Crest.  Tempted to dismiss the project as another one of Lexie's many flights of fancy, Jax instead starts combing through the information, which reveals strange details about Gram's unique swimming pool.  The murky water always held a strange fascination for Lexie; it gives Jax the creeps.  As she's increasingly drawn to its eerie edges, the pool begins to reveal its chilling secrets, secrets it's kept for a very, very long time ...

Jennifer McMahon specializes in shuddery, suspenseful stories sure to send chills tingling down your spine.  Her newest, The Drowning Kind (available April 6, 2021), is no exception.  It offers an atmospheric Gothic setting, complex characters, and a riveting plot.  I read it fast and furious, totally sucked in by McMahon's masterful storytelling.  The ending surprised me and not necessarily in a good way.  I didn't love it.  Even though The Drowning Kind isn't my favorite of this author's novels, it's still an engrossing, entertaining read.  If you like shivery ghost stories, definitely add this one to your TBR list.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other books by Jennifer McMahon as well as those by Carol Goodman and Emily Carpenter)