She's Up to No Good

While I was waiting for one of my library books to become available, I picked up She's Up to No Good by Sara Goodman Confino, one of my two Amazon First Reads from July. (In case you're unfamiliar, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you get to pick one - or sometimes two - titles from a list of free books every single month. Most of them have been pretty good.)

For months after Jenna's marriage falls apart, she's living in her childhood bedroom at her parents' house in Maryland, only doing what's necessary to get through the days. Her elderly grandmother is planning a trip to her hometown in Massachusetts. Jenna volunteers to drive her grandmother up there. Maybe a change of scenery would do Jenna good.

This book reminded me of two of the books I'd recently read, The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner and The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti by Jennifer Probst. But what made She's Up to No Good stand out was Evelyn, Jenna's grandmother. She is a hoot. she manipulates words, has no filters. She'd probably drive me mad if she was my mother or grandmother. But reading about her, I loved her!

Evelyn had been a girl in a large Jewish family growing up in a Massachusetts fishing village. Many of the fisherman families are Portuguese. A Jewish girl falling in love with a Portuguese boy is a no go in the 1950s. That's the story that Evelyn shares with Jenna, bit by bit, as they make their drive and spend time together in the rented cabin where they are staying.

It's a typical romance story. Then again, it's not. It's a story about getting to know your family, about family secrets, and about second chances. I enjoyed it. It was a nice break after The Handmaid's Tale.