what i’m reading

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.23.21)

Hi, friends! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I had such a great time in Chicago and can’t wait to recap it all for you guys this week. I also really, really, really, really, really enjoyed having a full 9.5 days off work. It was rejuvenating for me! I haven’t had time off like that since the end of 2020 and it was much needed.

But now it’s Monday and I’m back in the swing of things: work and meal planning and step counts and workout goals. I’m also getting my first-ever COVID test today! Can you believe I’ve never had to get one? Crazy, right? Well, I’m getting one today to make sure I didn’t pick up the virus during my travels—it’s not a CDC requirement to get tested after flying domestically, but I’m doing so for my peace of mind. With the way this Delta variant is going (and having fully vaccinated friends who have tested positive recently!), I just want to be sure I’m not walking around with an active case of COVID even though I’m always masking up when I’m in public. I wanted to wait a full 72 hours from my flight (we arrived home around 7pm on Thursday), which is why I’m only getting it now. Fingers crossed for a negative result!

Anyway, enough of that talk! Let’s dive into what I’ve been reading over the past two weeks! I finished four books and liked them all. Here are my reviews:

It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian (★★★☆☆)

This queer romance had so much going for it, but ultimately, it fell flat for me. As the story begins, Phillip is returning home from being at sea for a few years and isn’t sure how his children will react, especially once he starts receiving word that his children keep driving away their governesses. Ben is the town’s vicar and has taken the children under his wing until their father comes home. When Phillip returns, he finds his children aloof with him and enamored with the vicar. But Phillip can’t blame them—he also finds himself easily enamored with Ben. Ben is smart and kind and funny and incredibly good-looking. And the truth is that Ben feels the same way as Phillip—he can’t help being drawn to this brooding seaman with a heart of gold. Soon enough, Phillip and Ben’s attraction to each other is too big to ignore, but what are they to do? Phillip is leaving to go back out to sea and Ben has plans to marry his childhood best friend in a few month’s time. It’s a really beautiful story about queerness and love and family, but it was almost as if the author took the adage of “show, don’t tell” in regards to writing too far. There wasn’t enough detail or depth to really sink into the story, and the characters felt one-dimensional and ultimately forgettable.

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano (★★★★☆)

This novel was so excellent, and I’m glad it lived up to my high expectations. After Finlay is overheard talking about the plot of her latest romantic suspense novel at Panera, a nearby patron believes she’s talking about a real-life murder she’s planning—not the one she’s writing about. So she contracts Finlay to kill her husband! (Totally normal.) She’ll pay her $50,000, which is money Finlay could really use, seeing as she’s way behind on writing her book and her electricity was just turned off that morning. What follows is an outstanding novel filled with hijinks and a twisty-turny plot as Finlay learns just how hard it is to be a contract killer with a soul. I loved this thriller. It was well-paced and just plain fun. And sure, I had to suspend belief for the ending, but eh, by that point, I was so heavily invested in Finlay’s story that I didn’t mind. I’m so excited there’s a sequel, too!

Handle with Care by Helena Hunting (★★★☆☆)

Handle With Care is a contemporary romance novel that gave me all of the happy feels! Lincoln is summoned back to NYC after his father dies and leaves him in charge of his huge media company. For the past few years, he’s been spending time in Guatemala and other South American countries building homes and trenches. But now that he’s become acting CEO, he has to learn to look and act the part. Enter: Wren. As a public relations expert, she’s tasked with helping Lincoln become the best CEO he can be—that includes giving him a makeover, setting up social media profiles, and helping him with the speeches he has to make. Of course, this is a romance so you can guess what happens from here: Lincoln and Wren fall in love with one another and chaos ensues. It’s a sweet story and I loved the chemistry between Lincoln and Wren, but some of the side characters (like Lincoln’s mother and brother) almost read like caricatures, not as real people. They were so villainous, with no nuance to their characters at all, and because of that, the plot kind of went off the rails at the end. Ah, well. It was still a fun romance with great main characters that were easy to root for.

I See You by Clare Mackintosh (★★★★☆)

My goodness, this was an excellent thriller! When Zoe sees a photo of herself in an advertisement in the newspaper, she’s determined to find out how it got there. The next day, there’s another woman in the ad and a different woman the day after that, and so on and so forth. It’s only when she realizes that one of these women is involved in a robbery and another woman was found murdered that she really starts to worry. This fast-paced thriller will have you on the edge of your seat, especially as everything comes together in the end. It was truly shocking! After reading this book, I’m really glad I don’t use public transportation because I would be terrified to be alone on a train! Eeks.

What I’m Reading This Week

I’m about halfway finished with The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn, which is the second book in her Bridgerton series (and what season 2 of Bridgerton will focus on!) It’s great so far—I’m loving the banter between Anthony and Kate. I also just started The Guncle by Steven Rowley, a book that has gotten a ton of buzz. I have high hopes for this one! And, finally, I’m going to start an audiobook this week—What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.10.21)

Hi, friends! Comin’ at ya on a Tuesday for my reading update—surprise! 🙂 After lamenting about my slow reading pace lately, I somehow finished four books this week. Well, it’s not all that shocking considering that one was a short audiobook (7 hours) and another was The Count of Monte Cristo, which I’ve been reading for 8 months. Hehe. Let’s dig into my reviews:

Foreplayer by Kate Meader (★★★★☆)

This was a really great hockey romance, especially considering both the male and female protagonists were hockey players. When the novel begins, Mia is training to earn a spot on Team USA’s women’s hockey team for the upcoming Olympics while Cal is gearing up for another season of the NHL. Mia’s brother (and Cal’s teammate) encourages her to reach out to Cal for extra training, which she does, and of course, sparks fly and they start to fall for each other. Unsure how Mia’s brother will react to the news, they keep things under wraps for the most part. While Mia could sometimes get on my nerves, I enjoyed the banter between the two characters and could definitely feel their chemistry. The ending was overly sappy, but I kinda loved it anyway.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (★★★★★)

Well, I have another contender for my favorite novel of the year! This book is not something I would typically gravitate to, considering fantasy isn’t a go-to genre for me, but everyone I know has raved about this book and I can definitely see why. Linus is a caseworker at DICOMY, the Department in Charge of Magical Youths, and spends his time investigating orphanages to make sure everything is on the up and up. Now, he has been put on a super-secret assignment to investigate the goings-on at the Marsyas Island Orphanage. At this orphanage, six magical youths have been classified as dangerous by DICOMY, including one child who is the literal son of Satan. Linus, a quiet man who leads a quiet life, isn’t sure he’s up to the task. What he’s not prepared for is discovering how enchanting these children—or how captivating their caretaker, Arthur Parnassus, is. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK. It will make you laugh and cry and just want to do so much better for those who are deemed different or dangerous. I loved every minute I spent in this world and was so sad to say goodbye to these lovable characters.

A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost (★★★★☆)

You may remember that last week I said I was going to start the audiobook of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Well, I started it and quickly stopped it when I realized the narrator was the same as an audiobook I just listened to, and her voice just grated on me. So instead I pivoted to this supremely funny memoir from the Weekend Update host on Saturday Night Live. Colin Jost isn’t someone I know very well (I only catch clips of SNL here and there, and rarely are they Weekend Update clips), but his memoir came highly recommended by a colleague and I finally decided to give it a listen this week. And I am so glad I did because it was funny and heartfelt and an all-around good time. Colin talks about his time on SNL, crazy traveling stories, and his experience of 9/11 as his mom was a first responder. There’s also a whole chapter on poop that I skipped because nahhh. I really enjoyed this memoir, though, and it is excellent on audio.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (★★★★★)

I finally finished this tome! It took me 8 months to read, but man, what an enjoyable 8 months it was. I am really going to miss spending every day with the Count and all the cast of characters. And what’s even crazier to me is that even though this book clocks in at nearly 1,300 pages, I can definitely see myself returning to this book and reading it over and over again. It was that good, and I am sure there is so much I missed during my first read-through. After Edmond Dantes is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit right as he’s about to marry the love of his life, he vows to get revenge on those who wronged him. It’s a story of betrayal, of love, of hope, of redemption. It’s perfection. The cast of characters is vast and the story arc is long and winding, but it all comes together so perfectly in the end. If you want to read this book but are intimidated by the length, please consider downloading the Serial Reader app. It sends you a short snippet of the book every day, breaking down this tome into 208 “issues” that make getting through the book so much easier. (And the app is free!)

What I’m Reading This Week

Yesterday, I started Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano, which is one of the buzziest books of 2021, I think! I am about 60 pages in and thoroughly enjoying it. I’m also dipping in and out of It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian, a queer historical romance, which has been really fun, too.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (8.2.21)

Good morning, friends! This weekend was a weird one because alllll of my plans got canceled. I decided to make the best of it, though, and make it a reading weekend. I was able to finish two books over the weekend, which definitely helped cut down my deficit on my Goodreads goal (I started the weekend 11 books behind on my goal and ended it with 8). There’s always a silver lining to canceled plans. 🙂

It’s been two weeks since my last reading update and I have 5 books to review with you guys today! One of them may even be a contender for my favorite read of the year.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (★★★★☆)

This book takes on the subject of race—but from the lens of race in Britain. Eddo-Lodge covers the history of race and racism in Britain, which was a subject I’ve never learned about, certainly not in school and neither in the antiracism reading I’ve been doing in the past few years. In the novel, Eddo-Lodge discusses white feminism, the racist experiences of Black Britains today, and the relationship between class and race. It was a fascinating book that taught me so much, especially as there was a lot I didn’t know about the types of racism experienced in European countries, which are both similar and dissimilar to racism in the US.

How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole (★★★☆☆)

I enjoyed this contemporary romance about a present-day royal, but I think something was missing from it. The story follows Beznaria who lives in Ibarania, a nation off the Mediterranean Sea, and is tasked with finding the princess of Ibarania. She believes she has found it in Makeda, an American-born girl who is barely making ends meet and was just laid off from her job at a grocery store. Beznaria travels to the U.S. to meet Makeda and convince her to come back to Ibarania with her. What follows are hijinks and many days spent on a cargo ship where they pretend to be married. I felt a bit confused about Makeda’s backstory and why she was so against being a princess—it wasn’t clearly explained in the novel and it left me wanting more. I also wanted a whole lot more from the romance between Bez and Makeda. They barely spent any time together so it was hard to believe they fell in love in such a short time! All in all, a rather lackluster romance.

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali (★★★★☆)

I loved this sweet yet heartbreaking story about two young lovers in 1950s Iran and the stationery shop where they met. Roya is a teenager in 1953 when she meets Bahman, an idealistic young man who is working hard to keep Iran’s prime minister in power. But then, on the day they plan to wed, they are separated and the next time they lay eyes on each other, 60 years have passed. There was so much to love about this book: the Iranian culture, Roya’s character, and the way everything came together in the end. It’s a lovely story—maybe not one that will stick with me long-term, but definitely one I will think of fondly when it’s mentioned in passing.

Steal Me by Lauren Layne (★★★★☆)

Steal Me is the second book in a Lauren Layne romance series following a trio of brothers who are NYPD cops. In this novel, Anthony, a police captain, and Maggie, the waitress at the cafe his family frequents become embroiled in a case together. For the past few months, Anthony has been chasing a burglar they’ve nicknamed Smiley due to the smiley-face stickers he leaves at every house he terrorizes. It’s only by chance that Maggie sees a police sketch of this burger and realizes it bears a striking resemblance to her ex-husband. Maggie and Anthony become thrown together as the case heats up, and of course, when that happens, you can imagine that they start feeling some sort of way about each other. It’s a sweet romance with a lot of heart (I especially love Anthony’s sex-obsessed grandma, hehe), however, I do want to mention that there’s a suicide subplot that is not given the sensitivity it deserves. I really wish the author had left it out of the story because it wasn’t needed.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (★★★★★)

I loved this book so, so much. It may be in the running for my favorite of the year. This novel is a reimagining of Dinah’s, the only daughter of Jacob, life. (Jacob from Genesis, that is.) Dinah is an oft-forgotten character as women in the Bible typically are, and this book was a beautiful exploration of what her life could have been. The novel follows the trajectory of Dinah’s life and it was just sensational from the first page to the last. I especially loved the way Diamant centered the women’s perspectives. The name of the book, The Red Tent, honors the tent that women had to go to when they were menstruating. It’s always been seen as a place to keep “unclean” women away from men, but Diamant gives us another perspective: this is where women can fully rest and be freely themselves. Free to gossip, free to make plans, free to laugh with their sisters. It’s really beautiful when you think of it that way.

What I’m Reading This Week

I’m starting my week off with brand-new reads! That’s always fun. Today, I’m going to start The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, which I’m reading to fulfill August’s prompt for the Unread Shelf Project (a book bought from an independent bookstore). My romance for this week will be Foreplayer by Kate Meader, which is a hockey romance (with a really silly title, let’s be honest). And, finally, I’m going to start Bel Canto by Ann Patchett on audio. This book has gotten mixed reviews from my Goodreads list (though it has a 3.92 rating with over 250,000 reviews!) with lots of people saying it moves really slowly, so I’m hoping that by listening to it, I’ll be able to enjoy it more.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (7.19.21)

Happy Monday, friends! My weekend was really lovely. I got to go to afternoon tea with two friends and while I’m not much of a tea drinker, I really enjoyed myself. The tea was surprisingly good and the food was delicious. And it was just so fun to get all dressed up! I also had game night with the fam and spent some time strolling around Barnes & Noble.

I finished three books last week and liked them all! Here are my reviews:

The Breakdown Lane by Jacquelyn Mitchard (★★★☆☆)

This is my book club’s pick for July and it was quite an interesting read. It was published in 2006 and I was curious if the writing would hold up. For the most part, it did, although there was definitely some troubling language like the r-word being thrown out by the teenage character too many times to count. The novel is ostensibly about Julieanne, an advice columnist and mother of three whose world is rocked when her husband suddenly announces that he wants to take a “sabbatical” from their life and go “find himself” alone. Right as this happens, Julieanne is diagnosed with a serious illness that causes her to rely on her friends and husband’s parents more than ever. The novel is told from the perspective of Julieanne and through journal entries of her son, Gabe, who is 15. It was a good novel, but there were times I wanted a bit more nuance from Julieanne’s husband who was just a really bad dude with nothing redemptive about him. (Which made it hard to feel anything for Julieanne when she was so upset with him leaving.) I listened to this book on audio and kinda hated the narrator so that also tempered my enjoyment of the novel. (It really needed a male voice to narrate Gabe’s part; the female narrator switching to a super deep male voice—which always made me think Gabe was much older than he was—was rather silly.) All in all, a good novel but not one that had any sort of impact on me.

A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare (★★★★☆)

This is another winner from Tessa Dare! This novel, the third in her Spindle Cove series, tells of the love story between Kate and Thorne. Kate has been at Spindle Cove (a little sanctuary for the “misfits” of the world) for a while after breaking free from a boarding school that was no good for her. She’s searching for family and love and acceptance. Thorne arrives in Spindle Cove with his militia and is quickly drawn to Kate for reasons to be revealed later. This novel involves a precocious family filled with their own brand of “misfits,” a fake engagement, and a really crazy ending involving a duel and medieval weaponry. I loved every minute I spent with Thorne and Kate, especially watching Thorne’s walls come down as he learned how to love Kate well.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle (★★★★☆)

I went into this book with low expectations, only because so many people had rated it so highly, and when that happens, I can convince myself there’s no way it can live up to the hype. Especially for self-help-type books. While not a 5-star read for me, Untamed was definitely a book that I would wholly recommend. In this book, Glennon discusses the time in her life when she decided to make some serious changes, namely divorcing her husband and marrying a woman. It’s a book about wrestling with faith, motherhood, her queer identity, and this new family she was developing between her, her ex-husband, her new wife, and their three children. It was a book that I read at a time when I’m also wrestling with a lot of things and I found so much comfort in Glennon’s words. She made me feel seen and loved, made me hopeful, made me recognize that living in my truth is the most important thing. While there were certain aspects of the novel that made me scratch my head (basically any interaction with her kids because, quite honestly, the conversations seemed fabricated to fit into the mold of the point she was trying to make), overall, I really liked the book and I think it’s definitely one to read if you’ve ever wrestled with your faith or your identity.

What I’m Reading This Week

I started How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole last night, so I don’t have too much to say about it right now. I have very low expectations, though, as the book has a 3.59 rating on Goodreads, which is very low. This is the second book in her Runaway Royals series and I didn’t love the first novel, so I’m hoping the second one is better.

Also on my list this week, I’m starting The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali on audio and will be dipping into Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge.

What are you reading?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (7.12.21)

Happy Monday, friends! This weekend was an especially great one because Olive finished her last chemo infusion on Friday and got to ring the bell to commemorate being done with cancer treatment. Here’s a sweet video of that moment! In other good news, my car only needed a $200 repair so she’s back up and running and I’m keeping my fingers crossed she remains so for many more months to come.

Last week, I finished two books. Here are my reviews:

My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren (★★★☆☆)

Man, do I have mixed feelings about this book. The novel is about Millie and Reid, best friends who work together as professors at a university. Their friend group (all of whom work for the university) decides they all need to have dates to a big event in a few months, so they join an online dating app called IRL. Millie decides to go incognito on the app, using a photo that doesn’t really show her face and a fake name. Then, she matches with Reid and starts messaging with him… all the while falling for him in real life. Honestly, this is super messed-up of Millie and it was hard to root for her and Reid to make it when she’s being so deceitful. It’s not ok! Plus, I thought the dating app representation was just abysmal. I have yet to find an author who can write about dating apps in a way that is true to life. Nobody is writing 3-page-long messages or telling a woman about the other dates he’s going on/people he’s sleeping with. That doesn’t happen! Ugh. So much potential, but this one wasn’t my favorite.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (★★★★☆)

I am an Andy Weir stan by now, as I’ve read every book he’s written (although I have yet to watch the movie adaptation of The Martian). In this novel, Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship with no idea who he is or why he got there. All he knows is that he’s on a state-of-the-art spaceship deep in the solar system and his two crewmates are dead. As his memory slowly comes back to him, he learns not only of the critical mission he’s on but of the immense sacrifice he made. There is so much about this novel I want to talk about, but I don’t want to give anything away because I went into this book completely blind (the synopsis on Goodreads gives too much away!) and I think that’s the best way to read it. This is a 4.5-star book for me; it won’t displace The Martian as my favorite, but it came very, very close. I loved so much about the novel, even the science-y parts that went over my head, and it was such a fun reading experience. I’m so excited about what Andy Weir will write next!

What I’m Reading This Week

The Breakdown Lane by Jacqueline Mitchard (audio) – I’m still working my way through this novel. I’m over halfway through and I’m enjoying it more now than I did in the beginning. It feels like a 3-star read for me. But maybe my thoughts and feelings will change by the time I finish it!
A Lady by Midnight by Tessa Dare (e-book) – I started this historical romance over the weekend, and I am loving it so much already (I’m about 30% in). Let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint!
Untamed by Glennon Doyle Melton (print) – I’m picking up this book to fulfill July’s challenge for the Unread Shelf Project (a book bought for the cover – it has such a fun, bright cover!) A few friends have loved this book, a few friends have loathed it. We’ll see what camp I fall into!

What are you reading?