Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

Notable May 2017 Reads

I’ve been reading a lot lately. In fact, I’m about 10 books ahead of my goal to read 100 books this year, so it’s safe to say that I am flying through titles and finding a lot of time to read. I think living alone and not having cable allows for copious reading time. Oh, and having a special needs dog who doesn’t sleep well at night anymore, so I find myself up late reading as he tries to settle down. In any event, I decided I needed to change up my monthly book reviews from simply reviewing every title I read to picking out a handful to talk about. Basically, nobody needs to sit through 10+ book reviews, especially because not all of the books I read warrant talking about. I’d rather spotlight the few books that had the biggest impact on me to make these posts a bit more interesting and engaging.

So, instead of a review of every single book I read in May, I’m highlighting five great reads: my top read of the month, my top romance of the month, and three other notable reads that I think are worth checking out. At the end of the post, I’ll link to the other books I’ve read for those who are curious. This was a fun format to put together and I hope you enjoy!

Top Read of the Month

Title: With Love from the Inside
Author: Angela Pisel
Published: 2016
Rating: ★★★★★

Grace Bradshaw is on death row for allegedly murdering her infant son. While she maintains her innocence, the evidence is stacked against her and she’s out of appeals. Due to a new governor who is cracking down on the prison system, her date of execution has been set. She’s been in prison for 17 years and for the last 11 of those years, she has been estranged from her daughter, who is now in her late twenties. She wants to reconnect with her daughter before her death and asks her attorney to find her. Her daughter, Sophie, is found – happy, healthy, and married to a plastic surgeon. But she wants nothing to do with her mother, whom she is convinced killed her baby brother. The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Grace and Sophie, and there’s a gut-wrenching yet hopeful tone throughout the story. I thought it would be a tough read for me because books about parents in prison bring up a lot of hard emotions (my dad has been in and out of jail my entire life), but it really wasn’t. It was the kind of story I tore through and couldn’t put down. I highly recommend adding this one to your TBR list. It’s worth a read. (Add to Goodreads.)

Top Romance of the Month

Title: The Thing About Love
Author: Julie James
Published: 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Jessica and John have a past. Once rivals at Quantico, they were both glad to go their separate ways when their training ended. It’s been six years and they are both accomplished FBI agents. John works in the Chicago field office and is on track to join the ranks of the elite Hostage Rescue Team, while Jessica is recently divorced from a Hollywood producer and looking for a fresh start… in Chicago. They are paired up to take down a corrupt Florida politician (of course it’s a Florida politician!), and that’s when they start to realize their constant sparring and competition has evolved into something much more than either of them bargained for. It’s a classic romance from Julie James – part romance, part thriller – and I loved every second of this novel. Julie James is one of my favorite romance novelists and I read her books the second they are released. She hasn’t released a novel in two years (which is way too long for me to go without one of her novels!), so I was especially thrilled with this new romance and it was perfectly written to fulfill all my romance needs. (Add to Goodreads.)

Other Notable Reads

Title: Dark Matter
Author: Blake Crouch
Published: 2016
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Jason Dessen is content with his life. He’s happily married, has a teenage son, and is a physics professor at a college. And then a masked abductor knocks him unconscious and the next time he wakes up, he’s strapped to a gurney and surrounded by people in hazmat suits. He’s woken up in a new world, a world in which Jason is not married with a kid, but single. He’s not a college physics professor, but a genius in the physics world who has achieved remarkable success. And he has to ask himself: is this world a dream or is the life he thought he was living for the past two decades a dream? It’s a mind-bending novel that broke my brain in parts because there is so much to wrap your head around. But it also made me think about life and the choices we make. How one choice can determine our path… and what if we had chosen differently, what would our life look like then? If I had chosen a different college, studied abroad for a semester, fought for the relationship that ended too soon… how differently would my life look now? It’s such an interesting concept. The last 10% of the novel was a little too out there for my liking, but I still think this book is worth picking up because it’s really a terrifically written novel. (Add to Goodreads.)

Title: Still Life
Author: Louise Penny
Published: 2005
Rating: ★★★★☆

Jane Neal, a long-time resident of Three Pines, a rural town near Montreal, is found dead in the woods, and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to investigate her death. While the locals in Three Pines are certain it was simply a tragic hunting accident, Gamache and his team of investigators aren’t so certain, and so begins the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny. This series has been recommended multiple times on the What Should I Read Next? podcast, so I finally picked it up and settled right into this cozy mystery. It’s slow and meandering at times, but I found I didn’t mind that. It matched the setting and the characters. I loved Gamache, he’s a sensational character that you can’t help but adore. And I loved all the characters in this town – Clara and Ruth and Peter and Gabri – they were all so lovely. Most likely, my low expectations (I’ve heard the first three books in this series aren’t great) helped me while reading this novel because I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. But it was so wonderfully written and cozy, cozy, cozy. (Add to Goodreads.)

Title: Sweet Little Lies
Author: Jill Shalvis
Published: 2016
Rating: ★★★★☆

Sweet Little Lies starts a new series for Jill Shalvis – Heartbreaker Bay. We meet a new cast of characters, starting with tour boat captain Pru and pub owner Finn. Pru is new in town and used to being on her own. She lost her parents at the age of 18 and since then, it’s been Pru against the world. But enter Finn, enter all of Finn’s friends, enter a life without being alone all the time. It’s something she’s not used to. Especially having the attention of a guy like Finn – someone who wants to be there for her and support her, and maybe even love her. But Pru is hiding a secret and once it gets out, it could threaten this new foundation she’s building. I’ve read two different series from Shalvis (Animal Magnetism and Wilder) and this book felt like a departure from her usual tone. It reminded me of a Kristan Higgins novel. I love Kristan Higgins, so this is not a slight in the least, but just something to note. I loved this novel so much, though, and was sad when I finished it. I’m just glad there are more Heartbreaker Bay novels to read!

Other May reads: The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (★★★★★), Falling for Her Fiance by Cindi Madsen (★★★☆☆), All I Want by Jill Shalvis (★★★★☆), The Trump Survival Guide by Gene Stone (★★★★★), Dare to Rock by Carly Phillips (★☆☆☆☆), Feel the Heat by Cindy Gerard (★★★★★), The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow (★★★☆☆), Unexpectedly Hers by Jamie Beck (★★☆☆☆), and Bridges by Maria Murnane (★★★☆☆).

What was the best book you read in May?

Categories: Books

Book Review: Unexpectedly Hers by Jamie Beck

Emma is a shy and reserved 30-something who manages her family’s bed-and-breakfast with her mom in a small town in Colorado. While she has a good group of friends, she’s held herself off from love, in part due to her father’s abandonment when she was young. Emma is content with her life, but she also wants more.

Enter: erotica.

Yeah, you didn’t think I was going to go there, did you? Emma has penned an erotic novel based on a one-night stand she had a while ago, and it’s been picked up by a publisher. Emma, scared to reveal this to her family and friends, has used a pen name and is keeping the news of her writing success to herself.

As she begins to prepare for the release date of her novel, her mom goes out of town and leaves Emma in charge of a group of guests who are there to film a documentary about a professional snowboarder who is getting back into intense training to take on the competition circuit again after some time away.

That professional snowboarder? Emma’s one-night stand and the inspiration for the male lead in her erotic novel.

Wyatt doesn’t remember Emma because Emma wasn’t Emma when they had a one-night stand. She was Alexa, a sultry and sexy woman on the prowl. Emma in her day-to-day, managing a bed-and-breakfast life is understated and mousy, insecure in herself.

And yet, Wyatt can’t keep his eyes off Emma. There’s something about her that draws him in and he wants to know more about her. While she fights off his attention at every step and furiously tries to keep her erotic novel under wraps, he pursues her until she has no choice but to give in.

But when the truth of Emma’s novel comes to light, and he realizes he’s a character in her book, can their love stand a chance? Or is Emma just another person in a long line of groupies who wanted to use his fame for her good?

This was really a fun novel to read, and I truly felt a kinship with Emma. Like her, I’m an aspiring novelist and the novel I’m writing is a bit on the steamy side. It’s not erotica like Emma’s is, but it’s the kind of novel that makes me blush when I think about people who know me in my real life reading it. I could understand her hesitation of letting people know this secret of hers, but I was really sad that she didn’t feel like she could tell her closest girlfriends about it. I feel like that’s the benefit of close girlfriends, but Emma held herself off from fully trusting them with this secret.

I also felt for Wyatt, who is trying to get back to a competitive level after taking time away from his sport. When his younger brother, Ryder, was badly injured due to a snowboarding accident, his main concern was getting him healthy again. Ryder suffers from a traumatic brain injury, and his side plot was so interesting to me. I actually preferred his scenes to the scenes between Emma and Wyatt. There was something so authentic about them, and he tugged at my heartstrings.

There was surprising depth to this novel, between the internal conflict of the characters and the overarching conflict of the novel. It was well-paced and I found the dialogue to be pretty honest. Dialogue in romance novels can be hit or miss, but this one was way more hit.

But I can’t lie. As much as I enjoyed my time with this novel, there were some glaring problems. First, the romance. It just wasn’t believable to me. I didn’t feel the connection between Emma and Wyatt – it wasn’t strong enough. I wanted more from them as a couple, but there was a lack of sexual chemistry, and that made it hard to root for them.

I also had a hard time with the relationship between Emma and her mother, especially considering Emma and her mom are supposed to have a close relationship. At one point, her mom calls to chastise her about kissing a guy in public, and Emma feels shame and guilt about it. That’s… not really a normal reaction for someone in their thirties to have. I didn’t understand why Emma was so close to her mom when her mom just didn’t seem like a fun person to be around. Most of the conversations they had revolved around her mom chastising her, so it didn’t really make sense to me that they were close and ergo, had a good relationship. It didn’t read that way to me at all.

In any event, while this is a sweet romance novel and had some good moments, it’s probably not one that will be a go-to recommend for me. However, it’s an easy, quick read if you’re looking for something to bring to the beach this summer, so it’s great if you want to pick up something lighthearted to read!

Goodreads synopsis:

By day, bashful wallflower Emma Duffy works at her family’s bed-and-breakfast. By night, she secretly pens erotic romance hot enough to melt the snow in their cozy Rockies town.

But Emma’s real life is about to heat up when her mother books the entire inn to a professional snowboarder, hoping the publicity will put them on the map. In a karmic twist of fate, that guest is Wyatt Lawson, the man with whom Emma had shared the secret one-night stand that became the inspiration for her novel and its dreamy hero. Worse, a film crew is documenting his comeback just as her debut is about to hit the shelves. Emma’s only saving grace is that Wyatt doesn’t remember her—and hopefully he never will.

When Wyatt arrives in Sterling Canyon for several weeks of intense training, the last tumble he expects to take is falling for a girl, especially one as shy as Emma. Unlike groupies with their hidden agendas, she isn’t using him—or so he believes…until the film crew uncovers Emma’s pen name and steamy novel.

Wyatt’s comeback run can withstand a fall or two, but can his heart recover from this crash and burn?

You can connect with Jamie Beck on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Her book is available to buy from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

Click here to add this book to Goodreads!

I received a copy of this novel for free in exchange for an honest review. All words and opinions, unless otherwise stated, are my own.

No affiliate links were used in this post.

Categories: Books

Monthly Book Review | April 2017

April was another fantastic reading month for me – I read nine books and I’m way ahead of my goal to read 100 books this year. What can I say? I’m devoting a lot of time to reading lately, and it feels really good. This month, my favorite novel was The Underground Railroad, which is a novel I think everyone needs to read. It’s sensational.

Here are my book reviews:

Whisper No Lies by Cindy Gerard (★★★★★) – I could barely put this novel down; it was so good that I immediately wanted to reread it when I finished it. Cindy Gerard writes such intense romantic thrillers, and this one was especially intense as it followed a human trafficking ring, which was just so damn heartbreaking. One of these days I’m going to write a post about finding great romance novels, but if you’re looking for a romance that will easily keep your attention and isn’t cheesy, pick up anything by Cindy Gerard. (library e-book)

Extreme You by Sarah Robb O’Hagan (★★☆☆☆) – I reviewed this book earlier in the month for TLC Book Tours, and you can find my review here. It’s a great read for ambitious career-minded women, but as I’m not really the target audience for this type of book, a lot of the advice didn’t land for me. (hardcover)

Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid (★★★★☆) – This romance was such a fun time, and so much better than the previous book in this series (Truth or Beard). What I loved most was that it had a plus-sized protagonist, and that’s something you just don’t see in romance novels that often. I also found the juxtaposition of glamorous Hollywood and backwoods Tennessee to be such a unique mix, and made the romance all the more believable. The next book in this series is about Cletus, who is far and away my favorite Winston brother, and I cannot wait to dive into that one. (e-book)

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover (★★★★☆) – My book club is obsessed with Colleen Hoover, and I’m slowly working my way through her list of titles. I’ve had Hopeless on my Kindle for a long time now (I bought it during a Bookbub deal) and I finally got around to reading it and couldn’t put it down. The thing about Colleen Hoover is that she makes me want to give up on fiction writing completely because I’m not sure if I can write characters and scenes as real and believable as she does. Everything she writes just comes alive on the page. This book took a crazy turn about 75% of the way through – a turn I wasn’t expecting at all – and it just made this book even more unputdownable. Give it a read, but be warned, it’s basically a mushy YA love story. (e-book)

The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn (★★☆☆☆) – I have really enjoyed Julia Quinn’s Smith-Smythe Quartet series, but this novel just didn’t do it for me. The whole plot seemed contrived, and the hero of the novel was not how I like my romance heroes to be (honest, kind, forthright). In the end, I wasn’t even rooting for the romance to succeed, and that’s never a good sign. (library e-book)

Still the One by Jill Shalvis (★★★★☆) – This was such a fun romance novel! It continued her Animal Magnetism series, and I basically never want this series to end because it makes me so happy. Romance novels involving animals? Hello, wheelhouse. This is one of those novels where the characters spend a lot of time hating each other, but are also not able to handle the rush of sexual chemistry they have for one another, which is one of my favorite romance tropes. Fun, cute, with great sex scenes… all I want in a romance novel! (library e-book)

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (★★★★☆) – I can finally say that I read, and loved, a Pulitzer Prize award-winning book! This book was masterfully written, heartbreaking yet hopeful. It’s a story about Cora, a slave on a plantation in Georgia, who escapes with another slave named Caesar through the Underground Railroad. Except the Underground Railroad is an actual railroad with engineers and conductors and tracks and tunnels. The book follows Cora’s journey as she travels this railroad and what happens afterward. I worried that the language of the novel would be too literary for my tastes, but it was actually super accessible and easy to read. There’s definitely a literary element to Whitehead’s writing, but it read beautifully and not literary just for the sake of being literary. And this quote, near the end of the novel, was simply outstanding:

“‘And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes-believes with all its heart-that is it their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn’t exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty.'” (p. 285)

I am going to encourage everyone I know to read this book. It’s a hard, heavy subject but we need to continue telling the stories about the horrors of slavery and the way blacks were (are?) treated in our country, as if they were less than and not human beings. (hardcover)

All Wound Up by Jaci Burton (★★★★★) – I’ve read quite a few of Burton’s Play-By-Play novels that have been less than stellar. They started feeling formulaic and contrived. But I’ve stuck with her because the first few novels in this series were so good, and I’m glad I did because this novel felt more like the ones I read in the beginning. It was a fun plot with likable characters who didn’t seem too perfect. I also really respect the way Burton writes sports scenes – it really feels like you’re on the field and if I ever end up writing sports romance, she’s someone I could take more than a few lessons from. (library e-book)

A Separate Peace by John Knowles (★★★★☆) – I read this novel for my “read four classics” yearly goal, and it was really fantastic. It’s a quick read at just under 200 pages and I really loved the time period and this insight into an entirely different viewpoint. Most World War II books follow people involved in the war or deeply affected by it, but this novel tells the story of boys who are not yet able to fight in the war but know their time is coming, as they are in their final year of boarding school in New England. The novel is mostly about Gene and Phineas and their friendship and how it evolves during the year. (library paperback)

What was the best book you read in April?

Categories: Books

How to Read More This Year

When people ask me how I can read so many books, I usually blow them off.

“Oh, I don’t have much of a life,” I tell them with a laugh.

And, in a sense, that’s true. I don’t keep a very full social calendar due to being an introvert and needing tons of alone time. I’m not in a relationship and I don’t have kids. It leads to having lots of time to read. And it’s my favorite hobby, so I make the time for it. It’s something I can’t imagine not doing, so reading is something I make time for every single day.

I have a lot of friends who want to read more. I don’t really think anyone needs to read as much as I do. If you’re reading at least 1-2 books per month, you’re doing fine. But if you’re looking for tips on how to read more, well then, I’ve got you covered:

1) Listen to audiobooks.

Do you have a long commute? Do you spend a lot of time by yourself cooking or cleaning? Do you like to take long walks? All of these activities lend themselves to prime audiobook time. I listen to a lot of podcasts, which means I don’t really listen to a ton of audiobooks, though I’ve been trying to listen to more this year. I love to listen to audiobooks when I’m driving (I never listen to the radio anymore, instead opting for a podcast or my audiobook in the car), when I’m cooking, when I’m cleaning, when I’m taking Dutch on walks. Sometimes, I can even listen when I’m working, depending on the task I’m doing. You could easily knock out 1-2 books per month simply by listening to audiobooks.

2) Read before bed. 

I read before bed every single night. Sometimes, I can only manage a chapter before my eyes are too tired to focus and sometimes, I get in bed so early that I can read for 45 minutes or more. This is when I get the majority of my reading done. It’s such a habit for me that I feel weird if I go to bed without reading, even if it’s just a few pages. If you find that those hours right before you go to sleep are spent scrolling through Instagram or reading terrible news stories on Twitter, instead plug in your phone, set your alarm, and put it on Do Not Disturb. Then snuggle into bed with your book and read until you get sleepy. It’s the perfect end-of-the-day activity!

3) Read on your lunch break.

One of my favorite things to do is read during my lunch break. It really allows me to break up my day when I know I have at least 30 minutes (or more) set aside to dive into my current read. I used to feel embarrassed about reading at work, but I’ve been outed as a major bookworm, so now I have no qualms about it (and a good portion of my office reads on their lunch breaks, too!) If you’re looking for a pocket of time to get some reading in, your lunch break is the perfect time to do that. (And if you work from home, this works for you, too! I know too many of us tend to work through our lunch and, this way, you can physically set your computer aside and take an actual lunch break, complete with your latest book.)

4) Read in spurts.

I do a lot of my reading in spurts – 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there. It’s something that was apparent when I logged my reading for a week, as there were only four instances in the space of an entire week where I read for longer than 30 minutes. The majority of the time, I snuck reading in 5, 10, or 15-minute spurts. And that’s still my M.O. today – lots of reading in spurts. There are a lot of little times during the day when you can probably sneak in some reading. Get to your doctor’s appointment early? Reading time. Have 10 minutes before you have to leave for work? Reading time. Need to use the bathroom? Reading time. (Ha.) You’ll be amazed at how much reading you can knock out in these little spurts of time!

5) Give something up.

The real truth of how to read more is that you have to give something up. You can’t just expect to read more without changing your life in some way, whether that’s less TV or less social media. Think about it: if you told yourself that when you got home from work, you weren’t going to open up social media for the rest of the night, you’d be able to spend oodles of time reading. (This article explains it better.) But the truth of the matter is that I don’t watch much TV (it took me four months to watch one season of Gilmore Girls and that is not a joke) and I don’t have a full, active social calendar. In order to read more, you have to open up space in your life and that usually means giving something up. But in doing so, you will gain so much more than bingeing on a Netflix series or scrolling endlessly through Facebook. Social media and TV have nothing on a good book, in my opinion.

Have any tips to add on how to read more? Let me know in the comments!

Categories: Books

Book Review: Extreme You by Sarah Robb O’Hagan

“I figured that if I kept trying and experimenting to find where I was great and where I sucked, if I kept believing that I could excel somewhere, somehow, eventually I’d find my own path to my own kind of greatness.”

This is in the introduction chapter of Extreme You by Sarah Robb O’Hagan, a book about how Sarah went from being fired from two jobs in her twenties to becoming the global president for two extremely well-known brands. Gatorade and Equinox… ya heard of them, maybe? Through her years reinventing herself and her career, Sarah developed her Extreme You approach, which has five essential qualities:

  • Check Yourself Out – wherein you experiment with all sorts of hobbies, passions, and careers to find what truly lights you up
  • Ignite Your Magic Drive – to “build the stamina and the confidence to power through any challenge that comes your way.”
  • Get Out of Line – take chances with your career, using the skills you honed in Check Yourself Out and Ignite Your Magic Drive to give you the confidence to do so
  • Get Over Yourself – to recognize your weaknesses and notice patterns in what mentors and other people are telling you about where you need to improve, and then work to improve those areas
  • Pain Training – which is how you will live through your failures when they come (because they will come and you need to be prepared for handling them)

In the book, Sarah takes readers through every step of her process, using examples from her own life and from the lives of other “Extreme” people (like Olympic skier Bode Miller and ESPN anchor Sage Steele). It’s a truly inspiring account of how to truly kick ass and truly live out your passions.

But… and this was my main contention with the book… it was mainly about your career and how to continue to scale up the ladder. Which is fine. It’s a great book if you want to learn more about how to become a more badass career woman, but it’s just not something that lights me up. I’m never going to be the person whose highest aim is a corner office or to lead a team of people. That’s just not something I’m passionate about.

It’s also not in my personality. The people in nearly all of the examples in this book were very clearly outgoing extroverts who have no problem making their voices heard. That’s not who I am. I’m an introvert and I have social anxiety, which means speaking up in meetings and collaborative projects are difficult for me. (I’m very thankful that my current position caters to my shy, introverted needs!)

So, this book wasn’t exactly geared toward someone like me, but I did find lots of inspiration from Sarah. She was brutally honest about her failures and gave some really exceptional career advice. And her writing style was really easy to read and relatable and humorous at times. She’s definitely a unique person!

All in all, it’s perfect for people looking for career advice and a blueprint for moving through the ranks in a corporate environment, but if you’re thinking it’s going to be about how to be “Extreme” in your personal life, you’ll be disappointed.

Goodreads synopsis:

As a child, Sarah Robb O’Hagan dreamed she could be a champion. Her early efforts failed to reveal a natural superstar, but she refused to settle for average. Through dramatic successes and epic fails, she studied how extraordinary people in sports, entertainment and business set and achieve extremely personal goals. Sarah became an executive at Virgin Atlantic and Nike, and despite being fired twice in her twenties, she went on to become the global president of Gatorade and of Equinox—as well as a wife, mother, and endurance athlete.

In every challenging situation, personal or professional, individuals face the pressure to play it safe and conform to the accepted norms. But doing so comes with heavy costs: passions stifled, talents ignored, and opportunities squelched. The bolder choice is to embrace what Sarah calls Extreme You: to confidently bring all that is distinctive and relevant about yourself to everything you do.

Inspiring, surprising, and practical, Extreme You is her training program for becoming the best version of yourself.

You can connect with Sarah Robb O’Hagan on the Extreme You website and Twitter. Her book is available to buy from Amazon, HarperCollins, and Barnes & Noble. 

Click here to add this book to Goodreads!

I received this book for free from TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. All words and opinions, unless otherwise stated, are my own.

No affiliate links were used in this post.