Stephany Writes

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.16.19)

Happy Monday! It’s hard to believe that Christmas is next week and the end of 2019 is the week after. Time flies! I had a pretty good weekend – met one friend’s fur-baby and another friend’s actual baby, and had a lovely Saturday night shopping with my mom. It’s going to be a crazy week at work, but I think I’m ready for what awaits me. We’ll see!

Last week, I finished four books so it was a most excellent reading week for me. Here are my reviews:

Books Finished

1) Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore (★★★☆☆) – A fun historical romance novel, Bringing Down the Duke takes place in the late 1800s and follows the story of Annabelle, a woman who is 25 and unmarried and joins the first female group to attend the University of Oxford. She ends up joining a suffragist society and encountering the Duke of Montgomery on the street, and then again, at his home when the Duke’s brother invited the society to come there for a party. It’s an inventive plot that I really enjoyed. The reason I only gave it three stars, however, is because I just didn’t believe in the romance. The characters felt two-dimensional and their encounters always left me wanting more. Still, a good debut and I’m excited to read the next book in the series!

2) The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger (★★★☆☆) – I struggled between two and three stars for this novel, ultimately settling on three. It’s about a group of parents who are trying to get their 11-year-old kids accepted at a new magnet school opening up in their town that’s solely for gifted students. It definitely gave me Big Little Lies vibes, but my biggest problem with the novel is just how awful all of the characters were, especially to each other. It seemed like every relationship was a toxic and contentious one, especially the friendship between the four mothers that the story revolves around. Even still, it was an interesting look into how far parents will go for their children (and for appearance), even more so with everything that happened with the college admissions scandal.

3) Runaway Groom by Lauren Layne (★★★★★) – This book was so much fun! It’s perfect for fans of The Bachelor – and even for those who aren’t (like me, ha). Ellie joins Jilted, a dating reality TV show where a man who has two failed engagements under his belt tries to find love. Unlike The Bachelor, though, which ends with a proposal, this show ends with a wedding. Gage, a successful movie star, isn’t thrilled about being on Jilted but he agrees to be on it because he doesn’t have much going on in between films. He doesn’t expect to meet someone like Ellie, someone who isn’t trying to be over-the-top with her attention and even seems to visibly dislike Gage. Which, of course, makes her all that more intriguing to him. Their love story was so sweet and fun, and I really, really love the way it ended. A perfect romance!

4) Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Ann Fowler (★★★★☆) – As you might expect from the title, this novel explored the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, who was married to F. Scott Fitzgerald. She married him when she was barely 18, against her parents’ wishes, and their marriage was a wild ride. Scott was a difficult person to be married to and all Zelda wanted was to establish her independence. She wanted to be someone more than Scott’s wife, but that’s just not how the world worked in that time. I loved Zelda’s character so much. She was fierce and feisty with a heart of gold. This novel felt tedious at times (as novels exploring the entire life of one person tend to be for me), but I’m really glad I read it if only to get a fuller picture of who Zelda Fitzgerald was.

What I’m Reading Now

1) Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan – Y’all, this book is so damn good. I thought it would be freaky, considering she has a psychotic break with no prior history of mental illness, but it’s really not. It’s fascinating and so well-written.

2) Lennon Reborn by Scarlett Cole – This final novel in Cole’s Preload series follows the member of the band I know the least about and seems to be the most contentious. Lennon is the band’s drummer and the youngest of the group, and he really breaks my heart. This novel is his redemption story and I’m loving it so far.

Up Next

1) The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny, on audio – My hold for the physical copy of this book came in this week, but I didn’t have time to pick it up at the library. The e-book has a wait but the audiobook was available for immediate download, so I’m going to try this series on audio for the first time ever! (Amber raves about the series on audio, so I’m excited to give it a try!)

2) Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner – I’ll be diving into Weiner’s latest sometime this week. It has pretty good reviews from trusted sources, so I’m crossing my fingers it’s a good one for me as well!

3) Well Met by Jen DeLuca – A cute romance that’s getting a lot of positive buzz! I’m excited to sit down with this novel right after I finish Lennon Reborn.

What are you reading right now?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (12.9.19)

Happy Monday, friends! I spent my weekend decorating my apartment for Christmas and I love the way everything turned out. The cats are currently very interested in the tree (it’s already fallen once, but luckily, that was before I put any ornaments on it) and Ellie tried to play tug of war with one of my tinsel garlands as I was decorating so… we’ll see how things go this year, ha.

It’s been a few weeks since my last reading update so I have four books to review with you all today! Two I loved, two I felt ambivalent about. So it goes!

Books Finished

1) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (★★★★☆) – Station Eleven is the kind of atmospheric book that sticks with you. Even weeks after finishing it, I’m still thinking about it. It follows a series of people who have survived the Georgia Flu, a pandemic that wiped out 99% of people in the world. There’s a traveling theater troupe, a man and his brother who found out about the flu right as it was happening and were able to barricade themselves inside, and another group of people stranded in an airport. It’s a slow, meandering story and I loved listening to it on audio as I could sink right into it. It’s not a book that’s for everyone, but it really worked for me.

2) American Love Story by Adriana Herrera (★★★★☆) – Oh, how I loved this novel! Herrera’s romances are just so great and her writing style has improved leaps and bounds from her first two novels. American Love Story is about Patrice who has moved to Ithaca, New York to become a professor at Cornell and reconnects with Easton, the assistant district attorney of Ithaca with whom he had a torrid love affair some months back. Their love story was beautiful to witness, especially because they were both so scared of what awaited them in a relationship but couldn’t deny their growing feelings for one another. There was also an important secondary plot weaved in involving Black men being stopped by police and harassed. Both Patrice and Easton had to grapple with this in very different ways. This storyline culminated in a way I wasn’t expecting but was dealt with using sensitivity and heart.

3) Still Me by Jojo Moyes (★★★☆☆) – This novel concludes the Me Before You trilogy and I felt like this novel was just okay. At times, Lou felt like a caricature and did things that had me rolling my eyes. (Like the beginning of the novel, as Lou is going through customs at the airport and starts texting with her mom. NOBODY WOULD DO THIS.) In this novel, Lou has moved to NYC to become the personal assistant to a very rich man’s wife. They live in a ridiculously expensive apartment across from Central Park and Lou is tasked with helping the wife manage all of her appointments and charity events. She’s also halfway across the world from her new boyfriend, Ambulance Sam, and that causes a lot of tension. This book gave me a lot of anxiety, especially the scenes between Lou and her boyfriend, and it just wasn’t the enjoyable reading experience I expected from a Moyes book. I’m glad I read this trilogy, however, seeing as Me Before You is one of my favorite books, and liked getting more from Lou and her antics.

4) The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman (★★★☆☆) – This book seemed tailor-made for me, and I really loved the first three-quarters of it. It follows Nina who works in a bookstore and keeps herself busy (and her anxiety at bay) by filling up her time with trivia nights, book clubs, and more. She lives alone with her cat Phil and her only family is her mom who lives halfway around the world and has never been great at being a parent. Then she finds out that the father she never knew about has died and she has an entire family living nearby. Sisters and a brother and nephews and nieces. It throws her carefully ordered world for a loop. I loved Nina’s character but have to agree with another reviewer that she reads as neurodiverse and I think the story could have been much stronger if that had been explored. I also kind of… well… hated the last quarter of the novel and the way things wrapped up. I think the love interest turned out to be a shitty person and I found the family dynamics to be a little too perfect at the end. (It really drives me crazy when an author tries to redeem EVERYONE in a novel – that’s not reality. Some people cannot be redeemed.) Anyway, it was a bit of a disappointing read for me, meh.

What I’m Reading Right Now

1) Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler – When I finish this novel, I will have completed my A-Z reading challenge, hooray! I started the audiobook completely blind: I don’t know anything about Zelda or F. Scott Fitzgerald or their marriage at all, so I’m letting the story sweep me away.

2) The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger – I’m halfway through this novel that I picked for my July BOTM selection and it’s both enjoyable as well as frustrating. (I really have little patience when female friendship is written like a competition.) It’s a story about a gifted school that is starting in a community and a group of moms who are trying to get their kids accepted into the school.

3) Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore – Another BOTM selection for me that I’m getting around to right now! This is historical romance but the thrust of the novel involves the suffragist movement of the late 1800s and I am here! for! that!

Up Next

1) Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan – I’ve been nervous about reading this book because it’s about a woman who presumably suffered from a psychotic break, but I’m in a good place with my mental health right now and I think I’m ready to tackle this book.

2) Co-Wrecker by Meghan Quinn – I’m on the lookout for more romance authors to read and found this book on the Goodreads page of someone who reads a lot of romance (I’m talking 150+ romance novels a year!). I’ll start it this week.

What are you reading right now?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (11.25.19)

Happy Monday, friends, and happy short week for many of us. I love Thanksgiving week so very much and I’m so excited for what awaits me: my birthday, Thanksgiving dinner, and my cruise in 5 days! Woohoo!

I only finished one book this week and that’s because I abandoned Anne’s House of Dreams a little over 100 pages in. It’s not that there was anything wrong with it but I just found myself not very interested in what happens next in Anne Shirley’s life anymore. I think the first three books are the best and I think, going forward, I’ll stick to those three during my rereads.

Here’s my one lone book review, some chatter on what I’m reading now, and a fun cruise edition of what’s coming up next!

Book Finished

1) Big Bad Cowboy by Carly Bloom (★★★☆☆) – Like I mentioned last week, I forgot I had even put this book on hold until I came off the waitlist. It’s a story about Travis, who has moved back to Big Verde after a stint in the military. He’s now the legal guardian of his nephew, Henry, a precocious five-year-old, and trying to sell the ranch his dad left to him. Maggie is a longtime Big Verde resident who is frustrated by the number of men who see her as just another friend, definitely not girlfriend material. But when Maggie and Travis – dressed, respectively, as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf – have a sexy tryst at a costume party, Maggie starts to think there may be one guy in town who’s ready to see her as more than a friend. I thought this romance was fine – the sex scenes were hot and I really loved the connection between Maggie and Travis – but there was something lacking about the rest of the novel. It seemed like it relied on the trope of mistaken realizations too much and I could see through them from a mile away. Not sure I’ll be picking up anything more in this series, but it’s a fine for what it is: a light-hearted romance.

What I’m Reading Now

1) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – I’m a little less than halfway through this audiobook. I’ve been putting it aside to listen to podcasts during my drives. It’s good but hasn’t really gripped me. It’s one of those books that’s easy to set down yet draws me right in when I pick it up again. I’m committed to finishing it this week, though!

2) Still Me by Jojo Moyes – This is the third and final book in the Me Before You trilogy and I’m enjoying it. Some of the scenes are a little over-the-top and almost seem out of place in the narrative, but overall, it’s been a nice, easy read.

3) American Love Story by Adriana Herrera – Eeks, I just adore Adriana Herrera’s books! She writes characters so well. I’ve been critical of her writing at times, mainly because I feel like she has such an important story to tell but that story gets lost due to grammatical errors and other issues that could be solved with a better editor. So far, her writing seems to have vastly improved from the previous books, which is thrilling. I’m really liking this book a lot!

Up Next

Since I leave for my birthday cruise on Saturday, I thought it might be fun to discuss what books I’m bringing with me! I love bringing easy, light-hearted reads with me on cruises – stuff I can fly through. I aim to bring a book for each day of the cruise. Here’s what I’m bringing:

1) The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman – I read my first Abbi Waxman book (The Garden of Small Beginnings – so good) while on a cruise so why not read another one by her in the same locale? I bought this book a few months ago and haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. A cruise seems like the perfect excuse to finally crack it open!

2) Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey – I was stoked to find out that the e-book for this much-anticipated rom-com was available for immediate download on Libby. It has a startling low Goodreads rating (3.5!) but many trusted sources have rated it highly so I’m hoping I’ll love this one.

3) Ghosted by Rosie Walsh – I picked up this novel while it was $1.99 on Kindle and it seems like the perfect light-hearted read for my cruise!

4) Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum – My fourth and final book. (I aim to have a book to read each day of my cruise.) I’ve had this book on my TBR for years and it’s time for me to finally give it a go!

What are you reading right now?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (11.18.19)

Happy Monday, friends! It’s going to be a busy week for me, especially when you add in the NaNoWriMo writing I have to do every day. I may end up giving myself an “off” day from writing this week just to keep my sanity in check. But we’ll see! I’m taking it day by day.

I finished three books last week. Here are my reviews!

Books Finished

1) The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary (★★★★★) – I loved this novel so very much! The characters of Tiffy and Leon were just so perfect and perfect for each other. Tiffy needs a place to stay after her boyfriend breaks up with her but since she doesn’t make much money working at a niche publishing house, it needs to be cheap. Enter: a flatshare. Leon needs money to help pay his brother’s lawyer fees and since he works the night shift as a palliative nurse, it’s perfect. He has the apartment from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tiffy has it the rest of the time, including the whole weekend. Of course, things easily become complicated between the two of them, as they tend to do in romance novels, as they begin sharing notes back and forth and their lives become more entwined than they ever imagined.

2) Vox by Christina Dalcher (★★★☆☆) – This book was so unsettling. In Vox, women have been silenced. They are allowed to speak up to 100 words a day. They keep track of their word count via a bracelet, which zaps them if they go over their limit. The zaps generally get more and more severe the more words they speak over their word count. Women have also been stripped of their jobs and queer people have been sent to work camps. The world is bleak and horrifying. The author was a bit heavy-handed with her parallels to this society and politics today, and I started to wonder why she felt the need to write this novel. Why not a novel where women are empowered and rule the world? Why do we always have to envision a world where women have no rights? (I get it: the 2016 election was a wake-up call for a lot of us and recognizing what happens when we sit at home and don’t take action, but is this the best cautionary tale? I’m just not sure about that.) I gave it three stars because I thought the last half of the novel was super engaging, even if it did wrap up just a little too neatly for my taste, but it’s more of a 2.5 rounded up to 3.

3) The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (★★★★☆) – The Testaments is the follow-up novel to The Handmaid’s Tale and I really liked it. I can understand why many people thought the novel was unnecessary or didn’t like it, but it was fine by my standards. In this novel, which takes place 15 years after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, we get a deeper glimpse into Gilead through the eyes of an Aunt, a young girl who will soon become a Wife, and another young girl living in Canada. I found it fascinating to learn about Gilead through these lenses because it gives a much broader look into what this society is like. I found all three storylines engaging and I loved watching them all come together in the end.

What I’m Reading Now

1) Big Bad Cowboy by Carly Bloom – I honestly thought my Libby app had gone crazy when it informed me that this e-book was ready for me. I don’t even remember placing a hold on the title! Two romance readers whose tastes I trust have rated it 5 stars on Goodreads, so maybe I saw their reviews and put the book on hold? I don’t even know! At any rate, the book is really cute and fun. It’s not blowing my socks off, but it’s a nice, light read, which is what I need right now.

Up Next

1) Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery – Last week, I said I was going to start The Joy Luck Club for book club, but since we have our meeting tomorrow and I had to prioritize The Testaments since it’s a two-week book with a long wait, I’m not going to get to it in time. Womp! Instead, I’m starting the next book in the Anne of Green Gables series. Yay!

2) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – I’ll be starting this book on audio during my commute this week. It’s been on my TBR for years!

What are you reading right now?

Categories: Books

What I’m Reading (11.11.19)

Happy Monday, friends. I feel like I barely had time to read last week, although my reading picked up on the weekend and I was able to finish the two books I started. Who knew that trying to write 50,000 words in a month will affect how much free time you have! 😉 However, like I always say, you make time for the things you love, and I still find plenty of time to read.

I’ve changed up my format a bit so now I have three sections: books finished, books currently in progress, and what I’m going to read next. 🙂

Books Finished

1) Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (★★★★★) – Oh, friends. If you have not read this novel yet, please do yourselves a favor and read it. It is potentially the best book I’ve ever read, and I don’t say that lightly at all. It’s a multigenerational story about two sisters: one is sold into slavery and shipped off to the US, and the other marries a rich Englishman in Ghana. The book follows the family line, starting with these two sisters in the 1700s and continuing through to the early 2000s. It shows the impact of slavery and all the ways a family can grow and change and evolve through the centuries. The best word I have for it is: astonishing. Astonishing in the level of detail of each chapter, astonishing in the writing style, astonishing that the author was 26 when the book was published. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

2) The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare (★★★★★) – It’s rare for me to give a romance five stars, but I couldn’t give this book anything less than that! It was total and complete perfection with two characters I rooted for from the start to the end. After the Duke of Ashbury’s face and upper body are scarred due to the war, his fiance breaks off their engagement and he has to find a new wife quickly. Enter Emma, a seamstress who comes to his home one night, seeking payment for the wedding dress she sewed – the wedding dress Ashbury’s betrothed was supposed to wear. I loved the sweetness between Ash and Emma (at one point, Ash said to Emma, “You do not like being cold. Therefore, I despise you being cold.” And I melted into a puddle.) and the way their love story naturally evolved. I’m excited to read more from Dare – I’ve heard great things about her romances and I concur!

What I’m Reading Now

1) The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (36%) – I started this novel with very low expectations, worried it was going to be slow and boring and inaccessible. However, it is not any of those things! I was hooked immediately and really looking forward to where this story is going.

2) The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary (40%) – I tried listening to this novel on audio, but the male narration wasn’t working for me. He had a thick Irish accent and the way his chapters are written (very choppy, not complete sentences, etc.), it works much better reading vs. listening. Loving it so far!

Up Next…

1) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan – Our book club pick for November, I’m excited to dive into this modern classic soon. I was going to listen to the audiobook via my library but they only offer an abridged version (which is crazy to me, as the book is under 300 pages! Why would you need an abridged version?!) Alas, I requested the print copy from my library and will dive in whenever I finish The Testaments.

2) Vox by Christina Dalcher – I downloaded the audiobook version of this novel, and I’ll start listening to it on my commutes this week. It’ll be interesting reading this alongside The Testaments – they both have a similar theme of a dystopian society where women’s rights are stripped. Hopefully, I don’t get them mixed up in my head!

What are you reading right now?