We just got back from our 2nd Annual Swope Family Vacation in Port Aransas, but before I can share about our trip {including Trent's 15 birthday!!}, I have to start the month off with my book review!
This month I read 12 books - a definite rebound after my Anxiety-fueled May. Very happy to be feeling better and back to my normal reading habits. Lots of rom-coms from my favorite authors came out in May/June, so they dominated my reading this month - oh darn. {grin}
All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers - If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you know I have mixed feelings about thrillers. I don't like unreliable narrators, I don't like ambiguous endings, etc. So some thrillers I love and some...not so much. This falls into the latter category because it has 1 of my pet peeves. The story was really good EXCEPT for that pet peeve {don't want to say what it is in case someone wants to read it}, but that one thing kind of ruined it for me. A reporter moves home to take care of her uncle with dementia but also gets looped back into the unsolved murder of her childhood best friend when another girl goes missing. I liked the plot and alternating timelines, I just couldn't get past that one point that will always bug me in a thriller.
Lamb by Christopher Moore [audiobook] - Blog Friend Book Club selection! This book is exactly what the title says - the gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal. This is Dumb & Dumber/Monty Python humor...which is not my humor. Would not recommend to anyone, unless that brand of humor is your jam.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner [audiobook] - This was a re-read for my in-person book club, and I think I enjoyed it more in my first read. It should be right up my alley - historical fiction with alternating timelines about a woman in present day England who finds an apothecary bottle and the apothecary from hundreds of years ago helped women kill their husbands - sounds good, right? It is good, just not quite great.
We Were Dreamers by Simu Liu [audiobook] - I haven't seen anything Simu has been in, but I love a good celebrity memoir, and this was excellent! I can forget that celebrities are real people with real problems and troublesome pasts. Simu shared his story with such heart and compassion, gosh, he's got a big fan in me now! It doesn't hurt that his first job was at Deloitte too - I cracked up when he described going to work as a 'death march' every day haha.
A Kingdom This Cursed & Empty by Stacia Stark [audiobook] - Book 2 in a fun romantacy series! I'm enjoying this - it isn't ACOTAR or Fourth Wing, but it's keeping me entertained, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell - And now a thriller by an author who understands what I don't like and never lets me down! 2 women born on the same day/year in the same hospital meet by chance while out celebrating their birthdays and some Single White Female sh*t starts happening. But who is telling the truth about the insanity that happens next?!? So good!!!
Inheritance by Nora Roberts - Y'all. I was really on the verge of quitting Nora. It was like she ran out of original plot lines, characters, conversations. I actually DNF'd her last trilogy {and I usually LOVE her trilogies!} but decided to give her one more try, and I loved this Book 1 in a new trilogy. A woman inherits a hundred-year-old mansion {perfect timing as her fiancé just cheated on her and she dumped him} and moves into it BUT it's haunted!!! I thoroughly enjoyed this and can't wait for the rest of the trilogy!
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood - I have thoroughly enjoyed everything Ali Hazelwood has written - strong STEM women are a trope I can get behind. Yes, they are a bit formulaic and very trope-y, but I enjoy them. This one I definitely enjoyed but maybe not quite as much as some others. It had all the right elements, I just didn't find myself EAGER to pick it up as I usually am with her books.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren - I really enjoy Christina Lauren's books - I think there's only been one I didn't enjoy - and this goes right in the list as a fun rom-com/chick lit read! Anna and Liam got married for housing reasons in college and years later, Liam needs Anna's help...and you can guess what happens. I thought this was highly enjoyable and I struggled to put it down!
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center - I just adore Katherine Center, and this book was reason 1,298 why I adore her. Just the cream of the crop for a chick-lit, romance novel. Loved it! A very successful screenplay writer writes a flop and doesn't want help rewriting it but ends up getting help from an unknown writer and sparks fly. So, so fun! BUT one thing I love about Katherine's characters is the heart they have - there is usually something of meat in her stories that makes you feel a little something more, and this had that too. Really good.
The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer - This was FASCINATING! It really makes you think about what you would be willing to do to survive a horrific life-or-death situation. Edith's story was tragic and very upsetting, but I was in awe of her strength and fortitude. This was just really, really good.
My total for the year is 64, ahead of my goal of 100 by 14 books. I had a lot of 4-star books, and my average for the month was 3.75!
