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- The Au Pair
- Written by Teddy Wayne
- ISBN-13 : 978-0063457232
- Harper, June 30, 2026
Help, Fate, and Consequences
Have you ever watched your chances for fame fade away? Or, worse still, watched your own career fade while your partner excels? If you’re an author who needs more time, but you’ve been relegated to day care because your partner is on the road, one solution is to find an au pair. Author Teddy Wayne would encourage you to choose carefully before you fall prey to the situations that overtake his family in The Au Pair.
Steven Hammer, a literary writer and college teacher who narrates the story, is married to Lucy, an investment banker who supports him financially and has no idea he spends his days playing games on his phone instead of working. Why does he do that? He’s blocked now, though he was once a rising star in the literary world, and computer games relieve some of his frustration.
As fate would have it, Steven and Lucy decide to hire an au pair, and the Norwegian young woman Steven selects, Astrid, is beautiful, domestically skilled, and a fan of his writing. Her job is to care for their two children, who become quite attached. Steven becomes attached too, and Astrid and he become more than employer and employee.
Astrid reveres Steven’s writing, which massages his ego. She’s everything that his wife Lucy is not, and she plays it to the hilt. When the family goes on a trip to the Catskills, the affair intensifies and so do the jealousies with devastating results. Steven realizes he doesn’t really know anyone– Astrid, his wife, or even himself as well as he’d like to.
This fast-moving tale of manipulation, vulnerability, lust, and insecurity is a skillfully crafted literary thriller. It’s quite accessible despite the complex emotions involved and the trial scene will have readers on the edges of their seats. There’s even a bit in it about what sells books.
We hope you’ll read the book and let us know what you think.
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- Other People’s Kids
- Written by Kim Culbertson
- ISBN #: 978-1960573438
- Sybilline Press, August 5, 2025
Three Educators Walk Into Their Intended Lives
Ever been a teacher or imagined yourself as a teacher? Public school classrooms have become more challenging since I left my job, so I was drawn to Kim Culbertson’s Other People’s Kids to see the opinions, experiences, and relationships I missed. I was also curious about the dynamics between the characters—what they had in common that I might have missed in my own teaching experience. Once I started reading, I was drawn into the story and its stakes, but even more I cared about the present and future lives of each of the characters.
What these three educators had in common was a love for the kids and flexibility. They knew how to roll with the punches. For Chelsea Garden that meant walking away from the private school where she taught English to entitled high school students after an angry parent slammed her head into her car door. She returned to fictitious Imperial Flats, where she’d grown up, and when an English teacher quit the high school there mid-year, principal Nora Delgado recruited Chelsea to replace him. It doesn’t take long for the high school boyfriend, Evan Dawkins, who didn’t show up at their meeting place after graduation to find her. Lots of catching up happens as these three underappreciated people examine their consciences and take risks that many in mid-life are afraid of.
The story rolled off the page and into my brain, and it’s going to be especially appealing to anyone who works in a school. Author Kim Culbertson wrote the YA novels Songs for a Teenage Nomad (Sourcebooks 2010), Instructions for a Broken Heart (Sourcebooks 2011). She’s an award-winning author in addition to being a teacher since 1997. Other People’s Children was named a finalist for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) 2025 Golden Poppy Award in fiction.
If you care about people, especially teachers but anyone faced with multiple decisions and issues, you’ll appreciate and enjoy this book. It’s well written, realistic, and I found it a wonderful look at a world with a saccharine love of teaching wiped away. Please treat yourself to a copy today.
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- How the Light Gets In
- Written by Joyce Maynard
- ISBN #: 978-0062398314
- William Morrow (May, 2025)
Life’s Journey Through a Matriarch’s Eyes
UI think it was John Lennon who said, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” I can’t argue with that, and neither can the characters in Joyce Maynard’s, How the Light Gets In, a sequel to Count the Ways as well as a stand-alone book. She looks at the consequences of unpredictable events involving each of her children and learns that there is power in acceptance of things beyond her control as the nuclear and extended family members make their marks on the world.
This is a complex, well-executed story of 3 generations, 2 divorces, a goat farmer, a waterfall, a scientist, and all the ways, that life can get messy. Eleanor, the narrator, moves back to the New Hampshire farm when she learns her ex-husband is dying of cancer. He divorced her to marry the baby-sitter, but that ended in another divorce. Cam and Eleanor’s brain damaged son still lives on the farm, caring for goats and making cheese. Both Al and Ursula married and moved away, but as Eleanor’s children they’re deeply involved even though they both changed radically as adults.
How The Light Gets In is about many of the ways a family can change, reach out, and reinvent its story. It’s about the power of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, and it’s about the healing properties of a home and a family that have endured through human ruptures. You’re likely to fall in love with these rich characters, and root for all of them at one time or another.
Joyce Maynard began publishing her stories in magazines when she was thirteen years old. She’s been a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, a syndicated newspaper columnist whose “Domestic Affairs” column appeared in over fifty papers nationwide, a regular contributor to NPR and national magazines including Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, and many more, and a longtime performer with The Moth. She’s the author of 17 books, two of which became movies.
If you love novels that draw you in with 3-dimensional characters, beautiful writing, and events that keep you turning pages, read this book. You won’t be disappointed.
- Lucien
- Written by J.R. Thornton
- ISBN-13 : 978-0063458437
- Harper Perennial, March 17, 2026
Harvard, Talent, and Secrets
What is the difference between book learning and wisdom? Between talent and wisdom? And when do talent and privilege mix? Sometimes the two come together in top schools like Harvard as they do in J.R. Thornton’s novel, Lucien. As you begin the book you may wonder why the story is titled Lucien when it’s told from Atlas’s (Christopher’s) point of view. In this twisty tale of money, class, power, and consequences, set at Harvard where the author went to school, the reasons will soon become apparent.
Christopher is a middle class boy whose talent for painting and drawing wins him a scholarship to Harvard. His assigned roommate, Lucien, was born to European diplomats and gives him the nickname Atlas because it’s less conventional. Lucien knows all the right things to say and do and he helps Atlas find popularity, the right social clubs. When money becomes an issue, he has a way to help him with that too. Lucien takes advantage of Atlas’s inexperience and draws him into a world that uses his talents in ways that Atlas never imagined. By their second year, Lucien’s dark side appears and Atlas finds himself in a battle he’s not equipped to handle. Actions have consequences, and Thornton explores that theme in unexpected and intriguing ways. You’ll be glad you’re reading this story, rather than participating, even if the opportunities at Harvard seem endless to you.
Thornton knows just how much to reveal and when to add it to the story. The plot emerges from Atlas’s and Lucien’s needs. At least it seems so. But what are the hidden truths? Born in London, J.R. Thornton graduated from Harvard and later earned an MA from Tsinghua University in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar. He lives in Italy working for the professional football club AC Milan. Obviously, he has many skills and we can look forward to more of his work.
They say that an author should write about what he knows. In some ways he has, but he’s taken what he knows to an imaginative new level. When you start the book, carve out some time. You’ll be drawn in and unable to put it down as events complicate lives and unanticipated truths emerge. You just ight become addicted to this author’s work.
We’ll publish more reviews as the summer progresses. Do you know of a book you’d like us to review? Please write and tell us the name, author, and why you recommend it. Thanks!
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