Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (3.3.25)

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Hoopla • Fiction • 1926

Short synopsis: Unmarried and stifled by her oppressive family, Valancy Stirling, upon receiving shocking news, breaks free to embrace love, adventure, and a life beyond her wildest dreams.

As many of you already know, this was our book selection for this round of the Cool Blogger’s Book Club, run by NGS. I was looking forward to reading another L.M. Montgomery book. Anne of Green Gables is my all-time favorite book (so much so that I’m collecting as many different editions of the book as I can!), but I read Emily of New Moon by Montgomery and hated it. (It does not hold up well; there are some very problematic plotlines!) I was curious how I would feel about this book. Good news – I absolutely loved it. Valancy was a perfect character. She was relatable, funny, sweet, and everything I want in a main character. I wanted the best things for her, and I definitely wanted her to get away from her vile family that didn’t treat her right. This book had a great pace and such a sweet love story. I really like how the author showed how the love between Valancy and Barney grew slowly, especially from Barney’s perspective. It wasn’t insta-love, but rather two people getting to know one another and realizing a deep, abiding love between them. What a great pick for the CBBC!

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Spotify • Fantasy • 2024

Short synopsis: Fifteen years after mysteriously vanishing and reappearing in a West Virginia forest, Jeremy Cox—now a renowned missing persons investigator—and his reclusive childhood friend Rafe Howell must return to the magical realm that once held them captive to find a missing woman and confront the buried secrets of their past.

Another book club pick, this time for my in-person book club! I’ll be honest: I wasn’t super thrilled that this book was the one that got picked because magical realism isn’t something I normally love in books. However, I am here to eat my words because I couldn’t get enough of this sweet fantasy story! From the moment the book started, I was immediately drawn into the world of Jeremy and Rafe and couldn’t wait to discover how the magical realm fit into the plot. All of the characters were so well-drawn and easy to root for, and I was really curious how this book would end. Would Jeremy and Rafe stay in their magical world forever, or would they rejoin the real world again? There were parts of the middle of the novel that felt a little slow and meandering, but the story quickly picked up and I found myself so happy with the way things wrapped up. If you’re looking for a book that will take you away from the realities of today’s dark world, pick this one up!

The Favorites by Layne Fargo (★★★★★)

Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Contemporary Fiction • 2025

Short synopsis: An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating about a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice.

This book was sensational! It took me a while to get through (17 days!) but that’s not because it was a bad book. It was just very dramatic and I had to be in the right mood to pick it up. I love any book that gives me an inside look at the sports world, and this one was about two ice dancers who had an on-again, off-again relationship on and off the ice. Katarina Shaw is a complicated figure (let’s just say if you didn’t love Carrie Soto in Carrie Soto Is Back, you won’t like Katarina), but unlikable women in sports is like catnip for me. GIMME. There is so much going on in this book; it is part memoir from Katarina’s point of view and part transcripts from an unauthorized documentary. It’s a book filled with scandal and heartbreak and excellent ice dancing scenes (I am so mad I can’t look up some of these routines on Youtube; I had to settle with rewatching Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir routines, ha). There is complicated female friendship, competitiveness at the highest level, and sketchy Russians. This is not a book I’d recommend to everyone, but it worked so well for me. (4.5 stars, rounded up to 5)

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.26.25)

Please note: The third book on this post talks about diet and weight loss. Feel free to skip if that’s triggering for you! <3 

The Family Game by Catherine Steadman (★★★★☆)

Audiobook • Libby • Thriller • 2022

Short synopsis: Harry is thrilled to marry Edward, who has distanced himself from his powerful, old-money family—until she’s drawn into their world of wealth and dark secrets. When the enigmatic patriarch, Robert, hands her a cassette with a shocking confession, she realizes uncovering the truth could be deadly.

This was an excellent thriller, filled with twists and turns I wasn’t expecting. And the final few chapters had my heart pounding! I couldn’t stop listening for anything. I was immediately drawn to Harry and wanted her to get everything she wanted, and I immediately disliked Edward’s rich family and the very weird games they would play with each other. (They have a really wild game called Krampusnacht, which is a real celebration in Germany but they take things a bit too far. Just looking at pictures of Krampus creeped me out, and they played the game in a dark, creepy mansion.) I was surprised by the ending and really loved the way everything turned out! A caveat: I listened to this book on audio and the narrator could not do an American accent to save her life. There was only one character with an English accent (Harry) and everyone else had an American accent, but everyone had the same flat affect to their voice. I feel like this shouldn’t be that difficult if you’re an audiobook narrator? But alas.

Beginner’s Luck by Kate Clayborn (★★★☆☆)

Print • Owned (Indie Bookstore) • Contemporary Romance • 2017

Short synopsis: Scientist Kit Averin is focused on stability, but a determined corporate recruiter, Ben Tucker, upends her plans—both professionally and romantically. As their attraction grows, they must decide if taking a chance on love is worth the gamble.

This was a pretty cute romance, but man, it took me forever to finish. I was never super compelled to pick it up, and that’s probably because I found both of the characters in the story to be pretty bland. Kit’s a scientist who could be doing more with her life, but doesn’t care to climb the corporate ladder. Ben’s a recruiter who is still trying to right the wrongs of his teenage wild days. They are both fine. But I was never engaged with their love story, possibly because it felt doomed from the start, as Ben lives in a different state and is only in town to help his father for a short period of time. The dark moment of the novel was really silly and one of those times where I just wanted to shake a character and say, “Just communicate!” This is Clayborn’s debut and I can see how much she has grown as an author since this book. And that’s a great thing!

Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar by Jessie Inchauspé (★★★★★)

Print • Owned (Amazon) • Nonfiction • 2022

Short synopsis: Improve all areas of your health—your sleep, cravings, mood, energy, skin, weight—and even slow down aging with easy, science-based hacks to manage your blood sugar while still eating the foods you love.

I picked up this book based on a recommendation from Tobia, and I am so glad I did! I am not one to read a diet book, but I do need to figure out how to lower my A1C and fasting glucose so I’m not diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the next few months. This book is broken into two parts: In the first part, the author goes into the science behind glucose, fructose, and sucrose (the three molecules that make up most foods). She talks about carbohydrates, fats, protein, and fiber, and how we need a combination of all of them to maintain steady glucose numbers. And she delves into what exactly happens during a glucose spike, and how too many of them can release elevated levels of insulin throughout our body—elevated insulin levels on a regular basis can lead to health problems. In the second part of the book, the author provides a set of hacks that we can use to help keep our glucose levels stable throughout the day. This includes exactly how we eat food (fiber first, then protein and fats, and finally starches and sugars), how to create a balanced breakfast, and the reason to start every meal with a “green starter.” Some of the advice got a little much (I’m not going to start every meal with a tablespoon of vinegar and then end every meal with 20 minutes of movement—who has time for that?!) But the author said it best when she said we’re not supposed to do all of these hacks all the time. Even doing them some of the time will be beneficial to our overall health. I can’t wait to put some of these tips into action and hopefully, it will lead to a lower A1C number at the end of April!

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.12.25)

Good Material by Dolly Alderton (★★★☆☆)

Audiobook • Spotify • Contemporary Fiction • 2024

Short synopsis: After Andy’s long-term girlfriend Jen breaks up with him, he is heartbroken and adrift. As he pieces together their past, he may finally learn that love stories have more than one ending.

I would give the first 90% of this book 1.5 stars and the final 10% of the book 5 stars. This book is mainly about Andy pining after his ex-girlfriend and doing increasingly weird things to try to figure out where their relationship went wrong (very weird: meeting with a therapist to pretend to be Jen to see what kind of advice the therapist would give him). The last chapters of the book switch to Jen’s perspective and oh, that’s when things got so interesting! I loved being in Jen’s head and learning more about what she was thinking in the days and weeks leading up to the breakup and her reasons for the breakup. I could wholly relate to Jen and I wanted more from her. I don’t know why the author decided to spend 300+ pages in the head of a sad white male comedian who was just so bland. At the very least, she could have made him slightly funny but we didn’t even get any good jokes out of him! Ugh. I don’t know if this was a gender-switching sort of thing (instead of the man being the one to break up with the woman and the woman being heartbroken, we get the male perspective), but it just didn’t work for me. (2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.)

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (★★★☆☆)

E-Book • Library • Contemporary Romance • 2023

Short synopsis: Two estranged exes, Theo and Kit, accidentally book the same European food and wine tour and challenge each other to a hookup competition to prove they’re over each other—except their old feelings refuse to stay in the past. 

This is a steamy, steamy book, my friends. Please steer clear if you don’t love open-door romances because this book had a little bit of everything: straight sex, gay sex, sex toys, threesomes… whew. This is a book about finding yourself after a lifetime of feeling less than perfect. It’s also a book of second-chance love and taking the brave act of putting your heart back into the hands of someone who hurt you deeply. The book is split into two sections: the first half of the European tour, which we get from Theo’s perspective, and the second half from Kit’s perspective. I enjoyed being in Kit’s head much more than Theo’s, and perhaps that’s because they finally admitted their feelings for one another. Before they did that, this book was a straight-up orgy of them hooking up with random people every night and trying to one-up the other. It was fairly exhausting! But once they came together as a couple, swoon. I just loved everything about it! I also could have done without all of the long descriptions of food and wine and the places they were visiting, but I imagine that is a huge highlight for other people. I just find all of that pretty boring so I skimmed a lot of it. All in all, not my favorite romance but a solid one.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (★★★★★)

Print • Owned • YA • 2020

Short synopsis: After their father dies in a plane crash, Camino in the Dominican Republic and Yahaira in New York discover they are sisters, forcing them to navigate grief, family secrets, and their newfound connection.

This was a novel-in-verse, which is what Elizabeth Acevedo is known for. I’ve read another book by her (The Poet X – also 5 stars) and I am just consistently impressed with the way she’s able to create a complex, compelling narrative through poetry. There was so much happening in this book – grief and poverty and lies and trauma and queerness and culture and love – and somehow this author weaves all of it together in such a beautiful way. These two young girls are navigating the hardest loss of their lives (their father) without knowing that they are sisters, and when they do learn about each other and begin the tentative work of exploring a new relationship together, it’s magical. I just loved this book from beginning to end.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (2.3.25)

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer (★★★★★)

Audiobook • Library • Science Fiction • 2024

Short synopsis: Annie Bot was designed to be the perfect girlfriend, catering to Doug’s every need—but the more human she becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As she starts questioning their relationship, Annie must decide whether pleasing Doug is truly what she wants—or if she owes herself something more.

Gosh, I really loved this book! It’s the kind of book you want to read with someone else because there is so much to discuss. In this world, people can purchase robots that look like real people to perform all sorts of tasks: cleaning, cooking, running errands, and even being the perfect partner who is always ready to have sex and never complains. I love the way the author explored the nuances that come with having a robot like Annie. Doug designed her to look very much like his ex-girlfriend but now, he has the perfect partner. Annie is 100% devoted to Doug because, well, that’s why she was created. And he can turn her libido up and down depending on his own needs. When he’s done with her, or if she starts to annoy him, he can just send her to her charging port. It’s the ideal scenario for any red-blooded man, you know? The throughline of relationships and communication and what we owe to our partners is such an interesting one. Doug regularly grows weary of Annie the more human-like she becomes; the more she voices an opinion or contradicts Doug, the less he enjoys her. But then, we also have to remember that Annie is not human and she is a robot, and what does it mean when robots start to feel more human and have the ability to walk around in the world without being noticed? It’s scary to think about, quite honestly!

I couldn’t help but love Annie, even knowing she’s a robot. She didn’t choose to be a robot. She was given everything to be a human (except a brain, I guess), and in having her understand human emotions and act like a human, she started to feel like she is one. She read books and learned recipes and began to create a life for herself outside of her owner. I wanted the best for Annie and felt so much sympathy for her. (For a robot! Gah! This book gave me such complicated emotions.)

Anyway, I loved this book and if you have read it, I want to discuss it with you!

Colored Television by Danzy Senna (★★★★☆)

Print • Library • Contemporary Fiction • 2024

Short synopsis: Jane hopes house-sitting in a lavish L.A. home will be the fresh start she needs to finish her novel and secure tenure, but when that plan falters, she turns to Hollywood for a second chance with a promising TV deal.

This book was definitely an interesting read. I struggled with the main character and her decisions, which tempered my enjoyment of the book. (Towards the end I was growing so tired of her and the expectations she was placing on her life. Gah!) And some of the satire elements of this novel went over my head. But what I did like was getting a glimpse into the life of a writer who is trying to produce their second book and doesn’t want to get lost in a sea of “mid-list authors.” I also thought the scenes with Jane trying to pitch a TV series and then come up with episode ideas to be riveting! I never knew what that was like. (Seems terrifying, lol.) This was ultimately a 3.5 star book for me (rounded up to 4) but I think it’s a book that would work a lot better for others than it did for me (particularly people in academia or who enjoy satire).

The Thing About Love by Julie James (★★★★☆)

E-Book • Owned (Amazon) • Contemporary Romance • 2017

Short synopsis: FBI agents and former rivals Jessica Harlow and John Shepherd are reluctantly reunited as partners in an undercover sting to take down a corrupt politician. Forced to pose as a couple at a romantic beachfront resort, their old tensions ignite into something far more complicated.

This is a reread for me, and I think with this novel, I’ve officially reread Julie James’ entire backlist. Now I have to find a new favorite author’s romances to reread! I gave this book 5 stars when I originally read it, but this time around, it was more of a 3.5-star read. Some of the writing and banter was stilted and I would have liked a little more build-up to the romance. It felt like these two characters didn’t like each other at all and then, bam, they’re making out and can’t keep their hands off each other. But it was still an easy, fun read and I enjoyed myself.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (1.27.25)

Making Up by Lucy Parker (★★★★★)

E-book • Owned (Amazon) • Contemporary Romance • 2018

Short synopsis: Former circus star Trix Lane is thrust back into the spotlight just as her old nemesis, disgraced makeup artist Leo Magasiva, reenters her life, sparking a fiery, complicated romance.

I’m rereading all of Lucy Parker’s romances right now and this was a delightful read once again. It was such a unique setting—a Cirque du Soleil-type act where Trix performs on the silks—and I loved that Leo is a straight man who is also a makeup artist! (He mostly does special effects makeup, but had a mishap with an actor on a movie set, so he’s taking whatever work he can get at this point.) Trix is healing from an emotionally abusive relationship and I felt that the author did a beautiful job expressing how that relationship affected Trix in myriad ways, from her professional life to her romantic relationships. What I love most about Lucy Parker’s books is that she doesn’t rely on miscommunication subplots to create tension in the novel. She still manages to create high stakes between the couple, but it always feels so much more original and true to life.

Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard (★★★☆☆)

Audiobook • Hoopla • Thriller • 2017

Short synopsis: When Adam Dunne’s girlfriend, Sarah, vanishes after a trip to Barcelona, he discovers her link to a cruise ship where another woman disappeared under similar circumstances. Determined to uncover the truth, Adam delves into their relationship’s secrets and faces a cunning predator on a deadly hunting ground.

This is Catherine Ryan Howard’s debut and it’s quite apparent that her writing and plotting got a lot better as she gained more experience as a writer (as one would expect!). This book was very uneven for me. I loved the first half of the book and it was hard for me to stop listening because I wanted to know what happened! But then the book took a turn that I didn’t love and I found it kind of a slog to get to the end. What’s more, there was a secondary plot to the novel involving an entirely different character and I could not figure out the connection to the main plot. Typically in these thrillers, these plots come together in a fascinating way, but that was not the case here. (I found a Goodreads Q&A with the author that explained the connection, which made sense but damn. It’s probably not a good sign to finish a book and then have to go down a rabbit hole, trying to figure out how all of the different threads were connected.) I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this novel, but it does have a 3.8 rating on Goodreads so YMMV. (For me, it was 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.)

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher (★★★☆☆)

Print • Owned (Barnes & Noble) • Literary Fiction • 1987

Short synopsis: Penelope Keeling reflects on her rich, complex life while navigating the challenges of aging, family dynamics, and the newfound value of her father’s painting, The Shell Seekers. 

My first 500+ page book of the year! As a reminder, I have a goal to read four books that are longer than 500 pages this year. Ideally, I’d like them to be in the 700-900 range (this one was slightly under that at 630-ish pages). For me, this book was just okay. It was well-written and I loved being taken through all the different eras of Penelope’s life, but it was intensely sad at times. I can’t tell you how many times I just knew bad things were right around the corner for Penelope, and it got hard to go through that grief again and again. I also really hated two of Penelope’s children, but they were written to be unlikable so… good job, Rosamunde Pilcher! I wanted to wring their necks, they were so selfish and horrible. This was the kind of long book where I definitely felt the length of it and I was just ready to be done with it by the time I got to page 500 or so. Near the end, I started skimming so I could finish it faster, which is never a good thing. So, while I can understand why this is a modern classic, it wasn’t really for me.

What are you reading?