Author: Tiffany Renee Harmon

Tiffany Renee Harmon is a poet and mystery enthusiast originally from Cincinnati, OH. She has an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University. Her first novel Suburban Secrets debuted in July 2020, and her second novel Crooked was published by World Castle Publishing in 2023. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of the poetry journal Ephemeral Elegies. In her spare time, she loves spending time in nature, knitting, and doing crossword puzzles. She lives with her husband in a forest nestled in the Ozark mountains.
Book Review

Book Review: Meet Your Baker

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Meet You Baker by Ellie Alexander is a great debut in a fun, entertaining cozy mystery series. This book follows Juliet Capshaw, a heartbroken cruise ship employee, who moves back home to help her mom run the family bakery. Once there, she becomes entrenched in the small-town politics of the community’s most theatrical as one board member of the local Shakespeare festival is found dead after eating at their bakery.

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I love a good cozy mystery series. The mystery genre is my favorite, and I love trying to solve the mystery along with the protagonist. However, mystery novels can tend to be pretty formulaic. The difference between a mediocre mystery series and a great mystery series is the character development. Just because the plot has formulaic elements, this doesn’t mean the characters all have to be stereotypes that we’ve all read over and over again. This bakeshop mystery series is an example of a mystery series that has been handled correctly! The protagonist Juliet does have some qualities of most mystery heroines (unlucky in love, living in a small town, trying to find herself) but she had enough interesting quirks and qualities to set her apart from the other standard heroines. She has more depth and backstory than most, and this really enhances the novel and will hopefully continue through the whole series.

Cozy mystery lovers are sure to love this one, but I also think this is a good starter cozy mystery for someone who wants to give the genre a try but who has been worried that they might be too fluffy or formulaic. This is one with a wider audience appeal, and it contains a wonderfully diverse cast of distinct characters who came alive on the page.

 

Book Review

Book Review: Brooklyn

Tiffany Renee Harmon

The novel Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is a truly remarkable feat of describing a the immigrant experience. Irish author Toibin describes the adventures of transformation of a young woman named Ellis who who moves from Ireland to Brooklyn in the 1950s.

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This novel was the source material for the critically-acclaimed film with the same name. The beauty of this book is that it is such a wonderfully-written coming-of-age story. Ellis moves to a new county and experiences a brand new culture, and naturally adjusts to her new environment while growing up at the same time. She finds a purpose. She experiences love and loss and hope. This novel takes its readers through the highs and lows of human experience all while framing the narrative with familiar cultural tropes.

The atmosphere is wonderfully described. There is a definite sense of time and place. The descriptions of Ellis’ time in Brooklyn as well as in Ireland are distinct and filled with beautiful imagery that makes it easy to follow to visualize. This is a novel that deserved all its acclaim.

I would think that readers who tend to prefer likable character-driven narratives will be the ones who are most drawn to this novel. While there is a plot, it moves slowly. It’s not uncomfortably slow; it’s just that action and event is not the main focus of the narrative, which is completely fine. Still, those used to more plot than character may not find this as magical as I did.

Book Review

Book Review: Girl Online

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: Girl Online

Author: Zoe Sugg

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Girl Online is a fun debut novel from Zoe Sugg, a YouTube star who also goes by the moniker Zoella. I have been a huge fan or Zoella’s YouTube channel for a while now because she reviews and talks about beauty products, which is a hobby of mine as well (see Cincy Couture for more about that!) When I saw that Zoe had a Young Adult book published, I just had to read it.

This was a really fun read that I would definitely recommend for teenagers and adults who enjoy reading YA fiction. This book seems to be inspired loosely by the YouTube fame that Zoe has amassed. It revolves around the character of Penny: a teen girl who secretly blogs under the name “Girl Online” who is plagued by anxiety and school bullies and false friends. The plot of this book is a lot of fun, and it is a really quick read (as most YA fiction is), but the best part to me was how the author (or ghostwriter) depicts the struggles of anxiety and bullying. These are things that absolutely effect young people as well as adults, and this was a refreshingly honest depiction of how it feels. I think that this book would not only be fun for a teen girl who is experiencing one or both of this things, but also this book might help her feel less alone.

There is a second book in this series, and I look forward to reading it someday! A lot of recent YouTube stars have had book deals recently where they write their memoirs or dish out lifestyle/beauty/fashion advice. I think it was admirable that Zoe decided to use her book deal to use fiction to tackle real issues that effect her viewers even more than the perfect lipstick shade. I also hear that Zoe is going to be starting a book club soon, and I think that is also a great way to inspire her viewers (many of whom are teens and tweens) to get excited about reading.

Book Review

Book Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Author: Lionel Shriver

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Quick Takeaway: This is a fascinating read that explores the issues of nature vs. nurture using the subject matter of a mother who never wanted children and her deeply troubled child.

Who Should Read This? I would absolutely recommend this book to lovers of psychology because of the “nature vs. nurture” theme. It is also very dark, so I would also recommend it to anyone looking for character-driven horror.

Review: This is a brilliant book about the nature of evil. Are people born evil? Is evil a learned behavior? I don’t want to go into the details about the plot of the book because I don’t want to give anything away, but this is the type of book that is character-driven while still including a lot of plot and suspense elements. Eva is an absolutely fascinating character. I found that I could relate a lot to her, but it would not at all surprise me if others find her to be very unlikable. I have never been particularly interested in having children, and this is a major theme in the book. Are there some people who should never be parents? Are some children just born bad?  As a character study, I found the character of the mother Eva to be far more interesting than the character study of the son Kevin, but the bits that focused on him were also very well-written and intriguing.

Final Thoughts: This is a great book about human nature and the nature of darkness. This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is sure to be a great conversation starter for a book club.

 

 

Book Review

Book Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Author: Sophie Kinsella (the pen name of Madeleine Wickham)

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Quick Takeaway: This is the uproariously funny chick-lit novel that inspired the movie by the same title. The book and movie are very different but are equally charming.

Who Should Read This? This is definitely targeted towards chick-lit lovers who enjoy shopping at high-end brands. There is a lot of humor and romance, and the focus is absolutely plot over character development.

Review: I think this is a wonderful frothy, fun book. I do my fair share of reading character-driven literary fiction, but sometimes, I just want to relax and read something that makes me laugh and doesn’t require a ton of thinking. I am probably biased towards liking this book due to my potential shopping addiction. I have really enjoyed this series, especially the first three books.

The main character, Becky Bloomwood, is a very endearing main character. She is flawed and often makes terrible decisions, but she is also very relatable and she is good at heart. I loved listening to her train of thought. I also really enjoyed both the romantic and friendship aspects of this book. While the scenarios are larger than life, the ultimate core of the situations and the emotions behind them are easily recognizable. Sure, Becky is a bit flaky and she sometimes doesn’t seem to have much common sense, but I still liked her and was rooting for her.

This is a really fun series. For those who have seen the movie, there are lots of differences. For one, the character is British and she is living in England. Also, some of the things that happen in the movie actually take place in book two. The main “villain” Alicia is also very different in the book, though I don’t want to give too much away.

Final Thoughts: If you are turned off by consumerism, give this one a pass. But if you are looking for something lighthearted with a hilarious main character who is really struggling to grow up, give this one a try!

Book Review

Book Review: Veronika Decides to Die

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: Veronika Decides to Die

Author: Paulo Coelho

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Quick Takeaway: The book’s subtitle sums this book up brilliantly: “A Novel of Redemption.” Don’t be dissuaded by the dark title. This is ultimately a very uplifting book.

Who Should Read this Book? People interested in human nature, psychology, and sociology

Review: Veronika, a young woman who thinks she has nothing to live for, attempts but fails at suicide. As she recovers in a mental hospital, she learns that her suicide attempt has done damage to her heart and she has very little time to live. But her time in the hospital helps her to regain the joy of living and the freedom of being herself.

This book has many very sad moments, but it has a very triumphant feel. The life lessons that Veronika learns during her stay in the mental hospital are very universally valuable. There are some very profound moments here. I’ve actually read this book several times. Whenever I’m feeling like I’m in a rut, or when I feel like I’m not experiencing all the joys that life has to offer, I reread this book in order to be reminded of the importance of being myself and never giving up on the beauty that can be found in the most unlikely places.

Final Thoughts: This is a very powerful book. I think that it has many timeless qualities, and it expertly delves into many aspects of the human condition.

Poetry Review

Poetry Review: The History of Anonymity

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: The History of Anonymity

Poet: Jennifer Chang

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April is National Poetry Month, so I wanted to make sure that I reviewed a brilliant poetry collection before the month was over.

Jennifer Chang is a relatively new poet. She doesn’t have a huge body of work, but what she has out there is spectacular. I have read so many poetry collections that were not at all memorable, but this one has stood out to me since I read it back in 2012.

Chang uses references to nature in her poetry in the most exquisite way. Nature is such a huge theme in poetry that it almost always borders on the cliche. So often, I’ve found that poets seem to just describe nature or talk about the beauty of nature. Chang, however, properly utilized nature. The natural references are all metaphors or references to situations or emotions. They have clear meanings beyond just description.

Often when I talk about my love of poetry with other people, I am met with blank stares and admissions that most people think poetry doesn’t make any sense. I completely understand how people might feel that way because so much contemporary poetry is deliberately inaccessible with huge amount of ambiguity. This is an example of a collection that can be accessible by everyone! I would highly recommend this collection to both lovers of poetry as well as those skeptical of poetry.

Book Review

Book Review: The Art Forger

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: The Art Forger

Author: Barbara A. Shapiro

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Quick Takeaway: I read this for a book club that I lead for the library. While it did meander at times, I enjoyed it overall and we were able to have a great discussion for our book club.

Who Should Read This? This is a great read for art lovers and those looking for a mystery that focuses more on character than plot.

Review: While this is a mystery, it is not very traditional. I absolutely love mysteries, but I was much less interested in the mystery aspects of this book than I was the central characters. The main character Claire, a professional art forger whose career is legally forging famous art for commercial purposes, is commissioned to forge a famous stolen painting. The circumstances under which she is asked to perform this task are suspect, but she finds herself falling for the enigmatic art dealer Aiden Markel  who may not be as he seems.

I really enjoyed the character of Claire. She was sympathetic and she was really put through a lot of relatable tragedies. She is a very talented artist, but she has a terrible reputation in the art world, and she struggles to overcome the decisions she’s made.

I also really enjoyed learning more about the process of painting, especially the process of forgery. I’ve dabbled in abstract painting but only as a hobby, so I felt like this was a really interesting learning experience about the world of art, especially classic art.

Final Thoughts: I don’t think this book will appeal to everyone. If someone loves a good traditional mystery and has little interest in learning about the creation of art, this may be a bit of a letdown. However, if you’re more interested in character and you’re fascinated by art, go ahead and give this one a try!

Book Review

Book Review: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Author: Muriel Barbery

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Quick Takeaway: I have read this book 4 or 5 times. It might be my favorite book in the whole world, so  I just wanted to be able to share it with everyone!

Who Should Read This? Anyone who is interested in French culture, philosophy, or human nature in general.

Review: This narrative follows two very different characters both living under the same roof: Renee (a Parisian concierge who is world-weary, stuck in the class system, and tired of interacting with the rich, pretentious inhabitants of the exclusive apartments she attends to) and Paloma (a genius 12-year old who has a fascination with Japanese culture and pointing out the absurdity of adults). The inner-thoughts of both of these characters are just so rich in understandable philosophy and profound thoughts about human nature. The two strike up an unlikely friendship with each other and a new tenant – a wise, Japanese man who seems to understand them both better than themselves. Their own perceptions about themselves and their surroundings are questioned, and they are both given opportunities for personal growth and finding more happiness than they thought possible.

I love the character of Paloma so much that someday I plan on naming a pet Paloma in her honor. She would probably prefer for me to choose a goldfish, but I suspect it will be a cat. Paloma is just such a brilliantly drawn portrait of a precocious, highly intelligent adolescent girl. In a lesser writer’s hands, she could have come across as annoying or really contrived, but Barbery does a masterful job at creating a believable, endearing character instead. Watching her learn more about life and mature over the course of the novel is a special experience. This is one of the only books that I have tried to read as slowly as possible so that I could savor every second. I actually felt a sense of loss when the book was over because I just didn’t want it to end.

Final Thoughts: This is just such a beautiful book. It’s definitely more character-focused than anything, so those who are more into plot my find this too slow for their liking. I just find that each time I reread this one, something new and profound stands out. It’s definitely worth a try if you’re interested.

 

Book Review

Book Review: The Vegetarian

Tiffany Renee Harmon

Title: The Vegetarian

Author: Han Kang 

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Quick Takeaway: The Vegetarian by Korean author Han Kang tells the story of Yeong-Hye, a woman who swears off meat after experiencing recurring, blood-soaked nightmares. The novel tracks her swift mental decline and describes how she is treated by South Korean society and her family.

Who Should Read This?  Anyone interested in mental illness, South Korean culture, or dark/absurdist scenarios.

Review: I picked up this book after reading a really interesting review about it in the New York Times Book Review. I must say that this is one of the most original books that I have read in quite a while. Despite the name and the description, this book is not preachy or actually trying to convince readers not to eat meat. Rather, it is a really interesting character study about a woman’s decline into madness. This begins when she has horrifying bloody dreams and becomes obsessed with avoiding meat because she thinks this will cause the nightmares to stop. Her family has no idea how to handle her. Society has no idea how to handle her. This book is very much allegorical about South Korean society, but I found the mental illness aspects to be the most interesting.

If I had to try to classify this novel, I think I would describe it as literary horror. There are many horrific elements and descriptions, but the focus is definitely the characters rather than the events surrounding the book. I found Yeong-Hye’s relationships with her sister and brother-in-law to be the most interesting. The moments with her sister were very realistic and intriguing. The moments with her brother-in-law, a photograper, were incredibly absurd in a strangely artistic way. I don’t want to give too much away, so I think I’ll just leave that there.

Final Thoughts: Not everyone will like this book. It is pretty experimental and sort of falls between genres, but I was impressed by it and I think that there’s a good chance that literary horror lovers will enjoy this one.