Happy Monday! I had an excellent weekend. On Saturday, my mom and I did our mud run and it was so much fun! I honestly wasn’t looking forward to it (especially when we realized it was going to be cold—it was 38 degrees when we got to the race site), but it wound up being a really fun time and I’m so glad we did it. The rest of my weekend was spent recovering because, oof, my body is not used to that kind of activity.
Let’s switch gears, though, and talk about my week in reading because, well, I ended up abandoning a book that has gotten rave reviews from trusted sources, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. The book just wasn’t fully resonating with me and I found myself not excited to pick it up, so after giving it a good 100ish pages, I abandoned it. I can understand why people love the book, especially runners, but it just didn’t hold my attention.
Here are the reviews for the books I did finish this week.
Books Finished
Headliners by Lucy Parker (★★★★★) – Another 5-star romance from Lucy Parker. She never, ever lets me down and I’m just sad I read her newest release so fast and it’ll be months and months before I get a new book from her. This is the typical enemies-to-lovers trope that I love so much. Nick and Sabrina are forced to work together on a morning show after their own broadcasting contracts are canceled due to scandals. They have to figure out how to put aside their differences in order to save their careers and, of course, wind up falling in love in the midst of all this. I loved Nick and Sabrina’s chemistry and rapport and care for one another (after they stopped hating each other, that is). But what I really loved about this novel is that there wasn’t really a dark moment (aka, the part in a romance where the characters break up and all hope for their relationship appears lost). I was waiting for one of them to misinterpret the other’s intentions and have a big blowup (that could have been solved by them just listening to each other and being grown adults), but that never happened. There were multiple misunderstandings along the way, but each time, Nick and Sabrina acted like adults, listened to the other’s side of the story, and moved on. This novel is really making me rethink the dark moment for my own novel—while I love dramatic dark moments and I think they deserve their place in romance novels, I’m starting to come around to the idea that maybe there doesn’t need to be this dramatic scene. Maybe there’s a better way to create stakes for the relationship without having a huge breakup. Hmm. I’ve got some thinking to do!
Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone (★★★★★) – I read this book in less than 24 hours, something I can rarely accomplish. (I’m not a particularly fast reader—I just devote a lot of time to reading.) But this psychological thriller sucked me in from the beginning and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. It’s about a female sociopath named Jane who has decided to exact revenge on a man named Steven for reasons that are revealed throughout the novel. I loved Jane’s character so much! She was introspective in a way I didn’t expect and so much fun to read about. I thought the book was well-paced and the ending satisfying. All I want from a thriller!
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone (★★★★☆) – This was an easy, quick YA book about a girl in high school who has OCD, something she hides from her close-knit group of girlfriends (who belong to the “popular” crowd at school). It’s only through meeting a new friend and learning about a secret poet’s society at school that she begins to discover a new side to herself and see herself as “normal.” I thought this book did a great job of discussing the intricacies of having a chronic mental illness, although there were times when the book veered into problematic territory of “girl with OCD finds love and suddenly her OCD is healed.” Let’s not do that, authors.
What I’m Reading Now
Currently, I’m dipping in and out of Forever and a Day, a contemporary romance by fave author Jill Shalvis, as well as my February book for the Unread Shelf Project, The Bean Trees. Today, I’ll start the audiobook for A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson during my commute to work. It’s a psychological thriller that may be a little too intense for me, but I’m intrigued enough by the premise to give it a shot.
What are you reading?
Bummer about not liking Shoe Dog! But it’s good that you followed your gut and gave up on it. I read “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” which got rave reviews. I considered abandoning it when I was 40% in but stuck with it. I don’t regret it because it wasn’t that long of a book, but I didn’t love it. I think I just read it at the wrong time or something because I do think it had an interesting premise. I read the first 40% in small chunks so I just didn’t feel connected to the characters. Now I’m reading ‘The 21 truths about love” which is written entirely in lists. It’s a unique format for a book and makes for a fast read. Which I needed after kind of slogging through my last book.
Wow! All good reads! Exciting! I like that the first book didn’t have a big dramatic dark moment too. I hate that in movies (can tolerate it a little better in books). I am excited to see how this affects your novel!
I can get why you DNF’d Shoe Dog! It’s very nichey – running or business (which is why my husband and I loved it). It had some quotes in it that I still think about, that helped me understand why the average person is so invested in sports.
I am reading We Wish You Luck. I saw this is on your TBR. The writing is beautiful but whoa, it’s so damn slow. SO. SLOW. I am 100 pages in and nothing has really happened. I think I will finish it though.
LOLing at Lisa’s comment about Ten Thousand Doors. I really wanted to love that book too and thought it was an interesting idea, but something just did not click.
Are we gonna hear more about your mud race?!