Happy Memorial Day, friends! I don’t have any plans for today, which I’m sure is true for many of us. I may try to take a walk at my local nature preserve, but I’m worried it might be really busy on a holiday. We’ll see!
Last week was a solid reading week for me with three books finished. Yay! Back to my normal speed. 😉 Here are my reviews.
Books Finished
Lucy’s Little Village Book Club by Emma Davies (★☆☆☆☆)
One-sentence synopsis: In this book, we follow the lives of five members of a library book club: Lucy the librarian; Oscar, a recent widower; Lia, a young woman looking after her mother who has Alzheimer’s; Callum, a young man who wants to escape his troubled home life; and Hattie, a single mom who is new to town.
I rarely give books one star, which means I hated it, because I don’t often read books I hate. That’s just not fun! But like I mentioned last week, I was coming off a crazy book slump where I abandoned five books in a row and I finally had to force myself to read and finish a book, and this is the one I chose. (Bad job, me!) This book was just not for me—the writing was cheesy, the characters one-dimensional, and the plot boring. It’s a book that came highly recommended from a #bookstagrammer whose taste I actually trust and I was totally grabbed by the sweet cover, but oof, I did not enjoy this book at all.
Hooking Up by Helena Hunting (★★★★☆)
One-sentence synopsis: After Amalie is humiliated on her wedding day, she flees to Bora Bora (where she and her new husband were supposed to have their honeymoon), only to be seated next to her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s cousin on the flight.
Oh, how I loved this book! Helena Hunting is becoming one of my favorite romance authors. I just love the way she writes characters and female friendship and romance. Her books are definitely more on the steamy side (enough to make me blush at times!), so they’re probably not the best for readers who love a closed-door romance (i.e., fade-to-black when it comes to sex scenes). But this book was everything I love in a romance: great characters who were easy to root for, a love story that felt believable and honest, and a dark moment that didn’t feel trite or silly. All in all, another great read from Hunting!
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager (★★★★☆)
One-sentence synopsis: Jules feels like the luckiest person alive to score a gig to be an apartment sitter at the notorious Bartholomew building where only the rich and famous stay… until she learns about this building’s sordid past and other apartment sitters start disappearing.
Sager is quickly becoming one of my favorite thriller writers, and he doesn’t disappoint with this novel! I loved the way the building was written like its own character—it seemed so beautiful yet creepy. The twist in this novel (and then the twist after the twist) was perfect. It was just ridiculous enough without being overly so to have me glued to my couch on Friday night, desperate to finish the novel. I loved the characters, the propulsive plot, and the satisfying ending so very much.
What I’m Reading This Week
Over the weekend, I started The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy by Caroline Dooner, which came highly recommended by someone I follow online (and whose taste I trust). I’ve read 100 pages so far and it’s been very life-affirming for me, as someone who has spent the last year unlearning restrictive diet behaviors and becoming more attuned to diet culture and body positivity, and I’m excited to give a more thorough review when I finish it.
Alongside The F*ck It Diet, I’m also reading Final Siege by Scarlett Cole, a romantic suspense novel that has me thoroughly enthralled! I’m at the 50% mark with this book and I am on the edge of my seat!
What are you reading?
I finished “This Tender Land” over the weekend which was so so so good. I gave it 5 stars! Now i am reading “How to Be an Antiracist” which is our June book club. It’s really heavy and reads like a textbook so I can only read a chapter or 2/night. I usually don’t read 2 books at the same time, but I started “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle. I needed something easier to read to pick up after reading my chapter or 2 of Antiracist. Even though Doyle’s books always tackle heavy topics, her writing style is very light and fun so it’s a good offset to the heaviness of Antiracist.
I’m more of a ‘closed door’ kind of gal, but the story line of Hooking Up sounds really fun! I think I need more romance books in my life these days as real life is heavy enough as is!
Riley Sager just kills with thrillers! That is not usually my genre but I may have to check that one out! I am looking forward to your F*ck It Diet review!
I am grateful you explained what closed-door means – I heard it last week on a podcast and googled it and couldn’t figure it out!
I am reading A Good Neighborhood, which I have been waiting forever for! It’s good, but I really want to know what the THING is that happens. Maybe it will happen in Part ii, which I just started.