I read 8 books in April, which brings my yearly total up to 27 books read. I’m ahead of my goal to read 75 books this year, and I am very happy about that! The best book I read this month was The Willpower Instinct and my least favorite book was Ciao, Bella.

1. The Trouble with Cowboys by Melissa Cutler (4 stars)

I have such an author crush on Melissa Cutler! I love the way she writes her romances, how real they feel, how authentic the characters are. It’s not as cheesy as many of the romances I read are (not that I totally mind that, but it’s nice when it feels less silly and more honest), and I find myself really investing in her novels. I’m so glad I discovered her and can’t wait to read more!

2. Summer Island by Kristin Hannah (4 stars)

Kristin Hannah is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and this novel may be one of my favorites yet. It’s a mother-daughter story, about a woman who left her family when her daughters were younger (in high school) and is now a successful radio host in Seattle. Her daughters are grown, one is married with two children and the other is a struggling comic living in LA. While the married daughter has contact with her mother, the other doesn’t want anything to do with her. And then the mother breaks her leg in a car accident and needs help, so the younger daughter (reluctantly) steps in, and they return to their hometown and childhood home to rehabilitate – both physically and emotionally.

I love the way Hannah creates characters. Because they’re real and messy and raw and vulnerable. They aren’t very likable at times. But there was something authentic about that. I don’t think it’s always necessary to like the characters you read. I don’t think that’s the point sometimes. (Hi, Gone Girl.) I think it’s better when characters make me angry or upset or annoyed. They make me feel something. I think that’s the ultimate goal of writing: you want your readers to feel something strongly. Whether about a crazy plot twist or a character flaw or something. In the end, I wound up loving the characters as they turned a corner and stopped being so angry or so wimpy or so secretive. It was a beautiful novel.

3. Ciao, Bella by Ryan M. Phillips (3 stars)

I can’t remember when I got this book, but it was a while ago and it’s been sitting on my Kindle for a long time. I had high hopes for this story when it began because I could really identify with the main character (facing turning thirty, perpetually single, wanting so badly to have one of those love stories for the ages, a Christian who feels very far away from God…). And then her friends “surprise” her with a makeover on a hit talk show, she’s flown to LA to show off her new look, meets a very hot movie star and they begin to date. It was just… very unbelievable to me. And then the main character started making really dumb decisions and I started to really dislike her. And that really tanked the rest of the book for me. I still gave it 3 stars because it did hold my attention and I felt that the Christian themes were really well-done and not overly cheesy. But this one fell short of my hopes.

4. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult (4 stars)

This book had been super hyped up for me (I had one friend who said it was the best book she’s ever read), so I went into it with a lot of expectations. It was a good book. Incredibly well-researched, emotional, and hard to read at times. It had a ton of different storylines intertwined, but it was never too difficult to keep track of who was narrating and what was happening. I won’t say I particularly enjoyed the novel because it was a very hard read, but it was well written and a good novel. I won’t say it’s my favorite (probably won’t crack my top ten this year, to be honest), but it was an interesting, engaging read and I give mad props to Picoult for tackling such a hard topic and really helping me understand the Holocaust in a deeper way.

5. Up at Butternut Lake by Mary McNear (3 stars)

A cute, light romance novel! You can read my full review of this book here.

6. Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas (4 stars)

This was a reread. I read it back in 2012, I believe, but it is the first book in a four-book series. I’ve never read the following three books, but I want to, so I reread the first book to familiarize myself with the characters again. It’s such a delightful novel! It was your typical romance novel, but there is something so sweet about the love story. It made me happy and gave me that excited feeling, every time I sat down to read it. I really love historical romance! I should read more of it.

7. Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins (5 stars)

Another reread! I’m making my way through Kristan Higgins’s novels again because I love her books and they make me happy. 🙂 They fall into the genre of chick lit for me, and I would say that you would need to enjoy that genre to love her novels. I do think I like her novels more than a Sophie Kinsella novel, but they tend to be cutesy and a bit predictable. (Which I don’t mind!) I really loved this book and spent a weeknight parked on the couch finishing it up because I couldn’t put it down, even though there was a sad scene that made me cry. Sigh. All in all, another great novel from one of my faves!

8. The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal (5 stars)

I loved this book so much, I plan on doing an entire blog post around what I learned and how I want to apply it to my everyday life. I filled up seven single-spaced pages of a Word document while reading this book because it was filled with so much good information. McGonigal is a psychology professor who teaches a course on willpower and self-control, and she basically applies the lessons she teaches in that course in this book. So not only do you get to read about interesting studies and psychology theories, but you get to read about real-life examples of students who took her course and worked through her exercises. This book was super interesting to me (gah, the way the brain works is so amazing!), and I also loved McGonigal’s writing style. Very personable and witty! I wholly recommend this book!

Some interesting quotes from the book (a little teaser for my forthcoming post, perhaps?!):

• Whenever you are under stress, your brain is going to point you toward whatever it thinks will make you happy. Stress shifts the brain into a reward-seeking status. You end up craving whatever substance or activity your brain associates with the promise of reward, and you become convinced that the “reward” is the only way to feel better. (pg. 135)
• Self-criticism is consistently associated with less motivation and worse self-control. Self-compassion is associated with more motivation and better self-control. (pg. 148)
• When you try to push a thought away, and it keeps coming back to your mind, you are more likely to assume that it must be true. Because you are trying not to think about it, its reappearance seems even more meaningful. As a result, you’re more likely to believe it is true. (pg. 214)

Ooh, that’s just good stuff. I can’t wait to discuss it all in more detail!

What was your favorite read this month? Any thoughts on the willpower quotes?

I read 7 books in March! (I know, I know – I said I read 8 books in my post on Monday. I said that thinking I would finish my current book I’m reading before today, but it didn’t happen.) I’m at 19 books read total this year, so I’m on track to meet my goal of reading 75 books.

My favorite book was Two Kisses for Maddy and my least favorite was The Girl Next Door.

1. Why Can’t I Be You by Allie Larkin (3 stars)

I thought this book had an interesting premise: a girl, who has just been dumped by her long-term boyfriend, travels to Seattle to attend a work conference and gets mistaken for someone else. She goes along with the ploy, because at first, it was just easier than admitting who she really was. And then, she just got caught up in becoming this other girl, who was so very much cooler than she was. It was a fun read!

2. Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner (4 stars)

This book intermingled the lives of four women: college student Jules who donates her eggs to a fertility clinic to get money to send her father to rehab; married mom of two Annie who becomes a surrogate to earn money for her struggling family; India, who uses Jules’ eggs and Annie’s body to have the baby she desperately wants with her new husband Marcus; and Bettina, India’s stepdaughter who doesn’t trust India one bit and is going to do her damnedest to find out what secrets India has been hiding.

I found this story really engaging! It’s really not a story about infertility or egg donation or surrogacy, but more of the story of these four women and the choices you will make for your family. I was most drawn to Jules’ and Annie’s stories because I really couldn’t figure out whether or not I liked either India or Bettina. (In the end, not really. Neither were terribly likable.) All in all, one of my favorites from Weiner, and now I’m excited to read more from her!

3. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (5 stars)

This was a book that came highly recommended, which always makes me nervous. (What if I don’t like it? Why would I be the only person who doesn’t like it? Does this mean there is something wrong with me?) But from the very first page, I knew it was going to be a book that would touch my heart. It was a book I never wanted to end but also didn’t want to stop reading. I felt connected to Eleanor and Park, they felt so real and alive to me. It’s a teenage love story, yes, but it’s really so much more than that. That’s such a simplified way of looking at this book because it isn’t all roses and butterflies. It’s happy and hopeful and sweet, but there’s also an undercurrent of despair and sadness that makes you feel so deeply for these characters. I was so invested in this story from beginning to end and I’m just… a fan. I am definitely a Rowell fan.

4. The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes (3 stars)

Me Before You stands out as one of my all-time favorite books, but I hadn’t heard many great reviews about this novel. The story revolves around a painting that a woman’s husband bought for her before he died. It’s a painting of a woman and Liv, the wife, feels a deep connection to her because she was her saving grace as she grieved over the loss of her husband. But the family of the painter learns about this piece and decided they want it back. (It’s worth a lot of money.) Instead of giving it up, Liv decides she will take them to court to fight over the painting.

Within that story, the author weaves together the story of Sophie, the woman in the painting, who was living in France during World War I with her family while her husband was fighting in the war. (I enjoyed this story much, much more than Liv’s story.)

I liked this novel, but I did not love it. There were times when my attention span waned and I honestly don’t think I would have finished it, if not for book club, since it was the pick for March. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters (aside from Sophie, who was seriously one BAMF) nor could I connect to the storyline because I’ve never had such an emotional connection to a painting. (Or any object, really.) That said, there were many people in my book club that absolutely loved the book so what do I know? For me, good but not great.

5. Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann (4 stars)

Another solid novel by one of my absolute favorite writers. What I love about this series is that I’ve been with this group of people for so many books now. (This is Book #14!) I feel like I have grown with these characters, and this one involves many of my favorites, including some interesting love connections that I never saw coming! I’m sad I’m nearing the end of this series of books, but I’m sure I’ll find myself rereading it in a few years’ time.

6. Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Logelin (5 stars)

This book changed me. It gave me the most intense book hangover of my life. And it wasn’t a typical hangover of “Oh, I wish I could read that story again!” but more of a “That was the most difficult book I have ever had to read and I’m glad I read it but I’m not glad because now I am so sad and WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE? WHY?” Sigh. I tend to form emotional connections to stories and people, and it’s even more intense when it’s a memoir. Because, unlike a novel, it’s something that actually happened. You get to feel this person’s rawness and vulnerability as they take you through their journey. And Matt’s journey? Oh, it is so tragic. It’s heartbreaking. It made me sad and angry and melancholy. I’ve never read his blog, so all I knew from his story was that his wife died after giving birth to their daughter, and this book was his tribute to her. I’m still not sure, almost a week after finishing it, that I have fully processed the book. I’ve spent hours in my head, thinking about Matt and Liz and Maddy and how unfair it is that Matt and Maddy have to live without Liz. That Matt has to go on without his wife and Maddy never got a chance to know her mother. I want it to be a cruel joke, but it’s not. It’s real, it happened, and it is so, so tragic.

I can’t put into words how much this book affected me. It gutted me, ripped my heart out, and I just find Matt to be this amazing man who lived through a horrible thing and is raising his daughter in a way that would make his wife so proud. As heartbreaking and sad as the story is, there’s also hope. Because he made it through one of the most horrific things a person can go through, and it was hard and tragic, but he did it. There’s hope that whatever tragic thing comes our way, we, too, can find a way to move forward and thrive in a new normal.

7. The Girl Next Door by Cynthia Eden (3 stars)

After reading such an emotionally heavy book on loss, I needed something easy to read and mind-numbing. Just a simple trashy romance novel and that’s exactly what I got with this book. It wasn’t good, it was pretty cheesy, and it was just what I needed.

Have you ever read a book that affected you on such a deep level?