Happy Monday! I have two full weeks of book reviews for you guys today, and I gave ALL of these books 4 or 5 stars! It has been a wonderful few weeks of reading for me, and I am so glad for it because my reading has been very up and down this year (kind of like my moods, haha). These books are the ones that have reminded me why I love reading so much. Let’s dive in!
The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta (★★★★☆)
The View Was Exhausting is a romance involving an up-and-coming Hollywood actress named Win. She’s Indian and making a name for herself as a serious actress has been rife with racism, microaggressions, and misogyny. Thankfully, there’s Leo, her long-time fake boyfriend who is always there when she needs him. For years, Win and Leo have been fooling the public with their storybook romance; behind closed doors, they’re just very good friends. Or are they?! I really loved this romance and thought it was really cleverly paced. It didn’t go to the places I expected it to go, and there were some serious plot twists that I wasn’t expecting. Not your “typical” romance, but a great one nonetheless. (And while not fully closed door, the sex scenes are minimal in this one.)
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert (★★★★☆)
What an absolutely fun romp this was! I truly enjoy Talia Hibbert’s books and it seems like each one in this series is better than the last. In this novel, Eve Brown is a bit of a hot mess. She flits from job to job and doesn’t seem to take anything very seriously. But then her parents draw a line in the sand, cutting off her inheritance until she holds a job for at least a few months. Enter: a very cute B&B in need of a chef. Eve knows how to cook and she needs a place to stay, so she thinks, why not? The owner of the B&B is a very grumpy, very hot man named Jacob who is autistic and completely lovable, even with all of his grumpiness. I loved the rapport between Jacob and Eve, and especially the way they both grew to care for and watch out for each other. I also really love the way Hibbert explored autism in this book and the different ways it can show up for people. A lot of time, autism is used as a strong character device and can sometimes come off as disingenious. In this book, it felt so different. Yes, Jacob had autism but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to interact with people, have relationships, or have a full life. I really appreciated it! There were some turns this story took that I didn’t love (mostly involving her family), but all in all, this was an excellent romance with fantastic representation. (Open-door romance. Much chili peppers.)
The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti (★★★★☆)
As someone who was embroiled in purity culture in my teens and early twenties, I found so much comfort in this book. It also made me feel angry and frustrated by all the ways the Christian church has devalued women as a whole. Growing up, I felt as if it were my responsibility to be pure, to not cause my “brothers in Christ” to stumble, to dress modestly, to not even think about sex no matter what. I’ve been trying to write a blog post about this experience because it truly shaped the person I am today and the reason it took me so long to come to terms with my own sexuality, not just being queer but also having an enjoyable, healthy relationship to sex and masturbation. The Purity Myth dispels a lot of the myths surrounding purity culture (as its title would suggest!) and dives deep into many different subjects, including the anti-abortion movement, abstinence education in schools, manliness vs femininity, and porn. I wish the author had included a chapter on how to reclaim your sexuality after purity culture (it’s never made sense to me that we’re supposed to never think about sex until we’re married and then, ding, we’re married and now it’s okay to have sex and we should be perfectly sexual beings!), but all in all, it was a good book that I’m glad I finally read.
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau (★★★★★)
Oh goodness gracious, how I loved this book! It was the kind of book that just completely transported me to another time and place (Baltimore in the 1970s) and was just so enjoyable to read. I loved the characters, the setting, the plot… all of it just worked for me. When Mary Jane begins, the titular character Mary Jane has just been hired to be the summer nanny for Izzy, the only child of Dr. and Mrs. Cone. Dr. Cone is a psychiatrist and soon after Mary Jane starts her job, she’s informed that a very big rock star and his wife will be living with them for the summer while the rock star deals with his addiction. Thus begins the most transformative summer of Mary Jane’s life as she becomes completely enraptured with the Cone family and these new celebrities that enter the household. This book is just plain fun and it’s one I keep recommending to people because I loved it so much! I loved Mary Jane and her sweet naivete, I loved Izzy and her adorable way of seeing the world, I loved Jimmy and Sheba (the celebrities) and the way they accepted Mary Jane so easily. I was so sad to say goodbye to these characters when the book was finished!
Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey (★★★★★)
This is the second book in Bailey’s Bellinger Sisters series and I liked it more than the first! In this story, we follow the Bellinger sister we were introduced to in the first book, Hannah, who is an assistant for a movie director and is ready to take that next leap in her career: She wants to create music soundtracks for movies. She’s working on the set of a new movie now and when she suggests they move some of their filming to the town of Westport (where the first book was set), she’s surprised when everyone is on board. It’s there that she reconnects with Fox, the man she met when she was in town with her sister and who she has been nonstop texting with for months. Fox is a bona fide ladies’ man who is developing strong feelings toward Hannah, but can’t stop the voices in his head saying he’ll never be enough for her and that he’s not made for commitment. I just really, really loved this romance. Were there some issues with it? Sure. But overall, I found Hannah and Fox’s friendship that developed into a romance to be so sweet and lovely to witness. I enjoyed this exploration of the playboy who wants to be taken seriously, and this idea of the stories we tell ourselves and how to move past them. All in all, an excellent romance that gave me happy feels! (Open-door romance.)
What I’m Reading This Week
- Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (print) – I picked up this book while I was in Canada because is there any better place to pick up an L.M. Montgomery book than Canada? I have about 100 pages left and y’all, I am not loving it. There are wayyy too many chapters where the main character writes a letter to her father and those chapters are so long and boring (lots of telling without showing).
- A Dangerous Kind of Lady by Mia Vincy (e-book) – I’m about halfway through this book and I am just having so much fun with these characters. Fingers crossed it doesn’t go off the rails at the end!
- A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (audiobook) – I have heard so many rave reviews of this middle-grade book, and the reviews are right. This book is precious and likely to be a new favorite.
What are you reading?
I have so much to say about this! I thought the Brown Sisters books were so amazing and what I really liked was by the time we got to Eve’s book, we know her family are a nosy, interfering bunch, so when they arrive on the scene, it was absolutely in character. It also made me wonder a lot of questions about adult dating (when are you supposed to introduce your new partner to your family when you’re not a teen? what level of privacy can/should your new partner expect?). I also liked Eve a lot and kind of, sort of wish I could be half as chill and go with the flow in life as she is.
Interesting that you liked H,L,&S more than IHOS. I liked it a tiny bit more and I think it’s because I enjoyed the epilogue so much. I think Hannah is a real snot, though. I liked Piper more somehow, even though the first part of IHOS was rough going.
LM Montgomery. So many thoughts. I LOVED her books when I was a tween/young teen, but as an adult…well, things aren’t that rosy. Anne is just too sunny and optimistic to be real and I find the books really boring. But she’s beloved! So maybe I’ll just take that and my other unpopular opinions (Jane Eyre is trash) and see myself out very quietly.
Anne is one of my most beloved literary characters BUT I know she is not for everyone! Her sunny, naive disposition could definitely rub some people the wrong way, and I don’t blame them for feeling that way! She is just so dear to me that I don’t mind it as much.
I really want you to write a post about your unpopular bookish opinions! I love hearing them! (I liked Jane Eyre, but it’s wholly problematic!!)
I remember my mom reading Emily of New Moon to my older sister and I before bed and LOVING it. I fear it would not live up to my memories as an adult, though… I read Anne of Green Gables several years ago and while I liked it, I did not love it so I haven’t read any more books in that series because I want to keep my memories of those books in tact!
I’m glad you had such a solid reading month, though! I need to check some of these out! I had heard great things about Mary Jane so need to add that to my hold list. And the romances you read sound interesting, too! I just finished “Our American Friend” which was a good political thriller type of book. I think it’s loosely inspired by Melania Trump, but I don’t think much of it is about her/based on her. It covers the cold war period which is an era I don’t know much about. Now I am reading “Memphis” which I had heard great things about! So far I’m really drawn into it. I had a hard time putting it down last night!
I think you would enjoy Mary Jane! It’s a great character-driven book. It’s our September book club pick, and I’m looking forward to discussing it with everyone.
Our American Friend sounds interesting! I’m going to add it to my TBR.
I loved the next two Emily books – the first one, not as much. But Emily Climbs and Emily’s Quest, I loved as a child and I really related to Emily. I reread them as an adult and I still loved them but woooooooo they hit different. Like, especially Emily’s Quest.
I would have picked up Mary Jane just because of the cover. That is a fun cover!
The purity culture book sounds interesting – I was not brought up that way specifically, but my family was/ is Lutheran, so there might be some interesting parallels.
After finishing Emily of New Moon, I have some reallll issues with the book. It did not age well, unfortunately. It makes me want to reread Anne of Green Gables with a more critical eye to make sure I didn’t miss anything! Eeks.
I read the Emily books as a kid, too, and then reread them a few years ago. I definitely thought about them differently – I had some major, um, issues, with the relationships she has with some of the other characters. That said, I don’t remember those types of things jumping out at me in the Anne books. They were, of course, written at a different time, so there were sometimes points in the Anne books where I wanted her to have a different approach to a particular situation, but… for the most part, I found them less problematic than the Emily books. (Sorry for the long-winded comment; as you know I have Opinions…)
I need to read the Talia Hibbert books, I think! Most people who have reviewed them seem to have enjoyed them tremendously, you included.