Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.29.22)

Happy Monday, friends! I thought I would have a much bigger reading recap for you guys, since I took last week off but I went through a fun period of starting and abandoning books left and right. I think I ended up abandoning like 3 or 4 books last week! Ack.

Anyway, I have two books to review today as I at least ended up finishing something last week. Let’s dive in:

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado (★★★☆☆)

In this YA romance, Charlie Vega is a fat, Puerto Rican teenager who loves writing romances online. She has a best friend, Amelia, who is thin, Black, and beautiful, and she always seems to be coming in second to Amelia, especially with the guys at school. Charlie’s mom, who used to be fat but then lost a bunch of weight, is continually pushing weight-loss shakes at her. And then there’s Brian, a cute classmate of hers who she starts flirting with and it seems like she could really have her own love story with him. This novel is your classic adorable YA love story, and it has excellent representation. However, for me, it was a very YA story. Which is fine! It’s YA, after all. And I’m not its intended audience. I found Charlie to be so grating at times, but teenagers can be like that, you know? I felt like there wasn’t any nuance to her relationship with her mom and it wrapped up in a way that didn’t feel real and didn’t address the real issues at the heart of their relationship. All in all, a fine book that I think will appeal to a younger audience, but it wasn’t my favorite.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager (★★★★☆)

I think thrillers might be my perfect antidote to a reading slump. Whenever I feel blah about my reading life, I can usually count on a thriller to pick me up. In this novel, Maggie Holt’s father has just died and she finds out that she has inherited the haunted house that made her family famous. They lived in this house 25 years ago but a series of suspicious events involving ghosts and other paranormal activity caused them to leave in the middle of the night, never to return. Maggie’s father ended up writing a best-selling book about their experience living in this house for two weeks, and ever since, Maggie has been trying to forget about the book and the house. Unfortunately, now she has to return and find out just how much of the book was fact and fiction. I really liked this thriller and I found Maggie to be a super enjoyable character. The novel definitely had me wondering just how much I believe in ghosts and paranormal activity, for sure. Not one of the best thrillers I’ve read, but a good enough story to keep me entertained last weekend.

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.17.22)

Happy Wednesday! I have a mid-week “What I’m Reading” post for you today, as I finished up these four books over the last few days (as of Sunday night, I didn’t have any books to share with you yet!) There is a good mix of books here: a romance I adored, a feel-good novel, a classic memoir, etc. Enjoy!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (★★★☆☆)

Maya Angelou’s memoir of her life from her early years to age 16 was a good read, but ultimately, it wasn’t super memorable for me. It always feels a little strange to rate a memoir but if I’m rating this on writing style and pacing, it didn’t quite work as well for me as I would have liked. It was graphic in parts (fair warning: there is an explicit child rape scene), but there was such a strong sense of place in the novel. Maya Angelous can write and I was fully drawn into her world, both the highs and the lows. I’m glad I finally read this memoir, but I can’t say it’s one I’m rushing out to recommend.

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Soloman (★★★★★)

What is it with romance novels these days and hitting me directly in my feels? I just finished Book Lovers, which had a really impactful side plot with a main character’s anxiety issues. And then in this one, the main character has depression and the way it impacts her life and her relationships is very similar to the way my anxiety disorder impacts my own life and relationships. This novel is almost like a love letter to The Parent Trap, except the kids are grown adults who work together and the parents are their bosses. Ari and Russell work together at a news station; Ari is a meteorologist while Russell works in sports. They are casual friends, but nothing more than that. Until, that is, the Christmas party when their bosses—who used to be married to each other—have a major fight. Over the last few months, their bosses have been at each other’s throat, leading to a toxic work environment that’s dragging everyone down. But Ari and Russell have a feeling there’s more to all of these fights, and they hatch a plan to get their bosses back together. In the process, though, Ari and Russell start to realize they might have feelings for one another. Ooh, boy, was this an adorable workplace romance! I loved it so much; I seriously had such a dopey grin on my face during any scenes between Ari and Russell. I loved that Russell wasn’t the typical six-pack-abs, chiseled man that so many romance novels describe. He was a self-proclaimed fat guy, and I have been waiting for someone like him in my romances. This is the kind of novel I immediately wanted to reread when I finished it, and it will have a place in my heart for a long time.

To the Brink by Cindy Gerard (★★★★☆)

This book has an indelible mark on my soul. It’s my fourth time reading it, and I loved it just as much as the other three times I’ve read it. It’s a bit dated at this point, published in 2005 (I giggled to myself when I came across the line, “he flipped open his cell phone.”) I was sitting on the couch over the weekend and fragments of this story started coming to me, and I realized that when I finished the book I was reading, I was immediately re-downloading this novel to give it another reread! And I’m so glad I did. I finished it in a day because I just could not put it down for anything. In this military romance, Darcy has been kidnapped by a terrorist group and her ex-husband, who is a former Special Forces soldier, has to find her and get her out alive. It’s fast-paced and super sexy, and I just loved falling back into this world I know and love so well. I’ll probably make my way through the rest of the books in this series again, because why not?!

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley (★★★★☆)

What a lovely story this turned out to be! I love that more authors are exploring the idea of loneliness and companionship, especially loneliness in older adults. I’ve been going through my own period of loneliness, so there’s something comforting about reading stories like these. This novel begins with a journal called The Authenticity Project that a man named Julian leaves at his neighborhood coffee shop for the shop’s owner, Monica, to find. The journal encourages the person who finds this journal to be as authentic as possible when writing a new entry and then to send the journal on its way. The journal passes through many hands in the book and it’s fun to see how the stories connect and this little family that forms because of the journal. This is just one of those feel-good, found-family novels that make me so glad I am a reader.

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.8.22)

Happy Monday! Our first podcast episode comes out tomorrow – eeks! I’m so excited for you guys to hear it, and I hope you love it as much as we loved making it. 🙂 Our podcast should be showing up on all podcast players at this point, so be sure to subscribe so the first episode downloads tomorrow morning!

I had a very interesting reading week last week: I read a book that I was basically hate-reading towards the end and then read two back-to-back books that will be going on my favorites list at the end of the year. Let’s get into it!

The Hellion’s Waltz by Olivia Waite (★★☆☆☆)

Short synopsis: When Sophie and her family move to a new town to reestablish a piano shop, she continues to run into the gorgeous and enigmatic Maddie who seems to be everything she doesn’t want—especially with her conniving ways—but also someone she can’t stay away from.

This book was 177 pages and it felt more like 771. It was such a slog. I would have 100% abandoned it except it was so short that I powered through just to get to the end. Honestly, 2 stars may be generous here. The characters were flat and undeveloped and there was zero chemistry between Sophie and Maddie. I felt nothing when they finally got together, and was plain bored by all of their scenes together. The overarching plot involved a long con that Maddie and her friends put together, and the actual con was so very silly and over-the-top that it was hard to take it seriously. I love that Olivia Waite writes sapphic historical romance, but she needs to do better if I’m going to keep reading her novels.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (★★★★★)

Short synopsis: A novel-in-verse about a teenage girl growing up with a strict mother in Harlem and the poems she writes to cope with her life.

This book was a masterpiece. We’re taken into Xiomara’s world through the poems she writes, some about the experiences she’s going through right now and some about her past and how that has shaped her into the person she is today. It’s brutal in parts, especially the abuse X suffered at the hands of her mother and the Catholic church she attends, but mostly, it was a beautiful story about a girl who has a gift for poetry and what happens when she lets her voice ring loud and true. It’s a quick read and one I want to shove into the hands of everyone I know. So worth reading!

Book Lovers by Emily Henry (★★★★★)

Short synopsis: Nora Stephens is a cutthroat literary agent living in NYC who agrees to take a month-long trip to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina with her sister, Libby. While there, she continually stumbles into her literary world nemesis, Charlie, and starts to envision what her life could look like if she let some of her walls down.

Here’s my truth: I liked Beach Read by Emily Henry a lot. I absolutely despised The People We Meet on Vacation. So I was apprehensive about Book Lovers. However, it was getting a lot of buzz and many people who also didn’t like TPWMOV loved this one, so I decided to give it a shot. And y’all, I think I have a new all-time favorite romance novel. For years The Hating Game has been my #1 romance novel and nothing has ever come close to the place it has in my heart, but Book Lovers may just have it beat. I read this book with a goofy grin on my face throughout most of the novel, especially the scenes between Nora and Charlie. Their banter was adorable and I just loved watching their love story unfold.

What really took this story to the next level for me, though, was Nora. I could identify viscerally with her. Nora has the same trauma response as me with feeling the need to be in control of everything and make sure the people around her are happy, healthy, and never upset with her. For me, this trauma response came from living with a parent who was physically, emotionally, and mentally abusive and would erupt in anger at the tiniest thing. For her, it’s due to her mother’s death when she was just 20 years old (and then became her 16-year-old sister’s legal guardian). For me, I have a controlling tendency when it comes to my mom and I always need to know she’s safe, she’s not unhappy with me, and she’s happy. (If she ever answers the question of, “How are you?” with “I’m ok,” I’m immediately on edge and figuring out ways to make her happy again.) For Nora, she has to control her sister Libby and make sure she always has everything she needs and is never unhappy. There were scenes of Nora waking up in the middle of the night in a panic, but settling down when she could feel her sister next to her. I do the same thing, often waking up in the middle of the night and wondering if the reason I woke up is that my body knows something just happened to my mom. (This is when I have to say, “Everything is okay. You are safe. Mom is safe.” And repeat that over and over again.) There were so many scenes of Nora essentially babying Libby that I could see people rolling their eyes at, but I have been there and I know what it’s like to feel that way, and Emily Henry did such a great job at portraying this trauma response and what it’s like in the real world. For the most part, it’s illogical and over-the-top and to those unfamiliar with trauma, really, really ridiculous. But it feels so real to us. It feels so necessary to our entire being, as if the only thing keeping us together is this desire for control.

I’ve written an entire novel about Book Lovers at this point. Who knew you could have such deep feelings about a romance novel? When I finished this novel, I started crying because I felt so seen by Nora’s characterization and it also made me recognize all of the work I have done in therapy to break free of this trauma response. It’s not easy, and I was not only grateful for the inclusion of this storyline, but also that Nora’s anxiety wasn’t suddenly “solved” by falling in love or having one long conversation with her sister. It is still a part of her life, but she’s in therapy and trying to work through it (slight spoiler, but I don’t think it ruins the book at all). Anyway, this book meant a LOT to me and it will likely be my favorite of the year.

Also, Charlie + Nora 4Ever. I just adore their relationship and I loved that there wasn’t really a typical, over-the-top dark moment. It felt really natural to the plot and their relationship as a whole.

What I’m Reading This Week

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

July Reading Wrap-Up

Books Read

1) Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare (★★★★☆ – e-book, Libby) – A fun historical romance novel with a kickass female protagonist and a thrilling conclusion.

2) The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas (★★★★☆ – print, owned, Target) – An intriguing story about the different ways a woman’s life can unfold, whether or not she decides to have children with her husband.

3) You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn (★★★★☆ – audiobook, Libby) – A really wonderful celebrity memoir about an Indian actor turned White House staffer turned actor again.

4) It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey (★★★★☆ – e-book, Libby) – A superfun contemporary romance about a socialite who has to transform her late father’s rundown bar in a small town.

5) Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo (★★★★★ – print, owned, Target) – A really compelling nonfiction read about all the ways toxic white masculinity has slowed down progress in our society.

6) The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson (★★★★☆ – audiobook, Libby) – The second in a series about a group of teens solving mysteries at a boarding school in Vermont.

7) A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy (★★★☆☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – A historical romance with a really inventive plot that didn’t fully live up to my expectations.

8) How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love by Logan Ury (★★★★☆ – print, library) – A book about dating in the modern age that made me feel a lot less stupid about my struggles with dating.

9) Yours to Keep by Lauren Layne (★★★★☆ – e-book, owned, Amazon) – A short and sweet contemporary romance that gave me all of the happy feels.

10) Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley (★★★★☆ – print, owned, Thriftbooks) – A book about a woman who is allergic to human touch… and what happens when she finally emerges from the reclusive life.

Book Challenges

  • Book Club: Our book club pick for July was The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano and we had a fascinating discussion about it! All of us loved the book (I think everyone gave it 4 or 5 stars), but wanted something different from the ending. Our book club is comprised of married women with kids, single women without kids, and married women without kids, and we had a good discussion about motherhood and the expectations of women.
  • Unread Shelf Project: I had a DNF for the Unread Shelf Project this month! The prompt was “a book set in a country/culture different than yours” so I chose A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, which I thought I was going to love. Unfortunately, it just bored me to tears and I gave up after 147 pages.
  • Goodreads Challenge: I had some DNFs for my Goodreads Challenge this month, which is fine! I’m mostly trying to get through all the books I added to my list so long ago, and a lot of those books just don’t work for me these days. I DNF-ed Ex-Libris by Anne Fadiman and How to Be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky, but loved Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley. That’s 3 books crossed off for July, woo!

Book Stats

  • # of books read: 10
  • # of pages read: 3,413 pages
  • Genre breakdown: Romance (40%), Nonfiction (30%), Fiction (20%), and Mystery/Thriller (10%)
  • Format breakdown: e-book (40%), print (40%), and audiobook (20%)
  • Fastest read: How Not to Die Alone (4 days)
  • Slowest read: You Can’t Be Serious (11 days)
  • Star average: 4.0
  • % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 20% (eeks!)
  • Abandoned books: 4 (A Gentleman in Moscow, Ex-Libris, How to Be a Person in the World, and The Duchess Deal)
  • Goodreads goal check-in: I set a goal of 135 books this year and currently, I am 4 books behind schedule.

Superlatives of June

  • Favorite book of the month: How Not to Die Alone by Logan Ury
  • Favorite romance of the month: It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
  • Least favorite book of the month: A Beastly Kind of Earl by Mia Vincy
  • A buzzy book that definitely lived up to the hype: The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano by Donna Freitas
  • A buzzy book that definitely did not live up to the hype: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

What was the best book you read in July?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.1.22)

Good morning, friends! I had a lovely weekend that included finally celebrating my mom’s birthday, snuggling Eleni, and taking myself to Starbucks to read my book. It was exactly the weekend I needed. There is a lot happening this week, and I’m feeling ready to tackle it all.

I have three wonderful books to share with you today, and all three got a solid 4 stars from me. Let’s review:

How to Not Die Alone by Logan Ury (★★★★☆)

I talked about this book in Friday’s Currently post, so suffice it to say that I loved it. I wasn’t expecting much from it, mainly because I’ve been very apathetic about dating for a long, long time. Some people look at dating as a way to meet new people, but that’s not how I’ve approached dating. For me, I’m either so excited about the person I’m seeing that I can’t eat or sleep or think about anything else… or I’m going on boring dates and making up excuses for why I can’t extend the date. This book really made me excited about the prospect of dating, though, and how to treat it like a fun way to meet people or, at the very least, learn more about myself and what I want out of my future partner. I’m planning on writing a follow-up post about the lessons I learned and how I want to implement them in my own dating life, so stay tuned for that. I do want to mention, though, that this book was very heteronormative (which, to be fair to the author, she addresses in the beginning of the book, stating that most dating research focuses on straight couples) and doesn’t really discuss what it’s like to date as a person of color or as a fat person. As a fat person, my experiences with dating are so, so different from other people (no, I’m not getting hundreds of matches every day; I’m lucky if I get 1 or 2), and I wish that could have been explored but, as the author is a traditionally beautiful, thin person, I know that’s not something she has experience with. Maybe I’ll just have to write that book about how to date as a fat person, who knows?!

Yours to Keep by Lauren Layne (★★★★☆)

Yours to Keep was a sweet contemporary romance. At just over 200 pages, it was a fast read; sometimes shorter romances feel like they’re missing something (backstory or relationship development, things like that), but this one felt perfectly paced. I’m glad that the author kept it short and sweet because it delivered the perfect impact this way! In this romance, Carter Ramsey has returned to his hometown for his 10-year high school reunion. He’s a pro baseball player who is dealing with an injury that has the potential to ruin his career so he’s going through a lot right now and could consider consulting with a personal injury lawyer. Contact professionals from sites like https://ravidandassociates.com/.  Since he plans to be in town for a couple months, he rents a house next door to Olive, who is none other than his former lab partner from high school science. Olive and Carter strike up a friendship that turns into a whole lot more as they spend most of their time together (Olive’s working on the plans for the high school reunion and recruits Carter to help her). I just adored Olive and want to be friends with her. She was so much fun to read about, mostly because she’s so very different from me (tall, loud, friendly, open-hearted) and I feel like she would be such a wonderful friend to have in my corner. I loved the love story between Carter and Olive, and the grand gestures from both parties at the end of the novel felt true and right, not over the top. A solid romance!

Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley (★★★★☆)

This novel was so lovely! I was a little bit bored in the beginning and contemplated abandoning it, but decided to give it a few more chapters and I’m so glad I did because it was an excellent read. This novel follows Jubilee who has an incredibly rare allergy: she can’t touch or be touched by people. This allergy has caused her to retreat from the world and become a recluse, but when she has to get a job to survive, she finds one at a library. It’s there that she meets Eric, a man who is trying to keep everything together between working a stressful job and parenting his adopted son who is still reeling from the sudden, unexpected loss of his parents (Eric’s best friends). A chance meeting leads Jubilee and Eric, two people whose lives look nothing like they wanted them to, to open their hearts and explore what could happen if they trusted themselves. It was a super sweet novel and I really loved Jubilee’s character arc. She was someone who was so easy to love and root for, and I enjoyed every minute I spent with her. I thought the ending wrapped up a little too neatly, but other than that, it was a fantastic read.

What I’m Reading This Week

  • The Hellion’s Waltz by Olivia Waite (e-book) – This is another short romance (under 200 pages!), so I’m likely going to finish it today or tomorrow. So far, I’m enjoying it!
  • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (print) – I’m looking forward to diving into this novel that gets rave reviews. I’ll start it once I finish The Hellion’s Waltz.
  • Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (audio) – Second time’s the charm? The last time I planned to read this book, I was going through a mental health crisis and many of you recommended that I set it down for the time being. It was good advice! I’m going to start it this week, and if I’m still not feeling up to reading about such a hard subject matter, to my “abandoned” list it will go.

What are you reading?