Reading Round Up: January Part 1

Hi Friends! My reading is still going very slow and I have only read a handful of books so far this month! All of them were arcs or gifted copies as well! Hope everyone is having a great month so far! Have you read any new favorites yet?

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins – 3.5 Stars We are following multiple timelines and stories in this book that all take place in the same Italian Villa. The first timeline is the present day and we are following two best friends who are both writers and decide to take a holiday to Italy. The villa they end up staying at was the setting for a brutal murder durning a stay with some rockstars from the 1970’s. From this disaster we get a famous book and a very famous record Album. Woven in between the timelines we also get snippets of the both the book and the album. Overall I enjoyed this one, I always know what I am going to get with a Rachel Hawkins book and that is an enjoyable read. I think I would have maybe liked it a little more if the entire book was set in the 1970’s versus the two timelines but it was still a fun read. Thank you St.Martin’s Press for my gifted copy for review!

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman – 3 Stars Thank you Bibliolifestyle and Harperperennial for my gifted copy of Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman that came out on December 27th 2022. This is a fun story about a lawyer who is on house arrest for indecent exposure and tries to find ways to fulfill her now empty scheduled life. Along the way she befriends another resident who is also on house arrest as well as some neighbors she never knew before. Also with the help of her twin sister our main protagonist starts a tiktok page cooking recipes from an 1890’s cookbook. This book was quirky and fun and reminded me of books like Eleanor Oliphant and Where Did You Go Bernedette. 

The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre by Natasha Lester – 4.5 Stars One of the few books I have read this month was Natasha Lester’s historical fiction The Three Lives of Alix St. Pierre. This one follows Alex as she works for Dior in Paris after the war while we also get flashbacks to her time during the war as well. I don’t normally like WWII stories but this one was really good! I loved Alix’s story in both timelines and loved the ending we got. I will say there was one scene in the flashbacks that was very hard to read so you may want to look into content warnings if needed or dm if you have any questions! Thank you @readforeverpub for my #gifted copy of this one!

Make A Wish by Helena Hunting – 4 Stars This is the third book in the Spark House Trilogy and we are following the youngest Spark sister Harley. We start the book off when Harley is 20 years old and is a live in nanny for a single dad Gavin and his daughter Peyton and they abruptly move leaving Harley brokenhearted. We flash forward 7 years and Harley and Gavin reunite at one of Spark House’s parties. This book not only follows Harley and relationship with Gavin and Peyton but also the journey she goes through with growing up and trying to find her place in the ever changing Spark House. I loved getting to see the growth of the sisters who met in books 1 and 2 as well as all the changes that their business the Spark House takes. I highly recommend this series, it is such a fun one about three sisters who are all very different as they find love while running successful event business! Thank you St. Martin’s Griffin and Helena Hunting for my gifted copy for review!!!

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen – DNF I got about 20% into this one before I decided that it was not for me. As I get older I realize that some books are not for me and that is ok! This book follows Olivia as she is about to take over her grandmother’s match making business that bases matches on the traditions of the Chinese Zodiac. After having a total meet cute with a guy in a bakery she soon learns that he is an app developer who is taking a more lighthearted approach to the Chinese Zodiac. This is an enemies to lovers story and while that is my favorite trope I am not a fan of matchmaker romances where they themselves get matched. This is a total me preference and I thought the writing that I read was well done, the story just wasn’t for me. Thank you Forever for my gifted copy for review!