Hello friends! I am finally here with my second round up for May! I read a ton of books for this one and it took me awhile to get my thoughts in order. I hope everyone is having a great week so far!
Love For Beginners by Jill Shalvis – 5 Stars This is the 7th book in the Wildstone series and the great thing is that you can read them in any order because the characters do not overlap. In this book we are following Emma who was just released from the hospital after spending 2 months in a coma and then almost a year in recovery relearning how to walk and use her arm. This book gave me all the feels and I binged it so fast! When I first started this book it gave me major How To Walk Away vibes. Both are about a woman recovering from a horrific accident and learning to move on with their new life. So if you liked that book I would highly recommend this one! Both books were 5 Star reads! Thank you William Marrow and Netgalley for my gifted copy for review!
People We Meet On Vacation – 3 Stars I really need to remember that when a “romance” book is so hyped up that there will be a chance that it won’t work for me. Thats what happened with People We Meet On Vacation. Poppy and Alex have been best friends since college and every year the two take a vacation together usually courtesy of Poppy’s job as a travel writer but something happened a few years ago on a trip and now the two don’t talk. The book goes back and forth between past trips and the present day where they are on one last trip together as Poppy tries to salvage their friendship. The dual timelines really took me out of the story and I wished it would have either been told in a linear style or just focus on the present with maybe a few flashbacks to their past. It was still an ok read just not a favorite for me.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston – 4 Stars This was such a fun story! I feel like it would be helpful if the synopsis includes that there is a speculative aspect to the book because that might catch people off guard. This story follows August as she settles into her new life in New York. One day she meets Jane on the Q train and from there we spend the rest of the book trying to free Jane from where she is trapped. I really enjoyed most aspects of this book. I loved August and her roommates and friends as they interacted throughout the entire book. They had such a great friend group. What I had a small problem with was the character of Jane. I think because of her situation we never really get to know her so the romance feels very one-sided to me. It was still a fun romance with a hint of other and I enjoyed it. Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and Librofm for my gifted audio copy.
A House At The Bottom Of The Lake by Josh Malerman – 2 Stars Short stories are not usually my jam as they never give me enough and this one is the perfect example of that. We are following two teens as they find a secret lake that has a house at the bottom of it and they can actually explore it. This was supposed to be a horror but I never felt creeped out or scared while reading, I just felt frustration. I didn’t get enough context for what was going on or why it had happened.
Lost and Found Sisters by Jill Shalvis – 4 Stars This was a re-read for me and I love Jill’s books so much! They are just the perfect summer beach reads where you know you will get a cute story! This one follows Quinn Walker who is dealing with the loss of her sister and then finds out that she was actually adopted and her birth mother has just passed. Not knowing how to deal with the grief and this surprising news, Quinn heads to the small town of Wildstone to see what her mother has left her. Once there, Quinn discovers a teenaged sister she never knew she had and a cafe that her mother used to run. Quinn also meets Mick who is in town just to help out his mother but the two end up starting something that they were both not really prepared for. I loved this story and the struggle that both sisters had to go through with learning about each other and dealing with their grief. Highly recommend this series if you want some good romance and family stories!
The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldovsky – 4 Stars YA Horror seems to be some of the scariest books I have read, Im not sure what it is but I find some of them super creepy and this one fits the bill. Rachel starts at a new school after overcoming a traumatic incident at her last school. Soon after starting school Rachel joins a group of 4 other students called The Mary Shelley Club. The rules of the club is that none of them talk to each other at school and after hours they meet up and set up fear tests. These tests are designed to make the target scream. I really enjoyed this story and mystery that is going on besides the tests. The ending really left me wanting to know more and I hope this turns into a series so we can get more answers.
Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane – 3.5 Stars I think I have said this before but I am not a fan of when a character dies in the middle of the book as a plot device. While technically the death happens before the book starts the way it is written we get a lot of memories in the first part of the person who passes away and this is just not something I like to read about. This story follows four best friends Eve, Justin, Susie and Ed and one night everything in their lives changes. I did really enjoy the writing of this book and I will continue reading from this author, she does such a great job with her characters. We are following Eve as she deals with grief and I thought this was handled very well. There is also a character in this book who has become a new book boyfriend for me! He was so grumpy and I loved it!! If you are looking for an emotional read that leans more towards woman’s fiction than romance then I would recommend picking this one up!
We Met In December by Rosie Curtis – 2 Stars I really don’t like the trope of two people liking each other but spend the entire book pining for one another while dating other people. It feels too close to cheating for me and it’s not something I like to read. Jess follows her dream and finally moves to London and into a house her friend rents out the rooms for. Her first day there she falls for one of her roommates Alex. The two the spend the rest of the book liking each other and spending tons of time together while they are both in other relationships. I only finished this because the writing was good and flowed well.
The Heiress – DNF When I first heard that this book was a reimagining of Anne de Bourgh’s life from Pride and Prejudice I knew I wanted to give it a chance. However, this one just didn’t work for me. I think I would have liked it better if it had started with her as being older but starting with her infancy just didn’t work for me. I liked how the author was trying to give a reason for why Anne was so sickly but I really didn’t like how they did it. Anne was basically fed laudanum since her birth and became a drug addict and I just couldn’t read about that. I also appreciated that the author wrote in a tone similar to Jane Austen but with some more modern themes that were not always talked or written about during that time. Thank you to William Marrow and Netgalley for my gifted copy for review.
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