Happy Monday, friends! Whew, do I have a reading recap for you today. Last week, I opted not to write my recap since I had “only” finished one book and there wasn’t much to recap, and now I have five books to review with you! This is already a pretty long blog post so let’s dive right in!

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash (★★★★☆)

I listened to this novel on audio, and it was a fantastic experience. The book follows two young girls, ages 12 and 6, who are living in foster care after their mother died (their father had given up his rights to them years prior). But then their father comes back, stealing them away in the night and taking them on adventures throughout the eastern coast. The story is narrated by the older daughter, Easter; the girls’ court-appointed guardian, Brady; and a man named Robert Pruitt, who has an ages-old vendetta against the girls’ father. It was a quick listen and just one of those really well-written and engaging stories that reminded me how much I love reading. I love how the plot progressed and how it all culminated in the end. Wiley Cash truly has a gift for storytelling!

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi (★★☆☆☆)

I have such mixed feelings about this book because overall, it was an incredibly sweet YA romance that dealt with some really tough issues – parental abandonment, sexual trauma, anxiety, etc. But oh my goodness did I abhor the main character. She was not the strong female protagonist I was looking for, but someone who was downright mean. (Her relationship with her mother made no sense because she was so rude to her for no good reason. The scenes between her and her mother broke my heart and made me dislike the protagonist so very much.) I think those who don’t mind reading about angsty teenagers will enjoy this novel more than I did, but it really just was not for me.

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery (★★★☆☆)

Oh, it hurts my heart to give an Anne book a 3-star rating, but this book really didn’t do it for me. The fourth novel in the series follows Anne as she starts a new position, teaching at a school. She’s away from home and also away from Gilbert, her new love, but they bide their time through letters. About half the novel is written in letters to Gilbert about the things Anne is experiencing and the other half is more traditional writing. There was just something off about this novel. I didn’t feel Anne’s character as much as I did in previous novels. I felt like there was a kind of disconnect. There was also such a wide cast of characters and I couldn’t keep anyone straight (and at a certain point, I stopped trying to). It was a struggle to finish this book and I think I skimmed the last few chapters because I was just ready to be done.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (★★★★★)

I’ve started something new of reading a book using my Kindle app whenever I have downtime. Sometimes that’s at work, sometimes that’s while I’m waiting for an appointment. The only time I read that book is when I have downtime, which means it takes me quite a while to finish the book I’m reading. Shanghai Girls was my first time attempting this, and I really enjoyed it (and the book!) This novel follows Pearl and her sister May who have to leave their home in China and travel to America after being married off to two brothers. They spend months detained in a place called Angel’s Island where they are interrogated over and over again before they are finally allowed to leave and find their husbands. But life in America is nothing like they thought, especially when they learn that their husbands are not the rich men they proclaimed to be when they met them in China. It’s a heart-wrenching story following the lives of Pearl and May for two decades. They encounter a lot of hardship and heartbreak, but they also grow closer as sisters, learn to assimilate into American culture, and find their own ways to make their mark on the world. I learned a lot about Chinese history, as well as the way Asians were treated by Americans following WWII, and there are a lot of parallels to draw between the way we treated immigrants then and the way we treat them now. I highly recommend this novel!

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (★★★★☆)

This domestic thriller had me on my toes from beginning to end! The novel begins with the news: Lucy’s mother-in-law, with whom she had always had a contentious relationship, is dead. After an autopsy reveals she was murdered, questions and suspicions are thrown around, especially considering both Lucy’s husband and Lucy’s sister-in-law stood to inherit millions of dollars upon her death. Unlike most thrillers nowadays that have unreliable narrators and unlikable characters, this one had neither! I loved just about every person in this novel. They were supremely flawed, for sure, but not in a way that made them unlikable or hard to root for. I wanted what was best for them all and was pretty shocked by the ending! All signs of a great thriller.

I’m currently reading…

> Nikan Rebuilt by Scarlett Cole. I have less than 100 pages to go in this contemporary romance, so I’ll probably finish it today. It’s so good!

> A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny. I’m halfway through this novel, the seventh in Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. I didn’t love the previous two novels in this series but I’m enjoying this one a lot!

> The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare. I’ll start this historical romance sometime this week! I’ve heard great things about Tessa Dare so I’m looking forward to giving her a try.

What are you reading?