June Reads

Happy Friday! It is especially a happy Friday for me since I scheduled today off to give myself a four-day weekend. I plan on sleeping in, relaxing, doing some work around the apartment, and then I’m going to a baseball game tonight. I’m not a huge baseball fan, but who passes up tickets to see a game in a suite? Not me! (Also: free food. And booze, if that’s what you go for.)

June was a solid reading month for me with 9 books read. (It should be noted this includes two Harlequin novels, which I can finish in a matter of hours…) I’m slightly behind my goal to get 100 books read this year, but I’ve been a reading machine lately so I know I can make it to 100!

41. Alias Mommy by Linda O. Johnston (2 stars)

A really cheesy, not very well-written Harlequin romance. These are my favorite books to get lost in on a lazy Saturday, which is exactly what I did. It was a sweet story where you basically knew what was going to happen the entire novel, but there were some twists and turns I wasn’t expecting.

42. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (3.5 stars)

My least favorite book of The Hunger Games series. The beginning was very, very slow and there were a lot of things that happened that I didn’t like. Katniss annoyed me a lot in this book and I didn’t feel as engaged with the story as I have been with the previous two novels. I can understand the slow beginning, though, because Collins had to get us fully in the know about what was happening and how it affects everyone. I thought the ending was okay, although some of the things that wound up happening made me very angry. In the end, a wonderful series and I’m glad I can finally say I’ve read it.

43. Perfect Partners by Carly Phillips (2.5 stars)

Carly Phillips is one of my favorite contemporary romance writers so I was excited when this series was on sale for $.99 on Amazon. This book was okay, but I later learned this series is one of the first she’d written (way back in 1999!) so I can tell how much her writing has improved over the years. There were a lot of inconsistencies I noticed – such as the two-year-old acted more like a one-year-old and I didn’t believe the female lead as being a woman who was domestically abused. It was really cheesy and I’m not even sure if I want to read the next two books in the series.

44. The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner (4 stars)

This was the first audiobook I’ve ever listened to and I must say: I am a fan! First of all, the reader was such a perfect fit. She might have ruined me for all other audiobook readers with how perfect she was. She didn’t make up silly deep voices for the male characters and I started reading my books in her voice, which is odd, but whatever. She read like I would have read it. So, yes, I just want all of my audiobooks to be read by her. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

Onto the book itself! I have a hard time with Jennifer Weiner’s novels because they involve so much back story that my attention span wanes before I can get to the good part. (I abandoned Best Friends Forever for this reason.) I really, really enjoyed this novel and could identify with Ruth, the main character. I loved learning about the inner workings of a TV show, how it gets off the ground, and what putting together a pilot episode entails. It was all very interesting! And the love story was just so sweet that I may have “aww-ed” out loud in the car at some parts. I love love stories that give me warm fuzzies. Great, great novel.

45. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (2 stars)

This was our June pick for #twookclub and I have to be completely honest and say I did not enjoy this novel at all. It was a struggle for me and I have never been more happy to have finished a book! I did enjoy some of the characters, but the writing felt so pretentious and uppity. I really don’t understand why this book is so well-loved. I was bored for the majority of it and the ending just made me very, very angry.

46. Dr. Bodyguard by Jessica Andersen (3 stars)

This was a fairly good read, for a trashy romance novel. The writing was decent and not too cheesy, and I really loved the interplay between the two characters. I really don’t have too much to say about this novel!

47. When Summer Comes by Brenda Novak (3 stars)

I have a slew of books on my Kindle that I bought either for free or for $.99 that I need to read, and this was one of them. I liked the idea behind the story: a twentysomething girl finds out her liver is failing and she probably won’t make it past summer unless she gets a new liver. She’s living alone in her grandparents’ house in the middle of nowhere and a man bangs on her door late one night, needing help. He’s been attacked by a pack of dogs and needs immediate medical attention. This is a love story, so I’m sure you know what happens from there: she takes care of him and they fall in love. I won’t give away too much of the plot, but it was a sweet novel and I ended up really rooting for the two of them to somehow make it.

48. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (5 stars)

One of my favorite novels from this author! I read the second half of this book in one sitting last Friday night because I couldn’t put it down for anything. This book was about Annabel, a girl who just lost her best friend when she was found in a compromising position with her friend’s boyfriend. Her sister is undergoing treatment for an eating disorder and with her parents focused on her sister, she feels a bit alone. Then she meets Owen, a music-obsessed loner who has no issue with telling the truth exactly as it is (something she never learned to do with her family). I loved Annabel and Owen. Annabel wasn’t as angsty as most of the teenage characters Dessen writes and I loved how Owen got her to open up and be honest about how she felt about things. It was just a really, really great novel!

49. I Got You, Babe by Jane Graves (3 stars)

I felt like this book was longer than it needed to be and I simultaneously loved and hated the main character. Renee has been framed for a convenience store robbery and is on the run. After successfully getting away from the bounty hunter determined to bring her in, she rushes into a diner and straight for John DeMarco. At first, all she wants is a ride, and is willing to do anything for that. She propositions him, he accepts, and they leave together. Then Renee finds out John is a cop and he finds out she’s a wanted woman. The next 250 or so pages are filled with the two of them trying to get to the truth and learn to trust one another. The writing was pretty good, though the action scenes were pretty weak and it got pretty cheesy toward the end.

Books read in June: 9
Books read in 2013: 49

Have you ever listened to an audiobook?