Books

March and April were big reading months for me! I spent all of March and half of April living with my aunt who is a big reader. It was really nice to spend Saturday mornings in the living room with a good book.

Here’s what I tackled these last two months: a whopping nine books!

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix • ★★★★☆

I was the first person to snag this copy from the library! What an honor and a joy!

In the latest Grady Hendrix book, siblings Louise and Mark struggle over the decision to sell their parents’ home after their untimely deaths. There’s a lot of very realistic family squabbling here. There’s also a haunting—but a haunting unlike any other I’ve ever read about. It was wild.

The fact that Hendrix can write very convincing family drama along with terrifying/hilarious horror is unreal to me.

The Fervor by Alma Katsu • ★★★★☆

I love the way Alma Katsu blends historical events with supernatural or unexplained phenomena. I got my first taste of this with The Deep a few years ago and later The Hunger. Katsu did it again—maybe even better—with The Fervor.

In The Fervor, Meiko and her daughter are forced into a Japanese internment camp. This is unbearable for infinite reasons, but the stay becomes more untenable as a sort of fever sweeps the settlement. Residents come down with fits of rage and many die. It reminds Meiko of her father’s research back in Japan, but she’s not sure how it’s all connected.

I won’t give an inch away because this was a stunner of a book.

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg • ★★★☆☆

I bought this book on a whim for $1.99. It was fully worth it. Consider Keeper of Enchanted Rooms like The House in the Cerulean Sea-lite.

Here, Merritt unexpectedly inherits a home on an island off of Rhode Island. It’s stunning! But soon it reveals itself to be some sort of haunted. Enter Hulda, a woman endowed with some magical skills to help keep the ghost/poltergeist/demon at bay.

I loved the setup of the story. It implies a world where everyone has some magical powers, though to widely varying degrees. That sort of tugged at my heartstrings. This is a must for people that like light (very light), witchy fiction.

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest • ★★★★☆

I think I’ve gotten over the idea of rom-coms being improbable. After all, what ghost story or gothic novel isn’t in some way or another? All this is to say I enjoyed the inexplicable improbability of The Neighbor Favor.

In this book, Lily becomes email pen pals with her favorite writer only to be ghosted. Flash forward a year, and he’s moved into her building—only she doesn’t know it yet and Nick doesn’t want her to know it either despite them getting closer every day.

Parting the Veil by Paulette Kennedy • ★★★☆☆

Consider Parting the Veil to be part Jane Eyre part The Golden Age. You can see why it appealed, right? In this gothic-ish novel, Eliza and her sister move to foggy ol’ England from New Orleans. Eliza is to claim an aunt’s estate, however, she must marry to receive it.

Eliza is independent. She’s totally fine living with her sister for as long as she can before moving back to Louisiana, but then, of course, she finds companionship with the town bad boy. His estate is vast but gloomy. He is loving and tender but occasionally falls into foul moods.

I’ll say I was expecting a Bluebeard situation here but did not get it, so props to Paulette Kennedy for steering this in a new direction. Did some twists fully make sense? I’m not sure, but this one kept me up reading late at night.

The Farewell Tour by Stephanie Clifford • ★★★★★

After a recent trip to Nashville, I’ve been about all things country. I’ve been listening to Tammy Wynette like it’s my job and even stitching up embroidery art inspired by country artists. It’s no shocker, then, why I picked up The Farewell Tour. This new release is about a Dolly Parton-Naomi Judd-Wanda Jackson type—the fictional Lillian “Water Lil'” Waters.

In the 1980s, Lillian is embarking on her final tour. She advertises it as a series of farewell shows for sales’ sake, she says, but only she knows they really may be her last. Over the course of the tour, she reflects on her life growing up from the 1920s onward. The ride is wild.

What I loved about this book was how non-linear Lillian’s rise to fame was. I also appreciated how the author decided to set up Lillian as being a West Coast artist rather than the typical Southern gal that you’d expect of classic country.

There’s a line that sticks with me from this book, which shows that it deserves its five stars. Something to the effect of, “I couldn’t use the front door, couldn’t manage to sneak in the back door, so I made a trap door.” I’m taking that with me.

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz • ★★★☆☆

I waited months for this book to come out. It wasn’t entirely deserving of the hype I gave it.

On the surface, it has that bottle episode-like quality. Struggling writer Alex gets accepted into an exclusive and remote writing retreat run by her favorite author. It’s a pressure cooker since participants are expected to have a finished book by the end of the stay, but the person with the best story will get published. However, Alex soon finds out that her ex-bestie is also attending the retreat (drama) and that her idol is wilder than she ever expected (scary).

All the preliminary stuff sounded great to me, but the further this book got, the more gruesome it got. I had a hard time with that.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak • ★★★☆☆

I think I would have enjoyed Hidden Pictures much more if I had read it instead of opting for the audio version. I’m not sure the narrator was the right fit.

The narrator’s voice was bubbly and naive sounding which didn’t fit the protagonist’s vibe at all. See, Mallory is a recovering addict who lands a job nannying for a wealthy family. As the weeks pass, things start to get eerie. She hears the child she’s watching talking to imaginary friends, mysterious drawings are showing up around the house and she’s hearing sounds in the guest house where she lives.

But in the end, this book packs 10 pounds of story into a five-pound sack. There were just one too many layers, most of which didn’t come into play until too late.

Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon • ★★★☆☆

Molly Shannon is beloved in our home. Michael has a soft spot for Jeannie Darcy and I love Sally O’Malley—not to mention Shannon’s stints on Love That for You and The Other Two. So it’s no surprise I snagged this audiobook at the library.

I loved hearing the book told in Shannon’s voice. The narration was super emotive and wonderful, but it also highlighted some of the writing shortfalls. The biggest one for me was how abruptly some stories and chapters would end. They weren’t always given an artful conclusion.

Overall, though, I learned so much about Shannon and her really tough start. I also loved hearing insight about her rise to fame, how she fully embodied characters like Mary Catherine Gallagher and her relationship with her dad. It was tender and funny, though a little choppy at times.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.

A new year means a new reading challenge over on Goodreads! I wanted to read 50 books last year and came in a few short. I don’t want to overcommit again, so I set the bar slightly lower for 2023 with 40. I think that’s absolutely manageable.

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun • ★★★★☆

I snagged The Charm Offensive from the library not even realizing it was another book by Alison Cochrun. I read Kiss Her Once for Me in December and really loved it.

The Charm Offensive was similarly charming with really wonderful and likable characters. Is the whole plot unlikely? Of course! But reading about how Dev, a producer of a reality dating series a la The Bachelor and Charlie, the Bachelor, come to be friends was really heartwarming. And this is a romance, so of course that easy friendship grows into something more. Who doesn’t love a story like that?

The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb • ★★☆☆☆

I’ve read every Wendy Webb book out there and I feel the same way every single time: The ideas and settings are so good. The writing and even the characters are not.

So what is good about The Stroke of Winter? It’s set in a fictionalized version of Bayfield, Wisconsin (one of my favorite places in the world). It’s about ghosts. It’s about a woman trying to open her own inn. Like this has me written all over it.

But the storytelling is so much lame dialogue and so many useless details. Where I really had an OMG JUST STOP moment was when she went on for a whole page about how there was a cupboard with a broom and cleaning supplies on the second floor in addition to the first floor so the family didn’t have to walk up and down stairs to get a bottle of Lysol. It’s OK to just say “she grabbed the broom” without giving me a backstory on it. I’ll assume it came from a closet somewhere.

So does this two-star review mean I’ll skip Webb’s next book? Nope! I’ll have a similar review next time.

The Rib King by Ladee Hubbard • ★★★★☆

Part historical fiction, part revenge story? Sign me up! The Rib King was a really unexpected read for me. It delivered so much more than I anticipated.

The Rib King follows the lives of several men and women, all of whom started out as servants in the home of a once-wealthy family. After that family falls to ruin, these men and women start their next chapter. The next steps for these characters, though, aren’t necessarily what you’d expect.

This book is darker than I anticipated in some really phenomenal ways. It unfolds beautifully. I don’t want to spoil it because there were some reveals that surprised me!

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna • ★★★☆☆

I pick up a lot of witchy fiction in the fall, but sometimes those library holds just don’t come through in time. That was the case with The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. And I’m glad I listened to this one—even if it’s not high spooky season.

In this book, Mika Moon is recruited to be a witchy governess to three young witches. Despite everything Mika was taught about being a witch, she agrees to the job.

Because this is a lighthearted romp, there is a romantic storyline, but I really loved how the author focused primarily on Mika’s relationship with her students and the other teachers. It set this book apart from others in this same vein like The Kiss Curse or Payback’s a Witch.

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling• ★☆☆☆☆

This book was absolutely batshit and not in the good Bunny sort of way. Just batshit in an I can’t believe that this was published and that I read it all the way through way.

So what attracted me to this book to even pick it up? The comparison to Crimson Peak, of course!

Now, what made it so bad? As my mom would say, it was shoving ten pounds of shit into a five-pound sack. It was trying to be gothic, paranormal, magical, cultish, metaphysical, fantastical, psychedelic and even more.

Also, I absolutely loathed the choice to set this book in a fictional world when all settings and plot devices were extremely thinly veiled references to real places and events. Great Breltain? That’s Great Britain. Rukza? Russia, obvi. Why bother? Also, in this universe, people were living very much an 1880s life with carriages and horses (no telegrams or phones) but somehow the war that just happened involved shelling and gassing like a WWII-era UK.

And that’s just the start! I can’t go on. I’ll lose my mind.

A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan • ★★☆☆☆

I love Door County. It’s one of my favorite vacation spots, so of course I had to pick up this one about a bookseller who moonlights as a cryptozoologist.

Morgan gets roped into an investigation when a detective suspects that a lake monster may be behind the death of a few kayakers.

As the story unfolds, though, Morgan became a less and less likable character. She runs an unusual and rare books store (thanks to a very large inheritance from her parents) and talks about embellishing stories about the wares she sells to up the price. Lady, you are a millionaire. Do not lie about the provenance of an antique to make a buck. She also is pretty blasé about death and others’ feelings. Specifics like these can kind of ruin a book for me.

But if you like detective-style mysteries and Wisconsin or cryptids, this may be worth picking up.

One Night on the Island by Josie Silver • ★★★★☆

I wasn’t expecting to like One Night on the Island as much as I did, but it really won me over. Cleo, the MC, won me over.

See, Cleo is a relationship columnist for a website. She’s great at the job but has become sort of burnt out with on the business and relationships. She heads off to a cabin on Salvation Island for a story on self-coupling. Of course, while she’s there, she meets Mack, a photographer who is booked in the same cabin by mistake. Mack is also a good character, but I’m all about Cleo.

During her time on the island, she’s able to do some work on herself. She decides what she wants next for relationships, for work, for family. Honestly, I’m feeling like I’m in a similar place. It was nice to see a positive depiction of this in-between state. It’s OK to be in the in-between and it’s OK to take time to sort it out—even if it takes longer than you think.

I will say that I wish the end was different. I wanted a different path for Cleo after her really wonderful transformation, but it was fine. I’ll live.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.

A month of reading with no duds? Finally! I knocked out four books this month, and am currently sitting at 43 books total for 2022. My goal is 50. Before I start thinking about how I can possibly make that happen on top of holiday crafting and baking, let’s get into this month’s reads.

A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler • ★★★★☆

It’s been a minute since I’ve read this sort of historical fiction. I love a creative retelling of a prominent historical figure—in this case, Alva Vanderbilt.

This was the perfect book to read while anxiously awaiting the release of the second season of The Gilded Age.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston • ★★★★☆

Despite loving Red, White & Royal Blue, I resisted One Last Stop for a good while. Why? I loathe time travel. I find it overly complicated. I just don’t like it! But when I saw this at the library, I figured why not? And I’m glad I picked it up.

In One Last Stop, aimless August moves to NYC and falls madly in love with Jane, a stranger on the subway. The only catch is that Jane is somehow stuck in 1977 despite it being 2019 everywhere else. Of course, August and Jane fall in love. But how do they get Jane unstuck and off that damn subway car?

I appreciated this book because it made the story more about relationships than the logistics of time travel. Plus, I genuinely liked every character. What a win!

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix • ★★★★☆

Much like One Last Stop, I avoided Horrorstör for a long while. It was one of those books that were always available at the library which made me think no one wanted to rent it.

But then my good friend, a serious bookworm, recommended it and I decided if it was good enough for her, it was good enough for me. And guess what: I loved this book.

Set in an Ikea-type store, three coworkers patrol the building overnight to get to the bottom of some strange goings-ons. Well, it turns out that the turned-over furniture and stained cushions aren’t just hooligans; they’re ghoul-igans (HA!).

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix • ★★★★☆

Yep, two books by the same author in a single month. What can I say? I really did like Horrorstör!

My Best Friend’s Exorcism walked the same line between scary and cheeky that I found so fun. Plus, it’s set in the ’80s so there were lots of fun references to the music and movies of the time. Prepare to queue up “I Think We’re Alone Now” on Spotify as you listen.

I’ll also say that the end of this book was just so so good. It proves that the rituals and relationships that we create are just as important as the religious ones we inherit.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.

I haven’t done six books in a month in a long time, but ’tis the season! August is always my best reading month of the year. This month’s reads were a mixed bag. Two flops and a few really good reads. Let’s get into it!

Bath Haus by P.J. Veron • ★★★★☆

You know I love a good domestic thriller, and oooh was this a twisty one!

I don’t want to give you too much up front, but here are the basics, Oliver lives with his partner, a successful doctor, in D.C. He should be happy, but isn’t quite. So he visits a gay bath house one evening and barely escapes. What he hopes is the end of that encounter, of course, is just the beginning.

Dead Lake by Darcy Coates • ★★☆☆☆

I’m not sure how I fell into the trap of reading another Darcy Coates book, but much like The Carrow Haunt which I read in 2020, I was simultaneously engaged and irritated.

I’ve had this book on my Kindle for years and finally dove in after seeing this advertised as the perfect book to read by the campfire at a bookstore. I mean, I love campfire stories, so this could be good!

And in the end, this is pretty much a campfire story and shouldn’t have gone further than that. Like the last Darcy Coates book I read, this book lacked so much detail and overlooked so many small errors. How you ask? Let me tell you!

In Dead Lake, Sam visits her uncle’s cabin to work on paintings for an upcoming art show. She’s got a week to put together a collection of oils for this major show and hasn’t started anything. Not a single thing. And it’s oils—paints that take literal weeks to dry.

Some other issues I had: Her uncle is friendly with the city council so he got to build a cabin in the middle of a park just for fun. Presumably a national park or at the very least a state park based on context, but we don’t know! In this cabin, there’s no running water, just a pump (that’s fine!), but the bathtub is upstairs. Ummm… No one in their right mind would build a cabin that way. No one wants to lug water upstairs. Also, it’s set in the US but she keeps calling flashlights torches. This was the same in The Carrow Haunt. It’s not a big deal, but it’s such an easy edit! Also, if you want the stories to be set in the UK, that’s fine! They are so vaguely written that she could easily set them in the US, the UK, Slovakia, Indonesia, New Zealand—wherever.

In summation: Anything that was scary about this book was made lame by the vague writing.

The Family Plot by Megan Collins • ★★☆☆☆

Maybe I would have liked this book better if I had read it versus listening to the audiobook. I was not a fan of the voice actor’s rendition. And maybe I wasn’t into the execution of this book either.

It sounds promising from the Goodreads synopsis: “[Dahlia was] raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she has spent the last several years living on her own, but unable to move beyond her past—especially the disappearance of her twin brother Andy when they were sixteen.” Right?

But it was just so flat and implausible. A bunch of murders happened on this small island and during their childhood and no one was worried? Everyone still found it to be normal to be obsessed with true crime instead of, you know, concerned for their safety? I’m not buying it. And I didn’t find it to be chilling or scary, which was the whole point.

The Retreat by Sarah Pearse • ★★★☆☆

I’m not much of a series reader, but I really enjoyed Sarah Pearse’s The Sanatorium. When the next volume came out in what is now a detective series (a specific type of series I’m not really super interested in), I figured I should pick it up.

And it’s a good read (and no, you really don’t need to have read the first in the series to jump in). Detective Elin Warner heads to a remote island to investigate the death of a resort guest. The island has a spooky history, both criminal and paranormal. Sounds good to me!

I think if you’re into detective books, this would be a four-star read, even five, but police work isn’t something I’m really keen on.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam • ★★★★☆

I rented this audiobook on a whim after I saw it made Barack Obama’s summer reading list. I’m glad I did! This book was a thinker but also one that kept me listening whenever I could squeeze in a few minutes.

Let’s just say what I thought this book didn’t go where I was expecting it. I mean, it went there but then way, way beyond.

Depending on the type of person you are, it’s the perfect read for vacation or the worst read because you know that the family vacationing in this book doesn’t end up with the trip they expected.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry • ★★★★☆

Gosh am I a sucker for an Emily Henry book! Beach Read remains one of my favorite rom-coms of all time. Book Lovers is a worthy follow-up (People We Meet on Vacation was also good, but comes in third in my ranking).

Anyways, I love how this book leans into the rom com tropes, turns them on their head and then turns them over again. It’s very clever and sweet.

Oh you want detail? Literary agent Nora thinks of herself as the cold city lady that every rom-com leading man leaves behind for a new woman in a small town—and she is! She has several exes that have left and married the type of women featured in Hallmark movies. But here’s the thing: Her sister loves these sorts of stories and insists they live a rom-com-style life when they go on a trip. Is there a handsome man in town? You bet! A tiny bookshop? Obviously! Quirky locals? Duh!

But Book Lovers is about more than romance, it’s also about sisters and family and how to choose the life you want to live. Gosh, it was a good one.

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.

Guess I’m writing bi-monthly book roundups now! That’s OK! Besides reading (and listening) to books, I’ve started unwinding with a Nintendo Switch. It might seem blasphemous to bookworms, but I really love it. And I still get some reading in! Here are the books that have filled my summer (so far).

The Club by Ellery Lloyd • ★★★★☆

I’ve had this title on hold at the library since last summer. I couldn’t wait any longer and finally downloaded it from Libro.fm. It was worth it.

The Club is set at the newest branch of a super exclusive private resort. But what goes on there isn’t all champagne and caviar. Throughout the book, what’s going on behind the scenes for the staff, the founders and the members is revealed, and oooo it’s a doozy!

I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown • ★★★☆☆

I’ll Be You features two Mary Kate and Ashley types. Sam and Elli experienced a lot of fame as children and teens but as they grew up, they took different paths. Sam is in recovery and working at a café while Elli has flower business and just adopted a child.

Bit Elli disappears on a retreat and Sam has to return home to help care for her daughter and track down her sister who seems like she’s in a cult.

Twin swapping will always be alluring (1998’s The Parent Trap is a masterpiece), and a thrill-tinged take was sort of a nice way to dress up this trope.

Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti • ★★★☆☆

This was a totally fine domestic thriller to me. It had some really exciting moments. How could it not? A young woman rolls up to a roadside motel and, uh oh, she looks just like the motel owners’ long-lost daughter. But is she? Does it matter?

This was a good listen for afternoon walks and would make a nice read if you’re sitting by the pool.

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall • ★★★★☆

I am a sucker for adorable British rom com (see Red, White & Royal Blue, Get a Life, Chloe Brown and A Season for Second Chances just as a start). Boyfriend Material gets its start with the fake dating trope which is great if you love that! It’s even great if you don’t quite get it (it’s totally inexplicable to me!).

So what’s the deal here? Luc, a nonprofit employee with a world-famous dad, needs to shore up his reputation for the sake of his organization. Enter Oliver, a straight-laced guy in his social sphere that needs a date to his parents’ 40th-anniversary party. They’re both in it for the appearances and, uh oh, they catch feels.

I read this while planning my parents’ 40th-anniversary shindig so that was sort of sweet! And the story was sweet as well.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova • ★★★★☆

I don’t think anyone is immune to vampire stories—certainly not me. That’s why I eagerly dove into The Historian. It all starts with Paul finding a mysterious book on his desk in the library. From there, the story flashes between Paul’s time and his daughter’s. The providence of the book is revealed along with how Vlad Dracula may not have ended his reign back in 1467.

Be prepared: This is a long one clocking in at 704 pages. But it was a really great read to get into. It’s the sort of story that sort of envelops you in the world it creates from the get-go. I felt this way with A Gentleman in Moscow (one of my all-time favorites). This being said, The Historian could be about 200 pages shorter and the story still would have been great. Enjoy this one when you’ve got some time.

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey • ★★★★☆

This book was not what I expected based on the blurb I read online; it’s much stranger.

There are a lot of complicated themes in Just Like Home. Vera returns to her childhood home to care for her dying mother. It’s the home she grew up in, the home her father built—oh and her father was a serial killer. Despite this, Vera loved her dad. So that’s just the foundation for this whole situation. Layer in an artist living in the backyard looking to dig into the home’s history, a town full of people that hate Vera’s family and a mother that just can’t seem to stand her. Oh, and is the place haunted? It’s a lot!

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.

I’m reading a little slower than normal lately; my Goodreads Challenge says I’m two books behind and I am concerned! But I managed to read a handful of terrific books—including a five-star one—these past few months.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune • ★★★★☆

Talk about a pleasant surprise! A friend gifted me The House in the Cerulean Sea via Libro.fm (a nice surprise on its own) and I was really wowed by how much I loved this book. Do I nudge it to five stars?

At any rate, this was exactly the right book at the right time. This is a mood lifter of a listen.

Oh you wanted any details at all about this book? OK: Linus is a caseworker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth where he inspects orphanages and schools for magical beings. One day he’s assigned to a particularly remote and classified location. THAT’S ALL YOU’RE GETTING FROM ME.

The Gown by Jennifer Robson • ★★★★☆

I’ve had this book floating around on my Kindle for a long while now, and I never really felt particularly drawn to it. After last month’s The Duchess, I was sort of over Windsor history (at least for a bit).

But this book won me over almost instantly. It was clear from the start that Elizabeth and the rest of the royals weren’t going to feature prominently in the book. Instead, The Gown centers around two coworkers turned friends, Ann and Miriam, who work on Elizabeth’s wedding dress. Ann’s granddaughter Heather also figures in here; she is pleasant but not particularly interesting.

What was so interesting to me, though, was the fact that Ann and Miriam were embroiderers! A BOOK ABOUT EMBROIDERY ARTISTS! I was instantly won over.

Not only were the descriptions of the work terrifically accurate and detailed, but the characters themselves were also tremendous joys.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu • ★★★★☆

I love what Alma Katsu does: She takes historical events and weaves in supernatural elements. I really enjoyed The Deep, a spookier take on the sinking of the Titanic, and figured that The Hunger would scratch the same itch.

So essentially The Hunger is Katsu’s take on what happened to the Donner party on their journey West. Despite the subject matter, this novel wasn’t overly gruesome, but it was definitely intriguing!

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert • ★★★★★

Why did I resist such a charming book for so long? City of Girls has been on my to-read list for a while but I kept pushing it off because I feel like WWII-era fiction is everywhere and I am not in the mood. But I was definitely in the mood for this one.

Here, a 19-year-old Vivian gets kicked out of college and is sent to live with her eccentric aunt in New York City (what a punishment!). Her aunt, Peg, runs a small theater company and Vivian dives right into this new lifestyle of showgirls and late nights and costuming and really just wonderful hijinks.

Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson • ★★★☆☆

I had such high hopes for this book! I wanted it to be a People We Meet on Vacation or A Season for Second Chances, but it fell a little flat for me.

But the setup is great: Nora is an editorial assistant at a publishing house. Here pay’s been cut but her employer is dangling a promotion in front of her nose if she can land an important author. This author is, of course, very charming.

The work strife here was maybe too close to home in some ways and that prevented me from enjoying this one fully. And maybe it lacked a little pep and levity?

The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones • ★★★☆☆

Domestic thrillers are a must for any plane trip or vacation if you ask me. So I snagged The Guilt Trip, a British domestic thriller (the best kind) for a work trip to Sonoma. The gist here: six people go on a trip together and only five come home.

Sounds great, right? But for some reason, I had a hard time getting into this one. I kept confusing the characters (three couples). And there’s one character that everyone else seems to dislike because she’s… trying hard to be liked by her spouse-to-be’s friends? Seems flimsy to me!

As always, you can follow along with my progress and see what I’ve read over on Goodreads!