Happy Monday, friends! Tonight, I’m meeting up to discuss the itinerary for Boston with my friends and I am just so stoked for this trip! I booked the tickets so early in the year that I haven’t really thought about the trip until suddenly, it’s October and the trip can be counted down in days rather than weeks or months. EEKS!
I had a weird weekend, to be honest. I picked up some freelance work so I spent Friday night and most of Saturday working on that, which is good for the extra cash but meant I didn’t do anything much more than work for a day and a half of my weekend. Womp. Thankfully, yesterday, I had my weekly writing date and spent the day at my mom’s watching football with her, my brother, and my nephew so that was much needed!
I finished three books last week: two romances and a beloved mystery. I loved all of them! My reviews are below:
Nikan Rebuilt by Scarlett Cole (★★★★☆)
The fourth book in Cole’s Preload series follows the story of Nikan and Jenny, high school sweethearts who had been torn apart when Jenny found out Nikan cheated on her during his first tour (he’s in a successful rock band). I was curious to see how the author would redeem Nikan because cheating storylines are usually hard to get past, but she made it work and I was seriously rooting for Nikan and Jenny to amend their relationship. It was a beautiful story of forgiveness, faith, and trust.
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (★★★★★)
This is the seventh book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series and my favorite one yet! Gamache and his team are back in Three Pines to investigate a murder that happened the night of one of the residents’ art show celebration. I thought every single part of this book worked: the central mystery was fascinating and all the side plots were equally engaging and propelled the story forward in such a great way. I’m excited to see what happens next!
The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker (★★★★☆)
I’m soooo sad that I don’t have any more Lucy Parker books to read! She is my new favorite romance author – her novels are so much fun! (And while not fully closed door, they are fairly light on sex scenes so I feel pretty comfortable recommending them to anyone.) This novel follows the romance of Freddy, an actress involved in the London theater scene, and Griff, a theater critic who has had some harsh reviews of her performances. It’s a bit of “forced proximity” as Freddy’s next role brings her to Griff’s crumbling family home, and the chemistry between the two characters just crackled on the page. Loved everything about this story!
What I’m reading this week…
> The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant. This book has been sitting on my Goodreads TBR since 2015 and I finally plucked it off the shelf to read it. It has rave reviews and 100 pages in, I can see why. It’s such a great story!
> The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary, on audio. I’m starting this on my commute today and I’m looking forward to it. It has great reviews, a startling-high Goodreads rating, and all the makings of a terrific reading experience.
> Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. I liked Center’s How to Walk Away, which was a BOTM pick last year (although I thought the ending was a bit much). I picked this one from BOTM a few months ago and it’s time to crack it open!
What are you reading?
The Flatshare is SO FREAKING GOOD! It was not at ALL what I was expecting…but that turned out to be a very good thing. Seriously, when I think about books I read this year, it was probably the most surprising one in terms of how much I enjoyed it! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
I’m in a bit of a reading slump, to be honest. I started reading the ebook of The Simple Wild by KA Tucker on the weekend, which I hope will help!
I also really liked A Trick of Light! I like mysteries set in Three Pines best. I think the next book in the series is the one set at a Monastery. It was not my favorite but you need to keep with it because the through line story really gets developed in that book. You’ve definitely hit the stage of the series where the books just get better and better!
I finished “Time After Time” over the weekend. It was the first MMD Summer Reading Guide book that I felt kind of ‘meh’ about. But I’ve probably read 8-10 books that she suggested and have loved the others so I guess this one was just a fluke. Now I’m reading “The Library Book” for my local book club. It’s about a huge library fire in LA in the 80s and also about libraries in general. As a lover and books and libraries, I’m loving it. It seems like it would be a dry topic but it’s amazing to see all the services a library provides and the logistics of moving so many books around from branch to branch. Plus she weaves in details about the LA fire and the investigation as arsen is suspected. It’s really good.
I am worried about starting series because I think I would become obsessive about reading them all at once! Do you feel like the ones you read do a good job bringing you back up to speed?
The Boston Girl is very appropriate timing for your trip! 🙂
I am reading The Overdue Life of Amy Byler. It’s fun but I don’t have a lot of time to read right now 🙁